MechWarrior 2: Resource Forum

Thanks to EaterOfPies, it took me only few night shifts to bring the MW3 mechs to MechVM, rather than spending months on this.

Congrats!

The Avatar, Bushwacker, Sunder, Shadow Cat, those are definetly some of the MW3 mechs!

A few questions, I haven't played MW3 in ages.
-What format do MW3 polygons use?
-How large are the avarage MW3 mech poly files?
-Is this a new edition to VM that you will be putting in a new version?

But, congrats to you and the pie eater on the work!

Col.Kell wrote:The Avatar, Bushwacker, Sunder, Shadow Cat, those are definetly some of the MW3 mechs!

Import works for all MW3 mechs, but it would have to be adapted for Pirate's Moon. Slight texturing and posing errors remain but will hopefully be fixed until release.

Col.Kell wrote:What format do MW3 polygons use?

New proprietary formats: ZBD, FLT, 555. ZBD's are archive file formats. Unlike MW2's PRJ, they don't have subfolders, instead, each file is a folder. Each ZBD has a different format, so I'm not really sure if this a real format or just an extension slapped onto a family of archive files. FLT files contain all geometry and information for a mech in one file rather than several WTB files and a BWD. The 555 files are uncompressed textures. In MW2, memory was scarce, so they used all compression technology available, but for MW3, that was apparently no longer neccessary.

Col.Kell wrote:How large are the avarage MW3 mech poly files?

<Will be answered later, but textures are bigger.>

Col.Kell wrote:Is this a new edition to VM that you will be putting in a new version?

It will be part of the next version. It requires MW3 to be installed - MechVM cannot (yet) install MW3. Importing will require you to type the path of the MW3 installation folder, the rest will be automatical as usual.

Sir MMPD Radick wrote:Congrats!

Col.Kell wrote:But, congrats to you and the pie eater on the work!

Thanks.

Col.Kell wrote:How large are the avarage MW3 mech poly files?

MW3 models are comparable in size to MW2. For example, the Mad Dog/Vulture in MW3 has 63 torso polygons, whereas MW2's model has 46 polygons. The difference is in the textures. I think the MW3 textures were created from higher detail meshes.

Awesome! I just found my old MW3 disk!

In order to see the models, install MW3 somewhere, then use MechVM's import function. MechVM cannot yet install MW3. It has been tested with MW3 patched to 1.2, and it may not work with MW3 Gold.

...This game isn't as fun as I remembered it once.

Does importing work for you? Use the import function under Install/Import, type the path to MW3, then start importing. After that, check the mechs in the MechLab.

I never tried. I like old school MW2 better. And my mom would be very angry if she found out I installed a game on her Vista.