Grease Pencil Protocol/File Format
Being that GP is pretty popular, I thought it might be useful to have a standard protocol / file format for exporting, and a plugin to implement that export functionality. That way, anyone who wants to integrate GP with their game engine or other app would only need to work on the import, enticing game engines to do just that. If they know the export is already done, then it's just a matter of creating some import functionality.
6 Comments
Not sure, a protocol would also mean that adding new features should keep to that protocol. It might decrease the speed of developments. As there is no other software supporting the protocol it would be better to start with utilising the API.
This might also be more future proof than defining a protocol without having any users of it.
Blend files already cover the "from/to Blender" side of things anyway.
Is there anything that would prevent any third-party program to develop their solution to import GP data from .blend files?
I know a few years ago Unity could import blend files (actually turned them into FBXs back then, maybe still the case).
What is currently stopping game engines from making an importer? The .blend format and the apis are open, you can already access that stuff.
I guess that's a good point, but a protocol would kind of solidify things in a way. For example, with the next generation of blender, would all their code still work? A protocol for an shared format would be a little more stable.
True, Blender 4.0 is supposed to completely rework the GP framework. That said, though, I feel like a game engine would want the incoming changes anyway so we'd have to update the exporter/protocol and then they'd have to update their importer. Also, 4.0 isn't that far away, and hopefully we won't get any compatibility breaking updates to GP for a while after that
Wouldn't that be a double-edged sword? Spend time and effort developping a protocol that would inherently either "force" GP to not go beyond, or require to be updated anytime GP gets something new, ruining that argument for a protocol.
All that meahwhile, blend files are there.