Exporting the Clonk

This is a note to self until I can make a more user friendly page. Just so I don't forget how to, now that I've figured it out perfectly.

This is more or less a guide on how to properly export a Clonk model or update/add to the Clonk's animations.

This is not a guide on how to make extra animations for a mod. Sadly, as modular animation structure (each animation as a separate file, ie: gamebryo) is not how OGRE format works. OGRE exports the armature and all animations into a single *.skeleton file. There's not really anything I can do about that.

For mods, it might be possible in the future to have a *.skeleton file containing some new animations and append it to the clonk somehow, like how #append-to works in script. This is totally conjecture though and is at the behest of the engine programmers (read: ck). This might become a necessary feature when OC is done and if people start making expansion packs and mods similar to CR's time.

Loading up the .blend file properly

• Make sure Randrian's Modified OGRE Exporter is installed, not the vanilla one.

• Open two explorer windows; one showing the directory of the ClonkOpenRevolution.blend file, and another showing blender 2.49's executable. Drag the clonk's .blend file onto the 2.49 exe. If 2.49 is your default blender application you probably don't have to do this, but no one really uses 2.49 anymore.

To export just the mesh

• Edit /models/Livings/clonk/Actions.txt so it only has the Walk animation (keep all groups and everything. Just remove all [Action]s after walk. This speeds up the model export significantly.

• For whichever model you are exporting, rename it's Object Name to "Clonk". (OB: "Clonk" under Editing in buttons window)

• make sure xml converter is pressed, and export

• after exporting, change Object name back to whatever it was originally. This should be exactly the same as the Mesh name (for example, ME:"clonkAlchemist" | OB:"clonkAlchemist")

• Switch back to Actions.txt, hit undo deleting the actions and save

To export the skeleton

• make sure xml converter is pressed, and export. You don't need to change the Object name of whatever clonk you're exporting because that is not saved in the *.skeleton file. Only the mesh has a pointer to the skeleton, not the other way around.

• Delete all the other exported files than the .skeleton and rename it "Clonk.skeleton". Copy & paste into the Clonk.ocd

Known bugs

• Having a 'ExportName=' will cause the exporter to not notice the defined 'Group='. This is what caused the bugs relating to the bow not blending with the bow walk/kneel/etc. anims. Don't use it if you're using a define 'Group=', or just don't use it at all. Renaming the actual animation in blender is safer.

• If you're not using an Actions.txt for your object but you have Randrian's installed this will cause problems. You can switch between them; I suggest just using Randrian's and always using an Actions.txt. Or you could just export from blender 2.6*; but 2.6* seemed to have some bug where if you played past the last 50 frames of an animation OC's engine would crash. I don't know if this is still the case.

• Quaternions suck in blender 2.49. Like, they really really really suck. Interpolating between two keyframes usually ends up doing something stupid if the angle is too much, or because 2.49 felt like having a laugh at you. You can fix this in the IPO Curve editor by randomly editing the WXYZ quat channels of a bone's transform until you get the correct rotation.