When we built the first version of RenderStreet, we started with the idea that we can take advantage of Blender’s pack external data feature and make sure the files are uploaded properly, with all the data needed to render them.
As they say, no plan survives the contact with the customer, so a while after we launched we ran into issues with Blender features not supported by the pack operation. Some of them, like the external libraries, were fixed by the dev team. Others, like the font embedding, had workarounds. But it became obvious that sooner or later we will run into something that can’t be supported at all.
The killer feature that does not support packing and requires files to be uploaded unpacked is video textures. These textures can’t be packed into the.blend file and there’s no workaround this time.
So we worked on implementing a way for you to upload unpacked projects, and I am happy to say that we have managed to roll this out a few days ago. Here’s how it works:
- Use relative paths
- Zip up the folder with your blend file and supporting files (textures, fonts and others)
- Make sure the .blend file is in the root of the archive
- Test your zip by moving it to a different directory, unzipping and rendering a frame
- Upload the ZIP file either via the site, or via FTP
- Create a project and enjoy
