3DC 5.0.7

Hi Richard,

I had another go at the cross-section modelling and following your instructions, this time I got it right.

Once again many thanks for your great support of this program.

Mike.
:

Alex,

I realize you are trying to help. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

People have been successful at reading in and animating Neutral Object Format files in two of the four game development environments you mentioned.

I wouldn’t be surprised if all four have 3rd party support for Neutral Object Format in a matter of months. andnbsp;

Richard

Alex,

Thanks for the suggestions.

The research phase for 3DC 6 will take quite a while. I have some specific goals that include:

1) New renderer to support many of the andquot;latestandquot; features (shadow mapping, cartoon rendering, light maps etc.)
2) Improved Operations architecture to permit more andquot;in-placeandquot; object modifications.

But I am pretty open after that.

I personally thing that Neutral Object Format is better (and simpler) than MD2 so I would encourage people to create readers for NOF (There are already a couple in the works). But, another option would be to write a NOF reader that translates to MD2 for those that andquot;Needandquot; MD2. I really should provide a NOF reader written in VB for those who want to convert it to other formats such as MD2.

Richard

Alex,

I added some more information on Neutral Object Format:

[img:31jc6z41]http&#58;//www&#46;amabilis&#46;com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB&#46;cgi?board=3DCProScriptingandamp;action=displayandamp;num=1011347221[/img:31jc6z41]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amabilis.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=3DCProScriptingandamp;action=displayandamp;num=1011347221">http://www.amabilis.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/Ya … 1011347221</a><!– m –>

Richard

Alex,

You’re welcome.

As soon as I have links, I will post them.

Richard

Alex,

So do you always get what you want? <!– s;) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!– s;) –>

Here is my first MD2 import. I won’t be able to create a andquot;correctandquot; MD2 export though. I won’t be exporting the OpenGL information required. It could well be that those people using MD2 to import into Direct3D apps won’t need this information anyhow.

But adding limited support for MD2 to 3DC has to be considered a andquot;good thingandquot;. Even if it is pretty limited.

I’m also hoping to add support for PCX. But, I am not sure that I can get that andquot;rightandquot;.

I still think that Neutral Object Format is a better format. Much less restricted.

Richard

Importing of textures/UV coordinates now works. And the use of PCX files (though they must be andquot;conformingandquot;).

Importing of animation isn’t going to happen though.

On to exporting…. a tougher task.

Richard

Alex,

I appear to have the md2 export working.

Two things I don’t support: (and probably won’t)

1) The normals of Quake 2 (it uses a table of some sort)
andnbsp; andnbsp;This should be easy to fix in-game be regenerating normals
2) the OpenGL stuff

I would appreciate it if you gave it a try. I know it loads into a certain low-cost modeling program (that will remain nameless), doesn’t load into a andquot;viewerandquot;. All I really care about is that it loads into game development systems. I’ve got an animated sample that uses the abalone.bmp texture: [img:f5qxvdse]http&#58;//amabilisplus&#46;com/downloads/md2test&#46;zip[/img:f5qxvdse]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://amabilisplus.com/downloads/md2test.zip">http://amabilisplus.com/downloads/md2test.zip</a>&lt;!– m –>
(481k)

I’ll have a look at Truevision etc.

Thanks,

Richard

Thanks for giving the export a test. I am busy attempting to get the MD2 export as good as it can be.

I am naming frames, but I am not naming them using the proper conventions. I am looking at giving users the opportunity to name frames themselves, as this seems to be important.

The scale is all relative of course. Should I multiply everything by 10? Or by 100? Does that really make sense? Shouldn’t a unit be a unit?

This is all pretty time consuming. I was hoping to get it all done it a day, and it is going to take two. Oh well…

Richard

Alex,

I guess that I shouldn’t REALLY be complaining about spending 2 days on MD2 andnbsp;. I’m just in a hurry!

A new test for you:

[img:33qxk2cu]http&#58;//amabilisplus&#46;com/downloads/md2test2&#46;zip[/img:33qxk2cu]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://amabilisplus.com/downloads/md2test2.zip">http://amabilisplus.com/downloads/md2test2.zip</a>&lt;!– m –>
(262 k)

I think that I have more or less nailed this now. It loads into MED.

I also added the andquot;scaleandquot; on export feature also.

Oh, and I recorded at 10 FPS

Richard

Alex,

Darn, I thought I was done!

The FPS option is already there.

I can see why the mirror option is necessary. There really is no standard as to what is andquot;correctandquot;.

So here is what I propose:

Check boxes:

1) Flip Y/Z (checked by default)
2) Mirror X
3) Mirror Y
4) Mirror Z
5) Invert (the same as the 3DC invert)

Richard

I don’t like to confuse importing and exporting so I don’t add import/export options. I just make sure that I am exporting the format correctly. If I am exporting correctly then there is nothing to worry about. It is the responsibily of the importing program to read the format correctly. If it doesn’t it should provide the tools to correct it.

However, I am forced to add options for MD2 since there doesn’t appear to be a standard, and the importing programs may not be able to correct the non-standard issues.

Richard

Oh,

I looked at the conventions for andquot;frames namesandquot;, and it appears that some files have numbered frames and others do not. I’ll leave it as is since I think there isn’t any real harm in it.

Richard

So, I had ANOTHER look at frame numbering and decided to provide this as an option.

So MD2 and NOF are done.

Richard