Simple Model Viewer

[kryton9]

3D Model Viewer, currently you can open .x, .3ds and md2 files.

Lastest Version

[kryton9]

Version 5 :Minor update, got the toggle keys working, that is H for help. And some other minor things cleaned up. The Aurora model is not an animated model at the moment, just use the object movement keys to spin it around and such. Enjoy.

[kryton9]

Version 6:

Added a rate adjustment for all the controls. That is you adjust your rate and then those control's effects are that much faster (responsive).

Got the animation stuff working, that is loop and stop play work. And the animations speed does work now.
To effect the animation speed you should try higher rates instead of 1, for the tiny.x model, try 500 or a 1000 to see the effect quickly.
I will tackle once and ping pong next to figure that out.

The rate speeds will come in handy when moving to get the camera to the right position to see the model if it is a big model and such.

Two models are included, tiny.x the animated model that Paul had put in, I just put it in case you didn't get it before.

The other is the start of an Aurora model I am working on, this has no animation, but of course you can move it to your heart's content with the controls.

Future upcoming development plans:
I will be adding lighting commands.
The camera automatically will always point to the object when moved, which makes sense for the object viewer
I also plan to add optional background and ground planes that can be used together or independently.

Then down the road the ability to load the other mesh (3d object/model) types.

The first post will always have the lastest version.

[J B Wood (Zumwalt)]

I am looking forward to seeing your class on multi animated mesh, one with more than 1 saved animation in it.

[kryton9]

Good idea, hadn't thought about that.
I will work on adding a choice to play any animation from start point to end point in this viewer for you, once I figure out how to get 'play once' and 'ping pong' working.

I am going to write a separate viewer to work with multiple objects.

Wanted to get the simple one working first, then I will go back and clean up the code. And start on the advanced viewer.

The main purpose I use these viewers, besides just viewing and having fun, is to use them to find the setting adjutments to get the model into the starting state for my models to be used in games/applications. This way no need to worry about where and how I oriented it in the modeling program.

[J B Wood (Zumwalt)]

I find that to be one of the tricky aspects of this, I am trying to figure out orientation with gamespace and truespace for this engine, getting near to the heart of it. Then I will write up some documentation for that and submit it for caligari's approval.

[kryton9]

Version 7ÂÃ,  For now I am finished. Decided to hold off on some other ideas till down the road.ÂÃ,  ÂÃ,  I am going to get into studying up on directx

All of the help is on the screens, H toggles between the help pages and off.

The main thing to pay attention is the rate settings, this setting controls the speed of the control you are using. It is set to 1, at boot up, which is fine for most normal sized maps,
but when you want to move a lot slower or faster these come in very handy. Near the bottom of the screens you will see the keys to adjust the rates.

I put in AutoCam Orient and also AutoLight Orient, these are off by default so you can see the effects of your camera and light movements. Once you make some moves, just toggle these on and off to see what they do.

You have control over the object, the camera, the light, some animation, render styles, light color.

If you have an animated model, only stop and loop play work, but when looping you can play with the speed to find a setting you like.

Basically besides being fun to play with and examine your models, use this to get your model the way you want to use in your programs.

Enjoy

[J B Wood (Zumwalt)]

Thanks for this by the way.

[kryton9]

You are welcome, I hope it is useful as well as fun.

I am going to try to make a model with 2 different animations and to see if I can get theÂÃ,  start and end frame settings working.

OOPs, in getting it to sort of setup for tiny.x and k9aurora.x somehow I messed it up for the other files.
Need to run errands hope to get that bug fixed tonight. Sorry about that, but you can still use and play with it using the included files.

[kryton9]

Ok fixed the little bugs, so it basically works as it should.

I tried loading x files that animate fine in my other viewers, that is they are position, scale, rotation type simple animations with more than one element, but I can't seem to get them to run in this viewer.

I then tried setting up a link chain and animating that way and still no luck.

tiny.x must be a rigged skinned animation, so something to keep in mind for now.

[kryton9]

Now supports md2 and a texture selection for those types.

I had to remove the tiny.x and the texture file for that file to make the zip small enough to upload.
You can find that model in the d3d examples and media folder, I just had put it in to make it convenient.

I put in a 3d md2 model of the character yvonne I found off of the internet. She has many skins that you load as textures.
Here is her character on the comics site.ÂÃ,  http://www.alternatedimension.com/char/yvonne.html
So something to play with. Also had to add a scale command it is under the object commands. The yvonne model was small and made it necessary.
So make sure you scale her up before anything else.ÂÃ,  The new scale keys areÂÃ,  ÂÃ, [ÂÃ,  left bracketÂÃ,  ÂÃ,  ÂÃ,  andÂÃ,  ÂÃ,  ÂÃ, ] right bracket,ÂÃ,  [ decreases scaleÂÃ,  ÂÃ, andÂÃ,  ÂÃ,  ] increases scale

I changed the default setting to AutoLight On, this way your model is always lit. If you want to play with the lighting commands make sure to disable AutoLight to Off.
The U key toggles it on and off.

Something fun to do with the Aurora.x model is load it up. Start it spinning by pressing holding down the right arrow key, while it spins, then press and hold the R key, then a second or second and half add holding down the G key and then do the same with the B key, makes a nice effect and shows how well Aurora handles multiple keys at the same time.

[kryton9]

I don't think when an updated is added that it shows up as new, so I am posting this here as it sort of relates to the model viewer.

Here:
http://www.ionicwind.com/forums/index.php?topic=810.msg7300#msg7300

You will find the mech model updated and an altered version of my model viewer to load up the mech and allow some control.
I sort of rushed this to get something fun to play with and to enjoy the mech model.

Now if I can just figure out how to make it walk

[kryton9]

Here is directx model of the mech, rigged and a start at a walk cycle. This is my third export trying different settings, at least it sort of is working. It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie where the mech would be torn and stuck in alternate dimensions.

You will need to use the model viewer in the start of this topic to view this one. Not the mech player as  mentioned in the previous post.

In the file requestor, select: k9 mech a03 rigged rough walk.x

Press 5 to set your command rate faster

Hold S till you move the camera back enough to see the strangeness.

Press 4 to reset the command rate to normal

Use numpad up and down arrows to move up and down, that is the numpad 8 and 2 keys

Use the regular arrow keys left and right to rotate the monster. Many hours into it today, at least is a start.

As it is, I saved all meshes into one object. Skinned it with bones I made for the legs and this is what I got. I will tinker some more with the settings in the exporter before moving back to try to fix it in Max.