ASE Import and export scripts for Blender 2.5[n] series. Both scripts ideally should be placed in Blender "scripts" folder. If there are any other ASE scripts present it's best to remove or rename them as Blender 2.5 tends to like scripts to follow a specific naming convention.

Download

Click here to download the ASE import/export scripts for Blender 2.5

Installation

Both scripts need to be placed in the following location;

scripts\io\

For Windows Vista/Win7 users Blender's scripts folder is typically located in;

C:\Users\[profile]\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.53\scripts\io

Windows XP users should look in;

C:\Documents and Settings\[profile]\Application Data\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.53\scripts\io

Linux and Mac installation will differ depending on OS version used.

Usage

ASE Export: As with other scripts, select the object or objects that need to be exported and click "File >> Export >> Ascii Scene Export (ase)". Type a name or select the file to overwrite and then click the "Export ASE" button to export the model. Model scale default is set to "16", this is a multipler so it will scale your object up by sixteen (or "[n]" value input). To export objects 'as is', set the "Scale:[n]" value to "1".

Note: remember that you can export several objects as a single mesh to get a multi sub-object mesh (has several "GEOMOBJECTS" written into the ASE) with multiple materials. Or, an object where sub-objects are joined before export producing a single model with one multi-material. Additionally, it's currently not possible to export 'blank' meshes, i.e. all meshes need a material, texture and UVW map else the process reads them as being incomplete, halting the export procedure.

ASE Import: From the "File" menu select "File >> Import >> Ascii Scene Export (ase)", then select the file to be imported into Blender. To import a model 'as is' without altering the size of the object/s, change the "Import ASE" "Scale:[n]" value to "1" (default currently "0.06").

Problems and Errors

There are a couple of basic script related issues you need to be aware of when exporting or importing meshes and models;

1. The script is currently written to halt on finding 'blank' meshes, i.e. a mesh object without materials, textures or UVW maps will stop the process.

2. If Blender complains about 'periods', check the file names to make sure they're as follows as anything else may return a script error in the Python console.

   • export_ase.py

   • import_ase.py

3. Similarly, if the script doesn't appear in the File >> Import/Export menus check file name conforms to the above.

Misc

An archive of the original ASE import/export scripts is available from the tools page for legacy purposes. ASE Scripts updated by rich_is_bored

Assuming we're talking about the same 'blue' normal maps used in most modern games, there isn't a difference, certainly not in terms of what they do as both perform the same function creating the illusion of surface depth and structure where none exists.

Although there is a little bit of cross-over between the 'types' ("2D" and "3D" being the two 'types'), generally speaking where they do differ is in how they are made and used within a game environment. A '2D' normal map for instance is usually the result of converting images, photographs or artwork within a photo-editing suite; using an application specific to the job of converting artwork; or baking a highly detailed model to a 'flat' ('2D') surface. So in saying "2D" we're generally talking about tileable textures, textures that are applied (generally) to generic world objects - walls, floors, other 'flat' surfaces.

A '3D' normal map on the other hand is the result of 'baking' the structure and physical characteristics of a highly detailed mesh on to a reduced, low poly version of said same mesh. So when talking about "3D" normal maps we're generally referring to 'unique' assets, texture images baked specifically for a particular object that's not 'flat' - usually organic or more complex structural shapes.

The reality of this is that there aren't really different 'types' of normal map per-say (unless talking in the technical context/sense of "tangent" vs "local" rendered normals) but there are different 'purposes' and 'functions'. The specific reason for this is to do with "XYZ" axis in three dimensional space when the maps are being converted or baked, the models orientation directly effects the normals themselves because they get baked relative to their position in space on the mesh. For example, breaking a pillar apart, flattening it out then baking that to a flat UVW mapped 'plain' will tend to yield slightly different results than baking the normal map from the same pillar using the high>low approach, and that generally means artifacts and problems in game because of the inconsistencies. So, whenever possible, make normal maps relative to their eventual use rather than what may be more expedient.

If you mean can you use Google SketchUp (the freely available version of SketchUp) files, then the answer is no, not directly, Google SketchUp has limited export abilities for a reason.

Having said that however, it is possible by converting files and importing those into Blender or other 3D application for prepping relative to their use in Quake (idtech) based games - if it's Quake 3 or above, that will be as an *.ase model. See the tutorials page for more info on doing this.

YouTube often has problems displaying 16:9 aspect ratio wide screen videos so that if on editing and playback (especially if using Windows Movie Maker or the new Windows Live Movie Maker) videos look fine then it's likely an issue with YouTube and not necessarily the video. To fix this problem YouTube provide a number of 'tags' that can be added to a videos 'properties' during or after upload.

Tag: yt:crop=16:9
(zooms in on the 16:9 area, removes windowboxing)

Tag: yt:stretch=16:9
(fixes anamorphic content by scaling to 16:9)

Tag: yt:stretch=4:3
(fixes 720x480 content that is the wrong aspect ratio by scaling to 4:3)

Tag: yt:quality=high
(default to a high quality stream, depending on availability)

This happens occasionally where a window or panel 'drops' off the edge of the screen making it impossible to select or move (although usually it can still be resized ::) ). To fix, find "studio.xnf" in your 'user' directory and delete it.

For Vista users this is located in the following folder (assuming default installation);

C:\Users\[user-name]\AppData\Roaming\Winamp

For Windows XP users it's located in the following place (assuming default installation);

C:\Program Files\Winamp\

Next time WinAmp is opened the 'theme' will have been reset back to defaults. Note that it will loose the theme you were using before the problem happened so you'll need to re-apply it.