✅ Is there a library for processing FBX or GLTF files?
I essentially need to do 2 things:
1. Generate an orthographic image of a 3D model
2. Generate the normals for the same..
I'm trying to find a way to automate the generation of these images for a 2D game so that we only need to use blender for modelling, rather than rendering.
A couple of things i've noticed currently are, MixedReality, and GLTF loader, but i don't know if these are relevant to my needs.
What I hope to build is a simple commandline tool that loads a directory of model files and dumps the images.
The library I need would let me adjust the angle, resolution etc.
6 Replies
I don't think there's a library in C# that would do so much for you, you'll most likely need to implement those things yourself
If I were you, I'd definitely pick GLTF over FBX for this task, GLTF is much simpler to deal with and there are plenty of libraries for loading models in GLTF, FBX on the other hand... it's way more complex and the only reliable library is proprietary and written in C++
About the mentioned
FbxSharp:
You'd most likely need to write a wrapper for the C++ code in C and then make bindings for this wrapper, I don't think it'd be worth the time in the slightest
Adjusting the angle, resolution, etc is very simple, it's basic linear algebra and there are plenty of libraries that will make correct view and projection matrices for you
For rendering just pick any graphics API and write a very simple renderermuch easier to make blender plugin instead of all of that. You will need to create / find rendering engine, shaders etc. All of which are already embedded in blender
If you need that for Unity, however, unity can also act as rendering engine, and in case you're ok with the result quality just load all of the models to unity, bump it on the scene and render to texture via script, no need in 3rd party plugins for that
i was hoping to bypass blender for rendering because it seems rather difficult to systemise the process, on top of learning python lol. But i might have to agree once i've exhausted all other options.
im using Godot :P
It does seem like it might not be worth it yes. I just wish I had an on hand method of going from 3D to 2D at the simple run of a script lol
Writing plugins for blender is... a bit painful
Well, you could use Godot to automate this process
like, have a script that loads models one by one, renders them to textures and saves to a file on disk
i've been looking for ways for godot to do that
im not currently sure there is a way to render a 3d model in godot to a png
might actually work, in 2D i've captured the viewport with a transparent background, in 3D assuming im using an orthographic camera, i should be able to create a separate program to loop through a collection of models.
assuming that works, i just need a way to do the same with the normal maps
thanks :)
glad I was able to help :^)