/****************************************************************************
**
** Copyright (C) 2019 The Qt Company Ltd.
** Contact: https://www.qt.io/licensing/
**
** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit.
**
** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:FDL$
** Commercial License Usage
** Licensees holding valid commercial Qt licenses may use this file in
** accordance with the commercial license agreement provided with the
** Software or, alternatively, in accordance with the terms contained in
** a written agreement between you and The Qt Company. For licensing terms
** and conditions see https://www.qt.io/terms-conditions. For further
** information use the contact form at https://www.qt.io/contact-us.
**
** GNU Free Documentation License Usage
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free
** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of
** this file. Please review the following information to ensure
** the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 requirements
** will be met: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.html.
** $QT_END_LICENSE$
**
****************************************************************************/

/*!
\page qtquick3d-tool-balsam.html
\title Balsam Asset Import Tool
\brief Command line tool for importing assets for use with Qt Quick 3D

The Balsam tool is a command line application that is part of Qt Quick 3D's
asset conditioning pipeline. The purpose is to take assets created in digital
content creation tools like
\l{https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/overview}{Maya},
\l{https://www.autodesk.com/products/3ds-max/overview}{3ds Max}, or
\l{https://www.blender.org/}{Blender} and convert them into an efficient runtime
format for use with Qt Quick 3D. It is not possible, nor does it make sense to
reference the interchange formats directly in applications because a large amount
of resources are needed to parse and condition the content of the asset before it
is usable for realtime rendering. Instead the interchange formats can be
converted via the Balsam tool into QML Components and resources like geometry and
textures.

Usage:
\code
balsam [options] sourceFilename
\endcode

\section1 Example Usage

To convert a 3D asset contained in the file \c testModel.fbx with \c balsam
the following command would be used:

\code
balsam testModel.fbx
\endcode

This would generate the following files:
\list
  \li \c meshes/testModel.mesh
  \li \c TestModel.qml
\endlist

Which can then be used in a Qt Quick 3D project by using that QML Component:
\code \QtMinorVersion
import QtQuick3D 1.\1

TestModel {
   id: modelInstance
}
\endcode

\section1 Supported 3D Asset Types

\list
  \li Wavefront (.obj)
  \li COLLADA (.dae)
  \li FBX (.fbx)
  \li Blender (.blend)
  \li GLTF2 (.gltf, .glb)
\endlist

Some of the formats supported also allow for either embedding or referencing of
texture assets. These assets are also supported, provided Qt also has support
for them.

\section1 Support for 3D Studio Projects

The Balsam tool also has support for converting projects created with Qt 3D Studio
into Qt Quick 3D QML projects.

\list
  \li Qt 3D Studio Application (.uia)
  \li Qt 3D Studio Presentation (.uip)
\endlist

The conversion of Qt 3D Studio projects does have some limitations due to
differences in features available. Features such as Effects and CustomMaterials
are not available and will not be generated. There is also some differences in
how Animations are implemented, so there can be differences in behavior on
conversion. The conversion process will not be 100% and it is expected that some
adjustments will be necessary, but should ease the porting process for existing
projects.

\section1 Supported Options

The following table lists the command-line options recognized by \c balsam when
converting asset files:

\note For each boolean option it is possible to use --disable-<option-name>

\table
\header \li Option \li Description
\row \li \c {--outputPath, -o <outputPath>} \li Sets the location to place the
generated file(s). Default is the current directory.
\row \li \c {--calculateTangentSpace} \li Calculates the tangents and
bitangents for the imported meshes.
\row \li \c {--joinIdenticalVertices} \li Identifies and joins identical vertex
 data sets within all imported meshes.
\row \li \c {--generateNormals} \li Generates normals for all faces of all
meshes.
\row \li \c {--generateSmoothNormals} \li Generates smooth normals for all
vertices in the mesh.
\row \li \c {--splitLargeMeshes} \li Splits large meshes into smaller
sub-meshes.
\row \li \c {--preTransformVertices} \li Removes the node graph and
pre-transforms all vertices with the local transformation matrices of
their nodes.
\row \li \c {--limitBoneWeights} \li Limits the number of bones simultaneously
affecting a single vertex to a maximum value (4).
\row \li \c {--improveCacheLocality} \li Reorders triangles for better vertex
cache locality.
\row \li \c {--removeRedundantMaterials} \li Searches for
redundant/unreferenced materials and removes them.
\row \li \c {--fixInfacingNormals} \li Tries to determine which meshes have
normal vectors that are facing inwards and inverts them.
\row \li \c {--findDegenerates} \li This step searches all meshes for
degenerate primitives and converts them to proper lines or points.
\row \li \c {--findInvalidData} \li This step searches all meshes for invalid
data, such as zeroed normal vectors or invalid UV coords and removes/fixes
them. This is intended to get rid of some common exporter errors.
\row \li \c {--transformUVCoordinates} \li This step applies per-texture UV
transformations and bakes them into stand-alone texture coordinate channels.
\row \li \c {--findInstances} \li This step searches for duplicate meshes and
replaces them with references to the first mesh.
\row \li \c {--optimizeMeshes} \li A postprocessing step to reduce the number
of meshes.
\row \li \c {--optimizeGraph} \li A postprocessing step to optimize the scene
hierarchy.
\row \li \c {--globalScale} \li This step will perform a global scale of the
model.
\row \li \c {--globalScaleValue <value>} \li Global Scale factor used by
\c --globalScale.
\row \li \c {--dropNormals} \li Drops normals for all faces of all meshes.
\row \li \c {--removeComponentNormals} \li Removes Normal component from
meshes.
\row \li \c {--removeComponentTangentsAndBitangents} \li Removes Tangents and
Bitangents components from meshes.
\row \li \c {--removeComponentColors} \li Removes any Color components from
meshes.
\row \li \c {--removeComponentUVs} \li Removes any UV components from meshes.
\row \li \c {--removeComponentBoneWeights} \li Removes any bone weights from
meshes.
\row \li \c {--removeComponentAnimations} \li Removes any animation components
from meshes.
\row \li \c {--removeComponentTextures} \li Removes any embedded texture
components from meshes.
\endtable

The following table lists the command-line options recognized by \c balsam when
converting Qt 3D Studio projects:

\table
\header \li Option \li Description
\row \li \c {--createProjectWrapper} \li Creates a wrapper Window component for
the imported UIA project. Only valid for UIA imports.
\row \li \c {--createIndividualLayers} \li Creates an individual component for
each layer instead of including layer contents in presentation components.
\row \li \c {--framesPerSecond <value>} \li Specifies how many animation
frames are created per second in animations.
\endtable

*/
