Adinos Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I was wondering if anyone has ever written a model viewer for KotOR, or if not, whether information on the model file format is available, so I could more easily write it myself. I'd rather not spend my time reverse-engineering the format if someone else has done it already. _________________ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriggerGod Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I was wondering if anyone has ever written a model viewer for KotOR, or if not, whether information on the model file format is available, so I could more easily write it myself. I'd rather not spend my time reverse-engineering the format if someone else has done it already. _________________ GMax(Free) and 3dsMax($$$) can open the files if you convert the model files (.mdl and .mdx) you get from KTool into an -ascii.mdl file using MdlOps, and using the NWMax plugin for GMax or 3dsMax, you can bring the models into GMax/3ds. Then you have to select the parts of the body/head/whatever (usually clearly marked as head, hair, body, larm, rarm, etc. In GMax, to select them, the hot key is H and use control to select more then one.) then apply the skin to the body/head/whatever (in gmax, hotkey is M. Select Metal as the Shader, press the gray box next to Ambient/Difuse, and select the texture file) And there you go, you have your texture. Its probably not going to be the best quality or the quality it will have in game, so don't worry. In 3ds, I've heard that to get the best idea of your texture, you can use the rendering feature. But GMax doesn't have that feature standard, so you'll have to surf the net for the rendering plugin download. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adinos Posted February 7, 2009 Author Share Posted February 7, 2009 A bit too complicated - I was more wondering if something like this http://nwn.bioware.com/downloads/viewer.html existed - just a simple viewer, nothing more. Thanks for the info, anyhow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adinos Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 Well, as it seems there is no stand-alone model viewer, I just wrote one myself. Here are a few sample images - just picked some random models from KotOR and KotOR2. The viewer is not 100% ready - there is a handful of models that do not look right, and there are some things I would like to add, but I need information from BioWare for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedHawke Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Wow! Adinos, just wow! That could come in mighty handy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferc Kast Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 It looks very cool!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Fett Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Uh.. Wow.. People have been wanting something like this for quite a while! Kudos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quanon Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Wow, nice, very nice O_O This will come handy to find things quickly without to start Gmax or Max up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canderis Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Wow cool! Will this support custom skins and models? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tk102 Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Those screenshots are pretty inspiring Adinos, nice job so far! It's been a long time since since we've seen new mod tools around here. Make me nostalgic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glovemaster Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 The release of all tools "model related" are always exciting I look forward to seeing this complete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth InSidious Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Wow, that's great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adinos Posted March 13, 2009 Author Share Posted March 13, 2009 Well, I have to fix a couple of things before I am comfortable with releasing this. There are three models that don't look right - something wrong with the textures, and a few more models where the lighing doesn't look right, as if the normals are reversed or something. I should get this finished next week, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quanon Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 Well, I have to fix a couple of things before I am comfortable with releasing this. There are three models that don't look right - something wrong with the textures, and a few more models where the lighing doesn't look right, as if the normals are reversed or something. I should get this finished next week, though. Just out of interest: Do you need to compile the models with MDLops first or do you use something you wrote for yourself to read the Binary models. If you use MDLops, well you're bound to run into some troublesome models. Its a good program, but it looks like it can't do certain models without faults in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adinos Posted March 21, 2009 Author Share Posted March 21, 2009 I read the binary MDL/MDX files. Easy enough for KotOR and KotOR2, but I wanted to handle Jade Empire too, as that file format is quite similar, but I am having some trouble there. If I cannot solve it, I'll just release the viewer as it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quanon Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 I read the binary MDL/MDX files. Easy enough for KotOR and KotOR2, but I wanted to handle Jade Empire too, as that file format is quite similar, but I am having some trouble there. If I cannot solve it, I'll just release the viewer as it is. Wow, so you know whats in there and what all the fields thingies, etc of the meshes ? See my friend GloveMaster is trying his best to figure it all out and he has plans to spend his summer on getting MDLops finished. The little program can do a lot already, but certain fields in the mdl and mdx are unknown what they do, what they are and so on... Where thinking about lightmaps, we need find a way to get things in the second channel of a 3D mesh for that... well and theres the animation bit aswell Anyway, to cut my jibberish short, perhaps you could help GloveMaster out on develloping a good little tool that can handle everything 3D modelwize for the kotor games... that would be such blast ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sithspecter Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 This looks great Adinos! Thanks for working on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewton Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Excellent! This will be a great help with skinning when released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriggerGod Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 A question Adinos; since this viewer can read binary models, will it be able to show edited models? (you add a set of horns to a head, you make the model files, and your viewer will be able to view your edited model just like other models?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adinos Posted April 8, 2009 Author Share Posted April 8, 2009 OK, I made a small addition that might be useful - the ability to see how a different texture would look on the model. This screenshot shows three instances of the viewer running - the first is the original, the second shows the texture replaced with a different one, where the blue has been changed to red, and the third is mostly for fun .. shows the model in wireframe mode. Now, I'm not quite ready to release this officially yet - there are still a few bugs that remain, but if anyone wants to be a beta tester, drop me a note - PM Me Your Email Please, and I'll send you the current version. Snipped email address as per our posted rules. It keeps away the spam bots. Please use Private Messages (PM) to exchange this info instead. Thanks. -RH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Down Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Really looking forward to this! BTW. Will it also support KotOR 2 models? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferc Kast Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Sounds like a neat little feature. Really looking forward to this! BTW. Will it also support KotOR 2 models? I'm just taking a wild guess that it does, per the following: Here are a few sample images - just picked some random models from KotOR and KotOR2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quanon Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Hello, thanks to Marius, who handed over a copy of your little program, I gave it try and its pretty neat. I've peeked at some creatures and character model, but also tried some of my own area models. It all seems to work EDIT: Sometimes though I need to alter the background color, or the rotation speed to get the rendering back. Often I just get an empty window, showing my desktop. And now and then I encounter the black models, most of my weapon models are so... though they appear ok in the game. Its weird Makes me happy I can check my area models without starting the game all the time. Though perhaps on that specific topic, area models. Would it be possible to implement a zoom function, so I can get closer Or better, a full moveable camera; though that might be to much to ask. Its seems to run smoothly on my PC, though a bit quircky, if another window or program passes over it, the rendering seems to go faulty a bit. Anyway great job, I hope you continue to work on this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adinos Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Well, this is a beta, so there are still some bugs - and this is the very first DirectX or C# application I have ever written so I am still learning..... I will be trying to fix whatever is broken and to add features. Simple zoom (mouse wheel, maybe) should be relatively simple, for example. I should have an updated version in a week or two. Let me know about any issues you find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queen of Night Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Oh this is very good and a alternativ to Gmax. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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