Sorry, I am brand new to MOI and apparently I am the only one that doesn't understand how to use the Blender Importer script. Can someone please give me detailed step by step instructions...I have tried to read the documentation and searched this forum but I must be missing something. Sorry to be such a newbie and to ask a question that is probably very apparent to most but I would really like to use the renderer in Blender to present my work. Thanks.

Would not an Blender Importer script be to import from Blender into MoI?

Would not saving (exporting) from MoI as a .obj file be the way to take things into Blender?

Have you tried to export your MoI file as an .obj file?

Can show some screen shots to do this if you can not find it in the wikii.

Brian

PS--I just see that that script you mentioned is actually related to "exporting" to Blender and somehow involved with .lwo file type? (Seems complicated) I would forget the script and just export from MoI as .obj. (Lets know)

Yes, that would seem logical to call it an exporter and that's what I thought at first too. But if you look at the Resources page on the MOI site and go to section 2.5 you will see the Blender Import Script - it starts out like this:

Anthony D'Agostino wrote a custom blender .lwo import script to enable exporting data from MoI to Blender while preserving the accurate vertex normals to get high quality smooth shading

This script seems to be the best way of exporting to Blender...I just don't understand how to set it up and use it! LOL

I beleive the script is more custom to what Blender wants.

"Anthony D'Agostino wrote a custom blender .lwo import script to enable exporting data from MoI to Blender while preserving the accurate vertex normals to get high quality smooth shading, Getting the accurate normals makes a significant difference in increasing render quality, it eliminates small shading glitches that happen when the shading normals are created just from averaging adjacent polygons."

You can read and see why here:

http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=979.1

Just curious.
Is not the current direct LWO export capability and settings in MoI much the same?
In fact much the same as the dropdown I use for saving as .obj ?(attached)

Is that Blender script option outdated by the current saving capability in MoI?
Brian

Hi mharr, it looks like there are some instructions for how to install a script in Blender on this page here: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Extending_Blender


So I think that you are supposed to copy the import_moi.py file to that \scripts sub-folder, then it is supposed to show up as an option when you do a file import inside of Blender.

Does that seem to work?

- Michael

Hi Brian,

> Is that Blender script option outdated by the current saving capability in MoI?

I don't think so - that script is to help Blender read the data in more easily, including the shading data.

MoI's OBJ exporter also writes that shading data as well, but I guess the OBJ importer on the Blender side was not very good about reading that shading data in, I think that's why Anthony wrote that importer to get a better import into Blender.

It is possible that Blender's OBJ importer has been updated since then to work better, I don't really know about that specifically though.

None of this part has much to do with MoI's saving capability - it is about Blender's importing capability. After all, it takes 2 pieces of code to make a successful data transfer, first the code for the export from MoI and then second the code for the import into the other application. It doesn't really matter if MoI's export is perfect if the second step (the importer in the other application) does not support certain things...

- Michael

P.S. - when using this Blender import script, make sure to uncheck the "Weld vertices along edges" option in the Meshing options (click the little arrow in the lower-left corner to expand the dialog), the script needs unwelded points to be able to get the good shading data.

Thanks Michael
This shows the difference in the basic import structure from MoI into--well ---Carrara!
For end shading results, in Carrara, I can not pick any difference.

As you say, various apps have varying import capabilities---It makes me so very, very cross!
(Is Lightwave,latest version, capable of doing just "normal" import of .obj files yet?)

Brian

Hi Brian,

> For end shading results, in Carrara, I can not pick any difference.

You'd probably be more likely to see a difference on things that had some tightly curved areas next to larger flat areas - like filleted areas. Those are the kinds of places where the "just average neighboring faces" type smoothing calculation does not work so well compared to getting the accurate smoothing information.

Also you may not be able to see the shading problems until you use a reflective or highly specular type object material.


> (Is Lightwave,latest version, capable of doing just "normal"
> import of .obj files yet?)

Yes, I've heard that there has been some progress on supporting reading in the "vertex normals" smoothing data in LightWave when doing OBJ imports now.

But I've also heard that there are still some bugs to work out, something about them coming in reversed or something like that, it didn't sound like it was quite all worked out yet but at least it has been going forward.

- Michael

Export your object/s from MOI as .lwo and then use the import script to bring the objects into Blender.

Load the script into Blenders text window an press Alt & P to open a file import window to navigate to your saved object on your hard drive.

If you have saved the import script into Blenders scripts folder then you can also load the file using a Python Script window from Blenders window buttons menu.

Finally. Don,t be tempted to "Remove Doubles" in "Edit Mode". It will mess up the normals with bad results for render.

Hope this helps......

Happy Blending!

Thank you to everyone for these answers. I thought the script went into MOI somehow! lol... I will now be able to use it correctly! Appreciate the help.