File formats are not licensable.sjek wrote:Question is what kind of licence gamebryo's nif format has and is it bound to morrowind assets ?
If they were, then openoffice/libreoffice would be paying microsoft for their doc/docx formats.
Moderator: Example suite forum moderator
File formats are not licensable.sjek wrote:Question is what kind of licence gamebryo's nif format has and is it bound to morrowind assets ?
NIF isn't patented, yet. However, if that is the case:K0kt409P wrote:They are patentable though. Cfr. the mp3 situation.
Even then, reverse engineering of the NIF is still protected and exporting to NIF for use in other applications has never been problem in the past.(15) The unauthorised reproduction, translation, adaptation or transformation of the form of the code in which a copy of a computer program has been made available constitutes an infringement of the exclusive rights of the author. Nevertheless, circumstances may exist when such a reproduction of the code and translation of its form are indispensable to obtain the necessary information to achieve the interoperability of an independently created program with other programs. It has therefore to be considered that, in these limited circumstances only, performance of the acts of reproduction and translation by or on behalf of a person having a right to use a copy of the program is legitimate and compatible with fair practice and must therefore be deemed not to require the authorisation of the rightholder. An objective of this exception is to make it possible to connect all components of a computer system, including those of different manufacturers, so that they can work together. Such an exception to the author's exclusive rights may not be used in a way which prejudices the legitimate interests of the rightholder or which conflicts with a normal exploitation of the program.
I couldn't figure out how Niftools is/are supposed to work or even the proper installation location. There seems to be a shortage of documentation, or it's not readily discoverable (or I'm not good at finding it). I'll keep looking when I have some time, but it would be a big help if anybody can point me in the general right direction. So, a more direct answer to your question is that I have no idea yet.psi29a wrote: Can it all be exported to NIF to be used directly in OpenMW?
My experience with that was also a big waste of time, so I sympathize.Tinker wrote:Niftools, who are writing the Blender import/export tools is a bit of a mess, they are spread between Sourceforge and Git with lots of broken links. I found a recent import/export addon for blender which does not work in 2.73, spent most of the day in dependency hell sorting out Python libraries, at one time it looked like I needed to install a 3 year old wine version just to install a library.
I'm not a programmer by any stretch, but I know when (Mega)Glest needed to update their exporter to work with newer versions of Blender, it was a lot more than a tweak. Apparently the scripting system of Blender 2.5 and later is a whole different animal than the one from 2.49. Supposedly the development version of Niftools is aimed at modern version of Blender, but it's my understanding that it's not really functional at the moment. Blender readily exports to a number of fairly standard formats, including many that include animations. One example is the Collada format (*.dae). The game 0 A.D. uses the Collada format for its meshes and separate Collada files for its animations. This allows different human characters to use the same set of animations, much like Morrowind does. It also has different characters made up of different meshes, each defined by a Collada file, so a group of functionally-identical hoplites might have different faces and hair styles, also much like Morrowind.Tinker wrote:The old nif exporter plugin might be tweakable to run under current blender
aka. it's not indispensable to modify the files to get them working for blender so has to say that it's not possible to change the fileformat on that note + the mods that bethesda made to nif files might be under their IPcircumstances may exist when such a reproduction of the code and translation of its form are indispensable to obtain the necessary information to achieve the interoperability of an independently created program with other programs.
is it the official version as they dropped the morrowind support in some time .?I found a recent import/export addon for blender which does not work in 2.73, spent most of the day in dependency hell sorting out Python libraries, at one time it looked like I needed to install a 3 year old wine version just to install a library.
I couldn't figure out how Niftools is/are supposed to work or even the proper installation location. There seems to be a shortage of documentation, or it's not readily discoverable (or I'm not good at finding it). I'll keep looking when I have some time, but it would be a big help if anybody can point me in the general right direction. So, a more direct answer to your question is that I have no idea yet.psi29a wrote: Can it all be exported to NIF to be used directly in OpenMW?
My experience with that was also a big waste of time, so I sympathize.Tinker wrote:Niftools, who are writing the Blender import/export tools is a bit of a mess, they are spread between Sourceforge and Git with lots of broken links. I found a recent import/export addon for blender which does not work in 2.73, spent most of the day in dependency hell sorting out Python libraries, at one time it looked like I needed to install a 3 year old wine version just to install a library.
I'm not a programmer by any stretch, but I know when (Mega)Glest needed to update their exporter to work with newer versions of Blender, it was a lot more than a tweak. Apparently the scripting system of Blender 2.5 and later is a whole different animal than the one from 2.49. Supposedly the development version of Niftools is aimed at modern version of Blender, but it's my understanding that it's not really functional at the moment. Blender readily exports to a number of fairly standard formats, including many that include animations. One example is the Collada format (*.dae). The game 0 A.D. uses the Collada format for its meshes and separate Collada files for its animations. This allows different human characters to use the same set of animations, much like Morrowind does. It also has different characters made up of different meshes, each defined by a Collada file, so a group of functionally-identical hoplites might have different faces and hair styles, also much like Morrowind.Tinker wrote:The old nif exporter plugin might be tweakable to run under current blender
This or a similar route is best.Tinker wrote:The Collada route looks promising as Blender to Collada and Collada to Ogre seem to work but OpenMW would need to add support for Collada, in any case restricting OpenMW to only using the Morrowind version of nif is going to be restrictive in the long term.
http://play0ad.com/community/participate/0 A.D. supports the COLLADA format for importing new models into the game, whether static or animated. A number of 3D modeling suites support COLLADA, but only a few are used in practice and have been confirmed to work with the game:
3DS Max: commercial, professional-quality suite.
Blender: free, open source alternative. COLLADA support varies from one version to another, we recommend 2.6+ for animations.
http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/ArtDesignDocumentLike the codebase, 0 A.D’s art is also “open source”. The models and animations can be created in the software of your choice, as long as it capable of exporting COLLADA files (.DAE). Similarly, the 2D textures are exported though the paint software of your choice to a Direct Draw Surface (.DDS) file. The alpha channel of the texture is used to define player color, object color, or transparency.
The art assets are organized in XML files called ‘actors’, which define entities in the game. An actor declares callouts for models, textures, and animations, if applicable. Since you can specify alternate textures and props to an entity, you can use the 0 A.D. art model to allow for randomness in the art. That way, several instances of the same Celtic warrior could appear in battle with variant hair colors, and two adjacent instances of the same Greek house could have pots and carpets aligned differently, so they’ll seldom look exactly alike.
Templates to help you make art assets (like textures and meshes) are readily available. Also, various tutorials and guides will allow you to hit the ground running. More information about the nuts and bolts of creating art assets for 0 A.D. can be found here. Check out our open art development forum, and feel free to participate!