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diff --git a/md4-readme.txt b/md4-readme.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..315fad0 --- /dev/null +++ b/md4-readme.txt @@ -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 |