Support Asobo unique ID option at export

[BrianDeVos]

Current Behavior

Currently models exported using the Blender plugin cannot easily be used for model merging unless the ID is manually added via text editor.

Model does not have the 'ASOBO_unique_id' extension: 'vfs://topkit-simulations-737-classic/SimObjects/Airplanes/topkit-simulations-737-classic/model/base_external_lod00.gltf'.
While merging:
vfs://topkit-simulations-737-classic/SimObjects/Airplanes/topkit-simulations-737-classic/model/base_external_lod00.gltf
vfs://topkit-simulations-737-classic/SimObjects/Airplanes/topkit-simulations-737-classic/modelAttachments/merge_external_lod00.gltf

Model does not have the 'ASOBO_unique_id' extension: 'vfs://topkit-simulations-737-classic/SimObjects/Airplanes/topkit-simulations-737-classic/modelAttachments/merge_external_lod00.gltf'.
While merging:
vfs://topkit-simulations-737-classic/SimObjects/Airplanes/topkit-simulations-737-classic/model/base_external_lod00.gltf
vfs://topkit-simulations-737-classic/SimObjects/Airplanes/topkit-simulations-737-classic/modelAttachments/merge_external_lod00.gltf

Hopefully this can be added, thanks in advance!

Expected Behavior

If everything works as it should (and if I fully understand the process), this should merge the models in sim and display both to add things like liveries.

Steps To Reproduce

1. Export a base model with a certain node name e.g: x0_fuselage
2. Export a model to add to the existing model as a new GLTF, also including a node with the same name "x0_fuselage"
3. Merge model in the base model xml file using the element:

<LOD minSize="150" ModelFile="base_external_lod00.gltf">
	<MergeModel>..\modelAttachments\merge_external_lod00.gltf</MergeModel>
</LOD>

4. Build package results in the errors above

Environment

- OS: Windows 10
- Blender: 3.0.0
- glTF-Blender-IO-MSFS: 1.1.6

Anything else?

No response

[ghost]

indeed this has a maximum priority ...I'm on it

[ghost]

@BrianDavos please let me know if this solve the issue so I can merge the PR

[BrianDeVos]

@lpierabella there's a spelling mistake, it should be ASOBO_unique_id, not ASOBO_uniqueID.

When changing that in the source GLTF file it still does not compile since the bones I am using do not get their own unique ID, just the armature.

Thank you so much for getting to this so fast!

[BrianDeVos]

Added to that, a possibility to add a custom unique ID to specified objects would be really beneficial. So when exporting with the option enabled, objects with a custom unique ID will use that custom ID while objects without a custom ID would get one on export.

Also, because bones can have the same name on export (apparently), there would be a need for a unique ID for every object, otherwise the packagebuilder will throw an error citing a non unique ID is used.

[ghost]

I fixed the typo and added the support for bones

[ghost]

Added to that, a possibility to add a custom unique ID to specified objects would be really beneficial. So when exporting with the option enabled, objects with a custom unique ID will use that custom ID while objects without a custom ID would get one on export.

Also, because bones can have the same name on export (apparently), there would be a need for a unique ID for every object, otherwise the packagebuilder will throw an error citing a non unique ID is used.

I'm not sure about this, I could easily add a per object property that allows setting manually the unique_id, however from the documentation the nodes and bones names in blender seems to be granted as unique.
How can you have two bones with the same name?

[BrianDeVos]

For some reason bones can have the same name as long as they're in different armatures. I have multiple armatures that each have bones with the exact same name.

Edit: So to elaborate some more, these don't get renamed on exporting the gltf from blender, however they do get renamed when building the package. But that leads to them not having a unique ID as it's still the same as the original name which was used multiple times.

[ghost]

I see, isn't it better to manage the uniqueID directly by renaming the bone?
Or do you think is better to add a custom property in the object section?

[BrianDeVos]

It would of course be better to rename bones to a more unique name indeed.

However, when exporting a model that you want to be merged by the simulator, the unique ID has to be truly unique, while the node name has to be the same as the node you want to merge with (This seems very vaguely documented in the SDK. As I read it, it should happen the other way around). This means, if every id has to be unique but the node name has to be the same to be merged, customising the unique ID would be beneficial to the user.

What I currently have working in sim is the following are the following nodes which are merged:

MAIN MODEL

{
            "extensions" : {
                "ASOBO_unique_id" : {
                    "id" : "x0_fuselage_no_eyebrows"
                }
            },
            "extras" : {
                "ant_landscape" : {},
                "fsx_anim_tag" : "",
                "fsx_anim_length" : "0"
            },
            "mesh" : 16,
            "name" : "x0_fuselage_no_eyebrows"
        }

SUBMODEL

{
            "extensions" : {
                "ASOBO_unique_id" : {
                    "id" : "x0_fuselage_no_eyebrows_merge"
                }
            },
            "mesh" : 0,
            "name" : "x0_fuselage_no_eyebrows"
        }

So as you can see, the node name is the same, while the ID is truly unique. On the other hand, when I now change the node name to something different the merging process doesn't happen. Additionally when I switch it around, so node name different and unique ID the same I get an error. I get the same error if the node name and the unique ID are the same.

So for external users to merge anything with a model, the unique ID has to be changeable.

[ghost]

I see, I'll add a unique_id property per object
The behavior will be like in max if not specified the uniqueID is by default the name of the object otherwise the specified uniqueID in the object section has the priority

[BrianDeVos]

You are an absolute legend! Thanks so much for the insanely fast changes you made. Aside from the things I mentioned, everything fully functions and I can no merge models in sim!

[ghost]

my last push should solve the issue...let me know

[BrianDeVos]

It fully functions as expected, thanks for the support!

[ghost]

I'm closing as this is done in #145