Configuration

When Dark Exporter is activated in Blender for the first time (see more in Installation) it checks if the configuration file dark_exporter_conf.txt is available in the C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.64a\config\scripts\dark_exporter_conf.txt folder. This path may be different on your computer (it depends on Blender installation). If this file exists the plugin reads its contents. If the file doesn't exist Dark Exporter will create it with default values.

Blender may need to have a write permission to the folder of config file. It depends on your operating system configuration.

Here are the defaults of the dark_exporter_conf.txt:

{

    "autodel": false,   

    "bsp_dir": "C:\\Thief2",

    "bsp_optimization": 3,

    "centering": true, 

    "n3ds2e_dir": "C:\\Thief2",

    "selection_only": false,

    "thief_dir": "C:\\Thief2",

    "bin_copy": true,

    "png_conversion": true,

    "jpg_conversion": true

}

After successfull activation of the plugin user needs to manually edit the file to adjust three values containing the paths:

• • bsp_dir should point at the folder where bsp.exe file is located.

  • thief_dir should point at the folder of your Thief 1/2 installation. It should be the top level folder, e.g. C:\\Thief1, not C:\\Thief1\\obj or something deeper.

  • n3ds2e_dir should point at the folder where n3ds2e.exe program is located.

Note! The path must be entered with double slashes instead of one!

Here is the list of the other options:

• • autodel - if set to true, all intermediate files E, E_ORG and 3DS will be deleted by the end of the export process.

  • selection_only - if set to true, Dark Exporter will export only selected elements of your model.

  • bin_copy - if set to true, Dark Exporter will copy the BIN file to the OBJ subfolder of the Thief installation.

  • bsp_optimization - it's set by default to 3. This value is used as a parameter of bsp.exe program. Although value 1 can produce reduced number of splits and polygons it may cause some problem with rendering your model in game mode assuming that your model has double-sided and transparent surfaces. The issue may arrise when camera doesn't face the normal vector of such surfaces. That's why I recommend to leave this value at 3.

  • centering - if set to true, Dark Exporter will pass "-o" option do BSP.exe program. It will try to center your model near its centroid. It's very usefull in case your model is not located near 0,0,0 coordinates in Blender.

  • png_conversion - if set to true, all png graphic files used as textures are renamed to gifs in E file.

  • jpg_conversion - if set to true, all jpg graphic files used as textures are renamed to pcx files in E file.

Settings stored in dark_exporter_conf.txt are used in the export window in Blender:

As you can see on the above screenshot you can see an example of the export options panel. The values may be changed directly in this window or by editing the config file. If you edit the values in Blender interface the values are remembered only for the current session. If you change the values on the file level, they become the defaults for every session.