Three.js: Blender exporter can't handle Cycles Node Setup

[developer-lindner]

Description of the problem

When exporting a model which was build with the Cycles Engine the "images" property
is empty in the json file.

When using a simple cube and add a material / texture image with the Blender Engine,
the "images" property is set and ThreeJS can handle it correctly.

So the exporter would need some love to handle Cycles Node System as well i guess?!

Three.js version

• [ ] Dev
• [x] r87
• [ ] ...

Browser

• [x] All of them
• [ ] Chrome
• [ ] Firefox
• [ ] Internet Explorer

OS

• [x] All of them
• [ ] Windows
• [ ] macOS
• [ ] Linux
• [ ] Android
• [ ] iOS

Hardware Requirements (graphics card, VR Device, ...)

[Mugen87]

So the exporter would need some love to handle Cycles Node System as well i guess?!

That's correct. The exporter is not ready to work with Cycles Render Engine. Also see #8887

[donmccurdy]

If it helps any, the Blender glTF exporter does work with Cycles, although you need to use the PBR cycles nodes that ship with the exporter. (and then import with THREE.GLTFLoader)

[developer-lindner]

Switched to Blender Renderer now... but still no luck. Using cast shadow is not allowed or is it a bug too?

[donmccurdy]

@developer-lindner sorry for the very late reply, but yes an error thrown when cast shadows are enabled is certainly a bug.

[mrdoob]

@donmccurdy yeah... I think we should proceed with the deprecation of the blender exporter... 😅

[donmccurdy]

@mrdoob Do you mean continue with #12903 and remove the Blender JSON exporter soon, or something more gradual like warnings in the documentation? From https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/issues/12903#issuecomment-352923439 I guess we were thinking of discussing options again in Summer 2018, and that is almost here.

[Mugen87]

I vote to remove it all at once and refer to other exporters instead.

[mrdoob]

Yeah, I vote for removing it too 💪

[Mugen87]

The JSON Blender exporter has been removed with R93 (#14117).

Also see: https://threejs.org/docs/#manual/introduction/Loading-3D-models