VRML Models

General Discussion
#1

Hello,

I am new to Panda3D. I am developing an animation/game tool in Panda3D. I want to spend my time on building the interations from my data to drive the animation which is my primary reason for using this great tool.

There are many vrml and other models out on the internet that I would like to use. I have been tring to import a vrml model into my Panda3D world.

Trying to impor a simple sphere such as the one below does not work. I get a “Ignore Box” output.

#VRML V2.0 utf8

Shape {
appearance Appearance {
material Material { }
}
geometry Box { }
}

I am hoping someone can give me a hand on how to import object models into Panda3D. Other object model formats would be great to if there are many free models avalible on the internet.

Thanks,
Tuli

#2

Looking in the bin directory of Panda3D, you will find the following converters:

maya2egg
vrml2egg
lwo2egg
dxf2egg
bam2egg
x2egg

And I think a few more. There’s also a plug-in for 3ds max to export the Panda3D model type.

#3

The Panda Vrml converter doesn’t support the “Box” or “Sphere” geometry type; instead, you should use the “IndexedFaceSet” syntax, which describes primitives built out of polygons.

Virtually all VRML models available for download on the internet use the IndexedFaceSet to represent geometry, so that shouldn’t be a problem. But note that a significant fraction of VRML models on the internet are represented in VRML 1.0 format, and the Panda converter only speaks VRML 2.0.

David

#4

Another thing you can do is to use a third-party file format converter to handle some of these models. For example, milkshape3d and unwrap3d are both very inexpensive programs that can convert a lot of formats.