Notes:
A new 0.96 version of the Blender DTS Exporter for Torque has now been released.
The new version requires Blender 2.44 or higher, and should be compatible with the
upcoming Blender 2.46 release as well.
Be sure to check the Readme.html file included with the exporter if you are a new
user, or if you run into problems.
What's New for version 0.96
* New: Added support for IFL (Image File List) animations.
* New: Improved support for mesh visibility animations. Visibility animations
are no longer tied to materials, and can now be set up through the exporter GUI on
a per mesh basis. Multiple meshes can be included in a single visibility
animation, each having their own separate visibility track. IPO curves from
objects or materials can be selected through the exporter GUI to drive each
visibility track in the animation.
* New: Users can now set a start and end frame for actions (optional). This
means that actions can now be set up using non-overlapping frame ranges, which
allows for the use of objects as constraint targets for multiple animations. This
feature is entirely optional, and must be enabled by turning off the "Auto
Start/End Frames" button on the actions panel (can be set per-sequence).
* New: Sequence frames per second OR duration can now be set through the
exporter GUI on a per sequence basis. If the FPS for a sequence is changed, the
duration is automatically adjusted and vice-versa. Either of these settings can be
"locked" such that when frames are added or removed from the animation, the locked
setting (either duration or FPS) remains constant.
* New: Complete rework of the Sequences tab of the exporter. It now contains 4
sub-tabs:
* Common/All - Contains settings that are common to all types of
animations. Also contains a bar graph showing the length of each animation
contained within a sequence (Actions, IFL, Visibility, etc.). The bar graph is
designed to show, at a glance, whether the lengths of the animations contained in
a sequence are the same.
* Action - The Action panel contains settings that are specific to action
animations
* IFL - This panel is used to create Image File List animations.
* Visibility - This panel is used to create Visibility animations.
* New: The exporter will now prompt the user if no shape marker is found. If
the user chooses, a shape hierarchy will be automatically created and set up with
a default detail level (size 1). The exporter guesses which meshes are collision
meshes and los meshes by examining the first three letters of the mesh names
(looking for "col" and "los"); everything else is placed under Detail1. This
should make things a little easier for people who are using blender as a stepping
stone to export purchased content or content imported from another modeling app.
It might also save experienced users a few seconds creating and parenting empties.
* The effects of mesh modifiers are now applied to meshes in the exported dts
file. The Blender modifiers themselves are not applied to your Blender objects.
Unfortunately, due to a limitation in Blender's Python API, modifiers will be
ignored for skinned meshes (you can still apply them by hand, however).
* Rearranged and relabeled controls on the "Materials" panel. The two most
problematic settings (Reflectance Map and Bump Map) are now hidden behind a "Show
Advanced Settings" button. Added a new "IFL Material" button used to mark a
material for use in an IFL animation.
* Changed all occurrences of "TSE" to "TGEA" (I guess this name is the one
that's going to stick :)
* Fixed triggers not firing when no ground frames were being exported for a
given sequence.
* Scaling and rotating the marker empties is now supported.
* Numerous bug fixes, etc.
Many thanks go out to everybody who helped with this release; and special thanks
to James Urquhart for writing the exporter in the first place. Contributors and
Testers are listed below:
* Adam Wilson
* Philippe C
* Dave Young
* Bernard Hugueville
* Owyn Murtason
* Ziba Scott
And thanks to anyone else who I missed.
