Blender_bevy_components_wor.../tools/gltf_auto_export
Mark Moissette 6047959b3f
feat(nested_blueprints): added support for nested blueprints both in bevy_gltf_blueprints & in gltf_auto_export (#65)
* feat(bevy_gltf_blueprints): 
  * added support for nested blueprints
  * added example/test for nested blueprints with multiple levels of nesting
* feat(tools/gltf_auto_export): 
  * implemented functionality to export nested blueprints/collection instances
  * added add prefs to control nested blueprints export
  * experiments with nested blueprints merge modes
  * when exporting of nested blueprints is disabled, will not scan for nested blueprints
and thus no export them
* docs(): updated docs & added images for nested blueprints support
2023-12-22 00:37:52 +01:00
..
docs feat(nested_blueprints): added support for nested blueprints both in bevy_gltf_blueprints & in gltf_auto_export (#65) 2023-12-22 00:37:52 +01:00
ui feat(nested_blueprints): added support for nested blueprints both in bevy_gltf_blueprints & in gltf_auto_export (#65) 2023-12-22 00:37:52 +01:00
README.md feat(nested_blueprints): added support for nested blueprints both in bevy_gltf_blueprints & in gltf_auto_export (#65) 2023-12-22 00:37:52 +01:00
__init__.py feat(nested_blueprints): added support for nested blueprints both in bevy_gltf_blueprints & in gltf_auto_export (#65) 2023-12-22 00:37:52 +01:00
auto_export.py feat(nested_blueprints): added support for nested blueprints both in bevy_gltf_blueprints & in gltf_auto_export (#65) 2023-12-22 00:37:52 +01:00
blueprints.py feat(nested_blueprints): added support for nested blueprints both in bevy_gltf_blueprints & in gltf_auto_export (#65) 2023-12-22 00:37:52 +01:00
config.py refactor(tools/gltf_auto_export): complete restructuring of the tool (#67) 2023-12-04 14:48:52 +01:00
helpers.py feat(nested_blueprints): added support for nested blueprints both in bevy_gltf_blueprints & in gltf_auto_export (#65) 2023-12-22 00:37:52 +01:00
helpers_collections.py feat(nested_blueprints): added support for nested blueprints both in bevy_gltf_blueprints & in gltf_auto_export (#65) 2023-12-22 00:37:52 +01:00
helpers_export.py feat(nested_blueprints): added support for nested blueprints both in bevy_gltf_blueprints & in gltf_auto_export (#65) 2023-12-22 00:37:52 +01:00
helpers_scenes.py refactor(tools/gltf_auto_export): complete restructuring of the tool (#67) 2023-12-04 14:48:52 +01:00
internals.py refactor(tools/gltf_auto_export): complete restructuring of the tool (#67) 2023-12-04 14:48:52 +01:00
materials.py feat(materials): Materials libraries tooling & bevy code for material/texture reuse (#71) 2023-12-12 13:21:53 +01:00
preferences.py feat(nested_blueprints): added support for nested blueprints both in bevy_gltf_blueprints & in gltf_auto_export (#65) 2023-12-22 00:37:52 +01:00
scene_components.py feat(scene components) : added scene components to control ambient, bloom etc from Blender(#76) 2023-12-17 15:31:25 +01:00

README.md

gltf_auto_export

This Blender addon

  • automatically exports your level/world from Blender to gltf whenever you save your Blend file.
  • in Blueprints mode (highly recommended !) :
    • supports automatic exports of used collections as Gltf blueprints
    • supports any number of main/level scenes
      • Blender scenes where you define your levels, and all collection instances are replaced with "pointers" to other gltf files (all automatic)
    • supports any number of library scenes
      • Blender scenes where you define the assets that you use in your levels, in the form of collections
    • automatic export of changed objects & collections only ! a sort of "incremental export", where only the changed collections (if in use) get exported when you save your blend file

Installation:

  • grab the latest release zip file

blender addon install

  • in Blender go to edit => preferences => install

blender addon install

  • choose the path where gltf_auto_export.zip is stored

blender addon install

Usage:

Basics

  • before it can automatically save to gltf, you need to configure it
  • go to file => export => gltf auto export

blender addon use

  • set the autoexport parameters in the auto export panel:

    blender addon use3

    • export folder: root folder to export models too

    • export scene settings: exports "global"/scene settings like ambient color, bloom, ao, etc

      This automatically generates additional components at the scene level

    • pick your main (level) scenes and library scenes (see the chapter about Blueprints below)

      • click in the scene picker & select your scene

      select scene

      • click on the "+" icon

      select scene2

      • your scene is added to the list

      select scene3

    • export blueprints: check this if you want to automatically export blueprints (default: True)

    • blueprints path: the path to export blueprints to , relative to the main export folder (default: library)

    • export nested blueprints: check this if you want to automatically export nested blueprints (collection instances inside blueprint collections) as seperate blueprints (default: True) please read dedicate section below for more information

    • export materials library: check this if you want to automatically export material libraries (default: False) please read the dedicated section below for more information

      This only works together with blueprints !

    • materials path: where to export materials to

  • and your standard gltf export parameters in the gltf panel

blender addon use2

  • click on "apply settings"
  • now next time you save your blend file you will get an automatically exported gltf file (or more than one, depending on your settings, see below)

Blueprints

You can enable this option to automatically replace all the collection instances inside your main scene with blueprints

  • whenever you change your main scene (or your library scene , if that option is enabled), all your collection instances

    • will be replaced with empties (this will not be visible to you)
    • those empties will have additional custom properties / components : BlueprintName & SpawnHere
    • your main scene/ level will be exported to a much more trimmed down gltf file (see next point)
    • all the original collections (that you used to create the instances) will be exported as seperate gltf files into the "library" folder
  • this means you will have

    • one small main gltf file (your level/world)
    • as many gltf files as you have used collections in the main scene , in the library path you specified : for the included basic example's assets, it looks something like this:

    library

    the .blend file that they are generated from can be found here

  • the above only applies to collections that have instances in your main scene! if you want a specific collection in your library to always get exported regardless of its use, you need to add a COLLECTION (boolean) custom property called AutoExport set to true

    not at the object level ! the collection level !

    force-export

    It will get automatically exported like any of the "in-use" collections.

  • you can also get an overview of all the exported collections in the export menu

    exported collections

Nested blueprints

To maximise reuse of meshes/components etc, you can also nest collections instances inside collections (as normally in Blender), but also export each nested Blueprint as a seperate blueprints.

Don't forget to toggle the option in the exporter settings

  • To make things clearer:

    nested-blueprints

    • Player2 & Enemy both use the Humanoid_cactus nested collection/blueprint, so Humanoid_cactus gets exported as a Blueprint for re-use ...but
    • Humanoid_cactus is also made up of a main mesh & two instances of Hand , so Hand gets exported as a Blueprint for re-use ...but
    • Hand is also made up of a main mesh & three instances of Finger, so Finger gets exported as a Blueprint for re-use
  • The exported models in this case end up being:

    nested_blueprints2

    • Note how Player2.glb is tiny, because most of its data is actually sotred in Humanoid_cactus.glb
    • Enemy.glb is slightly bigger because that blueprints contains additional meshes
    • All the intermediary blueprints got exported automatically, and all instances have been replaced with "empties" (see explanation in the Process section ) to minimize file size
  • Compare this to the output WITHOUT the nested export option:

    nested_blueprints3

    • less blueprints as the sub collections that are not in use somewhere directly are not exported
    • Player2.glb & Enemy.glb are significantly larger

TLDR: smaller, more reuseable blueprints which can share sub-parts with other entities !

Materials

You can enable this option to automatically generate a material library file that combines all the materials in use in your blueprints.

material_library

Since each blueprint is normally a completely independant gltf file, without this option, if you have a material with a large texture for example, ALL of your blueprints using that material will embed that large texture, leading to significant bloat & memory use.

  • When this option is enabled, you get a single material library per Blender project, and a MaterialInfo component is inserted into each object using a material.
  • The correct material will then be inserted on the Bevy side (that loads any number of material libraries that you need) into the correct mesh (see the configuration options in bevy_gltf_blueprints for more information on that)
  • Only one material per object is supported at this stage, ie the last material slot's material is the one that is going to be used

material_library

TLDR: Use this option to make sure that each blueprint file does not contain a copy of the same materials

Process

This is the internal logic of the export process with blueprints

process

ie this is an example scene...

and what actually gets exported for the main scene/world/level

all collections instances replaced with empties, and all those collections exported to gltf files as seen above

Development

  • since the code has now been split up into multiple modules, to make your life easier, I highly recomend (if you are using vscode like me) to use this excellent extension , works easilly and fast , even for the latest versions of Blender (v4.0 as of this writing)
  • this article might also help out (easy enough to get it working on linux too)

License

This tool, all its code, contents & assets is Dual-licensed under either of