----------------------------------------------------------------------------- MedDLe v1.3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- by brian martin brian@phyast.pitt.edu http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~brian Disclaimer: The author takes no responsiblity for misuse of this program. He also is not responsible for any damage caused by it. NOTE: this won't save files because quake registered isn't out! and it won't read the flame mdls. This is just a patched up version of the old mdl. A newer one is in the works. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quick Start: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- edit mdl.cfg to fit your needs run mdl (i.e. "mdl player.mdl") hit key '1' for help ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. About MedDLe 2. Installation 3. Basic Use 4. Editing MDL files 5. History ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. About ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- MedDLe is a program which lets you look at and edit the mdl files in quake. These are the files which describe the objects in quake and are located in the QUAKE\PROGS directory. You have to first unpack the id1.pak file with a program like unpack or qube. These can both be found at ftp.cdrom.com. Features : View bitmaps (object textures) View/edit point mapping of the vertices View/edit polygon mapping Export model textures to a BMP file Import BMP files to give objects a new 'skin' View mdl header information 3D View of object (vertex/wire frame/flat shaded/texture mapped views) Animation frame browser ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Installation ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- You should stick MedDLe in its own directory. Just unzip MDLv02.ZIP in a suitable directory (i.e. c:\mdl). You should have these files in the MedDLe directory: MDL.EXE -the executable MDL.CFG -the configuration file MDL.FNT -the fonts MDL.PAL -the palette MDL.MAP -the colormap MDLSRC.ZIP -the source code CWSDPMI.EXE -dpmi environment (not needed if in windows) If everything is in place, bring up MDL.CFG in a text editor and set the path variable and video driver to match your system. You can set the video resolution here too. When your done, save the file. That's it! note: You may need a 386/483sx and math co-procesor or a 486dx or higher to run this. I don't know. There are several math emulators on the net if it doesn't work on your numerically challenged machine. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Basic Use ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- MedDLe has no GUI at this point. Live with it. MedDLe is can both be used to view and edit mdl files. To start the program just type 'mdl file.mdl' where 'file.mdl' is a valid mdl filename. You start in 3D mode (unless you use the -2 switch). The keys here are (usually press once to turn on and again to turn off): !!!! This changed(ver 1.3)! Run mdl and hit '1' for the low down. !!!! c: cycle animation frames v: view vertices w: view wireframe f: view flat shading g: view gouraud shading (not enough quake info for this yet) t: view texture mapping h: view header info b: change background color 2: goto 2D mode UP ARROW: move view point up DOWN ARROW: move view point down RIGHT ARROW: goto next animation frame LEFT ARROW: goto previous animation frame Esc: quit the program MOUSE LEFT/RIGHT: rotate object around z-axis MOUSE UP/DOWN + LEFT BUTTON: zoom in/out MOUSE UP/DOWN + RIGHT BUTTON: rotate object around y-axis Just think of the mouse as your hand grabbing the object. It should then be easy to control. If you hit the '2' key, you will go to 2D mode. Here the keys are: v: view vertices w: view wireframe s: save mdl file <---------- Remember 3: goto 3D mode Esc: quit the program The mouse can be used to move vertices in this mode. To import a BMP file, at the command line type: mdl -i file.bmp file.mdl To export a BMP file type: mdl -e file.bmp file.mdl NOTE: When you use MedDLe, it will read the original mdl files from the quake/progs directory but will do all saving and reading from the current directory. If you load MedDLe in your quake/progs directory, you may end up erasing something you wish you hadn't. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Editing MDL files ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following explains the basic proceedure for replacing object textures. In this example the 'player.mdl' file is modified with the texture 'play1.bmp'. 1. First export the original texture. It will be saved in your MedDLe directory. 'mdl -e play0.bmp player.mdl' 2. Now go off and modify the texture in your favorite paint program. Make sure you use the original palette of the 'play0.bmp' file. Save the modified texture as 'play1.bmp' and place it in your MedDLe directory. 3. Import the new texture. 'mdl -i play1.bmp player.mdl' 4. Get into 2D mode (hit '2'). Now press 'v' and 'w' to show the polygon mapping. You can use the mouse to tweak some of the vertices. You want to make sure that you don't change the original layout too much, but also want to make sure there is no background showing through any of the polygons. You should toggle back and forth between 2D mode and 3D mode to check that the texture mapping is ok. When your done tweaking, PRESS 's' IN 2D MODE to save your changes. NOTE: If you don't press 's' in 2D mode your imported texture will NOT be saved! 5. Copy the new 'player.mdl' file to the quake/progs directory. You may want to back up the original 'player.mdl' before doing this. 6. Run QUAKE! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. History ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- v1.3 -includes source with public release -gouraud shading with colormap -new file format support -help screens -more comments in source and some cleaning v1.2 -released with source -better mouse control v1.1 -not released-gui experiments -gouraud shading v1.0 -now you can edit the 2d vertices -fixed bugs which caused crashes in 3d mode -expanded video support via GRX20 -added flat shading to 3d models and texture mapping -you can now cycle through the frames of animation -several other little things v0.1 -added wire frame 3d view -added importing/exporting BMP files v0.00002 - same as v0.00001 but with correct palette v0.00001 (not released, except on IRC) - displayed the skin texture ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Programmers Note: in this version GRX20 was used along with 3DGPL. I sorta merged the two together and stuck some of my own stuff in there. The program is not optimized at all, and a sharp eye will notice that there is no _perspective_ texture mapping. Oh well, maybe I'll get around to that in a later version. Or maybe not. Special thanks goes out to... Chris Babcock for making me aware of the frame data Raphael Quinet and Sean Werkema for giving out their source which made learning to read BMP files easy (also the source taught me a few tricks) Sergei Savchenko for 3DGPL. I learned a lot of 3D programming from that and use several modified versions of his routines for clipping and stuff. DJGPP v2 and the excellent GRX20 graphics lib. Id for quake. Becky for putting up with me :) -end document------------------------------------------------------------------