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Metroid Prime CMDL Viewer (still working on it however)

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SarahHarp

SarahHarp

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..Its called a rom. And many people have them. So many people will be able to use the viewer.
Now, -do not- ask how to get roms, as that's against the rules, which I'm sure you've read ; )
 
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SarahHarp

SarahHarp

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I've been working on scenegraph information, among other things (animations, bones, skin weights). But I've decided that once I get the textures placed on the model in the proper order, then I'll release it : )
 

BlueFalcon7

New member
you should kind of update us on this, so we know how your doing, and so we know whats going on. Speaking of which, how is Jaharian doing on his model viewer?
 

erix920

New member
Can't wait! I just converted like 40 materials, now to apply them to the arm cannon, will a program like 3ds max be able to open the models? Also what .pak are these cmdl's in? I need the samus gun referance myself.
 
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SarahHarp

SarahHarp

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Jaharian hasn't been on my msn since the last time I helped him (which was when he began his thread).. I'm going to presume he died <.<
About the updates, I did have a few minor ones, but nothing overly noteworthy.
I guess I could post a few screenshots (mainly screenshots I've taken to show Thakis a while back)

BetaPhazon (No shaders used):
http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/1340/betaphzn1da.png
--(With Shaders)
http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/5868/wthshaders9ly.png

Enemy that was not included in game
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/6549/enemy0ny.png (Side)
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/327/enemy20qn.png (Top)
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/5195/enemy31dr.png (Front/Upsidedown)

Beta Space Pirate
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4840/betapir14vg.png

There is only a slight amout of files that actually do not work yet, though I pretty sure it's a straight forward fix. Mostly the small CMDLs do not open. (Usally ones that are < 1K) Again its probably a straight forward fix, So I should get onto that.
The viewer now opens models and loads the associated textures, however as I mentioned before, I just need to get the actualy placement of these textures on the proper groups. Recently though, it came to light that this might be stored in another file (CINF, holds joint information, and propably stores the scenegraph aswell). I guess I didn't tell you's that, but my viewer can view all the CINF files (just displays points wherever a bonen is.)

Samus's joints
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7870/samjoints6al.png

But yeah, Here's a picture of what completed models should look like:
http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/1064/samus5lw.png

However note that most of that stuff was hard-coded, which is how I got the texture placements and what not. The -only- thing lacking from that image is gloss map support. I'm not going to impliment this, unless someone wants to buy my a new video card that can handle extensive shader support : )
Btw, gloss maps basicly limit the shaders, so when you Look at that samus picture, you'll notice that the shaders are applied to all the back connection material around her joints, and it also goes ontop of the black lines around her suit. This actually shouldn't happen (if you can rmember what she looks like in-game).

And.. *thinks* yeah, that should be it for now. I hope this is a good enough update for you : )
(I'm sorry though that it's been awhile, I didn't really have much new to show off, and no one had posted since febuary, so I thought the intrest had died down, as well as my jumping from project to project)

CMDL's are found in mainly every pak. Paks are a vast collection of files that partain to certain worlds/systems. And no, nothing can open a CMDL file unless someone has written a viewer for them (which to my knowledge, only my viewer can do at the moment). You'll find samus's arm cannon in SamusGun.pak, as well as TestAnim.pak (You'll probly want the ones in TestAnim, as it has the "cut-scene" version, which varies from pwer beam, to phazon beam. Whereas the SamusGun.pak is the one used during actauly play time (that gun is more detailed, but also is missing alot of it's right side and front areas, due to never actually seeing that side in game).
 
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BlueFalcon7

New member
just a question with this CMDL viewer, how is it going to apply the textures if they are in a different file? is it going to open the .pak and be like a spark edit program, or is it going to look in the directory of the CMDL? And will the program have something to view just the textures, so I dont have to extract each texture?
 
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SarahHarp

SarahHarp

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Uhh, I was really planning to incorperate a built in txtr viewer thing, because right now, the way I have my thing set up (completely organized everything, All cmdl's are inside a cmdl folder, all txtrs are in a txtr folder, etc). I have everything decompressed and organized and everything. But basicly, the program looks for the folder "txtr" in the directory of the current pak. I'm planning too add options for people that don't feel like spending the time organizing (such as having it just look for the texture in the current dumped pak)

What is really going to be painful though, is loading everythign up in the end. Because the ANIC's file is where it all happens. It has references to a model file, its bones/scenegraph, and another file which I'm assuming to be skinweights, and having a bunch of animation files listed afterwards. So basicly, it'd come to the point where you'd have to click on the ANICs files in order to view everything properly.
That is, unless I precode this all, so as long as you don't rename any of the files, I simply just let the program know what files it's already associated to (but that's -alot- more work for me, but I was considering something like that).
 
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erix920

New member
Well, this is why your here :). Will it auto matically apply the .txtr's to then referance model? Or do you have to customly do it?
 
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SarahHarp

SarahHarp

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I think anti-aliasing would cause a bit of a slow down. (There already is some slow down with the big models as it is, even more so with shaders applied, though it could be just my comp).
And, the point of a viewer is to -view- data. There should be no work involoved, so of course the textures will be applied to the model (They already are, to an extent.) I just need to work on the scenegraph to -correctly- place those textures ; )

On a side note, did anyone see MP3? It looks gourgeous! I'd -LOVE- to hack into that iso <.<
 

BoggyB

New member
SarahHarp said:
I think anti-aliasing would cause a bit of a slow down. (There already is some slow down with the big models as it is, even more so with shaders applied, though it could be just my comp).
True, but an option to enable it would be nice, especially when taking screenshots.
 

Elpenguino

New member
I believe the drivers(ati definitely does, nvidia I'm not so sure) have an option to force antialiasing, even if the program doesn't support it.
 

psychodan

New member
to further add to the statement about AntiAilasing.. my ATI card does have a force AA option and a heck of alot of other things esecially for opengl, but I think Sarahs planning on including an OBJ export feature for the viewer. I know there currently is one, so you could use 3DMax or maya or something for your screenshots.
 

erix920

New member
Well, if we could get like maybe a alpha or a beta version? I know where pressuring you to finish but me and some other people are working on a mod for HL2 called metroid source, were making maps and coding AI working with Lua and stuff, we got some maps done but now we need samus arm cannons, the suits, the morph balls, and the HUD all to work with the HL2 engine.
 

Someone!

Hullo!
Erix920, too bad you are not an admin at the metroid source forums.
We got awesome stuff from Mr. Pickle.
Here is a broken arm cannon :)
untitled15jy.jpg

(broken textures in some places)
 

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