In this series we will be going over how to create a game using the FOSS tool blend4web. We will start out with the basics of installing the software (which is in this post) along with the rational behind choosing b4w as our first tool. The tutorials should be easy enough for most people to follow, however when we get into the coding aspects of the project you will need at least a basic understanding of JavaScript.
Needed software
- Blender
- Blend4Web
Rational
There are numerous free game engines out on the market today. Some boasting ease of use, others the shear number of features. However, most of these engines aren't selling the engine per-say but the editor that helps the developers and artists create the content. Blend4Web is by and large a engine without the editor, instead, they interface with blender and add the exports options to create a webGL based applications. These exported files can be encapsulated into any webapp wrapper of your choosing to make it into a local application. Using Blender and Blend4Web creates a much easier workflow than a lot of other applications. There is no need for the artist to use a separate tool to create the objects, setup the scene, or create the logic. Though there are some features that aren't yet available directly in Blender Blend4Web's project manager bridges that gap making it simple to create everything you need to produce your game.
Note: My first choice was a software called Armory as it is more feature rich than Blend4Web. However Armory's stability and the existence of a show stopping bug has steered us away from that project. I hope to do a series on Armory later as well as UPBGE which is a none web-based game engine based on the current game engine within blender but with more polish.
About Blender
Blender is an amazing example of Open Source software. Having been around for over 20 years it went from being a closed proprietary tool to a foundation maintained FOSS software suite that continues to get better with every release. It isn't the easiest tool to get a handle on, and you should consider it as a professional application.
For more information about blender check out these links:
Download
click the logo
Note: If you are using Linux blender is found in most distributions. Just use your preferred method of installing software to grab the latest version.
As stated above, Blender HAS a built in game engine that has been around since version 2.4 and was vastly improved during the 2.6 days. Unfortunately, a community never rallied behind the blender game engine and it is scheduled to be removed from version 2.8 of Blender. Thankfully, the developers of the software understand and appreciate how amazing it is to have game engines build into blender so they are creating a layer for projects like Blend4Web and Armory to become even more integrated within the software.
About Blend4Web
As stated briefly above Blend4Web is a plugin and project management software for blender that allows users to export their work as a webGL application. However, that description marginalizes the work that has gone into the project. Almost every aspect of a modern webGL compatible game engine is present in this software. Blend4Web has both an Open Source community addition as well as a Pro version that has more bells and whistles including support and material libraries.
For more information check out the Blend4Web website (here)
Download
click the logo
Installation
I'm going to assume that you have downloaded and installed / extracted blender and blend4web somewhere on your computer.
Start up blender by whatever means your Computers OS has you do it. Once there we will need to tell blender where to find blend4web.
Click on File and find User Preferences
In the window that has opened go to the Files tab and click on the folder icon to the right of Scripts
Navigate to the directory where blend4web was extracted(unzipped) to.
Select that directory and it should look something like this:
Click on Save User Settings and for good measure close blender and open it back up.
Now go back to User Preferences and click on the Add-on tab
Search for blend4 as I have in the screenshot below and enable the plugin by clicking the check box
Once it is enabled you will have a new render option "Blend4Web" which you can find by clicking the drop down box that by default says "Blender Render." Once selected you will find a new set of options in the render button on the right hand side of the screen. I would suggest playing around with these options, to familiarize yourself with them before the next lesson.
Follow @v-entertainment for more tutorials like this as that is where this post was supposed to be added.
Until then have fun experimenting with Blender and Blend4Web. If you have suggestions about what topics you would like to go over feel free to ask in the comments and I will answer them to the best of my ability.