ObjToSchematic

A visual tool to convert 3D .obj models into Minecraft structures (.schematic, .litematic, .schem, .nbt)
Usage • Download • Progress • Disclaimer • Discord • Contributing • Gallery • Documentation

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is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).}

Usage

You can either download the latest release or if you want the latest features you can build it yourself by following the instructions below.

• Download and install Node.js.
• Run git clone https://github.com/LucasDower/ObjToSchematic.git in your command line.
• Navigate to /ObjToSchematic-main.
• Run npm install.
• Run npm start.

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Advanced

Block Palettes

You can create your own block palettes to fit the build you desire. When you select this palette, the generated structure will only use the blocks defined in your palette. To create a palette, list every block you want to use in /tools/new-palette-blocks. A list of every supported block can be found in /tools/all-supported-blocks. When your list is complete, run npm run palette, (make sure you run npm run build before the first time you do this). If everything is successful, the next time you run the program you'll be able to select your new palette in the 'Block palette' dropdown.

Texture Atlases

If you play Minecraft with a resource pack, you will probably want to build your own texture atlas. This way the program will use the same resource pack for its visualisation and more accurate colour-to-block conversions can be made. To do this, run npm run atlas (make sure you run npm run build before the first time you do this) and follow the instructions. If everything is successful, the next time you run the program you'll be able to select your resource pack in the 'Texture atlas' dropdown.

Headless

If you want to use the program without using the GUI, you can edit /tools/headless-config.ts and run npm run headless (make sure to run npm run build after each time you edit the headless-config.ts).

Progress

0.1

• 🟢 .json model loading
• 🟢 Model voxelisation
• 🟢 Optimised voxelisation & rendering overhaul
• 🟢 Basic .obj file loader UI

0.2

• 🟠 Greedy voxel meshing (Removed)
• 🟢 Export to schematic

0.3

• 🟠 Voxel splitting (Removed)
• 🟢 Ambient occlusion
• 🟢 Quality of life
  • Model PSR, height limit warnings
• 🟢 .mtl support for block choice
  • PNG support, JPEG support
• 🟢 Convert to TypeScript

0.4

• 🟢 Block choice exported
  • Export to .litematic
• 🟢 Support for non-uniform block models (i.e. not all sides have same texture e.g. Oak Log, Crafting Table)
• 🟢 UI Redesign
• 🟢 Optimised ambient occlusion
• 🟢 Transition to ray-based voxelisation
• 🟢 Dithering

0.5

• 🟢 Load custom block palettes and texture atlases
  • Added custom tool scripts for building atlases and palettes
• 🟢 Major refactor for extendibility
  • New interfaces: IImporter, IVoxeliser, IBlockAssigner, IExporter
• 🟢 QoL editor impovements
  • Switch between Mesh/Voxel Mesh/Block Mesh rendering, zoom accessibility options, camera translation/centreing
  • Debug draw options: grid, wireframe, normal, voxel algorithm debug
• 🟢 Headless launch option
• 🟢 New voxelising algorithms
  • Normal-corrected ray-based (NCRB)
  • BVH-accelerated ray-based
• 🟢 Optimise construction of voxel mesh vertex buffers
• 🟢 Buffer refactor to support OES_element_index_uint WebGL extension (support for uint32 index buffers instead of uint16)

0.6

• 🟢 Web workers
  • Processing UI animation
  • Prevent UI hanging
• 🟢 Options for handling falling blocks and overlapping voxels
• 🟢 Sponge schematics exporter (.schem)
• 🟢 Structure blocks exporter (.nbt)
• 🟢 Alpha support
  • Alpha texture maps
  • Transparent blocks
• 🟢 Config file
• 🟢 Log files

0.7

• ⚪ Update .atlas format
• ⚪ Localisation support (message me if you want to add your language!)
• ⚪ .fbx importer
• ⚪ UI for creating palettes
• ⚪ Height-map and colour-map support
• ⚪ Complete code documentation
• ⚪ Realistic lighting instead of night-vision everywhere
• ⚪ Block painting (be able to select blocks and swap them for another)
• ⚪ Add option for setting seed for RNG
• ⚪ .tga support
• ⚪ Material editing - find missing textures, change material colours
• ⚪ Support for splitting up exported structures
• ⚪ Add multisampling to 'bvh-ray' voxeliser

0.8

• ⚪ .gltf importer
• ⚪ Slice viewer
• ⚪ Support for non-block models (e.g. slabs, stairs, trapdoors, etc.)
• ⚪ Option to simplify complex meshes
• ⚪ Support for non-16x16 resource packs for texture atlases
• ⚪ Reimplement colour-space convertions
• ⚪ Add documentation about how to add modded blocks

Disclaimer

⚠️ This repo is in development and proper error handling is not currently my priority. Contributions are welcome.

This is an non-commercial unofficial tool that is neither approved, endorsed, associated, nor connected to Mojang Studios. Block textures used are from Minecraft and usage complies with the Mojang Studios Brand And Assets Guidelines.

Contributing

Any contributions are welcome, just fork and submit a PR! Just make sure the code style follows the rulings in the .eslintrc.json by running npm run lint and the tests all pass by running npm test.

Currently there's not much docs but if you're looking for where to get started, look at app_context.ts and follow _import(), _voxelise(), _assign(), and _export(). If you're looking to add elements to the UI, look at ui/layout.ts, I'm not using a UI framework because I'm a nutter. Adding more file formats to import from and export to would be nice. Adding new default block palettes would be great also.

If you have any questions or need help getting started then feel free to join the Discord or message me SinJi#4165.

Debugging

To allow for your favourite debugging tools like breakpoints and call stacks, I've included launch options for debugging in VSCode. Use Ctrl+Shift+D, and run "Debug Main Process" and once the Electron window has initialised, run "Attach to Render Process".

Gallery

<sub>"Creepy Lady Bust Statue Scan" (https://skfb.ly/6B7pK) by alex.toporowicz is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

"Pivot Demo: Journey" (https://skfb.ly/6WCIJ) by Sketchfab is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Documentation

Below is a detailed explanation into what each configurable setting does divided into each step in the program.

Import

• Wavefront .obj file - This is the actual 3D model you want to voxelise. Please note that the more complex your model is the longer it will take to voxelise. It is strongly recommended that you simplify your geometry in a program such as Blender to reduce the poly count. If your triangles are smaller than the size of the voxels then you will not notice the difference and the extra detail is just wasting resources.

Voxelise

• Constraint axis - This determines which axis is used to determine the size of the model. If you choose 'Y' and type in a size of 80 then the voxelised mesh will has a height of 80. If you choose 'X' instead then the width will be 80.
• Size - This works in conjunction with Constraint axis as described above.
• Algorithm - There are many ways to turn a triangle mesh into a voxel mesh and each method produces different results. Here you can choose which one you like the best.
• Ambient occlusion - This is a purely visual setting and makes no difference to the outputted structure. Ambient occlusion displays the shadows between adjacent blocks just like Minecraft. This takes quite a hit to the time to voxelise so consider turning this setting off first.
• Multisampling - Multisampling should only be used if your mesh uses textures. It takes multiple samples of the texture to get a more representative colour for a voxel. If your triangles and voxels are a similar size then you'll want this on. If your voxels are much smaller than the triangles then you'll probably not notice the difference this makes unless your texture is very noisey.
• Texture filtering - Chances are if you need to change this then you already know what it does. Texture filtering determines how colours are sampled from textures. You'll probably want this as Linear. If your texture is stylistically pixelated then you might want this as Nearest.
• Voxel overlap - When two triangles next to each other are voxelised one after another the second triangle may place voxels in positions where the first triangle has already placed a voxel. This setting allows you to only take the First voxel colour or take an Average.

Assign

• Texture atlas - The textures to use for each block. This also determines how colour-conversions are made.
• Block palette - What collection of blocks are available to choose from.
• Dithering - An image speaks a thousand words.
• Fallable blocks - There's a chance a block is placed such as Sand which when actually placed is going to fall under gravity. You probably don't want this to happen so Replace falling with solid will substitute the falling block for a similarly coloured block. Alternatively, you can Do nothing or replace any gravity-effected block with Replace fallable with solid.
• Colour accuracy - This bins together similar colours to speed up colour-to-block conversions. This is a logarithmic scale.
• Smart averaging - When performing colour-to-block conversions only block faces that are visible are used in calculating the 'average' face colour. There's no reason to turn this off apart from it being slower.
• Smoothness - A high smoothness value will prevent block with noisey textures being used. This is very sensitive to small changes. High smoothness values will decrease the colour accuracy as under-the-hood it is trading off colour error for std error.
• Calculate lighting - Turn this on if you want don't want night-vision in the editor. Only turn this on if you really need it as it is considerably slower.
• Light threshold - Requires Calculate lighting to be on. Will place light blocks (not the Light Block) in places where the light value is less than the threshold. Useful in automatically lighting up the dark areas of your structure.

Export

• File format - The format to save your structure to. The Litematica format is strongly recommended and is significantly faster to export to for large structures. The Schematic exporter is useful if you still play in 1.12 as it uses the old block ID system before The Flattening, however many new blocks cannot be encoded in this format so they will be turned into Stone blocks. The NBT exporter is used for Minecraft's structure blocks. The OBJ exporter can be used to render your structres in a program such as Blender.