How to use b3d in blender?

[rgh]

What's currently the best way to import b3d files into Blender?

Looking at a previous post here, I've found:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/minet ... DExport.py

which exports as b3d from Blender, but what about importing into Blender?

This discussion:

https://www.blender.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26311

suggests converting to some intermediate format using tools based on the assimp library. I've tried both the 'Open 3D Model Viewer' v1.0 and an older program assimp_viewer.exe, but neither seem to be able to open b3d files, or at any rate, not the ones that ship with minetest.

What's the current way to do this?

I've never used 3d model files before, so I may be overlooking something obvious :)

[pithy]

assimp only works with one of the models in mobs redo.

[twoelk]

This page might help: http://wiki.minetest.net/Using_Blender
It seems to suggest to use an older version of Blender.

[rgh]

assimp only works with one of the models in mobs redo.

Thanks pithy.

Using the models that come with mobs redo, I can open the *.x files in 'Open 3D Model Viewer' and from there save in .3ds or .ply formats, either of which I can then open in blender.

However, I still can't open the .b3d files, 'Open 3D Model Viewer' giving an 'Bad texture id' error.

[ExeterDad]

It's been way too long since I've used Blender, so much could of changed. But I remember not being able to import b3d files. I did much research and tried many approaches without success.

[rgh]

Thanks ExeterDad, surely they must be editable in something! It would seem odd for the minetest community to adopt a file format with no associated tooling.

Another thing I tried was to look at www.blitzbasic.com, supposing that company to be the creator of the original file format.

There are a couple of freely downloadable tools there, although they don't seem to know anything about b3d.

[ExeterDad]

Thinking back I was able to convert to .obj with a Windows program (using Wine on my Linux box - Painful). Then Blender would easily import. But the showstopper was .obj doesn't support bones, animations and such. Since our voxel looking models are far from complex, it was just easier to build from scratch, rather then sort out all the vertices and rig the things.

[rgh]

yep.. seems like a lot of trouble. Probably not worth it just to see what a few chickens look like.

Guess I'll just play with the other formats.