[REQ] IGMESH "proxy"

[StompinTom]

Hey hey,

Sometimes, especially with trees, re-exporting the whole scene because I changed the UV layout on one mesh wastes time and takes forever.

Could there be an option to load an IGMESH instead of using the object's mesh? Perhaps under the 'Mesh' tab you could have an option like 'Use ___.igmesh instead' with a selector... I guess this is kind of like Vray proxy, but it would speed up export times greatly, I think.

Related to this, then, is if, maybe also under the Mesh tab, you could export individual meshes as igmeshes instead of everything at once? Thoughts? That way I don't have to re-export all the trees and plants when I change the mapping or add detail to my simple cabin model...

[dougal2]

Hi Tom,

Interesting idea. I have before implemented an 'instance locator' in Maya for external meshes, which was the exact same concept.

The only questions remaining are how to represent the proxy/instance/object in the viewport and where its settings should be.

(An additional thing that might also be useful is to extend the igmesh format to include the bounding-box size and location so that a proxy could be shown as a full BB.)

Blendigo 2.5 has an 'export igmesh' function for single meshes already... I've no idea if it works properly though

[FakeShamus]

I would use this all the time.
I think it would be great to have other model formats supported like this as well.
I requested a feature like "use external .obj" in the past. in particular, working from zbrush, I could load a low-res version of my model into blender to position things and set up the scene and then have it reference the hi-res version externally. I suggest the .obj option for this simply because zbrush can export really heavy models much faster than blendigo.

[|MM|]

@dougal2


I'd really appreciate the "proxy" function in blendigo.
You can't really overestimate it when creating a complex exterior scene
I think such a feature is going to help many users, so I hope you manage to implement it finally.
Perhaps empty-based mesh replacement would do.