Dev:Ref/Requests/OtherFeatures/Shockwave3d

-- MalDuffin - 14 Jul 2005

PROJECT OVERVIEW

To create a path to get content from Blender into Shockwave 3D format, so that it can be viewed online.

CURRENT ISSUES

In order to create a truely integrated Shockwave 3D exporter, the official Shockwave 3D exporter SDK would be required ( requiring C / C++ development ).

This can be downloaded from here... http://www.macromedia.com/software/shockwaveplayer/licensing/w3d_sdk/license/

CURRENT SOLUTION

However, for those artists and developers wanting to use Blender right now, existing tools and scripts can be used to export into Shockwave 3D ( with some modificaions required to the Python script )

Firstly, you need to export to Softimage XSI ( .xsi ) format.

An existing plugin can be found here... http://www.creative-realms.net/~elira/blender.html

Now, you need to convert this .XSI format into Shockwave 3D ( .W3D ) format.

This can be done using the utility that SoftImage released as open-source, here... http://sourceforge.net/projects/xsi2w3d/ ( Windows only, no bones / skinning support )

...or using this commercial utility ( there is a free to use version here also ) http://www.sintesys.net/exporter/ ( can export bones / skinning, free for < 8 bones, $44.99 for > 8 bones, uses drag-and-drop, Windows Only )

CURRENT ISSUES

If you use the python script and exporter as is, the conversion will fail.

I have found that this is due to the current version of the python script not exporting normal information.

Not being a python scripter, I have hacked on some code to the existing script, so that it now exports flat normals ( note that it is a hack, and is quite buggy, but proves that the export path is workable ).

You can download this updated script here... http://www.candointeractive.com/blender/XSI_Export.py

TESTING OUT THE EXPORTER

- Download Blender from http://www.blender.org

- Download the XSI_Export.py Python script from http://www.candointeractive.com/blender/XSI_Export.py, and place it in your Blender Scripts folder

- Download one of the XSI to W3D converters ( I'd suggest the free one from http://www.sintesys.net/exporter/ )

- Create a simple scene in Blender

- Run the XSI_Export script, and save over a scene_name.XSI filename in the same folder as your converter

If everything is set up, you will now have a scene_name.W3D Shockwave 3D file.

TO DO

I've just listed some things that could be worked on.

- Export UV and Texture information

- Properly export normals

- Find a Mac solution to converting the XSI file to W3D

HELPING OUT

If you'd like to help out with this, just sign up to this site and edit the WIKI. This has been on my TO DO list for ages, and I haven't really had time to do much more other than prove that basic scenes can be exported. If people are interested in working with Blender and Shockwave 3D, working to improve this solution could be useful for a lot of other artists in the community.