How I wrote the fastest Blender exporter and so could you!
7 days ago
- #Game Development
- #Exporter
- #Blender
- The article details the process of creating a fast Blender exporter for real-time editing in a game engine.
- The author emphasizes the importance of quality development tools and fast iteration cycles for game development.
- Blender is chosen over other 3D authoring tools due to its open-source nature, performance, and familiarity among artists.
- The article is divided into two parts: advantages of using Blender as a level editor and a step-by-step guide to creating the exporter.
- The exporter allows for real-time updates in the game engine as changes are made in Blender.
- The author highlights the benefits of repurposing Blender as a level editor, including familiarity and existing learning resources.
- The technical section covers compiling Blender, setting up a debugger, and writing the exporter code.
- Key steps include iterating over objects and materials, processing mesh data, and optimizing the export process.
- The article provides code snippets for retrieving mesh data, UVs, tangents, and custom properties.
- Optimization strategies include custom memory allocation, lockless multithreading, and minimizing Blender API interactions.
- The author shares the exporter source code to help others implement similar solutions.
- The article concludes with the importance of sharing knowledge and community support.