Question about the removed blender exporter

Markus_Incognitus · June 3, 2018, 8:43am

Hello,

I’ve seen that the blender exporter has been removed and I think this might be a mistake.
Currently the blender exporter seems to have been the only really working model exporting & loading workflow. And a really cool one btw.
The three.js JSON format also has some nice advantages. It’s really easy and straightforward to manipulate materials in JSON after exporting and so on. Materials and animations work best using this format.

Alternatives?:
GLTF: Blender GLTF exporter is far away from being usable (e.g. materials, …)
Collada: Animations are not yet fully implemented in ColladaLoader
…

I hope that the Blender Exporter gets revitalized

BR Markus

Mugen87 · June 3, 2018, 8:52am

I’m sorry to disappoint you but that won’t happen. Please read the following two threads for the whole story. You should focus on glTF since it’s by far the best available format.

If you encounter issues with the exporter, please report them at the official repo.

github.com/mrdoob/three.js

Remove Blender exporter, add 'Loading 3D models' guide.

mrdoob:dev ← donmccurdy:deprecate-blender-exporter

opened 06:34AM - 23 May 18 UTC

donmccurdy

+140 -11588

Per discussion in https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/issues/12903, this PR remov…es the Blender exporter for the three.js JSON format, to focus on improving support for other workflows. The Three.js JSON format is still fully supported for use with [Object3D.toJSON](https://threejs.org/docs/#api/core/Object3D.toJSON), the [Editor](https://threejs.org/editor/), [THREE.ObjectLoader](https://threejs.org/docs/#api/loaders/ObjectLoader), [THREE.JSONLoader](https://threejs.org/docs/#api/loaders/JSONLoader), and [converters](https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/tree/dev/utils/converters). Archived versions of the exporter are no longer maintained, but will continue to work with loaders indefinitely. I'd like to be clear about the rationale for this change — the Blender exporter has provided a viable workflow since 2010 ([initial commit](https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/commit/cb76523b31ec3bc02a0263e92884cac4c39cc5da#diff-12f78f1697220d95d13b9959fcf4df7c)) and includes contributions from many authors that have been extraordinarily valuable to the three.js library in that time. An enthusiastic _thank you!_ to all contributors. However, there are many [open issues](https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22Blender+Exporter%22+) today, and resources to maintain the exporter are limited. And unfortunately, its perceived status as the "official three.js exporter" leads many new users to try it first, even as other formats like glTF and FBX have become increasingly reliable. By encouraging developers and artists to choose the most stable workflows, results will be better for more people today. And by focusing our own maintenance efforts, 3D models on the web will get better faster in the long term. In its place, and as a starting point for new users, I've added a [Loading 3D Models](https://threejs.org/docs/#manual/introduction/Loading-3D-models) section in the documentation. The documentation recommends glTF where possible, and provides troubleshooting tips that are applicable to any format.

github.com/mrdoob/three.js

Utils: Deprecate Exporters (Blender, 3DS Max and Maya)

opened 07:18PM - 18 Dec 17 UTC

closed 03:47AM - 30 May 18 UTC

Mugen87

Suggestion

I'd like to suggest the deprecation (removal) of the [Blender, 3DS Max and Maya]…(https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/tree/dev/utils/exporters) JSON exporters for two reasons: - The exporters are not really actively maintained. There is a long list of non-trivial bugs, feature request and suggestions no one cares about (see the [Blender issue list](https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22Blender+Exporter%22+)). Because all exporters are based on different APIs (Blender, 3DS Max...) and written in different programming languages (not JavaScript), it's very hard to maintain this stuff. - The more important point is that the quality and maturity of certain loaders (e.g. `FBXLoader` and `GLTFLoader`) were greatly improved over time. In other words, it is much more likely to load `FBX` or `glTF` files with proper results. Besides, these loaders are actively maintained by project collaborators. So instead of exporting to the JSON format, users should focus on other formats like `FBX` or `glTF`. And in context of asset delivery, especially `glTF` is a much better format than (uncompressed) JSON.

donmccurdy · June 3, 2018, 1:25pm

It’s quite useable, including materials; we would not be recommending it otherwise. There are particular things you may need to do for materials to export, e.g. if you’re using Cycles Render, use the provided Cycles PBR nodes. Also note there are two glTF Blender exporters, you may get different results with one or the other. Otherwise please report issues as you find them, or models that worked with the JSON exporter but aren’t working with other options, and we’ll try to help.

titansoftime · June 3, 2018, 5:45pm

What is the best way to export a single geometry/rig with multiple animations using the current gltfloader exporter/loader?

I do not wish to deal with an entire exported scene.

This was easy to do with blender exporter.

Please advise.

Markus_Incognitus · June 3, 2018, 7:46pm

Ok, sorry, after spending some time with the Blender glTF exporter from Khronos Group, I’ve changed my mind about it as it’s working really ok. I was also able to export and load all of my models and the materials and animations are also working fine.
This workflow seems to be absolutely applicable.

BR Markus

donmccurdy · June 3, 2018, 11:43pm

You’ll need the exporter branch here. If you export with a single mesh, your mesh should come back as gltf.scene.children[0], although multi-material setups could complicate that. There is no separate format for scenes vs models as was the case with JSON, but I’m open to adjusting the loader API to make this use case easier.

@Markus_Incognitus good to hear it’s working acceptably with your models — if you do run into any issues please do let us know!

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Question about the removed blender exporter

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