Import DirectX .X into Blender - xna

I spent some time now to find "tools" to work and make 3D applications with. For some reason I will use XNA 4.0. This can import .X or .FBX files for models - perhaps many more, but I do not know of this yet. Both format I want to use as text-based, not binary. I found .X making less trash text so I tried to look for free, but useful tool to edit .X files. After many downloaded trash software I found Blender to be "just fine" for my needs.
My problem was that even if Blender can export to .X and even .FBX, it can not import from these formats. I was looking for plugin for this goal, but none I have found so far, and after too many "visited links" I just lost the line, so I thought I will ask around here, if anyone knows a good way to import .X into Blender...
or
make XNA work with other formats.
suggest a good 3d editing program, that can edit models imported from .X or .FBX (text) and can export into one of these formats.
I used search, and am not retarded - just tried of looking-and-looking.. so.. any good idea or link is welcome. Thanks in advance.
Edit: to make it clear: my goal is to have a 3d modell editor, that can be used to edit .X (or .FBX) in text format, so I can work with XNA without converting from or into anything else.

here is an importer for Blender 2.67 :
https://github.com/littleneo/directX_blender
it currently supports x in ascii format, imports verts, faces, uv and vertices weights (multimesh support)
there's a bit of support for parenting and armatures but it's still pending/messy.
goals of the author, which is me, are to import anything from x, and supports binary format*.
[* but I need feedback, hughs, spare time, and complex testfiles to do so ;) ]

Use this program to convert .X files to a format that Blender can import, modify it and export as a .X file.

Ok, so found out that Blender 2.49 just does the trick: can import .X and export into .X too; uses text only. Newest Blender (2.57 or so) is unable to import .X - but will export into.
So when you go for using Blender download the "older versions".
Edit: you can get previous versions here:
http://download.blender.org/release/
Edit: you can find usefull info from .X file format here: http://paulbourke.net/dataformats/directx/

Best solution found so far is UU3D (Ultimate Unwrap 3D), downside is that it is not free, but does the trick. For more info see this:
https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/13399/tool-for-editing-x
Edit: Blender can Import .X.. not animations tho' and only one mesh. Up to version 2.49b it can export with animations. So better to write an own plugin, because the shipped one is crap.

Ok, so found out that Blender 2.49 just does the trick: can import .X and export into .X too; uses text only. Newest Blender (2.57 or so) is unable to import .X - but will export into.
So when you go for using Blender download the "older versions".
Edit: you can get previous versions here: http://download.blender.org/release/
Edit: you can find usefull info from .X file format here: http://paulbourke.net/dataformats/directx/

You can use Alin's DirectX Exporter for 3ds Max, It supports standard and DirectX shader materials, use it to export your scene data as DirectX (.x) file, then import it into Blender.
download it's free version

Related

Load glTF model into RealityKit scene?

I'd like to load a glTF file generated by another program into RealityKit. I get the impression that the only way to load models into RealityKit is via USD or Reality files.
Anyone know a way to get some other model into RealityKit? Not necessarily as a file -- I'd be happy to be able to generate a MeshResource and array of Materials myself and load them in that way.
Reality Converter
Apple discussed this in the WWDC20 video "The artist’s AR toolkit".(link)
They show how to convert FBX, OBJ, USD and GLTF files to USDZs for use in Reality Composer.
Reality Converter is still in beta and needs to be downloaded from the Apple Developer website. I used it and it is quite nice.
There is also other tools you can use on the command line if this is more your thing. At WWDC 2019, Apple announced the USDZ Tools or also called USD Python Tools.
USDZ Tools is a pre-compiled Python library containing binaries of Pixar’s USD library for macOS. This is the link. You will need to download and install the library.
I would give a try to the Reality Converter first. I think it is here to stay since probably Apple has no intention to add support for glTF files in Reality Composer in the future, since they love USBZ!
I ended up using GLTFKit, an open source library by Warren Moore. It does exactly what I want -- lets me load a glTF file into SceneKit/RealityKit.
https://github.com/warrenm/GLTFKit
Alas, as you said, at the moment the only way to load your .gltf model in RealityKit scene – is firstly to convert it into .usdz model via Xcode command line tools. Also in RealityKit you can use .reality format (use it for a much faster uploading time) and .rcproject format that can be exported from Reality Composer app. These two file formats allow you store not only PBR shaders and animation but also a dynamics.
Please, read this post for further details.

Inkscape screws up EPS files

I have been trying to use Inkscape to prepare artwork graphics for my scientific papers. I use LaTeX, and I need my figures to be prepared as high-quality Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) images. The work order is as follows. First, I plot parts of my figure using matplotlib and save them in EPS format. Second, I launch Inkscape and import the EPS files. Using Inkscape I compose a figure, leaving needed objects, killing unneeded, and adding some markups. So I used to do when I worked with CorelDraw in Windows, but now I work in Linux.
Unfortunately, Inkscape damages EPS files: it changes the colors and does not save all the objects. Over last years I tried to search for a solution, but I cannot find that people complained. The complaints (found on the Web) are related to something like "incorrect font rendering" when exporting from svg to eps or back. (For me this is not a problem - the text always can be represented as curves).
I currently work in Mandriva Linux 2010 and use Inkscape version 0.47 r22583 (Jan 14 2010). Somewhere I read that such problems could be caused by some outdated versions of cairo - mine is 1.9.14. I spend a lot of effort to build newer cairo (1.12.14), but I am still far from the purpose. I got confused in 32 and 64-bit libraries coexisting in my system...
I would be very grateful to anyone who has similar problems and, may be, advanced further towards the solution. Let me illustrate the problem.
Sorry, I do not have enough reputation points to neither post images nor insert more than 2 links, so, please take a look at the copy of this post with the images in my livejournal page:
http://benkev.livejournal.com/1093.html
The figure captions are below.
(1) Here are the three eps images I would like to combine in one figure:
(2) Here is what I get after importing the images in Inkscape and saving in SVG format. Note color and resolution distortion. Also, I draw three red circles around the feature of interest.
(3) Here is what I get when I export this figure to EPS file. One can notice that one of the three red circles gone: only two circles left!
Thank you!
This appears to be a bug in inkscape. The following steps might help:
Open the svg file in inkscape.
Select all (Ctrl+A)
Un-group (Ctrl+Shift+G). you may need to repeat this step several times.
Save the result as eps format.
For what it's worth after more than one year: I've been experiencing the same problems with Inkscape V0.48: the EPS was missing items when opened in other software (e.g. Latex).
I didn't completely solve the problem, but I found that it helped to remove groups. Simply select all components and keep ungrouping until there are no groups left. Save as EPS and the result should be better.
If there are still items missing, try to use 'raise selection up to top' on the missing items and save again.
I know this is old, but the bug is still present in Inkscape so here's my two cents. My workaround is to save a copy of my project as "Plain svg". And export that as eps.
I hope it helps!
I created a new layer and moved the text which was not showing up in the EPS to this layer. Then it was showing up in the exported EPS file.
P.S. Make sure you make the new layer below the current layer and move text there.
It is a bug in inkscape (0.91 Window) but easy fix. Save directly into pdf from inkscape and then from pdf file save as to eps. Work like a charm for me.
A permanent solution for this problem is to export your *SVG to a *PNG and then export the *PNG (e. g. via the free Software GIMP) as an *EPS file type. The missing items are always included when I use this approach.

Three.js - FBX Import or Online Conversion

I know the sites studio.verold.com and sketchfab.com and p3d.in they have found a way to import .fbx.
Have anyone a hint how they did this ?
I thought 1st it must todo with the autodesk fbx sdk and python.
https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/tree/master/utils/converters/fbx
But i ended up in a offline conversion .
I am thankful for any help
You can always use http://Clara.io to do your conversion from FBX to ThreeJS format. :)
-ben
You can also try the Assimp commandline converter. Three.js now has a parser for the binary Assimp format. This is how we do it at Virtulous, and it's working pretty well for us. If you're interested in efficiency, you can create your own Assimp exporter module, and only export the data channels you need.

How to convert Blender blend (or obj) file to Qualcom Vuforia .h file

I'm developing an iOS app with augmented reality using Qualcomm Vuforia and I have difficulty in understanding how to create 3D models from Blender (or other softwares). All the examples use .h files with the coordinates of the vertices to generate i.e. a teapot.
I can not find documentation useful for me.
Is there a tool to convert .blend or .obj files to .h (OpenGL ES)?
thanks
I developed a script called mtl2opengl that does exactly what you need, based on the project obj2opengl. The script works with .obj and .mtl files, which I think can be exported straight from Blender, and produces .h files with vertex data. I use it extensively in my iOS augmented reality applications (though I haven't used the Vuforia SDK yet) and the accompanying resources include a sample Xcode project too. Hope it helps!
You should check out BlenderVuforiaExport (developed by a coworker of mine) here:
https://github.com/StickyBeat/BlenderVuforiaExport
It exports objects from Blender to the same .h-format used in the Vuforia example project.
I don't know much about vufoia, but here are two answers about using blender to get 3d models and displaying them on iPhone. These may help you.
How to get proper number of vertices in OBJ file from DCC tools such as Blender for use in OpenGL ES?
Put a Cinema 4D model and Texture into an iPhone App

How to Export SolidWorks file to use in WebGL?

Is there a way to export or convert a SolidWorks file to be used in any way for WebGL?
Not sure where you want to go with this, but http://showwebgl.com/ (see http://plopbyte.net/2011/04/showwebgl/ for a brief description) will upload and display models in a variety of formats, and uses a WebGL framework called ogs.js. So you just need to convert your SolidWorks file to one of those.
A lot of WebGL frameworks accept Collada format. If you can't track these down, let me know.
Here is a Solidworks plugin which can export Solidworks models to a lightweight visualization format .pyd. This site has a webgl based pyd viewer to view published pyd file.
You can use the Collada export from the SolidWorks labs page. But you should consider simplifying your models before exporting them to Collada with a tool like Swap3D. This will decrease filesize dramatically. Export to Collada works much better when exporting a part instead of an assembly. So you should always consider saving an assembly as part.

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