[1.2-1.7] Blender (2.83+) .mu import/export addon

[taniwha]

I have pushed support for exporting animations. Only the basics (loc/rot/scale) for now. Only one animation block is exported, but multiple clips within that block are supported.

[amankd]

i can not find my blender addos folder and adding them through user preferenceds has no visable effect hw do i add it?

[taniwha]

amankd: For generic blender questions like this, you're best off asking in the blender community (#blender on irc.freenode.net or the blender forums). My addons folder is in ~/.config/blender/2.73/scripts/addons, but that's Linux specific, and I have no clue about windows or mac.

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

I know, huge bump, but I'm having a problem. If I import a part, make a change to it, and export it back, it appears all messed up and sideways in the game. Can anyone help?

[taniwha]

ThatGuyWithALongUsername: what sort of change did you make? It sounds like a coordinate system issue which implies to me that you did some reparenting. If that is the case, be sure to clear the parent inverse transform (alt-p) and reposition and reorient the relevant parts. Also, make sure you have the root transform selected when you export.

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

All I did was delete some vectors... Don't ask why. It's not ready yet.

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Never mind, I got it to work.

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Okay, now the collision mesh is showing up in-game. How do I fix that?

[taniwha]

It sounds like you deleted the object, added a new one, then used the old mesh (wild guess, but doesn't really matter how you would up with it).

You have to create the collision mesh as a collider. The current git has a nice tool for creating a collision mesh from the visible mesh (be sure to make the collision mesh actually convex if necessary): in the tool panel (T) you'll find a "Mu Collider" tab. The "Selected Meshes" button will add collision mesh objects that share the mesh data from the selected objects and parent the new collision mesh objects to the relevant vis meshes.

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

Thanks , I'll try it out when I get the chance. Obviously I'm new to this kind of stuff.

[Interplanetary Engineer]

Wow, this will be helpful! You are a pure genius. Downloading Unity would take me 2 hours, this only took 2 sconds! Now I only have to get this working somehow...

EDIT: Works now! Cool!

Edited July 1, 2015 by Interplanetary Engineer

[MerlinsMaster]

Hey taniwha, I just added this addon to Blender, but I'm not getting a KSP mu import or export option.

I downloaded the zip from github, extracted it, and put the folder into Blender/2.75/scripts/addons, and restarted Blender. Did I do something incorrectly?

[taniwha]

MerlinsMaster: no, you just missed a step (the final one): you need to enable the addon in the user preferences panel.

[MerlinsMaster]

MerlinsMaster: no, you just missed a step (the final one): you need to enable the addon in the user preferences panel.

Awesome. It works now. Thanks, man.

[Ruedii]

Thank you very much. This will be invaluable if I get into modding.

Could you rig it up to convert the unity attributes to Miscellaneous EXIF tags (or RDF tags in XML formats) and visa versa in order to preserve them through editing, even across saves?

Could you make a function for GIMP to export pre-compressed DDS files using AMD's utilities as well?

Edited July 11, 2015 by Ruedii
clarification of XML formats and tags.

[taniwha]

Ruedii: I don't know how to do any of that, but I do accept pull requests (if not from you, then from someone you can convince to do the work).

[TMasterson5]

Okay so I have this downloaded and enabled into blender but when I go to use it to open something it doesn't even recognize .mu files in my KSP game data directory. Any ideas?

[taniwha]

You are using File->Import->KSP Mu (.mu) right?

[TMasterson5]

You are using File->Import->KSP Mu (.mu) right?

I wasn't and that fixed it. Thanks!

[Qigon]

I had been consistently trying and failing to create simple parts with blender. I didn't have any experience in modeling at all, and initially followed http://www.alternatewars.com/Games/KSP/Tut1/KSP_Tutorial_1-2.htm and then read through more than half this forum 's posts.

Do I absolutely need to install unity for creating a simple 1x1x1 cube with crappy .png texture created in gimp?

I created the cube, and created and saw it properly textured. Then I created a collider mesh with this plugin, both the box and others (can't remember the names, the only one I didn't try was the wheel). Then I tried calling the collided with different names according to the tutorial mentioned above and also the name/structure I tried to mimic from a couple remote tech/mks parts that I imported. That means in some cases everything was under a single root node, and on others they would be side by side.

I'd usually start from scratch, just in case.

Last step was selecting the root node, exporting the .Mu file, and copying it along its .Png and .CFg file into a new folder.

The best I could get from all of those combinations (god forgive me if I skipped the right one, because I tried to slowly cover most of them) was seeing an ugly gray cube with a node that allowed it to be attached in the vab, but couldn't be grabbed / removed. And i swear I really tried that.

In one occasion I guess I saw textures, I'm not sure if I did it and I couldn't do it again. I suppose that both means my collider is broken and my texture is broken. Also when I tried using more solids they would be out of place, but usually the right size/dimension or rotated - but not always right at all. I guess I can manage that, but the collider and textures are driving me crazy.

edit: according to linux #file, this is the .png I've been trying lately - "lcrd.png: PNG image data, 1024 x 1024, 8-bit/color RGBA, non-interlaced"

I'm not sure, but I think that I was still trying with .dae models when I saw textures. Is it possible to still use .dae files?

Edited September 1, 2015 by Qigon

[taniwha]

Qigon: you have to set the shader and texture name(s) in the Mu Material custom property panel. Yes, setting up textures on a new model is a RPITA.

[KerbOrbiter]

Guys, need help. When I importing model from .mu to Blender, all mesh vertexes going doubled; when I use "Remove doubles" utility, my UV map screws up What can I do? (sorry for bad English, I'm not native English speaker)

[taniwha]

KerbOrbiter: this is to be expected. The only way to get sharp edges with unity is to double the vertices along the edge so the faces are actually separate, otherwise the surface normals are interpolated across the edge, and the edge is smoothed out. It is also the only way to have separate lslands in your UV map.

The thing to do is to avoid importing your model from .mu as much as possible: do all your work in blender, saving to .blend, then export to .mu when you want to use the model in KSP.

[KerbOrbiter]

So, it is normal? Because I just want to cut the doors on Mk2 Cargobay and save it as another part.

[taniwha]

KerbOrbiter: Yes, it is normal. Thus, it is best to not worry about it when modifying models in that way.

[Wuwuk]

Hello.

I import .mu file (ship part) in a blender, change it (just change geometry)

and exported it back to .mu file.

It can be added to the VAB, but it becomes inactive

and it can no longer do anything.

Even if you do not change the file, and it just

exported back to .mu file,

it still becomes inactive in the VAB.

How correctly export to .mu?

What am i doing wrong?

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One more question,

If I change the part of the ship,

adding to it a single mesh (a small ledge on the body).

How correctly add it (mesh),

what would it be seen in the KSP?

[taniwha]

Wuwuk; when you export your model, make sure you have the root object selected (always an empty, often called GameObject in stock models). ie, when you grab the one object, all other objects of the model move with it.

When adding meshes, ensure they are parented to the root object, or some other object already in the hierarchy. For best results, clear the parent inverse transform (alt-p, clear parent inverse transform). You may need to reposition and reorient your new mesh.

Also, what part is giving you problems? Not all animations are supported yet, only location, rotation and scaling right now.