Importing 3D models into Empyrion: Now with better symmetry!

[Riebart]

I've written a prototype Python script that is able to take in (sort of) a 3D model, and rewrite an existing Blueprint to generate that model. As an example, here is my beloved Megathron from Eve imported into Empyrion at two different scales/resolutions: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=762741734

The large one is almost 200 blocks long, and requires 55000 iron ingots to build just the basic steel hull. The two recessions in the front hulls are large enough to fit a small CV or large SV into them.

UPDATE (2017-03-09)
As of this update, there is an experimental GUI and all binary releases are hosted on GitHub: https://github.com/Riebart/EmpyrionGSTools

The tool takes in an STL model file, and a template blurprint file (can be any Empyrion blueprint file you've got on your computer, but since the blueprints include Steam user info, you'll have to replace the same blueprint file included in the repository), and outputs an Empyrion blueprint file you can copy into your Blueprints folder.

When using the GUI, you'll get notifications when new versions are released on GitHub.

Advanced features also included:

- Morphological dilation and erosion to remove extra detail that makes models more difficult to work with. This can also be used to fill in the interiors of models.
- Hollowing which, when used with the morphological smoothing to fill the interior, will produce a nice and cleanyl hollowed out model.
- Symmetry improvements to help builders when using the Empyrion symmetry modes. (It isn't perfect, but I'm open to suggestions on how to make it better).

[Riebart]

I've made a Github repo for this project: https://github.com/Riebart/EmpyrionGSTools

You can see several ships imported at large scales: Andromeda Ascendant, (Eve-Online) Megathron, and (Escape Velocity Nova) Thunderforge.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=763384870

Links to model sources are included inthe readme in the repo.

Comments are welcome, it's been a neat little project.

[Pantera]

Could you try this spawning this ? http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:418367
I already have this built somewhat but I'm interested to see how the exhausts at the front come out with this. I couldn't create the angled cube shape in game after many tries it just looked wrong.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=754262163

[Riebart]

The Nostromo is a neat ship, and you've done well replicating it, nice job! Here's what you get when you render the model into a Blueprint at approximately the same in-game size as your version:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=763548511

It's important to remember that this only produces cubes, and doesn't make any attempts to add slanted blocks (I'm thinking about way to do that, but it's a computationally intensive problem). This is useful for getting the raw skeleton of a ship, but you'll still need to paint it, smooth it, and fill it.

Here's a link to the Blueprint for the generated ship: https://s3.amazonaws.com/static-website-content/shared-files/Nostromo.zip

[Pantera]

引用自 Riebart：

The Nostromo is a neat ship, and you've done well replicating it, nice job! Here's what you get when you render the model into a Blueprint at approximately the same in-game size as your version:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=763548511

It's important to remember that this only produces cubes, and doesn't make any attempts to add slanted blocks (I'm thinking about way to do that, but it's a computationally intensive problem). This is useful for getting the raw skeleton of a ship, but you'll still need to paint it, smooth it, and fill it.

Here's a link to the Blueprint for the generated ship: https://s3.amazonaws.com/static-website-content/shared-files/Nostromo.zip

Thats awesome man thanks!
I'll keep an eye out for a possible future version of this thats noob friendly ? or maybe I just need to learn how to use it lol

Nice work man!

[Riebart]

引用自 Pantera：

引用自 Riebart：

The Nostromo is a neat ship, and you've done well replicating it, nice job! Here's what you get when you render the model into a Blueprint at approximately the same in-game size as your version:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=763548511

It's important to remember that this only produces cubes, and doesn't make any attempts to add slanted blocks (I'm thinking about way to do that, but it's a computationally intensive problem). This is useful for getting the raw skeleton of a ship, but you'll still need to paint it, smooth it, and fill it.

Here's a link to the Blueprint for the generated ship: https://s3.amazonaws.com/static-website-content/shared-files/Nostromo.zip

Thats awesome man thanks!
I'll keep an eye out for a possible future version of this thats noob friendly ? or maybe I just need to learn how to use it lol

Nice work man!

Two main things I want to extend this with are a webapp/service version (Upload a model, download a blueprint), and at least some basic attempts at adding sloped blocks to smooth things out a bit. I'll keep updating this thread (and the first post) as major features get added.

[Riebart]

I'm proud to announce that I have a prototype implementation of voxel smoothing using predefined block options. It's in the Mathematica code only, for now, but extending the Python to include it won't be too hard now that I have the bugs worked out.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=766823081

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=766823103

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=766823127

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=766823170

The GitHub repo has been updated, and implementation of the approach in the Python is forthcoming. It's not perfect, and has a few caveats, but it makes a significant improvement in most models.

[Deadpoolzy]

hey guys can someone make a tutorial video on how this works? Im not all that tech savvy and it seems quite confusing.if someone does thank you so much for it.

[Pantera]

引用自 Deadpool：

hey guys can someone make a tutorial video on how this works? Im not all that tech savvy and it seems quite confusing.if someone does thank you so much for it.

Unfortunately I don't know I'm not sure if op is still working on it.

[SultonMRP]

I know nothing about python, is there a way to make gui, or even a command line interface

[SultonMRP]

I got a hull of a ship from a diffrent game i want to bring over to Emp. can ya help me, here are the diff files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jyrc0pj9yzxijte/Prefabs.Sulton%27s.Starter.Redship.zip?dl=0
I removed all the but the armor blocks from ship. its a 1:1 block ratio.
27W×17H×46L

[SultonMRP]

how hard would be to make a web based app, be coo to "upload" model, click options, CV, BA, SV, XYZ size, material its made with (drop list), and a convert button, and it gives ya a download link for downloading converted model.

[Pantera]

引用自 SultonMRP：

how hard would be to make a web based app, be coo to "upload" model, click options, CV, BA, SV, XYZ size, material its made with (drop list), and a convert button, and it gives ya a download link for downloading converted model.

I'm not sure if the OP is coming back to this maybe busy with other stuff. If I knew how to do it I would do it myself but unfortunately I don't know where to start as I have no experience with python. Maybe the OP will return one day.

[SultonMRP]

if he can tell me how to use in windows ill make a gui for it.

[Riebart]

Hey all, sorry for my absence; I have indeed been otherwise occupied.

There are plenty of tutorials on getting Python working in Windows, which could get you started. Unfortunately, I haven't yet ported the code that adds slanted blocks to the Python implementation, hopefully I'll get to that over Christmas.

Running this as a web service wouldn't be quite as easy as you think, as converting a large model with a high resolution can taken ten or fifteen minutes and is CPU and memory intensive (can consume several gigabytes of memory).

Building the webservice wouldn't be hard, but it would be a challenge to run it and offer it as a free service.

For those that know how to read Python and write a .NET language, porting this to .NET and a GUI would be a fun little project.

[Riebart]

引用自 SultonMRP：

I know nothing about python, is there a way to make gui, or even a command line interface

The current CLI is pretty simple. Given an STL format 3D model, you use:

stl_to_pts.py <STL filename> <Spatial sampling resolution>

If you have specific questions, you should DM/message me, and we can chat.