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Additional model format?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:01
by Eponasoft
Hey all, long-time GZDOOM user here, first time poster here on this forum. I used to post over at Doomworld a lot before the site became unbearably slow to use. Anyway.

So the most recent build doesn't crash for me when using MD3 files, and now I can play TUTNT from beginning to end without any issues. Hooray! :) But one thing has always sat in the back of my mind as I work on my Heretic TC... MD2 and MD3 models are great for animated stuff, but what I think there needs to be is something with a bit more simplicity as well... a simpler model format for static decorations and whatnot. The Wavefront OBJ format is one of the few universally-supported formats out there, and it's pretty easy to implement... hell, we were using it directly on the Nintendo DS a couple of years ago because it's pretty easy to parse and write a loader for. So... yeah... that's my suggestion... would it be possible to add support for the OBJ model format? I find myself needing static models a lot, and Milkshape 3D is one of the crashiest pieces of bugger I've ever used (and they want me to pay money for that thing? yeah, that'll happen... NOT!) so converting things to MD3 doesn't always fly so well. OBJ, on the other hand, can be imported and exported from virtually everything, so it'd be a good candidate for support.

Sorry if this has already come up before... I did a search but didn't get any hits so I figured it hasn't been suggested before but feel free to lock me in a closet somewhere if it has. And I know how busy y'all are, so I won't bug anyone about it. :)

Re: Additional model format?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:57
by Enjay
Not an answer to your question but you may find Misfit Model 3D useful. It feels quite similar to Milkshape and offers a few features that Milkshape doesn't - eg native load/save of MD3 (and MD2) taking some of the pain out of saving MD3s with Milkshape. Make sure to download the development version rather than the last stable one because MD3 support wasn't in the stable one.

Unfortunately development on it has stopped and it does have some annoying quirks (eg not allowing you to delete parts of a model if the model has frames animation and, although it can load Milkshape files, joint/vertex association can get messed up both when importing a Milkshape file and even when using its own format - plus a few other annoyances) but if you want something to handle relatively simple models in MD3 format it could come in handy.

Re: Additional model format?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 16:49
by Eponasoft
Ooh, I forgot all about Misfit... thanks for the tip. It seems it doesn't have 3DS import support, but that's fine'n'dandy, there are other apps that do... can easily convert 3DS to something else and then something else to MD3 in Misfit. Thanks a bunch. Native OBJ support would still be nice though, but I reckon this will likely work in the meantime.