MD3 Format: Highly Specialized Questions

[pencilwhipped]

I do have a highly specialized technical question when you have the time:

Question: I found an interesting guide excerpt from the website below. How are they defining the word 'group? By a '32 group maximum', does this mean a maximum of 32 separate md3 files held together by 16 tags, or does this mean a maximum of 32 element level sub-object sections per file (ex: Maximum of 32 separate sub-objects in upper.md3)?

Thanks guys!

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http://sid.ethz.ch/debian/mm3d/mm3d-1.3 ... kemd3.html

"MD3 Limits
The MD3 file format has several limits that you should consider when making a model for this format. These are outlined below. If your model has more that the MD3 limit, the file will not be saved correctly and you should get a error message dialog.

* Only faces and verticies in a group get saved.
* The MD3_PATH+file name cannot be longer than 63 characters. (Textures and model names)
* The group name and point name cannot be longer than 63 characters.
* Maximum of 1024 animation frames
* Maximum of 16 Points (Quake 3 Tags)
* Maximum of 32 Groups
* Maximum of 256 Textures per Group
* Maximum of 8192 Triangles per Group
* Maximum of 4096 Verticies per Group"

[obsidian]

Link above is truncated for whatever reason, I assume you mean this link:
http://sid.ethz.ch/debian/mm3d/mm3d-1.3 ... kemd3.html

I assume it means mesh groups in Max. You can group a combination of objects together as a group, as I understand it, if your model consists of multiple chunks (say hips, thighs, calves, feet) you can group them together in Max and assign a single tag to them as a pivot point.

[pencilwhipped]

Just ran a test on one of our assets here. Deliberately broke ALL the vertices on a head file to create a ridiculous amount of element sub-objects, then exported that out as a new head file. After several attempts at this, systematically reducing the vertex counts each time, Quake 3 got to a point where it stopped showing me 'over vertex budget' errors and simply knocked me back to desktop. It was a fun test!

Here's the verdict:

-The more sub-object groups you have, the more of a performance hit you will experience.

-A sub-object count of 357 is right OUT. Period. Might as well stare at your desktop right now and skip out on the mess of trying to load something into Quake 3 that will just take you there anyway.
-However, a count of 41 separate sub-object pieces for an md3 file IS perfectly okay. That's the count on just ONE of our heads, and it play tested perfectly.

If your assets absolutely MUST be ridiculously complex assemblies, consider optimizing down to the lowest counts possible, then try bridging separated pieces covertly with welded triangles to make your assemblies a single sub-object selection. As long as your vertex and face counts stay under budget, you can hide any visible triangle bridging with alpha maps.