Overview
A guide to export a basic cube from Blender to CryEngine using the CryBlend Addon.
Downloading & Setting Up CryBlend
First of all you’ll need Blender, which if your reading this I presume you have alredy. If you don’t its available from Steam or from Blenders official website [www.blender.org], both are kept up to date so it is more personal preference.
Now that we have blender its time to go to the CryBlend GitHub page [github.com] and Download [github.com] the Zip (78kb) and put the io_export_cryblend into the blender addons folder.
The blender locations are easy to find.
Steam: Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/blender/(version)/scripts/addons
Non-Steam: Program Files/Blender Foundation/Blender/(version)/scripts/addons
Now we place io_export_cryblend into the addons folder and start up Blender. We then start up blender and go to File > User Preferences or hit Ctrl+Alt+U. Now goto Add-ons folder and look up “Cryengine”. Now click the box at the very right to enable it and then “Save User Settings in the bottom left.
Now CryBlend is setup we can advance onto exporting to CryEngine.
Exporting a Cube to CryEngine
Now we are only exporting a static model from Blender to CryEngine so we don’t need to worry about creating bones or anything else.
First of all we need to select the location of the Resource Compiler (rc.exe), which in build 3.8 is located in Cryenginetoolsrc and in Cryenginebin64rc for previous builds. If you cannot find it in one it will be in the other.
Now we are going to remove the light and camera from our scene to make sure it doesnt break the compilation, next we UV Map the cube and using Paint.net we will create .dds texture for it.
Now I have created a simple 1024×1024 texture that will be saved in CryengineGameSDKTexturesBlenderTestCube as TestCube_Diff.dds
Now we need to open it in Blender and apply it to the cube. This can be done by just hitting Open in the UV window and locating the DDS we placed in the TestCube folder.
Now we’re almost finished in Blender. We just need to goto the Materials tab and rename our material from Material.001 to a CryEngine/CryBlend acceptable name. The naming convention for CryBlend materials is a bit confusing but easy to wrap your head around once explained. It is projectName__textureNumber__textureName__physicsMaterial. So basically were looking at TestCube__1__TestCubeDiffuse__physDefault. If we were to add another texture, say a BrickWall we would then add it as TestCube__2__Brickwall__physDefault.
Now we just need to give it a name and export it, which is the easiet part in Blender. Click on CryBlend in the top right corner and then click Add ExportNode, now we want it to be a CGF which is the default selection. So we need to just name it “TestCube”, apply that and then click on CryBlend again and click Export. Now goto CryengineGameSDKObjectsBlenderTestCube and name the file TestCube and save.
Now if everything has been done right you will find two 1 – 10kb files located in ObjectsBlenderTestCube with .cgf and .mtl as an extension, if one or both of these files are missing then you have done it wrong and should look back over the tutorial or watch the video.
Now if we open Cryengine, load or create a level and then click on Brush there should be a Blender folder with the TestCube folder located within. Now we can drag the TestCube model from within that folder into Cryengine.
It does not have a texture yet so we need to click on the Texture window and goto Objects > Blender > TestCube > TestCube click on the first texture and in the diffuse on the bottom right tab click Browse and goto the Textures > Blender > TestCube folder and load the DDS file. Now apply a Surface Type and save.
Having Trouble?
Message me via this guide if you are having troubles but make sure you have followed this tutorial first.
FAQ
My model wont compile…?
Engons are usually the main culprit for this, make sure there arent any.
What version of Blender do I need?
I’ve been using the latest version and it works fine with CryBlend, so it seems fine.