Miriel Enfield

I'm also unable to export anything from Blue Mars to Blender.

I'll probably keep poking at this for a while, but I'm very tempted to give up for now. I've been flailing around for how long now? And for nothing. I can't do LODs. I can't export (or for that matter, be sure I've found) the regular avatar, so clothing creation is out of the question. I would not at all be surprised if animation and textures also proved to be problematic. And I'm beginning to suspect that Blender may not be entirely capable of handling Blue Mars.

That said, if anyone does get LODs working, I would be very interested in seeing the file Max/Maya/whatever spit out.

Joshua Nightshade

Maybe not ready for it now; sculpties didn't work in SL from Blender immediately either. I wouldn't be surprised if someone gets documentation going as soon as the beta test is sent to more people.

Miriel Enfield

I don't know. The forum on the wiki is dead, and I assume most of the people working on this use real modeling programs and not the noxious pile of code that is Blender. We may have to wait until the game's been open for some time, if then.

Aki Shichiroji

i installed the viewer last night and have been trying to do the most basic of things, like upload the default Blender monkey (with materials) as a .cgf. It appears on the scene, but only as a sphere, not an actual mesh. I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong. It will also do this for .dae files. The viewer doesn't appear to have the same sandbox tools featured on the wiki and beyond basic object transformations, not really sure where to go from here.

Miriel Enfield

I'm not sure about materials, Aki, but I'm using (link removed because it doesn't actually export, whoops) to export from Blender, and then I convert. You need to have at least one material on Suzanne, or the Blue Mars importer will crash. Don't use the "bake matrices" option when exporting from Blender; my experience is that you get the dreaded blue sphere if you do that.

The materials system is something I haven't gotten to yet. One horrible, nigh-impossible thing at a time.

Joshua Nightshade

Yay, I finally got my download link to the SDK!

Joshua Nightshade

No I take it back, I was only given a download link to the Sandbox Viewer.

How do I get the Editor/SDK?

Miriel Enfield

Send them an email reminder, maybe?


I've given up on Blue Mars for the moment, myself, despite having the SDK. I tried fiddling around with Blender's exporter, hoping to maybe get LODs working, but nope. And now I can't get it to export at all in the format I need, even imperfectly, despite doing clean installs of the exporters. I hate Blender so goddamn much. This isn't the first time it's not worked, or not worked reliably.

Rock

Hi Miriel,

The designer for the Taki level has now joined the Life on Mars forum, so it maybe worthwhile reposting your questions there.

Rock

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Joshua Nightshade

Sorry Rock, but I'm not interested in joining another forum personally.

Miriel Enfield

Thank you. I can join, but I'm not sure he'll be able to help with Blender's shenanigans. Particularly since what's going on now has nothing to do with Blue Mars. This is all Blender.

LoganBauer

I've tried this and they just told me "we'll send you a link once we get your name on the list". I'm curious if anyone who put Maya as their 3d application has gotten the SDK yet?

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LoganBauer

Basic question for anyone who has already gotten in (or who can find a video of blue mars that shows...)

Any SL-esque shiny, reflections, or refractions, or any material properties at all that would make more realistic looking glass?

virrginia tombola

Just the viewer for me, but I don't know if Avatar Reality has received my NDA yet. Jim does respond to emails, but I think he's a bit swamped right now.

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Joshua Nightshade

In response to my email about the SDK Jim said:

"The current build of the SDK isn't very stable. We're not distributing it very widely at this point. Once we do, I'd be happy to share."

Rock

I am finding the same.

The SDK runs ok on my laptop, but on my desktop, with almost identical specs, it crashes whenever I try to load a level (*.cry) or try to create a new level. The CryMod SDK, however, runs fine on both machines, so I am assuming that it is to do with the Blue Mars modifications/extensions.

I have also contacted Jim to urge AR to get the Jira/Mantis up and running on the wiki so we can start reporting the bugs we find, and maybe find out what exactly are the issues underlying the statement 'isn't very stable'.

Rock

Winter Ventura

/me applied for the beta.

But aside from the "also you should sign up to get the previewer" email, I haven't heard anything back, so I guess I'm on the deep bottom of the list.

At least I'm on it.

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Miriel Enfield

Someone (not me, alas) has figured out how to export things from Blender, with LODs and materials and textures, and has posted a step by step guide.

Life On Mars - blender with material and lods

I've not tried the materials and textures bit (beyond the material you need to add in Blender, to keep the converter from crashing), but the LODs actually work!

Siyu Suen

Oh my gosh yay!! I'm so happy for you, I'm sure that this will be the breakthrough you needed to get more of a handle on things. And in Blender too! Good luck

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Miriel Enfield

I even figured out why I couldn't export at all for a while (it was my fault; I deleted the exporter, thinking it was part of a plugin I wanted to remove, whoops), so it looks like I'll actually be able to make stuff.

Well, some stuff anyway. I still need to figure out how to make clothing and hair and about ten thousand other things. But I can import a crappy monkey that turns into an even crappier monkey when you zoom out, and that's something!

Rock

Brilliant news!

I am getting near to the point where I can post a step-by-step tutorial on creating and texturing terrain. When that is done I will also be turning my attention to creating objects and importing from Blender. So I am very pleased indeed that the first bridge has now been crossed.

Rock

Kyrah Abattoir

I applied too , it's not fair i should be at the top of the list -_- .

Miriel Enfield

I managed to actually log in this morning.

First impressions were, I have to say, surprisingly bad. Avatar customization was severely lacking. There were a lot of things I had no control over, and the interface was a little odd in places. More frustratingly, I couldn't find any preferences/options menu. Navigation and camera control are very clunky, too, and chat looks like it might not be much better. I found the interface fairly intuitive most of the time -- it's just lacking a shocking amount of features. Since this is a client build from April, and a beta, I'm hoping that future versions will be more fleshed out.

Also, it crashed on me. But the sandbox crashes all the time for me, too. I'm wondering if my system and CryEngine just don't get along.

On the positive side, avatar movement is much, much better than SL's -- not that that's hard. And the interface, like I said, is actually pretty intuitive. It's just missing a massive amount of stuff.

Joshua Nightshade

What did you log into? I still haven't heard a thing about it since my last email from the guy there.

Miriel Enfield

Blue Mars itself. Unless I'm badly mistaken, I actually got in world.