Modify i3d files, keep textures

[SimDala]

Is there a way to keep the textures when exporting objects to Blender from GE?

I can only export obj files from GE to Blender but create i3d files in Blender.

Is it possible somehow to import i3dfiles into Blender, edit them and export a new i3d file ready for GE with all textures included?

I've seen someone says that they do everything in Blender and that GE isn't really needed to create mods, but if you can't open and i3d file it's quite hard...

[Dogface]

I've seen someone says that they do everything in Blender and that GE isn't really needed to create mods, but if you can't open and i3d file it's quite hard...

This person is probably making mods from scratch. In that case most of the work can be done in Blender.

I do not believe it is possible to import i3D file.

The i3D has the textures of the object, so you can edit the object to have the same material in the i3D when you put it back.

[SimDala]

How do you practically do then? When exporting to Blender, it's an obj file (no textures supported). Then from Blender a i3d file and shapes file is created (possible to include textures). But these texture files is not compatible with the original i3d files in GE, since the 3D shape is different.

So how do you reuse the textures from the original? I'd like to avoid to edit the normal and diffuse images manually...

[Dogface]

As far as how it is practically done, let's say I export an object called "lightPost" as an obj file from GE, then I import it into Blender, I export it as an i3D, then in GE I import it back into the original i3D. Now I open the original i3D in Notepad++ and look at the material assigned to the unedited "lightPost", then I assign the same material to the edited "lightPost". Now the edited "lightPost" has the original material.

This will always preserve the textures, which was your question. But it will not always work in a practical sense. For instance, if the object is a mesh (Blender does not edit meshes), or your edits change the UVs, etc.

[SimDala]

Okay, so there needs to manually transfer the material info from original i3d to the new one. I assume it may be easier to edit the created i3d file from blender to insert the material information there and then import the new i3d part into any machine that shall have that included. But that's just a different workflow, no big deal.

But the normal, vmask, diffuse and the specular textures dds files, these not handled here? Is there a way to get this information from GE into Blender? I know that it's created when applied textures in Blender and export that as a i3d file, but I want to reuse as much info from GE as possible into Blender when changing 3D models.

[dougw133]

I know this is old but..If you export from giants editor as an .obj, it retains the UV maps..so if you alter the mesh and export it back out of blender into i3d, and apply the textures again they would like up on any original parts of the mesh. You can also apply the textures directly in blender as the UV maps are intact unless you alter them.