Static model import/export for Blender: development

[664a171803a1bnemyax]

Thanks for the tests.

I wonder how you manage to identify hard edges. On the models where I know where I set the hard edges, on import it looks correct. On models directly pulled from the game, I get hard edges, but they don't always make sense.

I just compare the bytes that contain poly vertex normals in adjacent faces. I think I know why there can be false negatives, but the alternative way that I tried didn't work out. Possibly due to a bug in the Blender Python API—the error was very weird. Before you say I sound like I'm full of shit, I did find and report a Blender API bug once =)

One little function could be added to it, if you get a hard edge, it would be nice to automatically get the EdgeSplit Modifier added with "Edge Angle" ticked off and "Shard Edges" ticked on.

Yes, that's a good one.

When I try to export the xs_hat_vg.blend (attached) with vertex group sorting, I get an error message (vertex group export.jpg).

I'll look into this.

at some point this worked flawlessly, I just don't know which version I was using at that time. I might be able to reconstruct it if necessary.

Yes, that would be great.

Also, please check if multi-object models come out okay. There have been complaints about joints that get mixed up and stop working interactively after a round trip through Blender. And I would hate to have brought back the old disappearance bug.

[664a171804716Olfred]

I just compare the bytes that contain poly vertex normals in adjacent faces.

Ah, smart!

I think I know why there can be false negatives, but the alternative way that I tried didn't work out.

I think it's more likely that the models really have the hard edges on weird places because the original model creator didn't pay attention to it. Wouldn't be the only thing that got permanently overlooked.

Before you say I sound like I'm full of shit, I did find and report a Blender API bug once =)

Why should I say that? Blender is filled with bugs and everyone knows that.

Also, please check if multi-object models come out okay. There have been complaints about joints that get mixed up and stop working interactively after a round trip through Blender. And I would hate to have brought back the old disappearance bug.

Simply talking about models that have several object ins blender, or models that consist of parented objects?
I had no problems with models that consist of simple unparented objects in blender.
About parented I used the tu_s.bin import and export as a test, and all the objects where ingame, just the constrains were broken.
I looked into when it was still working with importing and exporting. Unfortunately I didn't kept a history of all your versions and I can't find any old versions on your sourceforge page. But around end of 2013/early 2014 it should have worked. If you can give me all the versions I could check which version broke it.

[664a171804b54nemyax]

Unfortunately I didn't kept a history of all your versions and I can't find any old versions on your sourceforge page. But around end of 2013/early 2014 it should have worked. If you can give me all the versions I could check which version broke it.

You can get all versions from the history page:
https://sourceforge.net/p/blenderbitsbobs/code/ci/fce055681340bee63f5973f183542ed79a640a7c/log/?path=/io_scene_dark_bin.py

[664a171804cfaOlfred]

Ah neat, I expected something like that to be there, I just didn't know where it was.

So I did a lot of testing and checking around, using different blender versions because not all the scripts could be run and I pinpointed it down pretty much.

The last version I could run without any error messages and with a working importing and exporting of the tu_s.bin model was 0.3.20160511.
(Although I had to rename the vhot name. It cost me quite a bit of time until I remembered how that custom vhot naming thing was working, and I thought it broke way earlier, haha)
Then in the following versions I get an error regarding vhots on exporting the model, so that's as far as I can get.
The next version I am able to export again is 0.3.20161124. With this the import/export of tu_s.bin is broken.
So it must have happened somewhere around those versions.

[664a171805134nemyax]

I had to rename the vhot name

The next version I am able to export again is 0.3.20161124. With this the import/export of tu_s.bin is broken.

Doesn't the renaming trick work anymore?

[664a17180527aOlfred]

The vhot is working fine in the most recent version. I just wanted to mention that the renaming of the vhot was something that I missed completely and wasted more time than necessary.

But something about the limiter is broken. I made a Video to showcase the problem.

[664a171805387nemyax]

Olfred
Can you list a few original objects where stray hard edges are most noticeable?

[664a171805469Olfred]

With stray you are talking about wrong hard edges?

[664a171805549nemyax]

Yep, ones that look like they're marked hard by mistake during import.

[664a17180572bOlfred]

I don't think I have seen any which looked like falsely imported, what I came across looked more like sloppy modeling.
I can still make a list of models which (to my opinion) have bad hard edges.

tu_s.bin - Hard edge going across the middle (probably a missed merge after mirroring.)
animp01.bin - Some look correct, some don't
anpsor.bin - In my opinion there aren't any hard edges necessary
medbed.bin - on one foot it seems one hard edge is missing
regen_p.bin - not sure if they are wanted or not, but they look kind of misplaced.

Oh, I just randomly opened models to check if they have hard edges or not, and then evaluate if they look correct or not. And by doing that I came across a flaw which might be linked to the hard edge import feature.
On models with "double sided" polygons, only one side will be imported.
This can for example be seen on:

armore.bin
armorhe.bin
armorli.bin
armorme.bin
armorva.bin
botlech.bin - and possibly other bottles as well

Additionally there were models I couldn't import, which I were able to do in the previous version.

berserk.bin - this is an extremely simple model, so good for troubleshooting. The reason might be the missing material?
bedcat.bin - although this model does have a material, so it can't be only that.
auxpowe.bin
auxpowx.bin
chip_a.bin