Add vvm.txt and usage entry

master 1.1
Marco Cawthorne 3 years ago
parent 83b7625f1a
commit 2f10cb1eef

@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ Make sure you have a C++ compiler installed and issue:
```make```
# Usage
Please read the `vvm.txt` file included in this repository for more information.
# LICENSE
Copyright (c) 2010-2016 Lee Salzman

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Vera Visions Model
Readme 1.1
===================
Vera Visions Model, short VVM, used to be called IQM-EXT (or sometimes IQM-FTE).
Due to the fact that the IQM prefix will cause confusion in regards
to compatibility and the format not entirely being exclusive to FTE (the engine
we are using for The Wastes) we decided to name it something more specific.
Thanks a lot to Spike for the implementation of our spec. Without him
we'd still be stuck with the original tools.
This documentation is for our exporter - while its primary use was
to create a new, extended format that's compatible with the FTE QuakeWorld engine
the exporter and its output are completely compatible with engines that do not read
the enhanced format yet. Do NOT expect to use any of the new features though.
Features that the original IQM exporter did not offer:
- Rotating the entire output or single scenes
- Proper position offsetting of the entire output or single scenes
- Support for external configuration files for IQM generation (ala studiomdl)
Some features that our extended specification (VVM) has to offer:
- Support for hitmeshes for faster, content-aware collision detection
- Automatic hitmesh generation
- Submodels that allow showing/hiding specific groups of the model via the game-logic
- Support for frame triggered events that can be read by the game-logic
Let's get started!
Basic Usage
===========
The official exporter has the following usage:
./iqm output.iqm reference.file [--options] ...sequences (optional)
If you are working on models with more than a dozen animations, you will already
feel the pain of having to scroll horizontally with most text-editors.
With our updated exporter, we decided to ditch the parameter oriented approach
to take full advantage of the features and to improve readability and our workflow.
./vvm input.file
...is all you'd need.
Now, let's show you a basic input file:
input.file:
output output.vvm
scene reference_mesh.smd
scene animation1.smd fps 25
And that's about it.
The 'model' line tells you the output filename, aka that's the file the exporter will generate.
The first 'scene' line refers to a reference mesh file, the one with all the polygons. You
can have as many as you like and they will be stitched together "as one" in the exported file.
The second scene line in this example imports an animation file and specifies the playback
framerate to be 25 frames per second.
Note that you can still use other formats instead of SMD as input files for references/sequences.
Let's take a look at an older example input file
right from the development of The Wastes:
output view_tommygun.vvm
bone "Bone55" rename "Muzzleflash"
scene ref_tommygun.smd
rotate 0 -90 0
scene idle.smd fps 20
scene idle_fidget1.smd fps 20
scene idle_fidget2.smd fps 20
scene reload.smd fps 22
scene draw.smd fps 25
scene holster.smd fps 25
scene shoot.smd fps 34
scene shoot_last.smd fps 34
scene shoot_empty.smd fps 34
This is one of the lesser-simple ones, since we are renaming a bone, had to rotate
the model by 90 degrees and have a bunch of animations with varying framerates.
Command reference
=================
Here is a list of all the commands you can issue when constructing your input file ( [xyz] parameters being optional ):
Header/Command Format:
output <FILENAME> - specified the output file name. you should only have one of these.
exec <FILENAME> - exec the specified command file, before parsing the rest of the current file.
hitbox <BODY NUM> <BONE NAME> <MIN POS VECTOR> <MAX POS VECTOR> - generates a hitmesh as a bbox centered around the bone in the base pose (the hitbox will rotate/move with animations). The bodynum will be visible to gamecode, and may merge with other hitboxes with the same group.
modelflags <NAME OR HEX> - enables the specified bit in the iqm header. supported names include q1_rocket, q1_grenade, q1_gib, q1_rotate, q1_tracer1, q1_zomgib, q1_tracer2, q1_tracer3
<MESH PROPERTY> - defined below and applied as the defaults to the following import lines as well as mesh lines.
mesh <NAME> [MESH PROPERTIES LIST] - provides overrides for a single named mesh (properties used will be those as they're already defined, if not otherwise listed).
bone <SOURCENAME> [rename <NEWNAME>] [group <GROUPNUM>] - provides bone renaming and grouping. try to avoid renaming two bones to the same resulting name... groups may have limitations if a parent/child relationship cannot be honoured. lowest group numbers come before higher groups. by default bones will inherit their group from their parent.
<IMPORT PROPERTY> - defined below and applied as the defaults to the following import lines.
import <FILENAME> [IMPORT PROPERTIES] [MESH PROPERTIES] - imports the meshes and animations from the specified file.
Shared Scene Properties:
rotate <PITCH> <YAW> <ROLL> - rotates the model
scale <SCALER> - rescales the model
origin <X> <Y> <Z> - moves the thing
materialprefix <PREFIX/> - provides a text prefix on the material name, which should make it easier for editors while still honouring shader paths.
nomesh <1|0> - discards all meshed from the affected files.
noanim <1|0> - discards animations from the affected files, does not disclude the base pose.
Reference Properties:
contents <NAMES OR 0xBITS> - 'body' or 'empty' are the two that are most likely to be used. 'solid' may also be desired, or possibly also 'corpse'.
surfaceflags <NAMES OR 0xBITS> - self explanatory, can also use 'q3_nodraw/fte_nodraw'
body <NUMBER> - this is the 'body' value reported to gamecode when a trace hits this surface.
geomset <GEOMGROUP> <GEOMID> - pretty much submodels.
lodrange <MINDIST> <MAXDIST> - not yet implemented by the engine. 0 for both is the default.
Animation Properties:
name <NAME> - the imported animations will be assigned this name. May be problematic if the imported file(s) share the same name, so try to avoid using this at global scope.
fps <RATE> - framerate for any imported animations.
loop - flags animations as looping.
clamp - disables looping.
unpack - seperates each pose/frame of the animations into a seperate single-pose animation for compat with q1 or q2-style model animations.
pack - disables unpacking again
start <FIRSTPOSE> - the first pose/frame to import.
end <LASTPOSE> - the last pose/frame to import.
event [ANIM]<POSE> <EVENTCODE> <"EVENTDATA"> - embeds event info within the animation. If used at global scope, can be reset with 'event reset' in order to not apply to later files.
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