QUAKME21.TXT for QUAKME21.ZIP

     Quake utility for viewing and editing .MDL files

     Version 2.1

     Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5
     (NO Windows 3.11 anymore, QuakeME is now 32 bits)

Author : Rene Post (renep@xs4all.nl)
Date   : 2 apr 1996

Note: 
(a) The software is supplied free of charge.
(b) The software is experimental and not guaranteed
to work in your particular setup.

1.  Description
2.  Files
3.  Installation Instructions
4.  Working with QuakeME
5.  Credits
6.  Technical Issues
7.  Known Bugs and Limitiations
8.  History



1. Description

QuakeME is MS-WINDOWS viewer and editor for .MDL files contained
in the ID1.PAK file that was part of the QTEST.ZIP quake test 
distributed by ID software. MDL files contain definitions 
of e.g. monsters and weapons. 

QuakeME can:
- Show textures.
- Show point mapping of the vertices.
- Edit the point mapping of the vertices.
- Show the triangles.
- Export the bitmaps to a 256 colors windows .BMP file.
- Import the bitmaps from a 256 colors windows .BMP file. 
  Bitmaps are pruned or expanded to fit the expected bitmap size.
- Show 3D wireframes and 3D solid view and 3D TEXTURE MAPPED view
  of all the frames contained in a .MDL file.
- Rudimentary 3D animation; you can create a frame loop and play it at
  different frame rates.
- Show contents of the header, vertex list, triangle list and all frames
  contained in a .MDL file.
- Remember the .MDL file you were last viewing, and will show it 
  automatically when you run quakeme again.



2. Files

QUAKEME.EXE
QUAKEME.PAL
QUAKEME.TXT



3. Installation Instructions

As long as you put the executable and the palette in the same directory
you can install it anywhere. When you get a "file not found" error, this
means quakeme cannot find your palette file.



4. Working with QuakeME

You have to unpak ID1.PAK first, in order to get access to the .MDL files.
There are several utilities that can rip apart a PAK file, get one of them.

To start working with QuakeME, select the menu item "File|Select Progs 
Directory..." and select the directory that contains the quake .MDL files.

Now listbox at the left of the QuakeME window is filled with all 
available model files. Selecting one of them will open it and show 
its contents.

Click on the tabs to show different information about the model file.

a. 3D tab

The wireframe shows the 3D representation of the model in its bounding 
box that is part of the frame definition and it also shows the origin.

To rotate the wireframe use the right mouse button and rotate the 
wire frame by dragging it. 

With the left mouse button you can move the position of the wireframe.

You can zoom in and out by using the left mouse button and the CTRL key. 
Moving the mouse upwards will zoom-in and moving the mouse downwards 
will zoom-out.

If you really screwed-up your wireframe view, there is a button to 
reset the view at the right bottom of the wireframe window.

To see a different frame use the current frame spinedit to select
it.

You can switch between wireframe and solid model and texture mapped 
view by selecting the wire, solid or texture radiobutton.

There is a rudimentary animator that you can configure to play 
a frame loop. Its handy for figuring out how a frame sequence 
has been constructed.

b. Texture tab

To view the vertices, check the "on seam" and/or "off seam"
check boxes. You can select and drag the vertices by selecting
and dragging them with the left mouse button.

If there are more than one bitmap in a MDL file, you can select what
bitmap to view, by changing the current bitmap spinedit.

To change the percentage of zoom, change the zoom spinedit. Then 
doubleclick inside the spinedit control to zoom the bitmap.

c. Header tab

Contains all the information found in the header of the .MDL file.

d. Vertices tab

Contains the 2D vertices that are show and can be edited in 
the skin bitmap.

e. Triangles tab

Contains the triangles that are show in the skin bitmap.

f. Frames tab

Contains the frames that are show in the wireframe.



5. Credits

I got most of the ideas from the MedDLe v0.1 viewer by Brian Martin
but I was bloody annoyed that it was a DOS program, so I wrote it
myself for windows.

Along with my own analysis I used the Quake Spec 3.0 extensively
to build the program, so a lot of credit goes to the authors of 
this spec. Great work ! 



6. Technical Issues

I got a number of questions about the way I programmed QuakeME.

QuakeME 1.0 was developed using Delphi 1.0 and ModelMaker 1.5 (CASE 
tool developed by me and a friend of mine, FREEWARE look at the Delphi
SuperPage under "Component Building Tools").

QuakeME 2.1 is now a 32 bits application and is developed using 
Delphi 2.0 and ModelMaker 1.5. 

All code is written in Pascal (NO assembler). I used the WinG library 
to create the initial texture mapping under the 16 bits Delphi 1.0 version.
I then decided to make the switch to Delphi 2.0 and reimplemented the WinG
library as direct calls to the Windows 95 API.



7. Known Bugs and Limitations

I ran the program on 3 Windows 95 systems and 
one Windows NT 3.5 system.

Win95
a 33 mhz 486 DX with 8 mb and a 256 color adapter
a 75 mhz Pentium with 16 mb and a 65k color adapter
a 90 mhz Pentium with 16mb and a 256 color adapter

NT 3.5
a 90 mhz Pentium with 32mb and a 256 color adapter

Speed was acceptable on the 486, but the texture 
mapping looks really stunning on the 90 mhz Pentium.
Loading of new mdl files is really slooooow on 
Windows NT 3.5



8. History

13 mar 1996  Version 1.0

	Initial release.

31 mar 1996  Version 2.0

	Fixed bug in back triangle display code.
	Made QuakeME 32 bits, compiled it under Delphi 2.0 environment.
	Added texture mapping to the 3D view.

2 apr 1996  Version 2.1

	Fixed bug in flushing textures to the screen in Windows NT 3.5.
	Fixed access violation error that would occasionally occur in
	texture mapped view.
