janentikan/blend2bam

A CLI tool to convert Blender blend files to Panda3D BAM files

blend2bam

blend2bam is a CLI tool to convert Blender blend files to Panda3D BAM files. It also supplies a Python file loader to add "native" blend file support to Panda3D.

Installation

Use pip to install the panda3d-blend2bam package:

pip install panda3d-blend2bam

blend2bam also requires that Blender is installed. Ideally blender is available on the system PATH. However, if it's not, the directory containing blender can be specified with --blender-dir (see CLI usage).

Usage

CLI

usage: blend2bam [-h] [--version] [-m {legacy,pbr}] [--physics-engine {builtin,bullet}] [--srcdir SRCDIR]
                 [--blender-dir BLENDER_DIR] [--append-ext] [--pipeline {gltf,egg}]
                 [--no-srgb] [--textures {ref,copy,embed}]
                 src [src ...] dst

CLI tool to convert Blender blend files to Panda3D BAM files

positional arguments:
  src                   source path
  dst                   destination path

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -m {legacy,pbr}, --material-mode {legacy,pbr}
                        control how materials are exported
  --physics-engine {builtin,bullet}
                        the physics engine to build collision solids for
  --srcdir SRCDIR       a common source directory to use when specifying multiple source files
  --blender-dir BLENDER_DIR
                        directory that contains the blender binary
  --blender-bin BLENDER_BIN
                        name of the blender binary to use
  --append-ext          append extension on the destination instead of replacing it (batch mode only)
  --pipeline {gltf,egg}
                        the backend pipeline used to convert files
  --no-srgb             do not load textures as sRGB textures (only for glTF pipelines)
  --textures {ref,copy,embed}
                        how to handle external textures
  --animations {embed,separate,skip}
                        how to handle animation data

Python File Loader

blend2bam also supports Panda3D's Python file loader API (requires Panda3D 1.10.4+) to seamlessly adds blend file support to Panda3D's Loader classes. This does not add support to pview, which is a C++ application that does not support Python file loaders.

Pipelines

blend2bam has support for multiple backend "pipelines." Currently, gltf and egg are supported. For Blender 2.7x, gltf uses blendergltf and panda3d-gltf while egg uses YABEE and egg2bam from the Panda3d SDK. For Blender 2.80+ (including 2.90+), only gltf is supported and uses the glTF exporter built into Blender 2.80+ instead of blendergltf. The below table hightlights some of the differences.

Feature	glTF (2.7x)	EGG (2.7x)	glTF (2.8+)
Static Meshes	✔️	✔️	✔️
Textures	✔️	✔️	✔️
Multiple Diffuse Textures	❌	✔️	❌
Legacy Materials	✔️	✔️	✔️2
PBR Materials	✔️	❌	✔️
Lights	✔️	❌	✔️
Skinned Meshes	✔️	✔️	✔️
Skeletal Animations	✔️	✔️	✔️
Shape Keys	❌	✔️	✔️
Shape Key Animations	❌	✔️	✔️1
Object Animations	❌	❌	❌
CollisionSolids	✔️	✔️	✔️
Bullet Shapes	✔️	❌	✔️
Tags from Game Properties	✔️	✔️	❌
Tags from Custom Properties	✔️	❌	✔️
Convert Particle Systems to Meshes	✔️	❌	✔️
Separate Animation Files	✔️	❌3	✔️

¹ Shape key animations require Panda3D 1.10.6.

² Only supports diffuse color (factor and map pulled from base color) and normal maps. Requires panda3d-gltf >= 0.9.

³ Supported by EGG, but not implemented in blend2bam

Conversion Guides

The following conversion guides describe how Blender data gets converted to Panda3D data for the various pipelines blend2bam supports:

• glTF for Blender 2.80+
• glTF for Blender 2.79
• EGG for Blender 2.79

License

MIT