Jed's Half-Life Model Viewer

[Jed's Half-Life Model Viewer 1.3] ========================================================================== (c)2004 Neil "Jed" Jedrzejewski ([email protected]) http:///www.wunderboy.org ====== This is a custom build of the Mete's Ciragan's Half-Life Model Viewer with the addition of several new features. Its has been through two public beta's and is fairly bug free but some may still exist. I, Neil Jedrzejewski, assume no responsibility whatsoever for its use by other parties, and makes no guarantees, expressed or implied, about its quality, reliability, or any other characteristic. ============== Well if you can read this is probably installed! [Added Features over HLMV 1.25] =============================== * GUI re-organised. * Default background colour is now blue/grey instead of black. * "Save Options" allows you to save your preferences so they are loaded next time you start HLMV. * Dump Model Info option creates a text file giving a detailed breakdown of your models internal structure. * Acts as a front-end to STUDIOMDL and MDLDEC allowing you to decompile and compile models from within HLMV. * Can open GCF, PAK, WAD and BSP files. * Poly counter shows how many polygons are being drawn. * Supports the Alpha and Additive texture flags. * Displays transparent and additive textures in the model preview. * Texture flags can be set and previewed and saved to the model. * Option to view the UV Map for any given texture. * Sequence panel now shows additional sequence parameters. * Events for a given sequnce can be viewed. * Previewing of new weapon origins for v_model's (tweaked this version). * Addition of crosshair and guides for helping with re-origining weapons * Small bugs from HLMV 1.25 fixed. [Known Bugs] ============ * 3D view doesnt move or respond to keyboard commands occasionally. Just click once inside the 3D window to un-stick it. * Scale Mesh/Bones can be a little funky at times. * Loading a model while in Weapon Origin view can make the model get a little lost when switching tabs. ========= 1.3 Replaced PAK viewer with a generic Half-Life Package Viewer. Can now open GCF, BSP, WAD and PAK files. Removed the "Black Alpha Option" Removed the File Associations. Package viewer now opens files with the currently registered application for that type. Removed dependancy on DevIL library. 1.2 Added support for opening PS2 format Half-Life Models Added Export UV Map as BMP function Added support for playing back even sounds with animation Added "Save view" and "Recall view" options for rembering viewport positions Added "Black Alpha", turns transparent texture parts black to stop blue edges Can now use GUIStudioMDL as a compiler. Fixed erroneous event display Other stuff I cant remember... :-/ 1.1 Added "Wireframe Overlay" option Added "View Eye Position" option Added Polygon counter to the sub-models menu Added sequence controls to Weapon Origin view Added a few "user friendly" reminders to some tabs Small tweaks to stop textures in "Texture View" blurring Sexy new icon! Proper installer/Uninstaller 1.0 Fixed config loading errors Expanded Model Dump info Added support for decompiling/compiling Re-organised GUI Added UW Map display option Improved Events display for Sequences Adjusted Weapon Origin view for accuracy Various bug fixes BETA VERSIONS 1.1B Re-wrote rendering code Fixed "X-Ray" additive textures (needs testing) Improved transparency support to be more like Half-Life's Added Day Of Defeat first-person weapon origin editing* * Only on the DoD version 1.0B Added support for transparent and additive texture modes Added support for setting of texture flags and previewing Added listing of events associated with a sequence Added additional sequence info Added dump model info option Added Save Options command Changed default background colour to grey [F.A.Q] ======= General Q) Where has the "Save Model" button gone? A) Its been moved to the "File" menu at the top of the screen. Q) I've moved my model and now I can't find it. How do I centre it? A) Use the "Center View" option under the "Options" menu. Q) Why do my textures look blurry? A) HLMV has to scale all textures up to be a power-of-2. This is a requirement of most graphic card hardware. Because of the scaling, some blurring may occur. Textures that are originally power-of-2 will blur less. Also running HLMV in a 16-bit colour mode will cause the colours to appear less than optimal. Q) How do I use the decompiler/compiler option? A) First grab a copy of STUDIOMDL and MDLDEC relevant for your mod/game. A good place to look is at: http://collective.valve-erc.com/ Next, use "Configure Tools" to tell HLMV where these are. Then its as simple as choosing Decompile or Compile and pointing it to you MDL or QC file. You can also use GUISTUDIOMDL as your compiler. Q) I've decompiled my model and re-compiled it but some of my textures are no longer chrome and additive. A) MDLDEC and STUDIOMDL dont seem to be able to handle textures with multiple rendermode flags sometimes. If this happens, re-set your texture flags within HLMV and save your model from the "File Menu". Q) How do I use the GCF viewer? A) Goto File->Open Half-Life Package and from the drop down list select the type of package you want to open. When that is done a tree view of the package will appear on the right. Q) How do I load/extract stuff from the GCF file? A) Click on the item you want to extract then right click and choose extract and choose a location to extract to. If the file is a MDL, texture and sequence files will be extracted with it. Textures Tab Q) Why is the Texture Scale now fixed sizes? A) To make the scaling more linear and to help with people who may be screen grabbing UV Maps or textures to scale them. Q) Why cant I select Transparent and Chrome for a texture? A) Although technically in a model you could set those flags, experimenting has shown that the effect varies from game to game and is hard to control. Hence HLMV is set to allow the most common working combinations only. Q) I get an error when importing a texture... A) Replacement textures must be the same size as the original, 256 colour and NOT RLE compressed. Q) I changed a texture/texture flags but it didnt stay in the model. A) After you import a new texture or change flags, you need to save the model using the "Save Model" command under the "File Menu" Q) In my BMP texture my transparent areas are red but in HLMV they show as blue or black. A) Internally, HLMV replaces whatever your transparent palette colour was with black to reduce any edging around the transparent textures when displayed. Inside your model, the colour is still blue/red/whatever but the texture in your graphic card has be changed only. The transparent parts will go black if you had a transparent texture and then turn transparency off. Don't worry its just a display thing, its not altering your texture data. Q) How do I save the UV Map? A) At present, you cant export the UV Map directly but you can use the "Make Screenshot" option or do a screen capture with Alt+PrintScrn and open it in an editing program and crop as needed. Q) My textures have a black edge around them. A) If you decompile and recompile the same model over and over again the UV Map co-ordinates will start to "creep" due to rounding in the math during the normalisation process. To avoid this decompile a model ONLY once and re-compile from the same QC again rather than de-compiling every time you want to make a change to your model. Weapons Origin Q) How do I save my new origin's into my model? A) Decompile your v_model and add and $origin line into your QC file and re-compile. A tutorial on doing this using HLMV can be found at: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/scitzo/hlmvtut.htm Q) How accurate is the origin view? A) As accurate as we could get it. Lets just say Marzy the fearless Beta tester spent weeks on checking alignments. Its not 100% but its so close its almost un-noticable. Q) Why can't I move the model in origin view? A) The view is locked to stop you accidentaly nudging the weapon and getting bad alignments.