i think it would be a great idea to add some instruction for creating efficient models with blender for using in panda3d.
This comes from my experience because i’ve undestood nearly 0 in 2 months of how make it working.
I don’t think so.
I think making efficient models is out side of the scope of panda3d.
Is there anything in particular you are having issues with?
Treeform has a point. The caveats and restrictions for 3D modeling for realtime use is practically universal, no matter the engine you work with.
for example panda doesn’t take materials (i think)
but exporting a model from google sketchup, importing in blender and exporting from panda it takes all the materials.
in my point of view i’m in a black hole. I don’t know where to start…
I’m not sure I understand.
When you say materials, you mean Panda3d surface properties such as diffuse/emissive/specular color, or do you mean Blender materials? Are you using the Chicken exporter for Blender, and if so, what version? (There has been some changes recently on how it handles materials and UV textures.)
i’m using chicken r74. Yes if i add attach (?) a texture in a material in blender i can see it but exporting to panda it don’t takes. So the unique way is using UV mapping?
uv texture’s is a must for pretty much every 3d engine. you have to use texture images (should be 2^x sized, for example 2x2, 4x8, 256x128 pixels). procedural textures are not exported (but you could bake them into images).
Yeah, if you try to use any other mapping but UV, that material will not be exported. You MUST use UV coordinates.
with material it exports only the color of the material or textures too?
cause i’ve tryed to export the model adding a texture in the material but it don’t export. it give the model only the color.
Have you checked the Egg file? If Panda3d can’t find the textures, you’ll just get a blank white surface.
Try exporting as Relative Textures and making sure your textures live in the same directory as your Egg.
Back to the original question. I realize that modeling/exporting is outside the realm of Panda3D, but I think an unofficial blender->panda3d would benefit many newbies. This site does have the pipeline forum, and I think a tutorial would help answer a lot of questions from there.
It wouldn’t need to be part of the online manual, and I know that if I ever get the time to work on panda3d a blender to panda tutorial that covered things such as panda3d friendly textures and animation would be a huge help.
i think nobody is against such a tutorial/manual, if the maintainers are ok with it, it may be included in the official manual as well. it just needs somebody which writes it…
My impression from replies by treeform and FenrirWolf is that they are against it. Of course that wouldn’t stop anyone from putting a guide/tutorial out on the 'net somewhere, but it sounded to me like they are against including it anywhere on this site.
Maybe I’m wrong?
Not that it matters to me much right now. I’d like to play with panda3d and learn more about it, but I simply do not have time. More correctly, I’m not ready to take the time away from other projects such as finishing my basement that panda3d would require. I’m hopeful that my basement will be finished by winter, and since I tend to hibernate at home when it’s cold and snowy out I hope to pick it up then.
it would be really a great idea to make a blender to panda3d modelling tutorial.
the only problem is that i’m useless… i know nearly nothing about making good models to use in panda3d.
but i’d really appreciate if you write something similar 
really a lot!
thanks anyway for the replies!
while it may be true that it’s not a problem of panda3d to describe how to make models for games, it should be described what prequesites exist when modelling for panda3d. for example showing the possibilities of the exporters (as the things i mentioned already, image textures, uv maps etc.)
on the other hand it should not be part of panda3d’s manual describing how to handle 3d editors, or modelling in general. (it may give hints what to take care of (number of polygons, collision octree).
hope someone write a tutorial…
official or not it doesn’t matter…
if hosting space and connection is needed i can provide it.
anyone interested has only to write
thanks to all of you
I am just saying that “blender to panda3d modeling tutorial” does not make scene. It would be same thing as “blender to ogre” or “blender to ut3.” So why just not make a blender modeling tutorial and let it go on blender site?
To Clarify, I am not against anything. But I think a How to use Chicken export with Blender tutorial makes sense, while a how to model in Blender in practice tutorial does not.
The OP didn’t mention anything about Chicken, just requested a tutorial about how to create efficient models for Blender to use with Panda3d. To me that sounds more like “How do I generally model in Blender?” question more than a “How do I get the exporter to work?” question.
Seeing SniZzo92’s replies since then, it appears it’s more of a latter than former.
i’m italian so be patient if english is not my cup of tea.
i try to to re-explain what would be useful if my opinion.
So we have panda3d which is a great 3d engine. But this engine works with 3d models (of course) and i need a program that makes models (i’m analyzing just my case). I admit that i’m not so expert in blender but I can model quite well or, anyway, that much i need for my apps. imho The main error that a newbie like me does is think that what you model in blender (and what you get by a render) is more-less what you get in the realtime action. So why try to change coordinates for textures from orco to UV?
The problem is that is written nowhere that i must use UV. My question is: these tricks (or good practices modelling for panda) can be written somewhere?
Or if i’m failing asking you this because maybe is already written, where is it written?
Thanks for the replies. And last, i think that we couldn’t be born knowing all so i’m only trying to learn, be patience.
thanks, snizzo.
I think what he is looking for is a ‘best practices’ list for making panda models in blender. I would like to see this as well. I have an artist friend that is doing some modeling for me, but are having trouble getting things worked out.
Things as simple as ‘Y + Axis is forward’ to something about UV to get the texture / materials to come in. Or even, how do I separate the geometry from the texture so I can reskin my models at runtime.
I think this would be a great idea. Mostly because I would benefit from it greatly!