


                               MDLVIEW v.0.1




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  0. Legal stuff

MDLVIEW is (C) 1996 Daan Nusman.
Quake is without any doubt (C) id Software.

There's no warranty whatsoever.


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  1. What is MDLVIEW

  MDLVIEW is a small program to view the "Aliasses" of the game Quake.
Aliasses are the monsters, players, and other things in Quake. They are
made out of countless small z-buffered, texture mapped, Gouraud light-
shaded polygons (wow.. that's quite a mouthfull!). I'm using my own
polygon routines to display them; they're identical to Quake's except
for the Gouraud shading (I don't even know IF it's Gouraud shading what's
used in Quake).

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  2. How to set up MDLVIEW

  First, make sure you have unpacked the .PAK file in your \quake\id1
directory. You can do this with several little programs which you
can get on the Net. I have used "The Adequate Unpacker" made by
SoftSquid Interactive. You can dl it at http://goldrush.com/~hicks.
Or if that doesn't work try the x-lent Quake site Stomped:
http://www.stomped.com. They've got plenty of unpackers there.

  Once you've unpacked your PAK file you'll have a directory somewhere
called "\quake\id1\progs". This is the directory where the Quake .MDL
files are.

  To view a model, type MDLVIEW <mdlname> in this directory. If you've got
more directories with models (home-made, like mine), or you're too lazy
to switch to the \progs directory every time, you can set up a path for
MDLVIEW to look in for model files. Here's mine for example:

  SET MDLVIEW=c:\quake\id1\progs;c:\watcom\nebula\mdledit;

  If you want to view a model in 640x480x256, you should try the -vesamode
parameter. Due to the optimization in my poly routines, a larger resolution
is not yet available. VESA VBE 2.0 required so loading UniVBE or the likes
is always a good idea. Beware. Slow. REAL slow compared to mode 13h/xmode.


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  3. Viewing a model

  Besides the model itself there's some info on the screen. xx/yy says which
frame is viewed now, and what's the last frame. Also the frame name is
displayed.

  Here's a description of all the available keys:

     keypad   Rotates around x/y axes
     ins/del  Rotates around z axes
     +        Zooms in. If you zoom in too much, the model will disappear.
     -        Zooms out.
     N        Selects the next frame.
     P        Selects previous frame.
     L        Loops frames. I noticed that all frame names consist of a
                name and a number. The name is always what the model's
                doing, eg. "walk" "stand" "run". The number is the index.
                For example "walk1" "walk2" .. up to "walk16" or seomthing.
                If you press L the frames will loop through "walk1" to
                "walk16". Press L again to stop the looping.
     0..9     Adjusts frame looping speed. (Hey folks I've an idea: if
                you've got a very fast PC, setting the speed low (=high
                number) will cause the model to shock. I think this
                can be eliminated by using "vertex interpolation". The
                name says it all (if you're a programmer). Does anyone know
                if Quake's using this??)
     ESC      Very boring key...

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  4. (Techno)babble

  I intend to use these routines in an integrated SVGA .MDL file editor,
which I am currenly working on.

  It is tested with Quake 1.01 Shareware. Let me know if it works with
the commercial version.

  My poly and matrix routines are completely FIXED point, so the 486's won't
suffer such a great slowdown. A math co would only reduce loading time.

  Wow by the way I've just seen a demo from "NoooN". .. And I tought my poly
routines were advanced. Gosh.. You should really GET THAT DEMO. And amaze
yourself about that wonderful Phong shading & reflection mapping.


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  5. Contacting me / Greets

  I'd like to hear from you if you've some bugs to report, or if you've
  suggestions/questions, or just want to write bullshit etc.. people!
  Here's my e-mail adress:

    nebula@pi.net


Greetings JMP to:

  id Software... "mixing low tech and hi tech until it all fits together"
                                                              (and it DOES)

  TRAN.. for his PMODE/W.. (msg 4 U: realloc(x) crashes with odd x!!)

  WizzyWizz for his BIN2H!

  Snoox for some good suggestions

  Sander v. Velthoven for his constuctive criticism ("this sucks." ;)



C U l8r,

   Nebula   (Daan Nusman)
