Help for making Blender3d exporter (MDL help)

Help for making Blender3d exporter (MDL help)

Hi guys!

Few weeks ago I have started working on mdl exporter for Blender. For these who don't know, Blender is free 3d modeling software. The program exports Vertices, Normals, Faces, Bone names, ObjectId and GeosetId. I encountered problems with some things. Please if you know what thing means and how it is organized tell me. These are things I do not understand (how work):

It is the list of things I do not understand, I'll try to find the explanation but this way it will be faster, so don't "LOL Seek the web":

MODEL:
- MinimumExtent, MaximumExtent, BoundsRadius
SEQUENCES:
- MinimumExtent, MaximumExtent, BoundsRadius
- Rarity
- MoveSpeed
GLOBALSEQUENCES:
- GlobalSequences
- Duration
MATERIALS:
- FilterModes
GEOSET:
- TVertices [these are Texture Vertices probably, maybe U and V coordinate, tell me if i'm correct]
- Groups
- Matrices
- SelectionGroup
GEOSETANIM:
- DontInterp
BONE:
- Translation, Rotation, Hermite, Bezier

- EventObject

I may be able to help with some of this...

MODEL:
- MinimumExtent, MaximumExtent, BoundsRadius

These determine how far off screen the model's origin must be before it is removed/disappears. They also define an area within which you can click to select the unit. I'm not sure which does which, but, basically, they must encompass the whole model.

SEQUENCES:
- MinimumExtent, MaximumExtent, BoundsRadius

Extents/BoundsRadius: same as above. Not sure why the sequences need 'em too, though. I think these override the main model's extents/radius.

- Rarity

If you have several different variations of an animation (three stand anims, for example), then you must define rarity with an integer between (I think) one and five, with five making the sequence rarely play, and with one playing it more often.

GLOBALSEQUENCES:
- GlobalSequences
- Duration

Defines a series of keyframes that move on an independent timeline; they will constantly cycle no matter what sequence is playing. Duration is just how long the sequence lasts.

MATERIALS:
- FilterModes

Defines how the skin is displayed, concerning alpha channels and such. "FilterMode None" means the skin is solid all over; it ignores alpha channels. "FilterMode Transparent" uses the alpha channel for transparency. "FilterMode Additive" makes things ghostly. There are more, but I'm not so sure about them.

GEOSETANIM:
- DontInterp

When the animation hits the keyframe, the model changes; disappears or something, instead of "Linear" which makes a smooth change between keyframes.

BONE:
- Translation, Rotation, Hermite, Bezier

Translation: movement of the bone in X,Y,Z
Rotation: exactly what it says on the tin.
Hermite, Bezier: methods of rotation. No idea how they work.

Hope that helped you some.

im very happy to see you have taken an interest in blender. it is the program i use for every model i have ever made. it is amazing, and i have yet to find an MDX or MDL exporter.

good luck with your project though i have no idea how the hell i can help.

Thanks guys. I'm noob to Python . But the greatest problem is mdl file.

EventObjects are commands used to make the engine spawn object such as: sounds, footsteps, bloodspits and so on. I don't remember the exact composition right now, but there should be a list of them at wc3c.

Filtermode: Blend- could be used for team color if it has two texture layers (one of the main skin, and one of the replaceable teamcolor id) The parts of the main skin that use alpha channel are covered by the second skin. *If* it use only one layer instead, then it act as a Transparent filtermode, but it can be made transparent adding the "StaticAlpha X.X" line (for example, 0.5 for 50% transparency)

Minimum and Maximum extent define the range in wich the model can be seen (positive and negative x,y,z coordinates, 6 in total)
Bound Radius instead, should define the range in wich the model can be selected.

This whole bezier hermite [animation] stuff drives me crazy. Please help me what these mean... Geometry exporting works ^^