isathar / Blender_UDK_FBX_Tools

Old version of my normals editor for Blender (with exporter).

Blender -> UE 3/4 FBX Tools

Blender addon that adds an editor for custom vertex normals, and an exporter with some tweaks and optimizations specific to the Unreal engine.

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Old Version
This addon will not be updated anymore, and has been superceded by a separate normals editor and exporter for Blender 2.74 available here:

Normals Editor: https://github.com/isathar/Blender-Normal-Editing-Tools/

Optional Exporter: Not needed to export normals in 2.74 https://github.com/isathar/Blender_UDK_FBX-Exporter/

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Compatible with Blender v2.70 - 2.73

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Installation:

• Copy the 'udk_fbx_tools' folder to your addons directory.
• Find it in the Addon Manager in the 'Mesh' category as 'UE FBX Normals Tools' and enable it.
• There should be a new tab named 'Normals Editor' under 'Shading / UVs' in your tools panel.

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Notes:

now testing basic support for Mont29's Blender build 2.72/2.73 with custom split normals

• https://mont29.wordpress.com
• To use:
  • Changes made in Object mode will be applied automatically,
  • to apply changes made in edit mode, switch to Object mode and click 'Apply to Mesh'
• Exporting:
  • Set Normals mode (and Tangents if needed) to Default in the export menu
  • Custom tangents from my exporter are not needed when using Mont29's build since it makes Blender use custom normals for its tangent calculation

Editor:

• The normals editor ui has been redesigned, and the documentation has not yet been updated :D

• The export/import buttons have been moved to the standard export and import menus.

• Auto Generation and 3D Line Display should now work in both Edit and Object modes.

  • Remaining mode limitations:
    • Object mode is required to use the Transfer function
    • Edit Mode is required for manual editing (for obvious reasons)

• Optional but extremely useful: You'll need Vrav's Transfer Vertex Normals addon for the new Transfer Normals function. It's available at:

  • http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?259554-Addon-EditNormals-Transfer-Vertex-Normals&s=33911f74a3f9a2250b1645e4cda304a8

• Custom normals can't be applied visually with shape keys or active modifiers.

  • They can still be edited, exported and displayed as lines.

• When using poly mode (split) custom normals, the mesh must be triangulated before editing custom normals.

  • Vertex mode custom normals are not affected by triangulation and should export correctly after doing so.

• Exporting with default tangents requires default normals and a triangulated mesh.

  • Without triangulation, one face will be reversed/split in the output.
  • The exporter will not export tangents if default tangents are selected with custom or automatic normals.

• All bones in the armature must have deform enabled when using custom scale or axis settings with a skeletal mesh.

  • Bones without deform enabled will have weird scales and rotations.
  • This is relevant for applications that require the use of end bones.
  • Planned integration of leaf bone changes from the new official exporter should fix this.

Exporter:

• The importer currently works with FBX 6.1 ASCII files only.

• New feature: Merge Vertex Colors:

  • Selecting this during export will export one vertex color layer consisting of all layers combined
  • This makes exporting vertex colors for wind effects and such easier.

Both:

• Minor changes to data structure used for normals:
  • Removed face center and vert position data.
  • Older files should still be compatible.

Displaying Normals on Meshes:

• Normals can be applied to the mesh in Vertex Mode, but not in Poly Mode. Both modes support displaying normals as 3D lines.
• The mesh's displayed normals will reset every time you enter Blender's Edit Mode, and can be reset by clicking Apply to Mesh again.
• If you're using Mont29's Blender build with custom split normals:
  • checking Split Normals Modifier under Mesh Data will allow normals to be applied in both editor modes.

Export Time:

• Exporting Tangents and custom normals can take 2-4 times as long as default export modes (after lots of optimizations).
• Blender may freeze for a few seconds on complex meshes.

Editing Performance:

• I've tested the normals editor on meshes with up to 150000 polys.
• On my mid-range system, real-time display of normals is slow on anything past 25000 or so vertices.
• Checking "Selected Only" in the display section of each tool helps, but will slow things down more as you approach higher counts.

Tangents and Unreal Engine 4:

• Custom tangents are not calculculated using Mikk TSpace, so there will be a difference in shading when importing them to UE4.
• I've added the option to export Blender's tangents which should be identical to UE4's to but have the drawback of not accounting for custom normals.

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Reference for tangent space calculation:

Lengyel, Eric. “Computing Tangent Space Basis Vectors for an Arbitrary Mesh”. Terathon Software 3D Graphics Library, 2001. http://www.terathon.com/code/tangent.html

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Features:

Editor for Vertex Normals:

• Manual editing per poly or vertex normals
• Automatic generation with several presets for different scenarios
  • presets: (More advanced presets for foliage/tree normals should be up soon)
    • Smooth (Blender default)
    • Vector
    • Bent (facing away from 3d cursor by an adjustable ratio)
    • Ground Foliage (selected ground based vertices point up, everything else bent from an offset point)
    • Custom (similar to Blender's default normals with the ability to generate normals for selected faces as if they are disconnected)
• Allows calculating normals for selected faces or the whole mesh
• Normals can be displayed as lines for visual editing or applied to the mesh if in vertex mode

Customized FBX Exporter:

• Can calculate and export tangents and binormals
• Can export custom normals from the included editor
• Support to export normals generated by asdn's Recalc Vertex Normals addon
• Unreal Engine 3/4-specific optimizations:
  • root bone fix that removes the armature bone from the exported file
    • root bone is now parented to the scene to stop weirdness with some software and UE physics
    • this fix also allows mesh orientations to be exported without having to mess around with the axis settings
  • new option to export default tangents (when using default normals)
  • custom tangents are pretty close to UDK's
• Exported meshes should now be fully compatible with nvidia's Apex Tools, xNormal and most other software that uses the FBX format
  • (previous versions caused crashes on import for some software)

Importer for Normals (FBX 6.1 files only):

• Allows importing normals from FBX files to the custom variable used in this editor.
• Works with multiple meshes at the same time.
• The meshes have to already exist in the scene and be identical to the ones in the file (same number of vertices and faces).

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Documentation:

• probably next week

========================================================================================================= Changelog:

1.0.2 (current)

• fix to custom normals generation in poly mode when 'selected only' was unchecked
• added detection of Mont29's build to generation functions (automatically sets normals now)
• moved custom tangents functions since they aren't really needed anymore in newer Blender builds
• default tangents can now be exported if default normals are automatically detected by the exporter
• minor fix to the way vertex color layers are written

1.0.1

• removed 7.3 exporter due to many issues
• added preliminary support for Mont29's Blender 2.72 build

1.0.0

• finished 7.3 exporter for everything except Animations, Lamps, Cameras
• added remaining windowmanager variables to cleanup
• minor formatting changes to scripts

1.0.0t5

• fixed problem with previous release that broke skeletal mesh exports
• added ability to export combined vertex color layer
• readme updates

1.0.0t4

• added object mode support to Auto Generate and Display functions
• initial indexing system for FBX 7.3 files
• code formatting + UI optimizations

1.0.0t3

• massive performance improvement to normals editor code by switching to a temp list for calculations/display

1.0.0t2

• added partially working fbx 7.3 exporter
• changed organization of 6.1 output files + added some exported variables

1.0.0t1

• removed redundant class for vertexn_meshdata list, switched to vert_data type

• moved import/export buttons to proper menus

• reorganized interface to decrease clutter

• fixed long-running typo of adsn's name :D

• exporter:

• updated export scaling to a more standard method (not using local scaling)

• minor changes to previous armature axis settings fix (cleaner)

• updated default export method to read normals from loops like the newer default exporter

• added the ability to export blender's default tangents/binormals

• refactored + optimized custom tangent calculation method

  • performance improvements for exporting custom tangents (should be much faster now)

• added the ability to pick the UV layer tangents are based on (1 layer max)

• added warning messages + fallbacks to prevent the exporter from stopping when it encounters a problem

• editor:

• added ability to use Vrav's Transfer Vertex Normals addon from editor

  • this replaces copy/paste functionality

0.10.1

• exporter:
• fixed scaling for static mesh exports, not working properly for armatures at the moment
• the exporter now detects the root bone of any parented armature, removing the need to manually enter root bone name
• fixed an export error that occured when exporting a mesh twice (the normals list was getting cleared if in vertex mode)
• editor:
• fixed Default auto-generation method

0.10.0

• replaced broken init file (Blender should recognize the addon again)
• added ability to switch between per-poly and vertex normals in editor
• added ability to apply normals to mesh (vertex mode only, no split normals)
• rewrote Custom auto-generation mode (much faster now, and less likely to produce bad results)
• added bending ratio to Bent auto-generation mode
• rewrote copy/paste functionality
• various fixes to armature export

0.9.0

• added importer for normals only
• exporter:
• more exporter performance improvements
• changed the way normals etc are exported
• removed vertex sorting stuff from normals export since it should all be handled by the editor now

0.8.0

• exporter:
• rewrote the armature bone fix to parent the root bone to the scene (the way the armature object was before)
  • exported files should now be compatible with nvidia apex tools and anything else that uses fbx
  • no more messing with UDK's imported mesh rotations
• changed the way axis settings are handled during export and set up separate axis options
• exporter speed improvements

0.7.5

• editor:
• fixed Custom (Angle-Based) auto-generation mode.
  • It's slightly slower (as in, it can take about 5 min for a 3600 poly mesh), but should no longer produce weird results on complex meshes.
• fixed wrong vertex being selected while using manual edit (bad math)
• exporter:
• added check for UV layer before calculating tangents. If not found, the mesh is exported without tangents (default behavior)

0.7.0

• initial release