Export BLENDER model into an OpenGL geometry inside a C++ header file

Question

I'm developing an Android application.

I have a 3D model drawn with Blender. Do you know if there is a way to export that model into a OpenGL geometry?

I'm going to use C++ code to load model and draw it with OpenGL. But if you know a better choice, please tell me.

Answer 1

There is no such format defined as OpenGL geometry. You will have to create your own structures to store and manage your vertices and triangles.

If you don't want to use any third party loader, the probably the easiest thing would be using the Wavefront OBJ format. It's really simple to parse, and you can export models from blender can export to obj natively.

If you don't feel like starting from scratch, you can use my very basic OBJ loader for OpenGL. Download from here.

Answer 2

Here's a doc on the .blend format: http://www.atmind.nl/blender/mystery_ot_blend.html Although, you'd probably be better off exporting it to a different format. There's a tool to convert called readblend that's part of Bullet, if you're stuck with .blend files.

How you use the data is dependent on how your OpenGL app is structured. If you're still at the planning stage, perhaps Ogre3D would be useful? http://www.ogre3D.org