2010-04-07, 06:23 PM
I actually just use PSPad's "open in Hex editor" feature, because that's the text editor I tend to use. All hexeditors are pretty much the same deal. Some might layout the hex slightly different. I find I prefer groups of 16bit hex values 8 on each line.
I don't think there is any reason you'd want to manually hexedit a MDL file, other than replacing the TIM texture(s). It's all just very technical model data. Nothing like colours you can tweak in there.
You can see in the header there is num_anims and off_anims. That goes to the animation data block. The data blocks are packet based, so what's in there I can't actually say, because I have not attempted to decode the packets. It is a global block (not per object) so it could be like another file encapsulated within the file (like the TIM texture) for all I know. It's the last thing on my list to figure out. I will want to make sure we have the visuals right first.
I think Quake mdl file frames are very simple vertex morphing animation frames. They don't define a local coordinate system or anything. So that seems very inadequate to me. The MDL format is fairly sophisticated for it's day. It's clearly influenced by the PSOne file formats (it uses Tim textures after all... which was never meant to be used outside of Playstation libraries) so I suspect the MDL format existed so PSOne game models could be easily converted over to Som. The MDO format seems like it might be the more sophisticated of the two, even though obviously the enemies/npcs are dependent upon MDL for their action based animations.
When I'm done you will have a tool that converts very many model formats into a MDL file and other features. I will probably do the MDO format also around the same time just for completeness sake. Therefore I'm trying to say don't knock yourself out too much slaving over hacking the files. But whatever you can find out it might be very helpful if I get stuck once I start staring at MDO files.
I program these kinds of things, so I know what to look for in binary files. I can just stare at the files over some coffee and pretty much work it all out once I sit down to do it.
All in all the MDL format conforms closely to all my expectations and conjectures over the last year. I gotta admit I never expected to sit down and work it out from scratch at this point, but Todd telling me it might be a Quake MDL file seemed to at least get me to look at it. Since I found this PSOne file format bible on my harddrive last night, I'd say it's just a matter of time before I have all the Shadow Tower and PSOne KF stuff converted over for use with Som. It's too bad John is MIA. He really wanted to see this day come.
EDITED: If you have any simple MDO files you've prepared, if you attach them to a post like you did before I can find them later when I need them.
I don't think there is any reason you'd want to manually hexedit a MDL file, other than replacing the TIM texture(s). It's all just very technical model data. Nothing like colours you can tweak in there.
You can see in the header there is num_anims and off_anims. That goes to the animation data block. The data blocks are packet based, so what's in there I can't actually say, because I have not attempted to decode the packets. It is a global block (not per object) so it could be like another file encapsulated within the file (like the TIM texture) for all I know. It's the last thing on my list to figure out. I will want to make sure we have the visuals right first.
I think Quake mdl file frames are very simple vertex morphing animation frames. They don't define a local coordinate system or anything. So that seems very inadequate to me. The MDL format is fairly sophisticated for it's day. It's clearly influenced by the PSOne file formats (it uses Tim textures after all... which was never meant to be used outside of Playstation libraries) so I suspect the MDL format existed so PSOne game models could be easily converted over to Som. The MDO format seems like it might be the more sophisticated of the two, even though obviously the enemies/npcs are dependent upon MDL for their action based animations.
When I'm done you will have a tool that converts very many model formats into a MDL file and other features. I will probably do the MDO format also around the same time just for completeness sake. Therefore I'm trying to say don't knock yourself out too much slaving over hacking the files. But whatever you can find out it might be very helpful if I get stuck once I start staring at MDO files.
I program these kinds of things, so I know what to look for in binary files. I can just stare at the files over some coffee and pretty much work it all out once I sit down to do it.
All in all the MDL format conforms closely to all my expectations and conjectures over the last year. I gotta admit I never expected to sit down and work it out from scratch at this point, but Todd telling me it might be a Quake MDL file seemed to at least get me to look at it. Since I found this PSOne file format bible on my harddrive last night, I'd say it's just a matter of time before I have all the Shadow Tower and PSOne KF stuff converted over for use with Som. It's too bad John is MIA. He really wanted to see this day come.
EDITED: If you have any simple MDO files you've prepared, if you attach them to a post like you did before I can find them later when I need them.