Blender DIF Export Plugin

io_dif
This is a Blender plugin to import and export MBG Torque DIF interiors and Torque Constructor CSX files. Supported Blender Versions: 2.8.0 to 4.5

Usage:
Import
File > Import > Torque (.dif).
It can't be any more simpler than that.

If you want to load a Torque Constructor (.csx) file and create a Torque DIF, use File > Import > Torque Constructor (.csx).

Export
File > Export > Torque (.dif)

Additional export options - Important!

• Flip Faces: Flip the normals of the dif, in case the resultant DIF is inside out.
• Double Faces: Make all the faces double sided, may increase lag during collision detection.
• Max Polygons: Number of maximum triangles that a DIF can have before splitting into multiple DIFs. Reduce this number if export fails.
• Apply Modifiers: Whether to apply modifiers to meshes before exporting.
• Export Visible: Export only visible geometry.
• Export Selected: Export only selected geometry.
• Use Material Names: Use Material Names instead of file names of the material textures.
• Optimize For Marble Blast: Make the resultant DIF optimized for Marble Blast. Uncheck this if you want to use this for other Torque games.
• BSP Algorithm:
  • Fast (Default): Use a sampling algorithm to determine the best splitter. This method is inherently random and may not always yield optimal results.
  • Exhaustive: Use an exhaustive search algorithm to determine the best splitter. May take longer but builds more balanced trees. Deterministic algorithm.
  • None: Do not build a BSP Tree, utilize this for fast conversion times or if building the BSP Tree fails/hangs on export.
  • IMPORTANT: If your geometry is too complex, consider using None mode as there is no guarantee that a BSP Tree can be optimally built within set constraints.
  • IMPORTANT: BSP Trees are only used for raycasts and Drop To Ground feature in Marble Blast. If you are not using these features, you can safely disable the BSP Tree.
• Point Epsilon: The minimum distance between two points to be considered different.
• Plane Epsilon: Minimum difference between values of two plane to be considered equal.
• Split Epsilon: Minimum difference between values of two splitting planes to be considered equal.

DIF Properties Panel
Located in the object properties panel

• Interior Entity Type:
  • InteriorResource: normal static interior type
  • PathedInterior: moving platform
    • Marker Path: a curve object that describes the path of the moving platform. Each point will become a Marker
    • Marker Type: the smoothing to use on each marker
    • Total Time: the amount of time to complete the path
    • Start Time: the time that the platform should begin
    • Constant Speed: if the marker durations should instead be calculated to maintain a consistent speed
      • Speed: max speed in units per second
      • Start Index: Calculates Start Time based on marker index
      • Pause Duration: The time that the platform should spend at zero-length segments
  • Game Entity: represents an entity in the dif such as items
    • Game Class: the class of the entity such as "Item", "StaticShape", etc
    • Datablock: the datablock of the item.
    • Properties: a list of additional key value pairs which will be set to the object on Create Subs
  • Path Trigger: represents a trigger that will be added to the MustChange group
    • Datablock: the trigger datablock, MBG's types are TriggerGotoTarget and TriggerGotoDelayTarget
    • Pathed Interior: the target object
    • Calculate Target Time: if targetTime property should be created from a target marker index
      • Target Index: the marker to target

Limitations

• Limited Game Entity rotation support: rotation field is not properly applied to Game Entities in vanilla Torque.

 Previews



Download
Current Version: 1.3.4

Changelogs since 1.3.0, since I've been forgetting to update this topic whenever there is a new release:

1.3.4

• Finally fix all the UV bugs for real this time.

1.3.3

• Fixed a critical bug where the exporter would use up all the memory of the machine in some rare cases.
• The plugin now no longer exports degenerate triangles
• [Keppy]: Added more PathedInterior options: Target Marker, Constant Speed
• [Keppy]: Added support for rotations for entities and PathedInteriors. Rotation fix will work in the future PQ updates.

1.3.2

• Finally fixed broken UVs during export for the last time hopefully.
• [Keppy]: Added support for Path Triggers for Moving Platforms for both importing and exporting DIFs.
• [Keppy]: Added more options for Moving Platforms: Marker Type, Total Time, Starting Time, and Reverse.
• [Keppy]: Fixed bounding boxes of interiors being bigger than they should be.

1.3.1

• Add support for invisible surfaces, to use them, give them a material named 'NULL' with no texture file attached to it.
• Fixed moving platforms not exporting correctly.