IWTE - Settlements in Blender

WIP page for next IWTE release which will support Blender.

Tips and instructions for working with M2TW battle map buildings via IWTE and Blender 2.8

Export and Import

The .world contents are exported using .dae format which can be opened by 'Import' in Blender as standard.

.dae files can also be imported into 3dsmax but the IWTE team are not directly supporting use in max.

Heirachy System

World objects are exported as 'children' with a notional box representing the complex acting as 'parent'. To clear the view of the parent boxes in Blender, hold shift and select all the complexes in the Outliner. Hover mouse over main screen and press Ctrl I to select inverse, and Shift H to hide unselected.

World objects with multiple groups are exported with the Group0 as the parent for any subsequent groups. To create new multi-group objects follow the same procedure and make the undamaged version the parent.

World structures are not presented separately. They are reformed on import back to the .world by separating the objects that use the same texture within a complex into the separate structures.

Changing Parent Structure

To remove a group from its parent, select in main window, right click to get parent menu and 'clear parent' - you'll need to use the 'keep transform' option to avoid the group/s moving to a position relative to 0,0,0 instead of the parent's center.

To add a group/groups to a parent select the children first, and the intended parent last (holding down Ctrl to allow multi-selection) then in main window ctrl P to open parent dialogue, select "object" option.

Vertex Coloring

Vertex coloring is used to set the vertex shading that appears in-game, replacing the light/dark bone weighting bodge used in Milkshape.

To view the vertex coloring for the whole scene in Blender go to shading section and 'add' 'input' 'vertex color' box - 'add' 'color' 'MixRGB' - connect color from dds to Color1 on mix box - connect color from Vertex Color to Color2 on mix box - connect output color from mix box to the Principled BSDF box.

To view and set shading for a single group switch to plain shaded view (not textured) select object group in 'object mode' switch to 'vertex paint' mode. The vertex paint mode only works on the pre-selected object group, selecting a different object from the drop-down menu will take you back to 'object mode'. Please use greyscale for shading. Unfortunately, Blender does not provide a mode where you can change the vertex shading of more than one group at a time! This makes it difficult to set the same shading across multiple objects...

Useful Shortcuts (Blender Defaults)

• Select Inverse - Ctrl I
• Select All - A
• Select Children - Ctrl G
• Hide Unselected - Shift H
• Hide Selected - H
• Unhide All - Alt H
• Parent Dialogue - Ctrl P