Battlezone 2 modeling
This is a little information file about the DotXSI file format. Most of the info is directly from Softimage (thats why it sounds a bit like a sales brochure). I extracted the inportant info for BZ2 modeller
The dotXSI File Format
The dotXSITM file format is an ASCII file format defined by Softimage Co. to store SOFTIMAGE-�|3D and SOFTIMAGE|XSI scene data. You can use it to simplify the import and export of characters, models, and animation for complete customizability of any game-development pipeline. The file format lets you include user data, making it straightforward to introduce new types of custom information.
Version 3.0 of the file format includes support for meshes, NURBS, hierarchies, skeletons, 2D IK chains, animation constraints, Hermite spline function curves, envelope weights (also on NURBS surfaces), custom effects, and user data.
The dotXSI file format is optimized for current game engine technology, and it can be easily:
Imported into and exported from SOFTIMAGE|3D (v3.8 and later) and SOFTIMAGE|XSI 1.5.
Exported from SOFTIMAGE|3D and SOFTIMAGE|XSI and imported into the XSI Viewer.
Used to exchange scene data between SOFTIMAGE|3D and SOFTIMAGE|XSI.
Imported into third-party software.
Converted into other file formats.
Extended and customized to meet any special needs.
Compatibility
The current version of SOFTIMAGE|3D can read and write versions 1.3, 2.0, and 3.0 dotXSI files. Note, however, that while an older version of SOFTIMAGE|3D can load more recent versions of dotXSI files, it ignores templates that it does not recognize.
SOFTIMAGE|XSI v1.5 can read and write v3.0 dotXSI files.
What version is Battlezone 2 using?
BZ2 is accepting XSI models version 1.1. The pandemic plugin for MAX is saving in XSI V1.1
However, I am told that XSI V1.3 is also working in BZ2. This means you cannot create models in SOFTIMAGE|XSI and export them directly to BZ2. But you can in SOFTIMAGE|3D (I dont know which version of SOFTIMAGE|3D is exporting to V1.3 but 3.8 and 3.9 have been reported to being able to create XSI models that work in BZ2.
How to determine the XSI version of a model?
All dotXSI files must begin with a header. The file header indicates the file format and its revision number.
Field Size
(bytes) Contents Description
Magic number 4 ‘xsi’ File type
Version/major number 2 01 Major version 1
Version/minor number 2 03 Minor version 3
Format type 4 ‘txt’ Text file
‘bin’ Binary file
‘com’ Compressed file
Compression type 4 ‘lzw’
‘zip’
Float size 4 0064 64-bit floats
4 0032 32-bit floats
Examples
xsi 0103txt 0032
Reading left to right, this indicates:
dotXSI file format.
Version 1.3.
A text file.
32-bit floating-point values.
XSI v2.0 files generated begin with:
xsi 0200txt 0032
[img:2zk4mr6n]http://www.bzuniverse.com/~fish.xsi/xsi.htm[/img:2zk4mr6n]
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