neumond / blender-md3

.md3 models support for Blender

.MD3 support for Blender

Up-to-date addon (Blender ≥ 2.7.2 supported!) for working with Quake 3 model format, written from scratch.

Can deal with animation (via the Shape Keys), textures and md3 tags (added as Empty objects).

More info on BlenderWiki.

Used this format reference.

Supported versions

2.6.9 very likely will work, though it becomes increasingly complex to test & maintain python 3.3 builds due to lack of features present in newer versions of python and significant API mismatches in bunch of supporting software.

blender-md3's Issues

any updates for this plugin?

it would be nice to have this run on 2.79

it would also be nice that it does not break the uv maps upon export

Not running in 2.78

Tested both by normal install, manual install, and by running the script from text editor. Something has broken. :/

Animated Tag rotation behaving unexpectedly

Hi,

I've been working through all the steps of creating an animated Quake 3 character and have had great results with this exporter after some trial and error. I have my head, upper and lower .md3 meshes lined up properly and animating in-game and they look almost perfect-- that is, until an animated Tag plays a rotation (such as raising and turning a weapon during a taunt animation, a back-flip jump animation or any of the full-body death animations). Although oriented correctly when facing forward, the model attached to my Tag seems to move the opposite direction it was animated in Blender (for example tag_head turning left around the Y-axis in Blender will make the attached head mesh turn right in-game, or if tag_head is animated tilting back, the head will tilt forward in-game).

I've tried comparing my results to Quake 3's own .md3 characters which I've brought into Blender with the importer, and I'm confused by the results. The Tags on these imported .md3s are initially lined up the way mine are, but they counter-rotate unintuitively rather than the way you'd expect during any turning movements. This makes me wonder if Tags' rotations are being imported and exported somehow inverted... or am I just missing something obvious? I'm totally stumped :) Hoping you have some insight, and thanks very much for your time and effort!

Smooth shading breaks UVs in some instances

I'm encountering this when exporting a mesh comprised of multiple objects with smooth shading. This is also only happening with nvidia cards.

a work-around is to set the problematic mesh to flat shading.

calculating motion paths for the problem mesh will often fix the issue, but will cause the other meshes to be have broken UVs instead.

example (the ejecting shotgun shells): doot

VOTE: use selection to choose models for export instead exporting everything

This is a voting, please smile-react this post:
👍 — Yes, use selections.
👎 — No, export everything (current implementation).
❤️ — Export visible (soon will become current).

If you have some suggestion or opinion feel free to add a comment.

Unable to run in Blender 2.8

You can install the addon and "activate" it, but it doesn't show up in either the import or the export menu.

Does not work on current version of blender

I have it installed in blender 3.1.2 but I cannot import or export into .md3

Cannot import md3 models in blender 2.78

Cannot import md3 models in blender 2.78. Can someone help?

REQUEST: improved animated tags

Currently, tags parented to bones or vertices need their actions baked before export in order to be animated in the resulting md3. This is isn't so bad when the project only has 1 or 2 tags, but as tag count increases usability decreases along with it.

I'm currently working with a project that has 12 tags and baking each action individually (each tag must be baked individually, selecting multiple only bakes the last selected tag) then undoing all the bakes after export is just not a sustainable workflow.

Any improvement in this regard would be very much appreciated :D

Garbage memory when exporting a Wrath: Aeon of Ruin weapon MD3

Tried editing some of Wrath's weapon models with this plugin but unfortunately, some faces just randomly distort when animating. This is the only MD3 plugin I've found that properly exports Wrath's MD3s, so it would be very helpful to have this fixed.

can't work in 3.2.2

Vertices count

Hello neumond,

i once wrote about this but got no answer. Basically, your script produces new and unneeded vertices.

Example: make a simple cube with all the settings needed, then export, then import again into Blender. You will see the vertex count trippled.

The core problem is, that md3, as well as mdc, for which i wrote a plugin right now, needs each vertex to be mapped exactly once to the uv map.

I wrote a script, as i said above, for the mdc file format. Check this here: https://github.com/acqu/wet-blender-mdc/commit/55cf892135dd2cf8689d8b511fa8c258eea3308e

I hope this helps, and you can integrate this code, cause sometimes i hit a max vertices count with your import/export script, and generally i think this vertex growth is too much and it seems random. Can you explain why you do this? Or if it really matters? Would be interested on your opinion. Cheers.

Tag rotation direction inverted

Hi, i experimented a bit with tags and their rotation direction seems to be inverted.

Here a video which explains basically what i try to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW1LV1a-AA4

As you can see the tag_mouth in this video rotates around correct axis, but the rotation direction is inverted (up is down, left is right). But when you negate the w component, it rotates nicely. To test this i parented the helmet to the tag_mouth, so it moves along with it, as it is done inside the quake 3 games.

No animations for tags in Import/Export

Hey,
it seems that your plugin doesn't support animations on tags yet? Because after importing a player mdl, I notice that there are no animation key frames in e.g. tag_torso. Export also seems to ignore the positioning of tags.

Would appreciate any hints!
Best regards,
onny

importing animated md3

i can't seam to import an animated md3 file! help?

Can't export MD3 tags

Can't export an md3 containing (only) animated empty (arrows). These md3s containing only an animated empty are used for the _hand.md3 model for weapon reload animations. See the attached file for the error.

How to install

The link to the wiki in the readme points to an empty page.

Please add information how to install and use this add-on.

I can´t use the plugin in the new version of blender

I have it installed in blender 3.2.1 but I cannot import or export into .md3

It Is not compatible with Blender 2.92 !

Just what the title says : It Is not compatible with Blender 2.92 !

Export smoothed model messes with UVs

Hi,

when exporting a smoothed model without sharp edges the UVs get messed up. So I'm forced to split the edges along the seams.
This looks bad on a model with a normal map which is baked from a high poly mesh.

Is this a restriction from md3 format or can this be fixed in the export script?

Update for 2.8 & 2.9 version

Hi! Can you update the plugin for 2.8 and 2.9x versions of Blender, please? It will be great.
Спасибо :)

UVs not exporting from Blender

Hi, I recently tried out version 0.2.0 of your exporter in both Blender 2.72 and 2.79 and attempted to export a UV mapped .md3 for use in Quake 3 as a player head model. The model geometry came through fine, but unfortunately the UVs were completely lost. Just wondering if anyone else may have run into this problem and if there may be a workaround or fix possible.

Thanks very much.

I can´t import md3

why can´t I import md3 in blender 2.78c ?

Does not work for 3.2.1 blender version.

I cannot import or export into .md3

Vertex Alpha (used by alphaGen Vertex)

Hi, does this exporter also export the vertex alpha values? Something I'm working on relies on 'alphaGen Vertex' (quake3 shader parm) but I'm unable to get it working.