Import 3D object from code

Question

Can 3D objects/meshes be imported/loaded by code from within the running game, or would I have to write my own addon to accomplish this? To be clear, I'm not talking about instantiating a saved scene, but importing a 3d model/mesh from within the game.
I'm developing my infrastructure for an upcoming project and I want the player to be able to mod in-game objects. For example, you might have a drag race simulator and allow the players to design their own 3D car bodies (in Blender) and use them to design their in-game car. And btw, at this stage, I'm not concerned about the security of mods or the problems mods can cause, just possibilities :) Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Yes, you can! Something like this should do the trick:

var cubemeshinstance=MeshInstance.new()
var cubemesh=load('res://cube.msh')
cubemeshinstance.set_mesh(cubemesh)
add_child(cubemeshinstance)
where cube.msh is whatever mesh the user wants to import.

If you want to give it a collider, do the previous from a RigidBody, then do this:
var collshape=BoxShape.new()
collshape.set_extents(Vector3(1,1,1))
add_shape(collshape)
For your application, it sounds like you want to use ConvexPolygonShape or ConcavePolygonShape rather than BoxShape though.

Comments

Thanks for the reply. That is pretty much what I want, but my problem is the .msh file. It is the only file format that I see to define the shape of custom meshes in Godot and it’s created by importing an .obj file in the editor during development. I don’t see any way to either get an .obj into the finished game on the fly, or any way to create an .msh file outside of the Godot editor.

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Did you solve this Michael Paul? Or is there really no way to import .obj files for later modding etc?

Answer 2

For load directly an .obj

    var meshInstance = MeshInstance.new()
    var mesh = load("res://file.obj")
    meshInstance.set_mesh(mesh)
    call_deferred("add_child", meshInstance)

Works.