BS SDK

Tools / BS Exporter for Blender

Grouping

• Overview
• Billboards
• Collision
• Custom groups

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Overview

Some of Blender's "Texture face" options can be used for exporting grouping nodes. Meshes with this option activated, become children of a grouping node, as outlined below.

Note:

Don't forget to copy the texture face options to any face of a mesh using "Copy DrawMode" button.

Billboards

You can export a billboard node by turning on the "Halo" or "Billboard" buttons on the "Texture face" panel while in "UV/Face Select" mode. "Halo" will export as a screen aligned billboard and "Billboard" will export as a billboard rotating around the Y Axis (Blender's Z axis).

Collision

Collision detection between the user and scene geometry is on by default in VRML/X3D, but this can be deactivated for some objects in a scene. The option can be exported by turning off "Collision" on the "Texture face" panel .

Creating Billboards, Halos (screen aligned Billboard ) and Collisions

Custom groups

The BS Exporter for Blender allows you to create the full range of BS Contact's grouping nodes for culling, drawing and optimization. Here is an example for creating a "DrawGroup":

• Create an "Empty" object and name it "DrawGroup.Name", where "Name" is your own choice; your given name will be used as the DEF name
• Select the objects that should be children of your custom group
• Select the "Empty" object and make it a parent of them ("Make Parent Ctrl+P")
• Additionally you can create text in Blender's built in text editor and give it the same name as your custom group
• In the text editor you can add any supported property for your custom group, using VRML or X3D syntax

Note:

When adding your own text, there is no syntax checking on export, so you must write valid VRML or X3D syntax.

The transformations of "Empty" objects will not exported so, if necessary, move, scale and/or rotate the children instead.

See also:

• PROTOs and Scripting

Creating a custom BS Contact DrawGroup node

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