Detailed MDL format docs?

[JasonX]

I'm writing a small MDL viewier/editor and i'm interested in knowing more details about the format. Any links? Basically, i'm using QT to recreate what QME does, in a more modern and cross-platform framework. For fun, obviously.

[r00k]

http://tfc.duke.free.fr/coding/mdl-specs-en.html

[Spike]

pretty much just regular 8-bit trisoup. except with added front/back weirdness. the easiest way to handle rendering that is to create two sets of verticies and select the front/back vertex based upon the triangle.
framegroups and especially skingroups are rare enough that its almost tempting to not bother with them at all, without these things its quite a simple format.

[frag.machine]

[Spike]

framegroups mean less network traffic. in a world of client-side code, this becomes redundant. iirc, carmack regretted adding framegroups in one of his .plans. personally I think a startframe/count/rate might have been a better choice, if only because it would have meant that a whole lot of monsters etc would then have no excuse to not use it.
however, when you do get client-side code and skeletal blending, framegroups/animations become much more interesting.

either way, they're rare enough that you can ignore them in the early stages of writing an editor. often its better to get something working than to get bored before you managed to get anything fun working.

[mankrip]

Framegroups are great for networking and QC coding; they simplify it a lot. And it makes a lot of sense to use them in looped animations (e.g. idling and walking).

Engine-wise, of course, they can be annoying. But it's more a matter of the whole MDL code being poorly structured.