[Mere Widget] "Mere Widget", which is not our logo.

NeverBlender is a "project" (I use the term very very very very very loosely here!) that aims to get Blender cooperate with Neverwinter Nights, or perhaps the other way around.

NOTE: email in general has proven to be extremely depressing due to spam. So, to contact me, please a) send me e-mail normally to user "wwwwolf" at host "iki.fi". Remember to put "NeverBlender" (like that!) on the Subject line! And after that, I strongly suggest you to...

b) spam me a message through the Bioware NWN site. My username there is "WWWWolf". I'm usually around for Bioware Wednesday so if you send me message through NWN site, I'll probably read it within a week!

Most Recent News!

Umm, folks, seriously? [22 August 2005, 2:29 am]

Good news: I actually touched the exporter code, and it may be likely that finally, we may have some kind of animation exporter out there in near future! It may output garbage, it may be full of bugs, and I may never understand how the hell Blender's action system works, really, but it will do something! Bad news: The Python API is officially weird, or maybe Blender is too flexible for this stuff. There's no link whatsoever between Actions and Objects, it seems. As a result, it seems impossible to satisfy my own requirement of No Nwnprops Items The Program Should Know About Already. So, it all boils down to this: due to the fact that the API can't do everything, you users need to do some funny little exercises of your own if you want to get stuff animated. More bad news: All of my code is really, really awful. I need someone who has written some Blender/Python code to take a look at the code. Preferrably someone who might actually do some new work on the program. Really. I'm sure there's tons of ewwww-worthy stuff there. Lots of stuff that needs improving. My problem is that I get headache from double underscores and my Perl programmer's Laziness means that I try to avoid working on code that doesn't make sense. Also, I'm getting the feeling nobody is using the program for anything. Has anyone actually USED the thing on anything? All I hear from users is "how do I get this thing to work?" so most of my job with this thing has been writing new stuff for the installation guide. =( Also, I don't know damn about low-poly modeling in general and NWN modeling in particular, I just write this code that spits out these model files. I'd be terribly curious if this thing is actually usable for any real-world stuff. So, an informal survey: if any of you has used this for anything, please tell me - wwwwolf@iki.fi. Message subject may be anything as long as it contains "NeverBlender".

Importer fixed [15 May 2005, 3:32 pm]

This has been asked A LOT recently for some reason. I finally got off my butt and fixed the importer so that it works with modern Blender releases. At least the geometry importing seems to work just fine to me... Check out the unspeakable horror *now* from the CVS! (or the snapshot above)

NeverBlender sleepeth... help appreciated! [26 January 2005, 3:31 pm]

NeverBlender seems frozen right now because I can't commit anything to CVS. I'm often busy with other things, AND there's also the fact that I can't upload my SSH keys to project site and the admins seem just as puzzled as I am. *deep sigh* Meantime, I'd appreciate it if someone who knows something about writing exporters in general would take the source and see how to implement the "export Actions to MDL animations" thing. People who are interested about improving neverblender can contact me preferrably via private message through Bioware's NWN site (user name WWWWolf), or e-mail me at wwwwolf@iki.fi.

First of all, a note

I'm not very confident with my skills regarding this project - I lack skills in modeling, Python coding (in fact, Python interpreter fights me actively due to my Perl Coder Karma) and, heck, even in NWN on every area. I may not able to make the Perfectest NWN Model Exportator Script Ever Done. Nay, that may not happen. So please, do not come here with High Expectations. This thing may take a LONG time to finish. People who need to get stuff done NOW should stick to modelers that actually work right now! Duh!

Note, however, that despite of all this insecurity about my skills, the thing is, it actually works. Some things just cannot be explained easily, it seems.

What is part of this "package"?

nwnmdlexport.py is a script that takes meshes from Blender and spews out a Bioware .mdl file (and, if necessary, a .pwk). Also included is a load of modules. I tried to keep it in a single file but failed. Sorry.

At the moment, it's almost usable except that it has more quirks than I have had nervous breakdowns due to the Python language. =) It exports a single mesh or multiple meshes, does support texture coordinates through Blender UV editor facilities (I'm thinking of supporting wirecolors and shading options through Materials...), it "optimizes" the vertex and texvert lists, supports positions, categories, tilefades, PWKs, and odious Blender crashes. All NWN-related properties are editable through a Text (ie, you make a new Text called 'nwnprops' that has NWN-specific details on everything). Thinking of making that GUIable, not sure.

It has been confirmed to work in Windows version of Blender (It may work in *NIX too, I see no reason why it shouldn't - I test it mostly there because I have the toolkit, model viewer and hak editor there...)

Usage instructions

Refer to the above-mentioned manual. You probably need some level of Blender know-how to know how to heck to use it.

FAQish questions

See FAQ.

[Screenshot]