Blender to Unity exporter/importer, with animation support (usable at runtime)

Needing an at-runtime model importer for my project, I couldn't find much out there, and decided to write my own. I decided to base it on the ThreeJS Model spec seen here (the lower one), because of its simplicity and human readability.

The current pipeline for my use is like this:
1) Import model into Blender.
2) Export to ThreeJS model file (json).
3) Import into Unity using my ThreeJS importer.

Currently the only thing it supports is the base mesh--the vertices and faces. I'm thinking of adding normal and animation support, but would like to know if there's actually any demand for it.

I know there are some other runtime model importer extensions out there, but every one I know of either:

1) Has the import code locked in a DLL, meaning if something breaks, you might have to completely abandon it for another solution:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/12757
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/3147
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/18268 (also doesn't support animations)
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/15428 (also doesn't support animations)

2) Doesn't support animations:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/19579
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/22195

So my question here is (as seen by the poll options): How much interest would there be in a runtime model importer (based on the ThreeJS model format), with support for animation and other standard features?

 

Well I went ahead and built it anyway. I now have a custom exporter for blender, and importer for Unity, able to transfer:
* vertices
* normals
* uvs
* bone-weights
* animations
* etc.

I'll probably put it online at some point, but for now I'll just be focusing back on the main game project that I had to make it for. (the runtime importer is for letting the user add their own trees, units, etc.)

 

Here is an example of the VModel file format: (it's just a textured cube, with a basic roll forward animation)

Code (csharp):

1. {^}
2.     objects:{^}
3.         Root:{^}
4.             position:[0 0 0]
5.             rotation:[0 0 0 1]
6.             scale:[1 1 1]
7.             children:{^}
8.                 Armature:{^}
9.                     position:[0 0 .5]
10.                     rotation:[0 0 0 1]
11.                     scale:[1 1 1]
12.                     armature:{^}
13.                         bones:{^}
14.                             Bone:{position:[0 0 0] rotation:[0 0 0 1] scale:[1 1 1]}
15.                     animations:{^}
16.                         RollForward:{^}
17.                             fps:30
18.                             length:100
19.                             boneKeyframes:{^}
20.                                 Bone:{^}
21.                                     0:{position:[0 0 0] rotation:[0 0 0 1] scale:[1 1 1]}
22.                                     100:{position:[0 0 -1] rotation:[-.707107 0 0 .707107] scale:[1 1 1]}
23.                 Mesh:{^}
24.                     position:[0 0 .5]
25.                     rotation:[0 0 0 1]
26.                     scale:[1 1 1]
27.                     mesh:{^}
28.                         vertices:[^]
29.                             {position:[-.5 -.5 -.5] normal:[-.577349 -.577349 -.577349] uv_face0:[.666667 .333333] uv_face3:[.666667 .666667] uv_face4:[1 0] boneWeights:{Bone:1}}
30.                             {position:[-.5 .5 -.5] normal:[-.577349 .577349 -.577349] uv_face0:[.666667 0] uv_face1:[.333333 .666667] uv_face4:[1 .333333] boneWeights:{Bone:1}}
31.                             {position:[.5 .5 -.5] normal:[.577349 .577349 -.577349] uv_face1:[.333333 .333333] uv_face2:[.333333 .333333] uv_face4:[.666667 .333333] boneWeights:{Bone:1}}
32.                             {position:[.5 -.5 -.5] normal:[.577349 -.577349 -.577349] uv_face2:[.333333 0] uv_face3:[.333333 .666667] uv_face4:[.666667 0] boneWeights:{Bone:1}}
33.                             {position:[-.5 -.5 .5] normal:[-.577349 -.577349 .577349] uv_face0:[.333333 .333333] uv_face3:[.666667 .333333] uv_face5:[0 1] boneWeights:{Bone:1}}
34.                             {position:[-.5 .5 .5] normal:[-.577349 .577349 .577349] uv_face0:[.333333 0] uv_face1:[0 .666667] uv_face5:[.333333 1] boneWeights:{Bone:1}}
35.                             {position:[.5 .5 .5] normal:[.577349 .577349 .577349] uv_face1:[0 .333333] uv_face2:[0 .333333] uv_face5:[.333333 .666667] boneWeights:{Bone:1}}
36.                             {position:[.5 -.5 .5] normal:[.577349 -.577349 .577349] uv_face2:[0 0] uv_face3:[.333333 .333333] uv_face5:[0 .666667] boneWeights:{Bone:1}}
37.                         faces:[[1 0 4 5] [5 6 2 1] [6 7 3 2] [0 3 7 4] [0 1 2 3] [7 6 5 4]]
38.                         materials:[^]
39.                             {diffuseColor:"ffffff" texture:"MainTexture.png"}
40.                         armature:"Armature"

 

Well, finally took the time to put it on GitHub: https://github.com/Venryx/VModel

The code has quite a bit of cruft left over from the json exporter I based it on, but this should slowly fade out as I "consistentize" and simplify the code base. (for side-projects, I follow the philosophy of "lazy updating", where I only update a section when a problem is being caused by it, or when leaving it as is would slow down the adding of new features)

That said, it's working well for my current project. I continue to add features/fixes as I need them.

Note: I also heavily use a Blender tool package that I put together here, to help speed up various operations/processes: https://github.com/Venryx/VTools

 

Hey Venryx,
I was looking for some way of importing the threejs' scene extract into Unity.
Could you help me out .

Cheers