Game Editing > 3D Modeling & Content Creation

3D Modeling WIP Topic

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kat:
This following MD3 EXPORT info is now maintained in a separate topic located here


Try this for exporting. I've had a look at the available info and this is about as close as I can get to a reasonable description based on what I know about exporting to MD3 - it needs to be cross-referenced and checked. (Try tracking down stuff by Paul Jacques or Paul Steed, they should have some valid info on this).

Prepping mesh for MD3
The mesh needs to be composed of three sections each of which needs to be a 'closed' mesh (open surfaces should be 'sealed'?). Name the sections in Object Mode as follows (note that the prefix, "h_", is a subsection reference so anything that should be associated with the "head" section of the mesh should be prefixed with "h_", the torso, "u_" etc..);

* head - named "h_head" (upper_head)?
* torso - named "u_torso" (upper_torso)?
* legs - named "l_legs" (lower_legs)The "Point of Origin" (the pink dot) for each section needs to be on Blenders "0,0,0" grid so position the cursor there, then reposition the origin to the cursor (make sure to do this before doing ANY animations if the model is rigged).

Prepping armature
When rigging a character, in order for the legs to "run" at the same time as "firing" a weapon, the rig is split into two separate armature objects, and "upper" and "lower" sections. This enables the characters lower half to do something different to the upper half. These are not exported (the rigs that is, as animation is vertex baked). However it does mean that any animation also needs to be 'split' in similar fashion, so a "run" cycle may only have a 'legs' animation, whereas a "death" animation would have both an 'legs' and 'torso' animation sequence. (Note: the origin point of the armature/s will need to be the same "0,0,0" axis centre otherwise you'll get problems - although you can do the above to a rig it's best to centre the cursor beforehand and then build the rig around that anchor point).

Prepping Materials for MD3
Materials will need to be duplicated depending on their assignment - if a character model uses the same texture applied to the entire model, when the mesh is broken into sub-sections, there should be three (or more) separate materials named as follows (this will likely need to be the texture name ID rather than the bitmap image "Source:" or filename);

* "l_legs" (material for 'lower' mesh section)
* "u_torso" (material for upper torse section)
* "h_head" (material for head section)Materials need to be referenced from the 'root', i.e. "models/players/character" so it's best to work from within that directory (where "models/" would be a root folder on a hard-drive "D:\models\")

MD3 models use "skin" files (*.skn?) which are simple *.txt docs renamed *.skn. They contain text references to textures (are these actually "shader" references?) similat to;

* "h_head,models/players/character/head.tga"'Tags'
"Tags" are Blender "Empty" objects and positioned at centre-points where other objects are to be connected to a mesh - they are position markers in other words; "tag_weapon" for instance is where weapon models 'connect' to the mesh when held by the player. Name the Empty in Object Mode, position and parent to an appropriate bone (depending on what's being 'tagged' you want the object to move with an animation);

* "tag_weapon" would be parented to a bone called 'hand' - weapons models attach to this
* "tag_torso" would be parented (and positioned) relative to the 'hip' - allows different 'top' sections to be attached to the 'lower' section of the model
* "tag_head" would be parented and positioned relative to the neck - allows different heads to connect the mesh
* (note: doesn't appear to be a need for "tag_legs")

silicone_milk:
oh wow thanks that's going to be really helpful.

After reading it I split up my mesh and started working on some UV stuff just to get a sense of how the deformations will look during animation.

Here's what I got in terms of density:
[dead images]

kat:
Try an even them out a bit more. You may also need to increase density on the breasts because *cough* that's where the eyes tend to focus. :o Joking aside... use the Live Unwrap ability in the UV/Image Editor to pin a few vertexes (select, press "P" ["Alt+P" to clear]) and move the UV's around to get a better distribution when unwrapping odd shapes like that, it can be difficult otherwise to get the UVW's to unwrap properly around shapes that protrude and undercut like that.

In effect ideally you want to avoid having too great a difference between sections - you've got a 2:1 ratio in some parts which may look a little odd; if you keep that difference swap them around so the higher/better density is on section that have greater detailing requirements (arms rather than chest/torso).

The info above is missing 'animation' info.. there's likely a file that needs to be written that references each animation sequence so the game know what it should be playing - I don't have a copy of Quake 3 installed so I can't check the file structure, but it shuold be similar to the way MD5 work where we produce the assets and then create a 'def' file to pull it all together.

[edit]you might be able to use the javaMD3Viewer to dissect/test some models and see how they work

silicone_milk:
Hmm. I figured the density on the breasts could be lower because it would be mostly similar colors with the only detail being the nipple to do in the texture.

I see what you're getting at with the varying densities between mesh parts though. I'll have to work on that.

As for that java thing. I've been trying to get it working for about 4 hours now and I've pretty much given up. I extracted the files exactly where the readme says to put them and when I try to run it I get this:

"Sorry, can't find the library: GL4JavaJauGljJNI14
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no GL4JavaJauGljJNI14 in java.library.path"

kat:
Check to see how many versions of Java you have installed.. I had problems getting it to run as well until I copied the files into *every* install... I don't know why Java changed the way they do that - updates don't remove previous installs so you don't know if misc. files are being referenced from the older installs.

PS: I've only have access to Vista and XP so Win7 might be different with respect to Java

[edit] I've got my main java viewer files in a folder - contains the main "md3view.jar" file.
(Animation file needed for the above instructions appears to be called "animation.cfg" - this holds the sequence refs).

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