Lightflow Export

This is a script to export scenes from Blender to Lightflow python scripts. The script was originally created by Jaan 'Montz' Oras, I made some changes (with permission) to make it more up-to-date. Lots of things have changed, and it will probably take you some time to get to know all features. It is not perfect, largely due to the not so up-to-date Blender python API, so don't expect to be able to export every Blender scene. Even if it can be exported, you will probably need to do a lot of tweaking to get the results you are looking for. But I tried to take things as far as I could, so hopefully you won't have too much trouble getting what you want.

What do you need?

Of course you need Blender .
Although the script is basically fully compatible with 2.25 and higher, there are several bugs in 2.25 and 2.26 that make the script not very usable. For example, the screen doesn't refresh when it needs to, and frame updating (needed for animations) doesn't work at all as it should. These seem to be internal blender bugs, nothing the script can do anything about, and I have certainly tried. For the window redraw problem it sometimes helps to move your mouse cursor from window to window, you won't be able to see the render while rendering though.
So the script is still best used with Blender version 2.23 instead, which you can still download here: SirDude's ftp archive

For both Linux and Windows:

1. Lightflow (Don't download py1.5 there,not needed anymore!)
2.
Python 2.0
3. or for Blender2.26:
Python 2.2

For windows users, the script now works without using python 1.5, so you won't need to install that for Lightflow, if everything is installed correctly by the install-script, you should even be able to run the Lightflow example scripts without problems. Higher python versions also should work without problems.

Linux users already could use Lightflow with other python versions.

And finally, optional, but recommended, (although Windows only I'm afraid):

3.
MATSpiderLF

The script is integrated with MATSpider which will make it possible to directly import materials and edit them. But the script will work without it in case you don't need it.

Since quite a few people have reported problems installing Lightflow and Python as well (and that number has grown considerably since this script was first released) , this might be helpful: notes on installing.
You should REALLY read that, even in the case you already installed Lightflow, since some things have changed quite a bit, and probably will cause problems if you don't follow the instructions to the letter... This was never my intention at all, but it seems I have made things so complex that very few people seem to succeed in getting it all to work. So PLEASE read that text again, even if you already installed and used Lightflow before!

Done that, now what?

Nothing much really, just unzip the file anywhere you want, start blender, load the install.blend file, use ALT-P in the text window (mouse pointer in the text window too!), which will start a python script which in turn will (try to) install everything for you, watch the DOS-shell/terminal for output, and maybe some input as well, just simple yes/no answers (type 'y' or 'n'). After that is done, for new scenes you only need to load the very small LFGUI_START.py file into a blender text window (F11 key for text window, ALT-O to load a file) and use ALT-P again to start the export script.
As an example, a blendfile with a blenderlogo model is also included.

Note that all scripts REQUIRE that both Lightflow and Python are correctly installed, in particular that all the environment variables are set, again refer to notes on installing for more information. Also take a look at that in case you already installed Lightflow (in particular, the LFTEMP directory and the use of spaces in filenames).

In case you use Linux and installed Lightflow somewhere it needs root access permissions, it is better to to change this to the 'personal' installation method as described in the text.

All scripts will simply stop if they cannot find PYTHONPATH, LIGHTFLOWPATH or LIGHTFLOWTEMP.

Update: PYTHONPATH is actually not really needed anymore, it should really be set, but if you can't be bothered, the shortcut method of setting the python lib directory in Blender should work as well.
For more info on setting PYTHONPATH see this PYTHONPATH101 thread on elysiun

 

Credits

Inspiration:

Jacopo Pantaleoni, Jaan Oras, Alejandro Conty Estevez, Takeshi Maeda, Sebastien Loss, Jean Michel Soler, Chris Green, Jano Lukac, Martin Poirier and all the people complaining about the many problems of the script.

Script Testers:

Ford 'fullback' Roberts, Stefano 'S68' Selleri, Hans 'hannibar' Packet, Matthew 'meestaplu' Plough, Alex 'Skates' Kemmler, Jon 'mrmunkily' Lake.

Special thanks to Matt Plough for helping out with the compilation of the 'LFArender' utility for Windows, and Stefano Selleri for the initial design of the GUI.

Thanks to Yuji Konishi for the alphamapping improvements for Blendfile import.

Also thanks to Dietmar Kopp for the idea for LFArender.

And finally, A Very Special Thanks to the Creator of Blender: Ton Roosendaal.

July 13 --- Oct 10, 2002

Alfredo 'Eeshlo' de Greef