EDM EXPORTER for Blender 2.8

[Breadmaker91]

Super thankfull for this exporter!
It's amazing that we have the possibility to create mods for DCS with FREE TOOLS!

Here are some inspirational images of what I'm creating with it.

 

[Fisherman82]

Indeed, wonderful exporter, here is one of the things I created using it. Just static objects though. On kind of the same topic as the previous post :)

Edited November 24, 2021 by Fisherman82

[tobi]

There is a new release.
Added normalmap to glass and Animation of light brightness

https://github.com/tobi-be/BlenderEdmExporter/releases/tag/1.0.7

[J-1775]

Thanks a lot Tobi for you continuing efforts! Question: should your exporter work in Blender 3.0 published last Friday?

[tobi]

Thanks a lot Tobi for you continuing efforts! Question: should your exporter work in Blender 3.0 published last Friday?

I did not try yet and did not check what changed in the python API. You can try it and report problems :)

[J-1775]

Will do this eventing!
EDIT: Looks good!   Fast installation into new folder (3.0), checked 'load 2.9 settings'. When I checked in Addons your exporter 1.0.7 was already activated!
I loaded a couple of my models and exported them without any errors. The .edm were the same size as before and loaded fine in ModelViewer 2.0 with all textures!

But please consider my limitations: I work only on relatively low-poly STATIC objects. We still need someone to make some trials on objects with animations. But I am happy with both Blender 3 and your exporter!
 

Edited December 8, 2021 by J-1775
addition

[J-1775]

Being at it: I have a problem. To apply a marking on my alu aircraft body texture I created a material that uses a 'mix shader' to mix the two source files. However in the EDM section I can only insert one source texture name. So ModelViewer always misses one.
Maybe my workflow for that purpose is wrong. Any suggestions?

Edited December 8, 2021 by J-1775

[Copprhead]

31 minutes ago, J-1775 said:

Being at it: I have a problem. To apply a marking on my alu aircraft body texture I created a material that uses a 'mix shader' to mix the two source files. However in the EDM section I can only insert one source texture name. So ModelViewer always misses one.
Maybe my workflow for that purpose is wrong. Any suggestions?

 

 

From my understanding the texture you applied in Blender is totally irrelevant for what ModelView/DCS loads. ModelView/DCS only loads the texture with the name entered in the EDM property and puts in on the model. If you mix two texture files in blender, you have to somehow save the final result to a DDS file (or other supported format). Not sure how this is done in Blender, but you could always use Gimp to merge the two textures and expor them as DDS.

[J-1775]

Thanks. I guess I now better understand the mechanisms. Maybe I have to look into 'baking', if that creates a single new file merged of basecolor and markings. Otherwise I'll do it outside in PS.
Speaking of formats. DCS and viewer read PNG and JPGs perfectly well, is DDS format a (recommended) optimization?

[Copprhead]

1 hour ago, J-1775 said:

Thanks. I guess I now better understand the mechanisms. Maybe I have to look into 'baking', if that creates a single new file merged of basecolor and markings. Otherwise I'll do it outside in PS.
Speaking of formats. DCS and viewer read PNG and JPGs perfectly well, is DDS format a (recommended) optimization?

I'm really no expert. 

You could also try Substance Painter, Quixel Mixer or Armor Paint. There you can paint your model in 3d and put the decals in it. But then again, another tool that needs to be learned. 

It's my undrstanding that DDS is optimized. You want fast loading time and good quality, not a small file size (at least for the final texture)

[J-1775]

With that knowledge I finally could finish the paint job, the model now looks like it should! Thanks. Since it's not everyday's work I choose the (my) save way. Used the UV map projection as transparent layer in PS and mixed background and decals there. Check, repeat ... and it looks good enough. At least for a wrecked aircraft ─ which it is .

[J-1775]

Hi everybody. Maybe I missed it somewhere: should alpha channel in texture work?
I tried with .png files and also .dds BC7 with 'explicit alpha', but even with 100% alpha ('cut out') I wouldn't see any transparency. What's the catch of it?

[tobi]

Did you set blending to 2?

[J-1775]

Oops, no! Everything on defaults: MaterialType is solid, Blending is 0 and Shadows 1. Where would I find explanations for these (and, in fact, all EDM) settings? RTFM, but where? github doc?
Thanks, will try immediately!

EDIT: , with Blending on '2' I have the holes punched out! I noticed in the Viewer that the texture itself seems brighter than before, but I can certainly handle that by some more experimenting ─ or going back to Photoshop. Maybe it's even just an illusion...
However, one problem solved, the next will be waiting. I'd like to aquire some more exporter knowledge...

Edited January 1, 2022 by J-1775
addition

[tobi]

This Information was well hidden in a release note. :) The part of the materials in the readme is not very detailed. I have too agree.

[J-1775]

Never mind. I'm so much obliged that we have a tool at all!
My next questions is not about the Exporter, but about ME in general. However I have the feeling, this thread might give me the best and quickest answer:
Is it possible to place a static object angled or upside down without the need of rotating it in Blender, creating a new .edm and finally duplicating and adapting the original's folder structure in TECH?
Lua scripting is probably the next thing I need to dive into??

[J-1775]

One more: my rowboats swim (and rock) very nicely ─ but they are filled with water. How can 'seal' the hull? Do I need a custom collision modell?

[CougarFFW04]

Hi everyone,

New Blender user with basically no experience here. However as I am only interested in basic low poly things I was finally able to build my first basic testing model and thanks to this great edm tool I was able to export and see it in DCS edm viewer although I do not see the textures (not even the default green brick one, mine being completly black) .

At this step I have a few problems and questions :

Textures : problem is the following. My blender model is textured with 2 jpg textures (just for color, no rougthness, metal or whatever) and it looks fine in blender. However in the export process there is only one entry for the "color" texture... looking arround I saw that at least in some cases there is a ziped textures file. So I am a bit confused about :
- how to "declare" texture in the edm exporter and organise them in DCS  ?
- also concerning the texture format. The ones I used in blender are jpg but in the zipped archive there are mainly dds ones... Is there a mandatory texture format for DCS object or can we use jpg, png, bmp, or whaterver I used in blender ?

Collision model : not sure is it the right term. My question is the following : is there something special to do/set in blender or edm exporter to have a "solid" model ? I mean that if in DCS I put another static object on top of mine, it will not sink inside ?

Lods : well I am not at this point at the moment but I am wodering how Lods works... Should we provide different edm for different Lods (as for destroyed status as far as I understand) ?

Thanks in advance for these rooky questions.

Edited January 6, 2022 by CougarFFW04

[J-1775]

Hi Cougar and sorry that I can't be much of a help to you. As a newbie with both Blender and Exporter I am glad you ask these questions. I have or had them all. Though I have developped some 'best practise' for some, I am not sure at all whether I have the correct answer or just a workaround. Like for the bitmap format. I convert all textures to DDS. It seems to be an optimized format and certainly worked so far very well. I use Nvidia's free Texture Tools Exporter, which is available as standalone app and as Photoshop plugin (useful for batch processing).
Looking forward for any better qualified answers!

[prccowboy]

On 1/6/2022 at 10:49 AM, CougarFFW04 said:

Thanks in advance for these rooky questions.

I'm an intermediate noob myself, but I will try to give you a few brief answers that may point you in the right direction to find more in depth answers on this forum, google and youtube (grajo, fireblaze and others in this forum have posted some very good tutorials - just search their names in youtube)

AFAIK:

- how to "declare" texture:  you will need to: set your materials, create a UV map, identify the texture filenames for your diffuse/normal/specular textures in the EDM settings of the object properties (and of course create the actual textures)

- also concerning the texture format: many common image formats will work; however, standard is dds with mipmaps. note there are multiple compression types which have pros/cons for each (ex: file size, quality, alpha transparency, etc.) Suggest googling the difference between BC1/BC3/BC5/BC7 to see which fits your needs best

collision model: you need to create a separate edm file for the collision model.  When exporting the collision model, in object properties>EDM>RenderType use ShellNode (or SegmentsNode for collision lines)

LODs: this is level of detail. Close up you want to see lots of detail, but this also uses lots of resources so when the camera view is farther from the object you can use a model with less detail to free up resources (memory, gpu/cpu). You need to create multiple edm models with varying levels of detail for LOD0, LOD1, LOD2, etc. to balance visual detail vs. resources used

The .lods file is just a lua script that defines which LOD edm file to use at different distances and what file is used for the collision model - I suggest looking at the .lods file of other mods with a lua editor to see the structure

"as for destroyed status" - Damage is handled in many ways, including wreckage models, falling parts models, animated visibility of parts, damage textures, etc. etc. (you will also need to tie all the various 3d models and animation of damage to the damage model section in your lua file)

I know I didn't answer your questions in detail, but there is no easy answer to such broad topic questions. However, I hope I gave you a starting point so that you can know where to begin. (I suggest youtube)

[1MajorKoenig]

Am 30.3.2020 um 17:50 schrieb Grajo:

Thanks for all the hard work Tobi! And for allowing me to test it a bit before release :].

 

With all of its features so far! Just amazing news for any Blender user that is willing to create content for DCS. :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

I hope that it continues growing with more features soon ;]. Always ready for some testing.

 

Hi Grajo, thanks for the excellent tutorial! 
 

I was testing with a blender file, added an armature and aligned the other parts relative to bone with ctrl P  (I hope similar to what you described on your video…)

 

However I always end up with an empty file with 1kb size and the DCS model viewer says 0 objects. 
 

Is there anything obvious I am missing..?

[Copprhead]

1 hour ago, 1MajorKoenig said:

Hi Grajo, thanks for the excellent tutorial! 
 

I was testing with a blender file, added an armature and aligned the other parts relative to bone with ctrl P  (I hope similar to what you described on your video…)

 

However I always end up with an empty file with 1kb size and the DCS model viewer says 0 objects. 
 

Is there anything obvious I am missing..?

 

Check the "EDM" properties tab of the objects. Set it to "Solid" or whatever is appropriate.

[1MajorKoenig]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb Copprhead:

 

Check the "EDM" properties tab of the objects. Set it to "Solid" or whatever is appropriate.

Thanks - looks like that was at least part of my problem! I got a qube exported...

[1MajorKoenig]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb Copprhead:

 

Check the "EDM" properties tab of the objects. Set it to "Solid" or whatever is appropriate.

Now I get an Error "No UV existing" for all of the selected elements - what does that mean? And thanks again for the help

[Copprhead]

30 minutes ago, 1MajorKoenig said:

Now I get an Error "No UV existing" for all of the selected elements - what does that mean? And thanks again for the help

You need to "uv unwrap" your model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeBUfMKKZDo

 

This is needed to define where the pixels of your 2d texture will be placed on the 3d model.