MDB to FBX, FBX to MDB converter

[FreshLook]

I find very tedious to look for MDB, GR2 or textures files in the zip files and extract them. I'm programming it to be done automatically.

 

For example, you want to convert PLC_BC_HOUSE01.MDB to FBX. The tool looks for it in the zip files and extracts it, figures out all it's dependencies (textures and skeletons), looks for them in the zips and extracts them. Finally converts to FBX.

 

The same idea could be extended to look in ERF-type files and specific folders.

[Snowmane72]

It sounds like you are moving towards feature development. Maybe it would be a good time to move this project to GitHub and build a small feature list and roadmap and bring on more devlopers (i.e. me) to help with the development?

[rjshae]

A problem I've found with import/export tools for Blender is that the API is a moving target. What may work with one version of Blender can break down the road. Tools require ongoing support to continue to function properly. Putting it on GitHub could be one solution for this.

[FreshLook]

It sounds like you are moving towards feature development. Maybe it would be a good time to move this project to GitHub and build a small feature list and roadmap and bring on more devlopers (i.e. me) to help with the development?

I agree and in fact I was already on it. I'm refactoring the quick and dirty code that I coded at the investigation phase before publishing it. Since I wanted to test it and found very tedious the manual decompression of MDBs I automated it.

 

Do you use Visual Studio? What version? I updated to Visual Studio 2017. I have to give proper names to the projects, decide a copyright license and so on. If I want to remain anonymous, I don't know what copyright to put.

[Snowmane72]

I can use Visual Studio community edition (I am pretty sure they have a 2017 version of that), though I tend to use mingw on windows and gcc on linux (of course). Since Blender is cross platform you will probably want to support building for multiple OS's. I can do windows and linux, but I don't have any macintosh hardware so I can't help there.

 

As for the license, if you want to keep this open source I would go for the MIT license: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License

 

It's less restrictive that GPL or LGPL so it lets people take your code and do a lot with it. My suggestion is somewhat self serving though, because like I said I have a specific use case in mind and I want to use the code too. :)

[Snowmane72]

It sounds like you are moving towards feature development. Maybe it would be a good time to move this project to GitHub and build a small feature list and roadmap and bring on more devlopers (i.e. me) to help with the development?

If I understand correctly, The tool simply converts back and forth between MDB/GR2 and FBX. Once in FBX format, Blender can use its own import code to read in the file. So this is a more of an external tool than a plugin. As long as blender supports import/export of the FBX version that the tool will use, it should be ok.

Edited May 6, 2017 by Snowmane72

[FreshLook]

I can use Visual Studio community edition (I am pretty sure they have a 2017 version of that), though I tend to use mingw on windows and gcc on linux (of course). Since Blender is cross platform you will probably want to support building for multiple OS's. I can do windows and linux, but I don't have any macintosh hardware so I can't help there.

 

As for the license, if you want to keep this open source I would go for the MIT license: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License

 

It's less restrictive that GPL or LGPL so it lets people take your code and do a lot with it. My suggestion is somewhat self serving though, because like I said I have a specific use case in mind and I want to use the code too. :smile:

• Yes, they have Visual Studio Community 2017, that's what I'm using. I don't see any problem that could prevent using gcc or clang. We could use CMake, which is also supported by Visual Studio 2017 (I have no tried it).
• Are you interested in Linux? The only way I know to decompress GR2 files (all GR2 files that ship with NWN2 are compressed) is by using the granny2.dll that ships with NWN2. To work with uncompressed files I don't need granny2.dll at all.
• I'm programming in C++. Since you want to use the code, is it ok for you?
• I'm between MIT license (simple) and Apache License 2.0 (not simple but it seems more legally robust).

[Snowmane72]

Yeah, I forgot about the dependency on the granny dll. We might be able to load the dll on linux using Mono, but that might be going overboard. Windows only should work fine.

 

C++ is perfect. That is what the Lumberyard engine is written in.

 

Apache is a good license too. For this application, I suspect the license will be a formality anyway. You might want to express in the readme that we will not be providing the granny2.dll and that users will need to have their own copy of the dll. Redistributing the granny dll could get you in big trouble, but aside from that you should be golden.

[FreshLook]

Yeah, I forgot about the dependency on the granny dll. We might be able to load the dll on linux using Mono, but that might be going overboard. Windows only should work fine.

 

C++ is perfect. That is what the Lumberyard engine is written in.

 

Apache is a good license too. For this application, I suspect the license will be a formality anyway. You might want to express in the readme that we will not be providing the granny2.dll and that users will need to have their own copy of the dll. Redistributing the granny dll could get you in big trouble, but aside from that you should be golden.

• I will not redistribute granny2.dll. If the user has NWN2 installed, the tool can load the one coming with it.
• Do you have some requirements about C++? RTTI and/or exception disabled? preferred naming convention?

[Snowmane72]

No, no requirements. Just an object oriented library with a decently documented API (code comments would be sufficient). If I see a need for any changes after you;ve posted the code, we can discuss them then.