Examples of Blender in Simulation

Artwork Finished Projects
1

Hi, Have mostly posted python scripts so thaught Id put some work up that was on display at IITSEC,
heres an example 3d modeling work for MetaVR using Blender with my own exporter.

http://www.metavr.com/casestudies/baghdadviews.html
http://www.metavr.com/casestudies/ftwainwright.html
http://www.metavr.com/casestudies/ftlewis-stryker.html
Only thingnot done in Blender are vehicles.

2

I had the pleasure of seeing all this on display at IITSEC and I must say that it looks even better in motion. MetaVR, cambo, and crew put on a great display. It was nice to meet you Campbell!

I would like to know more details about how you incorporate blender into your workflow if it is possible.

How are you using your projection mapper script exactly?

Would you mind elaborating on how you organize your database structure. I think you mentioned external references between blends. How is it possible to dynamically do that?

I have started using the blight export/import script. It is very nice! I am a bit curious about how you incorporate GIS data sets into blender (DEM and GeoTexture, etc…). I do all that fun stuff in Creator.

I was having some troubles getting radiosity baking working. The trouble was witht the texture baker script. It seems pretty broken for 2.4 so I think I will wait until it is fixed or there is a better solution.

You do great work and it is very appreciated by me and the rest of the blender community. Keep it coming! I hope I can offer 1/100 of what you offer back to the community one day…

3

Really amazing work. Never seen such scene… I hate to pick just a detail, but your trees look really great (L-System, arbaro?).

Arnaud

4

Great work - and its awesome to see “off the shelf” technology helping the military!

:thumbs:

5

I think lucidmonkey is in love…hehe

Awesome!!! I want to do that!

6

cambo’s scripts are worthy of envy… they make me want to dig into python, especially with all the wiki examples making life simple!

Too many questions cambo? I think I could answer them all myself, just wondering if you had any extra insight. The modeling time listed for those areas is almost unbelievable, 26hrs for Bagdad! I want to know the secrets to being so fast!

The projection mapper from camera plugin is cool but I don’t see how it would be any faster than just using the “from window” UV calculation and fine tuning the results in the UV editor window…

I am trying to incorporate blender more and more into my daily workflow, and your ideas and scripts are helping me make this happen.

7

lucidMonkey: first, you asked it all, and then, said it all…

8

Hey lucidMonkey, was great to meet you too. Had a look at Kongsberg, you do some great stuff, impressed with the simulation side of things too.

Im requesting OpenFlight I/O be in the blender source tree.

  • Trees are low poly made from photos… some need improving.

Heres some photos from IITSEC.
http://www.metavr.com/iitsec2005.html

9

  • using the projection mapper to project tilable textures onto buildings, can speed up the workflow a lot because you dont have to UVMap all the time.

  • You can use linked libraries, a blend file can link to another blend file. however, the database is arranged into Scenes. 1 for the trees, 1 for the roads. another for the buildings. this only needs to be done on realy large scenes.
    Then there is a parent/child hierarchy, so Lods can be grouped. the hierarchy can be as deep as you like but I useualy keek it 2 or 3 levles at most.
    for Xrefs withing my exporter- Mesh objects can be tagged as xrefs, then the are exported as a single file and referenced by name only everywhere else.

  • We have out own database tool- world perfect, I import files from that- they are uv mapped tiles. cutout from the realy big database. as long as I only modift in the middle and keep the edges the same. the 3d model from blender drops seamlesly in.

  • Dont know about the texture baker, its probably broken, submit a bug report. - Radio baking works ok, but very complex and not easy to understand. the same settings can do totaly different stuff depending on the scene.

  • As for offering stuff back (Ill hold you to that :slight_smile: ) - hah.
    You could help a lot in testing blender openflight I/O.

  • Hope this helps.
    Cam/Ideasman42
10

I´m sorry if my comment is not so welcome, but it´s a pittya that such great efforts are war-related.

It would be very very nice to see your work in happy ending stuff.

11

I agree, wouldent it be great if all the effort and money could be put into education or helping 3rd world countries get it together. and make a significant difference.

Its not my area to make comments like this (Just a 3d modeler)- However well trained troops make less mistakes, and cause less harm to innocent people, then poorly trained troops.
Sadly, war is going to happen from time to time (…whole topic in that comment), Id rather they be better trained.

…so at very least… maybe my scripts could be used by people who make happy ending stuff. - And thats somthing positive.

  • Cam
12

Cambo your importer/exporter has partially solved an art pipeline problem we were having at my work. In the modeling sim industry I continually run into openflight files, but it’s required that we edit them in 3ds max. This proves to be a pain to convert and unfortunately with polytrans we lose the DOF nodes.

Blender is starting to look like a better alternative (and better price) so I have a quick question.

Does the exporter/importer you wrote handle articulated parts? If not do you think it would be a simple addition?

I would love for blender to handle our art pipeline.

Thanks for any advice/help you can offer!

Cheers!

13

Great work, Campbell!
I got very interested in the MetaVR toolkit.