Searched but couldnt find....MD5 meshes and anims??

(criminal) #1

I scoured the board today looking for ANY information on if QW: ET is going to be using the same mesh and anim system that DOOM 3, QUAKE 4 did ie: .md5 mesh and .md5 anims. If anyone has any information on the type of meshing and rigging being used please let me know. The reason i want to know is that the mod i am working on http://www.mechlivinglegends.net has ALOT of models done and would love to test a few of them in the DOOM 3 engine but exporting them as md5meshes would be useless if QW isnt even using the same system. I really hope someone knows.

(kamikazee) #2

There is a fair chance they’ll use MD5, as they are still using .lwo, .ma, .obj, and .ase for static models.
Of course, that doesn’t mean a real thing to modelling…

Anyway, does it hurt to export them to MD5? As long as you keep the original animation files, I believe it shouldn’t matter what format they are exported to?

(criminal) #3

No doesnt hurt at all to export them as md5’s just wanted to know since if they do the player and vehicle models with them then we can test all our models in Q4 without a hitch. That was the main reason for it, doesnt make a difference for making the actual model but i mainly wanted to know if i could begin exporting them and wether it was a waste of time or not.

(RR2DO2) #4

We will be using a modified version of MD5. File format hasn’t changed much (the text version of it at least) but behind the scenes there is a fair bit more going on. Unless you are going to make all your own animations you want to make sure you can convert your models to our skeleton setup though. That way you can reuse the existing ones.

  • Arnout
(criminal) #5

Wow an actual reply from a Dev, am i dreaming? Coming from the Battlefield modding community i never expected a Dev to reply and to be honest i’m extremely gratefull.

I apreciate your suggestions, but i must say that we did plan on doing most of our own animations (as far a BattleWalkers go) a good majority of the team has experience rigging for bf2, Quake 4 and Doom3 so i hope it’s not too much different. I realize you need to be pretty tight lipped about a few things and that custom animations for QW:ET will have their own idiosyncrasies but is the custom skeletal structure going to be similar to rigging for other games using the Doom3 engine?

(Frankie) #6

Hey criminal, if you make a model and export it to quake4/doom3 and everything is correct there should be no problem and very little effort in reexporting it to ETQW, you won’t however be able to use the MD5s which quake4/doom3 generated.

What 3d package are you using? We use maya here for animation and thats what all our export tools are designed for. If you are using maya I should tell you that I haven’t been able to export an md5 from maya to quake4 with the SDK released so it might be worth using doom3 to test with.

Im going to make sure that the maya exporter we release with ETQW works from release but I cant tell if there will be any problems with third party exporters for diffrent 3d packages. Still, if the exporter is fine then what works in q4/d3 will work in etqw. :slight_smile:

(EB) #7

:wink:

(Sir. Darth_Master) #8

What about max tools :shock:

(kamikazee) #9

There are some 3rd party importers/exporters for 3DS Max already. (And the most important thing is that you are still able to get to the source code.)

Of course, having the source code of the “official” Maya exporter would sure help to extend the lifetime of the modding comunity. (Making sure newer versions of Maya can be used, porting to other programs, etc.)

(RR2DO2) #10

Currently we got our code setup to compile the plugin under Maya 4.5, 5.0, 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0. Getting it compile for new versions will be trivial.

Our tool chain doesn’t support Max for animations, so that is likely something in the community could end up doing.

(kamikazee) #11

Thanks for the update. :wink:

(BondyBoy007) #12

I think you’ll find that with SD originally being a mod team the support for modding from these guys is unsurpassed.

enjoy . . .

(criminal) #13

Wow thanks for all the replies, this is like a breath of fresh air coming from modding the battlefield franchise.

To answer the Dev’s questions i am using Max8 currently i do however have a student version of Maya 8. Since SD is using maya for the exports ill do all my animations from maya since that’s what will be released in the SDK (from what i understand from your posts). In addition, ill take your advice and export the md5’s into “Doom” so that i can ensure the bone rigging is proper.

As far as animations go i think i could even use my student license for motionbuilder to do some animations i’ve used it alot at the school but i havent tested very extensively importing FBX anims into maya.

I’m relieved that the export process will be similar and that as you said reexporting for QW:ET should be fairly straightforward gives me and my team alot of confidance (and alot of work to do…and a busy team mod team is a happy mod team)

Again thank you so much for all the info you’ve provided not only me but all the other modders that are working their asses off to make some wicked mods for QW:ET.

(Veneration) #14

It doesn’t work for Quake 4 unless you have Maya 4.5. Raven software used Maya 4.5 for their animation needs. And you CAN NOT use the MayaImportx86.dll’s that work for Doom 3 in Quake 4. Doom3 importx86.dll only work for Doom 3, and when you try to use Doom3’s with Quake4 it only crashes.

BUT: You can transfer md5mesh’s and md5anim’s from Doom 3 to Quake 4. But I guess you won’t be able to use the same md5mesh/anims from D3/Q4 to Quake Wars (like the dev said). Ah well.