world_exporter

A Minecraft Forge mod for exporting parts of a world to a Wavefront .obj file.

Features

• Resource/texture pack support, including PBR packs (requires Optifine and a LAB-PBR 1.3 pack)
  • Capable of exporting normal, roughness, metallic, height, and ambient occlusion maps
• Modded blocks are supported, including tile entity renderers
• Entities like beds, chests, item frames, mobs, players, dropped items, etc. are supported
• Includes mesh optimizations with texture tiling for smaller file sizes and fewer vertices/faces
• Multiple config options to cull faces that don't connect to areas exposed to skylight
  • This can eliminate useless faces for things like caves and underground structures when the areas of interest are primarily exterior
  • Enabling this on a 2048x256x2048 block export reduced the number of faces from ~22 million to ~7.6 million

Usage

Install the mod jar like you would any other forge mod, by copying the .jar file into your forge mods directory.

When in game, run: /worldexport {radius} {lower} {upper} {optimizeMesh} {randomizeTextures} {threads}

radius: the radius of the export extending from your current position, in blocks (integer) (required)

lower: lower height y level (integer) (optional:default=0)

upper: upper height y level (integer) (optional:default=255)

optimizeMesh: if the resulting mesh should be optimized (true/false) (optional:default=true)

randomizeTextures: if the program should export textures exactly as they appear in Minecraft, with slight differences in textures patterning for some blocks (true/false) (optional:default=false)

threads: how many threads to use when exporting (integer) (optional:default=4,max=32)

Using true for randomizeTextures will significantly reduce how well the mesh optimization performs due to slight differences in texture patterns between some blocks.

Using a value higher than 1 for threads may result in a slightly higher vertex count and will require more memory per each thread used.

Example usage with default values:

/worldexport 64 0 255 true false 4 or simply /worldexport 64

Note:

• Due to clientside command limitations with 1.16.5, the /worldexport command will not show up as a registered command. Regardless, it functions properly.
• Due to limitations with the Wavefront .obj format, a new texture must be created for each different texture color. Consider turning Biome Blend, found in Minecraft's video settings, to a lower value (or off) to reduce the number of textures required for biome color transitions.
• If you have Optifine installed and a compatible resource pack with connected textures, the exporter will use the current Optifine connected textures setting. If enabled, many textures may be exported.

To export areas larger than your render distance, chunks within a provided radius can be held in memory instead of unloading when they leave your render distance. Run /worldexport keepradius {radius} where radius is an integer (in chunks, not blocks). Use -1 for the radius to revert back to default and forget the chunks that are currently stored.

Configuration

The mod has multiple options that can be changed using Forge's configuration system.

You can either install Configured for a config GUI or edit the CLIENT configuration .toml manually: run /config showfile worldexporter CLIENT to get the config location. A reload of the world (or server reconnect) might be required in some cases to apply config settings after saving the file.

Descriptions of the configuration options are provided in the config file and are also visible through Configured.

Renders of an Exported World

These renders were created by Shane-SDK using both this tool and Blender.

A python script for fixing texture issues after importing into Blender can be found in the scripts folder.

TODO:

Current limitations:

• The export radius is limited by your render distance (see the /worldexport keepradius command as a temporary workaround)
• End portal effect and enchantment glint is not properly exported