There have been alot of questions about how to use Blender to create a DTS object for your mod. So, here is a quick tutorial I put together.

Chapters:
1. Downloading Blender and the dts exporter
2. Creating a model in blender and the capabilities of Blender and the DTS exporter
3. Preparing your model for export
4. Exporting your model from Blender
5. Adding your object to your ThinkTanks mod

DOWNLOADING BLENDER AND THE TORQUE DTS EXPORTER:

Download Blender HERE for MacOS, Windows and Linux. Download the Blender DTS exporter HERE . Instructions on how to install the exporter are included in the zip file.

CREATING A MODEL IN BLENDER AND THE CAPABILITIES OF THE DTS EXPORTER:

A very nice tutorial on how to create some simple models using various tools in Blender can be found here . If you want people to really be amazed with your mod, you'll animate your 3D creation. To export a.DSQ sequence script for animation, Select Export > Torque DTS > Configure, then select the option "Write.CS sequence script" or something similar to that ;).

PREPARING YOUR MODEL FOR EXPORT:

Open up your nice Blender model that you've made, Then change the buttons window to the OOPS Schematic window. First, move the current meshes, texture and materials, lights, cameras etc. In a nice fancy design (Something you can keep track of and you can see everything). Now, you will see that most of the rectangles are linked (Pay NO attention to the lights and cameras). You need to do a bit more linking to properly export a dts shape. So, from the top of the 3D view (the main window), select ADD > EMPTY. Now, you have to change the 3D view (the place where you see your model) to OBJECT NAME EDITOR. Look around, it's in one of the sub-menus. Then add a couple more empties. Name them in the object name editor "Shape", "Detail32", and "Col0". Once you've done that, hold down the shift key and right click on "Shape" and "Detail32". Then once you have them both selected, press Control-L. Then link "Detail32" to the start of your mesh chain reaction. (It should go something like "Shape, Detail32, Cube, Cube, Cylinder, Cylinder, etc.). Then make a box and fit it so that it covers the area of your model. This will be your collision parameters (I belive you can also duplicate the model and remove textures/materials and make that the collision parameters, but I'll leave that alone for now...). Then, link your box you just made to "Col0". Make sure you link Col0 to Shape. The end result should look something like this:

EXPORTING YOUR 3D MODEL FROM BLENDER:
Short and Simple. From the file menu, select Export > Torque DTS. The DTS file will be located in the same directory/folder as your saved.blend Blender file.

ADDING YOUR CREATION TO YOUR TT MOD:

Put your DTS object in a new folder in your shapes folder in your TT data folder. Then go create a server (password it), then place a tree or a rock (TREE or ROCK, not volcano or ammo-reloader) with ModWizard. Then hunt down your object you placed in your mission file, then change the file path to point to your DTS shape.

Example:

Now fire up your mod and see your wonderful shape you created! (hopefully!) XD

Please post question or comments. Feedback is appriciated. :)
_{Copyright 2004-2005 Chilled Lizard©}

Last edited: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 6:34:16 AM

*bump* ;)

Wow Nick not bad. This will really help some people.

Wow that is really helpful for the people who are continuosly asking how to make new objects. Thanks. :)

I have no idea how to install it on a windows, if you need help installing on a Mac, IM me with MSN, AOL, ICQ, Yahoo or such (in profile). The instructions say nothing helpful. I'll try to see if I can figure out a way to get it installed on Windows. :)

*bump*, *bump*. Anyhow, here's an example model to get you started:

*bump*bump*bump*bump*(WOW, this road needs to be paved!!!)

I wish I knew how, DJ, I wish I knew. :[

I installed the exporter and it worked just fine. I tried the cube example, however no matter what I tried I couldn't get the textures, or material color to be seen in the ThinkTanks mod. Can anyone help with this? Thanks.

Ah, here's the problem you're having...

The materials are the textures. Do NOT add textures with Blender. You see, if you add a material called 'cubemap', ThinkTanks will look for 'cubemap.jpg', 'cubemap.gif', or 'cubemap.png'. So then make a texture called "cubemap.jpg" in photoshop or something, and put it in the same folder as your DTS shape. If that doesn't work, tell me what you have in console.log.

Wow I went back today to were I got blender found some tuturials, and made a nice little snowman :)

I am running mac OSX. When I double click the blender app, it bounces twice on the dock and then disapears.

Hmmm... Have you un-installed Python (It comes with OS X)? That's very stange, try launching it from Terminal...

When I try to convert the model its says
"Error:Incrorect python path check Console" :[

If you are using the latest version of Blender you will need to download Python 2.3.4 .

I'm able to put a solid color on my object but I havn't been able to put any pictures or swirles of colors ect. Also when im inside my obect you see right through it. I have selected doulble sided in Blender, does TT not support this? Also can I make my object partly transparent? E.X. It's red and you can see it, but you can see through it too.
P.S. I have the latest version of Blender.

Okay, put a texture named "material in Blender .png" in the same folder as your DTS shape. If you go inside any object, whether it be made with 3DS Max, Milkshape, Maya or Blender, you'll always be able too see through it in TT! I have tried making my objects transparent as well, but have had no sucess.

Thanks for your help. So it doesn't seem to matter what texture I place in the folder it always seems to come out a solid color when the object is rendered in ThinkTanks. I name the texture in Blender as you described, with the file as either material.jpg or material.png in the same folder as the dts file.

I am wondering if there are special requirements for the texture file. For example, I make sure it is 256 x 256 pixels. Or possibly, there is some other Blender attribute that must be set in the texture buttons window.

*BUMP*
The "tutorial" comes up as a web page in German; there is only one line of text, so it probably says "This website has been moved" or something like that. The exporter link gives me an "http 404 Not Found" page. Can anyone help me with this?

Last edited: Thursday, June 30, 2005 at 5:05:57 PM

Bump,

How can I get this work on windows?? :'( In which folder do I exactly place the exporter files??

I have it all working correctly, except now the latest version is a bit more complicated than "press ctrl + l" to link...

@Big Show
In your blender directory...
"C:/WhereEverBlenderIs/.blender/scripts/DTSPython"
Create the DTSPython folder here ^ and add the exporter stuff into it...

Last edited: Thursday, November 24, 2005 at 10:39:26 PM

Ooooohhh, so thats why I kept getting the "missing DTSpython" error in the consol. I'll check this out.

Gdi, I did that and it still doesn't want to export. I moved the folder named dtspython into that location. Didn't work. Then I found 3 other scripts in the main directory of the exporter so I moved them too, but it still didn't work. Now it says "missing warning"

I could never find the name editor thingy. Anyone want to export some shapes for me?

I downloaded the newest version of Phython-2.4.2 and it's a windows installer, then I check to see if the exporter was listed and it's not. I got this part working be for, maybe this version of Python isn't supported.

Last edited: Friday, November 25, 2005 at 9:12:15 AM

The tutorial doesn't work! :S :[

I try to export the example shape, to see if I got everything right, but it appears that I don't. I got this when I tried to export:

Torque Exporter 0.87
Using blender, version 239
**************************
Unrecognised token : MaxClusterSize
Unrecognised token : 1
Loaded Preferences.
Processing Scene...
Cleaning Preference Keys
Exporting...
> Shape D:Program Fileslender-2.40-alpha2-windows.blenderexample.dts
Writing script D:Program Fileslender-2.40-alpha2-windows.blenderexample.cs
>Collision Level
Mesh Object: Cube.001
Type: Standard
>Detail (size 32)
Mesh Object: Cube
Exception encountered, bailing out.

Does anyone see the problem?
I wish blender wasnt so difficult...

HUMONGOUS GIANT BUMP!!
Great thread, deserves to be bumped or stickied.
However, I am having troubles with both installing the exporter and linking shapes together.
I installed the exporter perfectly, and I followed the linking instructions exactly. Why isn't this working?

Chilled Lizard©
please give me a good link to download it
I enter the link you give it to us
there are a lot of things
please give me a link to the download :)

Bump it is cool to make the new shapes for tt

Heh... One more bump

As stated above, I still can't find the name editor... Anyone want to aid?

I think it appears once you get in Edit Mode for an empty.

Hmm... Still can't find it... Is it by another name, perhaps?

I forget...I uninstalled Blender after I got MilkShape aka Milkshake ...

Milkshape=PC. My PC=8 years old... If I had one that didn't deserve the nickname "stupid fat hobbit"...

PGG, if you are having problems with blender check the forums on GG as there is some pretty good stuff there or these links may help LINK 1 LINK 2 LINK 3

Also see my post in THIS THREAD as there is a link to where you can get a book on Blender.

Daz

Last edited: Thursday, March 02, 2006 at 5:16:10 PM

Ok, I have given up on blender. Can milkshape read.wings files?

Sorry,unfortunately not :[

Last edited: Friday, March 03, 2006 at 10:55:25 AM

Can it read.blend files? What can it read?

Agreed.
Insert similarly enourmous bump here. It also needs to be updated. Desperately. I mean, you can't even link objects in the new Blender! What the HELL is up with that? There's no OOPS Schematic window, no Object Names window... Thanks a ton, Blender devs...