BAT4Blender

[memo 1,439]

BAT4Blender is a project that aims to implement a toolchain for creating BATs with Blender. The intention is to provide an indepentent alternative to using GMAX/B.A.T. or 3DSMax/BAT4Max to avoid the drawbacks of those programs.

Some time ago, @vortext did an incredible job at implementing an initial version of BAT4Blender (original development thread at SC4D). Picking up where he stopped, I've recently started to implement a number of missing features so that creating BATs with Blender is now technically possible.

Download: https://github.com/memo33/BAT4Blender

 

 

I've tested this with Blender 3.6 (edit: and Blender 4.2+) and the Cycles renderer. For lack of actual models, I've only rendered very simple objects.

The main thing that's missing is lighting: a pre-calibrated set of lights to match the in-game colors for day and night (and darknite). As I'm not an experienced BATter, this is very hard for me to do on my own, so I'd appreciate some guidance here. (What are suitable light settings? How should night lights be handled?) (Edit: Lighting is now implemented. Thanks to @ACEfanatic02 for deriving suitable settings.)

One of the more complex things I've implemented is the slicing of LODs and rendered images if they are larger than 256×256 pixels. This now allows to export arbitrarily large models, which was one of the main roadblocks. The LODs are exported as Wavefront .obj files which can be converted to S3D using fshgen, for instance (as described in Readme).

Moreover, I've made some corrections to the computation of the orthographic scale of the camera settings. To verify this, I've applied a custom texture to an exported object. For each zoom, this displays each individual pixel without any irregularities, which shows that the scaling is now correct.

(Edit: Tagging some people who might be interested in this topic: @IDS2 @Panda @Fantozzi @Jasoncw @rivit)

[JulioC 2,580]

This sounds amazing! I hope you guys are able to solve the lighting problem, because BAT4Blender seems like a very good alternative to those who can't use 3DSMax and don't really like gmax old interface and mechanics.

I use SketchUp to model my creations, so if Blender becomes a viable option I'll problably start to use it as my main program!

[Gemeentekaart 72]

I REALLY WAIT FOR THIS, please make this happen 

GOD, waking up to this news already made my whole day

[TogaMasterJohn 701]

As someone who has been tinkering with making things with GMAX and B.A.T. for a while now, this may finally be the push I need to actually start learning how to use Blender! 

Excellent work! I look forward to seeing more updates, as these recent developments are truly an amazing feat!

[Dutchdragon 74]

Such exciting times for SimCity modding and BATing. Awesome work!

[Interstate80 1]

This would make it way better for creating BAT models since Blender has way better tools than GMAX.

[Ct1999 4,198]

Oh my. That is a big deal. I really like the render engine on blender. If this thing come ture. It will be awesome.

[Barroco Hispano 26,671]

Excellent work!

I installed the plugin and it seems to work fine. I'm not a Blender expert (I mainly use it to import/export certain formats and paint weights) but I'm going to try to find information on forums to learn how to use the "sun and sky" and try to make it look the same as BAT4MAX. Btw, I can also share 3d models in case you need to do some testing. 

Day

 

I don't know if it helps, but bat4max uses this sky color for maxisnite and darknite

Maxisnite

Darknite

 

[memo 1,439]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. It's encouraging to see so much interest in this topic.

I've made some more progress. There's now a LOD for each zoom level, named LOD1 to LOD5 for consistency with the existing tools. This allows to create LODs with varying level of detail. Unlike GMAX, this allows to set custom LODs for zoom levels 1 and 2 as well, for maximum control. For example, this is useful for diagonal buildings where an orthogonal box wouldn't work too well as LOD.

Additionally, I've added an optional post-processing step to call fshgen after rendering. This automatically creates an SC4Model file from the exported model and image files. Calling the external tool from within Blender has the advantage that this allows to pass the correct list of intermediate files, but it could be done manually or using other tools as well.

Here's the current UI:

Regarding night lights: From what I've read, GMAX identifies an object as night light if its name starts with 'nitelite'. With Blender, I wonder if organizing the night view in a separate View Layer, or a Collection maybe, might be the more natural workflow. This would allow not only to add lights to the night view, but also to remove or replace selected other objects.

On 8/2/2024 at 10:07 PM, Barroco Hispano said:

I'm not a Blender expert (I mainly use it to import/export certain formats and paint weights) but I'm going to try to find information on forums to learn how to use the "sun and sky" and try to make it look the same as BAT4MAX. Btw, I can also share 3d models in case you need to do some testing. 

That would be awesome, thanks. From what I've learned so far, there's a Dynamic Sky Add-On that comes with Blender. It might be overkill for our purposes though and seems to add quite a bit to the rendering times.

Having one or two 3d models suitable for testing, especially with night lights, would definitely come in handy.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

In Gmax they did that stuff with the nitelites because the day and night were exported together, so they needed to be able to automatically change from night to day during the export.

The BAT4Max workflow is doing the day export, and then manually changing things in the scene for night (so pressing the button to set the night lighting rig, and selecting the different lights and materials in the scene to turn them on), and then doing the night export.

Manually switching between day and night gives the BATer more control, because the BATer can very straightforwardly make any changes they'd like between night and day. Having a system which does this automatically would just force the BATer to follow the system, when switching between night and day manually only takes a minute or so.

 

Something that actually would increase convenience for BATers would be automating the MaxisNite and DarkNite versions a little bit. Right now, the .SC4Model file is made in Gmax. Then you export the day version in 3ds Max. Then you copy and paste the .SC4Model file to somewhere outside of the plugins folder (so that there are two copies of the .SC4Model file with the day .FSH, but only one inside the plugins folder). Then you do either the MaxisNite or DarkNite export. Then rename the .SC4Model file in the plugins folder to indicate which version it is, and then swap it out for the other .SC4Model, to do the other version.

It would be nice if doing the day export automatically made two copies of the .SC4Model file (with the same IDs), one with MN and one with DN in the filename. And then some kind of option within blender to allow you to choose which .SC4Model file to insert the nitelites into when exporting the night versions.

 

For the lighting rigs, I'll look into that again. I just need a free space of time when I can download everything and reorient myself to it, since it was 5 years ago that I last worked on it.

[atsf189 460]

@memo I can not get this to install in blender-3.6.14-windows-x64  or   blender-4.2.0-windows-x64.

4.2 does not even see the .zip

3.6  sees the .zip and says it is installed but it is not there.

[memo 1,439]

I implemented a few more things last week. The main addition is that BAT4Blender now shows the rendering progess in the UI while rendering, not only in the system console, and doesn't freeze the UI anymore. This ended up being a lot more complicated to implement than expected, but it makes the plugin more user-friendly now.

This means only really lighting and nightlights are missing from the Add-on. Before continuing to implement this, I'd hope to get feedback from Barroco Hispano, Jasoncw or anyone else regarding suitable settings, as the implementation would directly depend on that. However, even without any additional implementation changes, the plugin is usable already in the sense that anyone can fine-tune the lighting settings to their liking and export day and night views separately.

On 8/15/2024 at 6:50 PM, atsf189 said:

I can not get this to install in blender-3.6.14-windows-x64  or   blender-4.2.0-windows-x64.

4.2 does not even see the .zip

3.6  sees the .zip and says it is installed but it is not there.

At this point, the Add-on is not compatible with Blender 4+ yet, as there are some breaking API changes. Blender 3.6 should work though.

There might be a problem with the .zip file you created. I've attached a proper .zip file to this post, which includes all changes up until now. After installing it, make sure to also enable it by ticking the checkbox. If correctly installed, the Add-on will log "Registering addon BAT4Blender" to the system console whenever Blender is started and the Add-on is enabled. Also monitor the system console for potential errors and post them here if you cannot resolve them.

 

BAT4Blender-0.0.4-9968cf5.zip

 

  Edited November 20, 2024 by memo  
updated zip file for Blender 4.2+

[atsf189 460]

5 hours ago, memo said:

There might be a problem with the .zip file you created.

Thank you

I will give it a try Saturday when I get home.

[atsf189 460]

On 8/15/2024 at 1:34 PM, memo said:

Blender 3.6 should work though.

I did get the zip installed and managed to render a model.

Blender needs to be run as administrator or it will throw errors during rendering.

I know very little about Blender. I have been using it for 2 days and i am very confused. Is there a SC4 tutorial?

It rendered the files in .png and .obj

What I really would like to do is make a true 3d model to use in the game but I am not shure how to export that from blender and get in the game.

I wanted a true 3d file to make 45 degree props with model tweeker

[Eggman121 1,035]

1 hour ago, atsf189 said:

I wanted a true 3d file to make 45 degree props with model tweeker

It is possible to export true 3d models from Blender 3.6

You have to select the .3ds Import/Export option in the preferences tab.

Then import into reader with the .3ds file.

Note:  If the model uses Default XYZ orientations, The export orientation should be Z-Forward, Y-Up. The default orientation will result in the model being exported on its side.

-eggman121

[atsf189 460]

27 minutes ago, Eggman121 said:

Then import into reader with the .3ds file

I get an error when i import the .3ds

The entry is invalid (you have to refresh your list)

[rsc204 21,806]

How complex is your model?, True3D models in SC4 have some very strict limits in terms of Poly counts, something like 500 although it is per group, so can be worked around.

Also, you might want to consider whether True3D is the right solution for Props. You can just render a 45 degree version of a regular BAT and achieve the same thing. Could be a better approach, but it all depends on what you want these models to do in game. 

[atsf189 460]

Why is batforblender exporting this file type?  What and how do i convert to s3d?

5ad0e817_aebe8606_00030000.obj

The ping file i understand and i do know how to convert it to fish

 

[Barroco Hispano 26,671]

I followed this tutorial but didn't get good results. This is going to be more complicated than I thought.

To be honest, lighting is not one of my strong suits. 

 

[memo 1,439]

On 8/18/2024 at 5:14 PM, atsf189 said:

Why is batforblender exporting this file type?  What and how do i convert to s3d?

5ad0e817_aebe8606_00030000.obj

The models (namely the 20 LODs) are exported as .obj files – a common file format for 3D models. The textures that the game applies to those LODs are exported as .png files.

The simplest way to convert them for use in the game is to tick the check box "Post-processing", which then creates an .SC4Model file after rendering finishes, as explained earlier in this thread. For this, the tool "fshgen" needs to be present. The .SC4Model file consists of S3D and FSH files, which are just the converted .obj and .png files you saw. This conversion can also be done manually if necessary, as explained in the Readme for example, but it's easier to just tick the checkbox. The BAT4Blender UI also has some hover tooltips that may provide some information.

[atsf189 460]

I knew I had something wrong in the settings. There are so many settings in blender it makes my brain hurt.

1 hour ago, memo said:

fshgen" needs to be present.

I missed the whole fshgen tool thing.

I will install this and try the export again and see if my plane looks less pixelized. 

Do you have a blender example file (maybe of the default cube) that I could just hit export to .3ds to see if I can get it imported into reader as a true3d file.

Do to many true3d files slow the game down? 

Thank you @memo for creating all this programing to keep SC4 going and making it simpler for novices like me.

bat4blender and the sub menus are two of my favorites 

[atsf189 460]

On 8/20/2024 at 11:09 AM, memo said:

fshgen" needs to be present

I can get the fshgen tool to work great with the dos command window but

i am not shure how to install it so blender does it automatically

[memo 1,439]

3 hours ago, atsf189 said:

i am not shure how to install it so blender does it automatically

Currently, it's mainly explained in the Add-on preferences, which is also visible as a tooltip. More info should be added to the Readme at some point.

As I haven't tested this on your platform, there could be other things going wrong, so let me repeat this point: "Monitor the system console for potential errors and post them here if you cannot resolve them."

This would also apply to your run-as-administrator problem.

The more complete information you provide for a problem, the more likely it is to get resolved.

On 8/20/2024 at 8:55 PM, atsf189 said:

Do you have a blender example file (maybe of the default cube) that I could just hit export to .3ds to see if I can get it imported into reader as a true3d file.

The default cube works, but you may want to scale it up a bit – to 16 m or 32 m, for example. You may also need to assign materials in Blender or Reader. You can also export any S3D file as .3ds in Reader and re-import it.

On 8/20/2024 at 8:55 PM, atsf189 said:

Do to many true3d files slow the game down? 

Yes, every asset you load into the game does, to varying extents. A typical simple BAT consists of 6 polygons. A true 3d model is easily 2 orders of magnitude more.

Regardless of that, choose what's most appropriate for your use case. BATs have much much better rendering quality than true 3d models, but can only be rotated by 90 degree.

True 3d models are required for Automata (as they rotate by arbitrary angles), for network models (as they conform to the ground), some animations (if not sprite-based) and not much else. So if your plane is supposed to fly around the map, make it true 3d – if it's stationary, render it as a BAT.

[atsf189 460]

1 minute ago, memo said:

may want to scale it up a bit

This is my main problem.

I have tried everything to scale the model up and it stays the same size in the render. super tiny in the game perfect for a radio controlled plane

[atsf189 460]

@memo

Sorry to keep bothering you. I am getting better at blender though thanks to you. I made 3 more plane versions in way less time.

The DOS commands, I have been using this one

fshgen import -o output.dat --with-BAT-models --format Dxt1 --gid 0x3E5ED4DD 5*.obj 7*.png

Is there something that i could add to this line that would change the IId also?

[atsf189 460]

19 hours ago, memo said:

I haven't tested this on your platform

This is working great on win 11

Is there a way to change where the file is saved.

How would i change the IId with this method?

Do I even need to worry about this? Is it better to use 00030000 as a start for all model files?

[rsc204 21,806]

BATs are made unique via the Group ID, the Instance ID should be left well alone. I assume that BAT for Blender is handling this. Although usually you have to start a new project to generate a unique ID. 

[memo 1,439]

On 8/23/2024 at 3:29 PM, atsf189 said:

This is working great on win 11

Is there a way to change where the file is saved.

How would i change the IId with this method?

Do I even need to worry about this? Is it better to use 00030000 as a start for all model files?

I've updated the zip file I posted previously. This fixes a bug where the .SC4Model file, generated by the "Post-Processing" step, was saved in the wrong directory. It's now saved in the directory containing the .blend file, just like all the other files. This should solve most permission issues for non-administrators.

I can only reiterate though, please monitor the system console for any errors.

The IID can be changed manually in Reader – there's no automated way to do this at this point. While the Maxis buildings all have different IIDs, this is rather uncommon for custom BATs, as each BAT usually uses a unique Group ID. (If there had been a convention of using the same Group ID for all buildings in a set, this would have opened some doors for creating submenus, but unfortunately that's not the case.)

[Panda 209]

@memo This is very exciting! I'll have to test it out.

[atsf189 460]

If you get a file import error in reader when importing a s3d file it could be from naming your LODs.

I have discovered that you can only use letters and numbers in the names and no spaces or reader will give you

a file exception error