Ah ok, I got confused by the first post in this thread. 

Just thought I'd mention this: preach's md3 converter is awesome. Thanks for making that thing. :) 

I am sure most new content would never see the light of day without the various coder utilities that work away in the background. I am sure preach would love to see what you have been up to with his model converter! :P 

I'm glad it's proving useful, and I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that the next generation of the md3 converter is almost half-done! By which I mean that I've written a module in python which loads and saves mdl format models. I'm just working on a few example models to go with it and then I'll put it out here.

Once that's done, all that remains is to clone the code, adapt it to load md3 files instead, then make the glue code for the conversion. The purpose of all this reinventing-the-wheel is that the glue code will hopefully be clear and easy to adapt, allowing for finer control of the md3 to mdl conversion. For example, if you're making a map object which needs to be aligned on the grid to meet the geometry in the map, you might want to specify the scale used in the conversion of the model coordinates. 

I was wondering if you don't mind adding some more features:
* BMP skin support (8 bit) I can't get Photoshop to save in that wacky PCX format you use.
* Multiple skins (via the normal text file)
* Update special mdl keys (rotate etc)
* specify names and groups to animation sets (via the normal text file, a comma delimited list) It is awkward viewing stuff in Qme with just a huge list of numbers for frame names. 

Yes
Yes
Yes and
Yes

The first one will come from using another python library. The pcx thing was largely chosen because I didn't want the md3tomdl source to have any dependencies on external code, and 8bit pcx was just easy enough to hand-parse. I'll make sure that the examples include some that use the library.

Multiple skins and proper group frames are things that are easy to manipulate with a script and the module that I have now. It's the kind of thing that you'd have to write a whole difficult-to-parse syntax in the "config file" method of the existing tool, so I hope the omission thus far is understandable.

As an example, to set the rotate flag on a model would require the following line added to the script:

����mymdl.flags = 8

If the requirement to know the numerical values of the flags is considered too taxing I might be persuaded to include them as constants! 

@preach, that would be awesome to have those features. It is the last things I use Qme for (multiple skins and model flags) and not having Qme in the pipeline will be awesome.

The config file flag of mymdl.flags is fine with me, is this parameter available in the current version?

I totally understand why the skin / animation names option is missing from the current version. Writing a config file parser is always time consuming. 

There seems no point keeping the module back when it would already be useful to you, so here it is:

http://www.btinternet.com/~chapterhonour/qmdl.zip

Pop the qmdl folder in your python "Lib" folder. You can then put the following lines in a file called flag.py to add the flag to the mdl file md3tomdl produces.

��from qmdl.mdl import Mdl
��mymdl = Mdl()
��infile = open(r"input.mdl", "rb")
��mymdl.read(infile)
��infile.close()

��mymdl.flags = 8

��outfile = open(r"output.mdl", "wb")
��mymdl.write(outfile)
��outfile.close()


I'd suggest having a short batch file that calls md3tomdl followed by this python script.

Let me know how it works, I've tested with python 3.2, but if you have an earlier version installed it might still work... 

Some helpful code for renaming frames:

def rename_range(frames, start, name, length):
����for i in range(length):
��������frames[i + start].name = (name + str(i + 1)).encode("ascii")

def rename_frames(mdl, names):
����i = 0
����for name in names:
��������rename_range(mdl.frames, i, *(name))
��������i += name[1]

rename_frames(mymdl, [("walk", 8), ("run", 6), ("stand", 9)])

Essentially you write a list of tuples, where each tuple is the sequence name and length. 

@Preach, unfortunately I don't have python installed, but I can wait, honestly there is no hurry. :) Plus I am busy creating new skins at the moment, so it will be a while before I am back to exporting models again. 

rawr

Sock's mesh, uv and skin and I rigged and posed it.

Thanks again for the converter, preach. Wouldn't have bothered with this stuff without it. 

http://www.simonoc.com/images/design/sp/q1_hknight_commander1.jpg 

 

When i look at this, i start to think the dragon monster would also fit neatly into socks map. 

wow, really nice.

Quake's monster skins tend to have a bit more blood and grime splattered on them; yours looks relatively clean by comparison. 

there's two skins, a clean one and a bloodied one. :) 

Very nice, indeed! 

Very nice ! Would love to see its behaviour ingame :) Go map !! 

The knight with a shield has finally been realised. 

All this new medieval stuff looks like taken from an alternate reality that also happened to just have Q1, it's that good. 

And it's an amazing looking shield! Nice work! 

That's the best looking model I have seen in a while :) 

I like the way is has that humor on his face, while its shield looks so nasty.
Great model face lift! 

It reminds me of John Blanche' illustrations:

http://taran.pagesperso-orange.fr/images/4khorne.jpg

Especially those from Sorcery! 

Something I found on polycount today, linked from the low-poly-models thread

http://wiki.polycount.com/SphereTopology

It's a guide on how to save polys on spheres by collapsing edges that don't improve the silhouette of the shape. It's interesting in itself, but also as a starting point for how to optimise curved models generally.