Workflow/Feature Questions

#1

Hi! I used Qubicle several years ago on my game: CastleBreakers

I have some questions regarding the latest functionality. I’ll explain some of the specific workflow and features I am looking for, and if anyone can jump in and tell me if Qubicle supports it, that would be great…

Import:
1.) Is it possible import animated 3D models and voxelize the frames automatically?
2.) If not, and frames must be imported as independent 3D models, do settings persist from import to import? Can this process be automated?
3.) Are imported models autocentered, or do they maintain their original offsets from the source file? (This is super important)
4.) Is there a way to set voxels to real world units? (for example, 10cm = 1 voxel) (This is also super important)

Export
5.) Are voxels exported as separate boxes?
6.) Are interior voxels culled, leaving a polygonal shell?
7.) Are faces optimized, or is it possible to maintain quads? How does it do with shared edges and T Intersections?
8.) How is UV mapping handled?

Thanks!

#2

Hey, I have been using qubicle for a bit and I think I might be able to answer at least some questions for you.

  1. I don’t think this is possible. I have not seen a way to do this. I have used mostly .obj for imports.
  2. You always get the same sized box when you use the voxelizer. Don’t think there is a way this can be automated. The voxelizer height, width and length are the 3 fields that you use to adjust the size of your imported item so you would most likely just have to use the same 3 values for every import.
  3. I’ve always noticed mine are auto centered but my objects are always pretty close to origin when I bring them out of blender.
  4. The last time I checked there was a setting but I have not seen it in quite a while. When I imported my player models into unity I noticed they were all around 1 unity unit tall. I adjusted the import settings so they were 1.6 units tall in Unity. Obviously, if you are not using unity you may need to handle it differently.

5 and 6) Voxels are exported as meshes. with all non-visible faces in a volume culled. Prior to exporting I always make sure my models are solid and then do a fill on them. If I didnt do that the inside voxel faces would still technically be visible and not culled.
7)You can choose to optimize or not. There are 3 options. No optimization, manifold(watertight) and non-manifold
8) If you choose non-optimized you’ll get a texture that is just a series of pixels for the colors you’ve used. I find that option awesome for character models because I can use some code to change the colors of the character’s clothing on the fly by rebuilding a fairly small texture. UV mapping on optimized objects is pretty ugly.
As an example I have this set of models:

I exported and this is the resulting texture:

My ideal workflow is to build my models from scratch in qubicle or import ones from another project and make changes and then take them into blender to rig and import into the game engine.

#3

Thanks a lot for the info.

The auto centering and Voxel volume sound like they might be an issue for what I am hoping to do.

Perhaps I can “frame” my animated objects in my source app with objects marking the bounds of the volume that would stay consistent.

Thanks again.

#4

Hey, is it possible to export only the pallete? you look like you have maybe 10 colors in all of that huge texture.
I want to achieve a similar setup like yours but with many more colors than the swatch and I don’t want a gigantic texture mapped, but a small texture with all scene colors from all object colors :smiley: