Configuration

When Dark Exporter is actived 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\(my_username)\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.59\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:

{

    "selection_only": false,

    "bsp_dir": "C:\\Windows\\system32",

    "bin_copy": true,

    "debug_level": 6,

    "spec_shader": true,

    "thief_dir": "C:\\Program Files\\Thief GOLD",

    "illumination": true,

    "bsp_optimization": 3,

    "two_sided": true,

    "png_conversion": true,

    "n3ds2e_dir": "C:\\Windows\\system32",

    "unknown_value": 1,

    "transparency": true,

    "jpg_conversion": true

}

After successfull activation of the plugin user needs to 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:

• • 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.

  • debug_level - indicates the level of verbosity of debug information displayed in Blender Console. The acceptable values are 1to 6, where 6 is the highest verbosity.

  • spec_shader - if set to true, Dark Exporter will check the model's materials for specular shaders: FLAT, GOURAUD, PHONG

  • illuminations - if set to true, Dark Exporter will check the model's materials for illumination settings.

  • 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.

  • two_sided - if set to true, the plugin will test all polygons of every part of the model and check if they are set as double sided.

  • png_conversion - if set to true, all png graphic files used as textures are converted to gifs and stored away in the folder of the model.

  • unknown_value - when I was testing the syntax of intermediate file I discovered that models created in 3MAX or Anim8or and converted to E file have a special value in the material section. This value is always equal to 1. However this value doesn't appear in models created and exported from Blender. Nobody knows what this value means, so I called it the Unknown Value. I've included this option to maintain compatibility with 3MAX and Anim8or.

  • transparency - if set to true, Dark Exporter is testing the modesl for transparent materials.

  • jpg_conversion - if set to true, all jpg graphic files used as textures are converted to pcx files and stored away in the folder of the model.

All settings manually edited in dark_exporter_conf.txt are used in the export window in Blender:

As you can see on the above screenshot, three bottom values are changed by the user. It may be done 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.