mirror of
https://github.com/DrBeef/ioq3quest.git
synced 2024-11-10 06:41:58 +00:00
Added readme detailing about the MD4/MDR format ioquake3 supports.
This commit is contained in:
parent
55453fd919
commit
f1afb6ae1a
1 changed files with 54 additions and 0 deletions
54
md4-readme.txt
Normal file
54
md4-readme.txt
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
|
|||
##########################################################
|
||||
# Info about the MD4 format supported by the ioQ3 engine #
|
||||
##########################################################
|
||||
|
||||
All models included with the original version of Quake3 from id soft are in
|
||||
the MD3 format. Animations in this format are realized by saving the position
|
||||
of every vertex in each frame which can make these files pretty large.
|
||||
|
||||
ID started work on a newer format, the MD4 format which they never finished.
|
||||
This format uses a skeleton with all vertices "attached" to their bones.
|
||||
Because only the position of the bones must be stored for each frame and the
|
||||
number of bones is not very high this format is more efficient when
|
||||
doing animations.
|
||||
|
||||
Raven software "finished" this format originally started by ID and included
|
||||
it in their game EliteForce. They called their model format "MDR" which is
|
||||
the name I have used throughout the sourcecode and I will continue using in
|
||||
this readme. Since the code on how to handle those MDR files was released
|
||||
under a GPL licence a long time ago, I was able to implement this format for
|
||||
Quake3 and do some efficiency improvements.
|
||||
To enable the support for this model format, go to qcommon/qfiles.h,
|
||||
remove the comment slashes for #define RAVENMDR and then compile the engine.
|
||||
|
||||
Including finished MDR models in your projects is easy: just load the model
|
||||
files in your cgame code as you would normally load an MD3 model. The engine
|
||||
will expect the models to have a ".mdr" suffix.
|
||||
The rest is pretty much the same: Selecting the current animation frame,
|
||||
adding a skin to the model, etc..
|
||||
You can check out the original eliteforce game sourcecode if you want to
|
||||
have examples on using the md4s. The source can be got at:
|
||||
http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/
|
||||
You can also get reference MDR files there, just go to the model/skin
|
||||
section there and pick something to download.
|
||||
|
||||
Now here comes the tricky part:
|
||||
Creating files with this format. There are tools to create these kinds of
|
||||
MDR files, like a plugin for Milkshape.
|
||||
|
||||
A pretty good overview about MDR file creation is available at
|
||||
http://synapse.vgfort.com/
|
||||
You can find some tools for creating MDR files there.
|
||||
|
||||
On a sidenote:
|
||||
There is an independent implementation of the MD4 file format available
|
||||
here:
|
||||
http://gongo.quakedev.com/
|
||||
At this time, ioquake3 has no support for these models though that may
|
||||
change in the future. Nevertheless, he has got a tool for skeletal
|
||||
animations that can possibly be hooked into the MDR format with some
|
||||
modifications.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Good luck!
|
||||
- Thilo Schulz
|
Loading…
Reference in a new issue