I used nex_smd_mesh_export.py to export a player model from Blender to smd format and the zmodel program to compile a zym from the smds. Some bugs and problems I ran into:

1. Off-by-1 bug in nex_smd_mesh_export.py
The script does'nt export animations correctly. Line 809 of nex_smd_mesh_export.py should be:

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self.file.write( '%i "%s" %i\n' % ( bone.index, bone.name, bone.parent.index ) )

instead of

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self.file.write( '%i "%s" %i\n' % ( bone.index, bone.name, bone.parent.index + 1 ) )

2. Wrong error message in zmodel

zmodel is reporting a wrong bone name on certain errors with the sceleton definition. Line 484 should be

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printf("warning: duplicate global bone definition ...", bone[i].name, bone[i].parent, parent);

instead of

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printf("warning: duplicate global bone definition ...", name, bone[i].parent, parent);

3. Animation names messed up

The animation names/names of the smd files are not correct. For me, the following smd files are mapped to thes animations:

backleft.smd -> backleft
backright.smd -> backright
dead1.smd -> dead1/2
dead2.smd -> dead1/2
die1.smd -> draw
die2.smd -> duck
draw.smd -> duckwalk
duckidle.smd -> jump
duckjump.smd -> idle
duck.smd -> duckjump
duckwalk.smd -> duckidle
forwardleft.smd -> forwardleft
forwardright.smd -> forwardright
idle.smd -> die/1/2
jump.smd -> pain1/2
pain1.smd -> pain1/2
pain2.smd -> shoot
runbackwards.smd -> runbackwards
run.smd -> die1/2
shoot.smd -> ? (taunt is the only one left, but I didn't see anything)
strafeleft.smd -> strafeleft
straferight.smd -> straferight
taunt.smd -> run

4. Weights other than 0/1?

The sources of zmodel say that it would be the smd format which only knows weights 1 and 0 of vertixes being assigned to bones:

zmodel.c wrote:// the origin is relative to the bone and scaled by percentage of influence (in smd there is only one bone per vertex, so that would be 1.0)

But that's not true: One vertex in an smd file (or at least the smd file the smd exporter creates) is given in the following way:

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1 -39.999996 40.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 40.000000 0.502972 0.502972 2 1 0.600000 0 0.400000

Where the columns are:

1: BoneID
2-4: Coords
5-7: Normal coords
8-9: UV coords
10: Number of Bones this vertex belongs to
11+: Bone ID/weight pairs

The zmodel reads only the columns 1-9, thus no weights. Or at least that's what I can find in the zmodel source, line 639. Now the question is: Can the zym format handle weights? The comment in zmodel.c sort of gave me hope that such a thing could be possible...

Rebecca wrote:The zmodel reads only the columns 1-9, thus no weights. Or at least that's what I can find in the zmodel source, line 639. Now the question is: Can the zym format handle weights? The comment in zmodel.c sort of gave me hope that such a thing could be possible...

I guess not (you should talk to LordHavoc about this, he's probably the only one who knows for shure), but it looks like dpmodel ( http://svn.icculus.org/twilight/trunk/dpmodel/ replace http:// with svn:// for svn clients) can.

Since 2.4 all model formats supported by darkplaces (mdl, md3, zym, dpm, psk and i'm shure i forgot some...) can be used for player models, if you add an .animinfo file (a template can be found in data*.pk3/models/player)

this is great work rebecca, getting all the snags out of the blender -> nexuiz tool chain would be really helpful.

IMHO a proper SDK should be a higher priority for developers now.
I'm not good enough with programming to do much more than the simple hack that the weapon exporter is.
I'm not sure how a proper animation exoprter for nexuiz zym would look (and work) but it is definitely needed.

ihsan- you mean something like a script that exports directly to zym without the zmodel compiling stage?

rebecca- nice fix for the exporter. the bones in the animation are ok now.

I agree with Ihsan. Nexuiz need a SDK. With model tools, mapping tools, quake c stuff, how-to's etc etc in one big .zip

KadaverJack, thanks for pointing me towards dpmodel, I will try it.

Actually, I'm more a programmer than a modeller, and I've even done some Blender scripting. So if there's something I could do...

i've just noticed something seriously broken with the animation export. i've got a model with 12 animations and i just want to export animations 5-12, but it keeps on exporting all of them. since the script doesn't ask which animations to export i'd assumed that the start/finish numbers in the anim box might define which got exported, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

this is a horrible mess. i have to open up the smd in a text editor, figure out which animations i want to keep, delete the rest and then edit the lines with time in it.

i'm using the nex_smd_mesh_export.py with rebecca's fix (line 809). i'll try finding a halflife2 smd exporter and seeing if that works better.


**edit**

nope, same problem. it could be that i'm using an svn build of blender. i'll try it with a more stable version and see what happens.

**edit**

tried it with the stable version of blender that comes with ubuntu 8.04 and i had the same problem.