BS SDK

Tools / BS Exporter for Blender

Textures

• Texture naming conventions
• Texture maps
• Movie textures
• Texture blending
• UV mapping

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Texture naming conventions

The Blender image name (IM) will be exported as the DEF name for the "ImageTexture" node. Movie textures are prefixed with "MOV_".

See also:

• Annotations: Naming conventions

Texture maps

To apply textures to an object in Blender, add a new material on the "Material" panel then add a new texture on the "Texture" panel.The BS Exporter for Blender supports the following common options:

The following special texture types also have their own specific options:

• Select the "Image" texture type for both static images and movie textures
• Additional settings for movie textures can be found here
• Normal maps can be created using the texture type "Image" and the option "Normal Map" on the "Image" panel (in Blender 2.37 activate the mapping to buttons "Nor" and "Col" also)
• In Blender 2.40 and above, use the texture type "EnvMap" and loaded environment textures for creating reflections

Notes:

VRML and X3D support only one texture per texture channel and one material per mesh. If you use multiple materials and multiple textures per texture channel please split your mesh into parts for correct export.

Blender can create environment maps of your scene on render and you can save them to disk.

See also:

• Blender Documentation: Environment Maps
• Nvidia Photoshop Plug-ins (normal map creation, DDS textures etc)
• Normal Map Plug-in for Gimp

Supported options for the "Image" texture type


Supported options for the "EnvMap" texture type

Movie textures

To specify that a texture or movie be exported to a BS Contact "MovieTexture2" node, use the texture type "Image" and activate the "Movie" button on the "Image" panel.

• The "Cyclic" button in the "Anim and Movie" panel controls whether a MovieTexture loops indefinitely or not at all
• The "StartFr" (start frame) field and "Len" (length) button will translate to the VRML/X3D fields "startTime" and "stopTime" (the calculated values depend on the "Frs/sec" field in "Anim/ Playback buttons (F10)" on the "Anim" panel)

Note:

Not all media types supported by BS Contact are visible in Blender (although Quicktime *.mov and Video *.avi work well). If you experience problems in mapping any movie texture, as a workaround you can create a temporary placeholder image of the movie, save it with the movie name and file extension and use it for mapping. After export, the placeholder image can be replaced with the original movie.

Exporting BS Contact's "MovieTexture2" node

Setting animation Frs/sec (frames per second)

Texture Blending

When using multi-texuring you can blend different texture blend modes to create various effects. In the older Blender 2.37a, it is necessary to also specify mappings on the "Map To" panel:

Supported Texture blending modes

UV mapping

UV mapping (creating texture coordinates so textures are positioned correctly on an object's faces) within Blender is very powerful. To add and edit texture coordinates, firstly switch "Viewport Shading" to "Textured", then select "UV Face Select" mode and use the "UV/Image Editor" tool.

Note:

Using the "UV/Image Editor", you can create UV mappings independently, i.e. without having to add a new material and texture on the "Material" and "Texture" panels respectively. In the absence of a material, the exporter outputs shadeless textured objects (i.e. the object and its texture are unaffected by standard VRML/X3D lighting).

See also:

• Blender Documentation: UV Editor and Face Select

The "UV Face Select" mode in Blender


The "UV/Image Editor" in Blender

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