FreeGameDev

Hello there,
I have enjoyed playing SuperTuxKart a lot, and I have decided to get addons from the game's addon website to extend my installation of that game. However, there is something that baffling me, in which certain addons lack a source file download, even if they have been openly licensed, which makes it more difficult to edit, modify, or create derivative works from those addons (an example addon released without a source file: http://stkaddons.net/tracks/city-lights).

At the moment, the only way that I know of being able to edit the .b3d files indirectly is to use the Irrlicht-integrated program Irredit (scroll down for the details; it is a Windows-only program), where I import the .b3d file I want to convert, and export its imported mesh as either a .dae (Collada) or .stl file, where I then can proceed to import the new file into other 3d-modelling programs (I primarily use Blender at the moment, but only .stl files import successfully). My main problem with this program is not its functionality but its licensing, where I normally am prohibited from redistributing that program to other people (redistribution rights can be purchased, however), and its availability of source code (not publicly available, but rights to it may be purchased at a higher price than that of the redistribution rights). Without that program however, I have no way to easily edit the .b3d files, virtually defeating the purpose of being able to remix certain addons. It would be possible for me to come up with my own solution to importing .b3d files, but I can't right now, as I don't enough programming and/or reverse engineering experience necessary to do this.

I have not known of any scripts or programs that can import .b3d files into any major 3d modelling programs, but the only relevant code I found is this (STK) project's in-house utility called B3DReader (even here I am unsure of that program's license, or else I would have to assume that it's under a full copyright). Here, I know just a little more than the core of Java from my high school classes, so I can understand the gist of this program. But like I stated, I may be able to only reference that program when writing a new importer program, and at the minimum, should work as a Blender addon.

Now back to my main point: Are there any solutions out there that I have not yet heard of that can help me import .b3d files, or will we as a team have to write our own solution that can be reusable by other people?

Why can't you use use Irredit? I'm pretty sure that the no-redistribution clause applies to the software itself, not to what you make using it. Otherwise, you'd expect that anything made with Blender would have to be licensed under GPL.

If you want the source files to any add-ons that I made, however, you can just let me know and I'll upload them.

Previously official tracks can be found by browsing old revisions of our media repository on SourceForge. Some of them may require some work to port, and for the most part, the good ones have been ported already. For addons that have always been addons you'll have to try asking the uploader and hope for the best I suppose.

Anon {l Wrote}:Why can't you use use Irredit? I'm pretty sure that the no-redistribution clause applies to the software itself, not to what you make using it. Otherwise, you'd expect that anything made with Blender would have to be licensed under GPL.

This is because I am trying to use free and open source software wherever and whenever it's possible, and only fall-back to using proprietary software if there are no working alternatives. On GNU/Linux systems (specifically Ubuntu), using Wine, I managed to successfully run Irredit for a while, but software upgrades (not from the distribution's main repository) related to 3d graphics broke my ability to do this.
Also, I already know that stuff I make using any software would be "owned" by me, so don't portray me as being extreme here.

Arthur {l Wrote}:Previously official tracks can be found by browsing old revisions of our media repository on SourceForge. Some of them may require some work to port, and for the most part, the good ones have been ported already. For addons that have always been addons you'll have to try asking the uploader and hope for the best I suppose.

My question will not only apply to tracks, but also to karts, arenas, and all other types of addons, including the ones that have not yet been approved.

...

Worldblender {l Wrote}:

Arthur {l Wrote}:Previously official tracks can be found by browsing old revisions of our media repository on SourceForge. Some of them may require some work to port, and for the most part, the good ones have been ported already. For addons that have always been addons you'll have to try asking the uploader and hope for the best I suppose.

My question will not only apply to tracks, but also to karts, arenas, and all other types of addons, including the ones that have not yet been approved.

It's the same answer for all kind of addons: official ones will be in our media repo (potentially look back in time, since now and again we do clean it up ). Addons is in the hand of the artists: they have the option to upload them to our addons server, but we don't enforce this. You need to contact them directly in order. Sometimes you might get lucky looking in this forum, often models are discussed here before they are uploaded. Or you can just ask for models that are missing here.

I seem to remember that someone actually found a b3d importer for blender, and it was used to rescue one track or so, but I don't have details anymore.

Cheers,
Joerg

Irrlicht includes a mesh converter, which you can use to convert b3d to obj for example. All free under the zlib license.