I'm posting this again here since it makes more sense. You can download a file with the model and animation headers, parsers and examples here:

http://www.squidbot.com/GPG/SupCom3DFormats.rar

Feel free to offer this for download on your own site, and if you do, please add your link to this post (to help my web server

http://www.team-oc.com/supcom/downloads/SupCom3DFormats.rar

There you go

For german users:
http://www.insidesupcom.de/index.php?pa ... ails&id=21

Now we just need someone who understands this code to make plugins for modeling programs.

In my experience writing plugins, supporting a file format is easy, it's the plugin to the 3d modelling applications that's hard.

Hopefully someone around here has experience in this field to create the necessary plugins.

The file is now available at RTSC:
http://www.rtscommunity.com/rts/index.p ... &item_id=4

These are not mine, but they may well be handy, and fit well in this topic:

http://www.supremecommander.net/dev/blender.php

I have seen those but they are for blender. Im using and have skills in 3ds max.

I can't wait to get modelling and making units!

Neither can I. You can still model the units. The only thing you wouldnt know would be how to texture the model and how the bones are applied to the model. I was going to get to modeling while I waited for GPG or someone to release the necessary exporters for 3ds max.

Are there currently any plans for GPG to release the necessary tools for 3ds max? It could take a long while if we have to wait for someone from the community to throw something together and im very impatient to start modeling and animating my ideas.

Same here. I want to start modeling but there would be no way to actually stick it in the game. Hopefully some at GPG can give us some info.

all you guys talking about waiting... why wait? you realize these models are fairly high poly, with normal maps, which means you should be making an ultra high poly model first, and texturing it with insane detail, designing tons of stuff.... you can make your high poly model, low poly model, color map, normal map, LOD models, even bones and animation... and when the exporters start showing up, you'll have to tweak it to fit, but i doubt you'll really have to re-do a lot of work.

poly count: 500 - 2000+
textures: 1 or 2 512x512 color and normal map
animation: who knows? but i know there's bones for each weapon muzzle.

that alone is enough info to keep you busy for weeks. =]

Well maybe not weeks, depends on your 3d skills. I might as well sketch out my commander units for my mod Im working on. I have delved into the Unit.sca and found the textures. There are 2 specular maps, 2 normal maps, and 2 main textures (I think. They are a all gray though.).

Not really. I personally want to know all the information i can before i go into modelling something. Especially an ultra-high polygon something. I need to know exactly how it should be animated, how the mesh(es) should be structured, how the textures should be applied, vertices weighted, etc. Otherwise when i finally do get that information ill no doubt have many things to change and potentially even have to scrap he entire thing. Thats alot of time to waste. Alot. THe only way to get a sense for all of this is to poke around the existing models and animations to see what theyre like. Not to mention I can save alot of time if i can use an existing model as a base to work off of.

ok, 'busy for weeks' was a bit of hyperbole, sure... but still.. we know enough that you could do a lot, and not waste any of the work.

if you want to look at the models, pause the game, enable ren_ShowWireframes (or something close to that) in the console, and zoom in and pan around and stuff. you can get a fair idea of how the models are built.

they're triangle meshes, apparently with 2 sets of UVs, 1 for color, 1 for normals... they're rigid, theres no skinning going on, just solid boxes... and if you just take a good look at the units in the game, you can get a pretty good idea of what designs will work and what wont. all this should at the very least let you start working on a super high poly model, which is the most time consuming part, if you're putting detail into it. you could also build your low poly model, and just leave texture/normal map transfer, and animation.

theres an animation viewer out there somewhere that'll load the existing models and let you spin them around and watch the animations. i donno where, i saw screenshots of it on another forum. maybe gamereplays.org. i'm guessing. its definitely somewhere, tho. if i see it again, i'll link it.

Scenario:

You spent your time off work for a few days creating a awesome-tastic, wicked-bad mesh for the unit you've always wanted to play with. You also decide that this mother of all creations shoud have some of the most dastardly toys you ever imagined playing with, so spent yet more time modeling some world-crumbling weapons and special effects for your beastie.

Next come textures, some further concept sketching and model tweaking/detailing, maybe even playing with animations for amusement value and getting a feel for how it should look in the game...

Then, all of a sudden, the news is this - the tools that you require to import your precious creation into the game? Well, the publishers wound-up getting cold feet, got their lawyers on the phone, and... after all had been said and done, the tools didn't look like they were going to be as available to you as you'd previously thought.


How disappointed do you think you'd be?

The GPG staff have said the tools are coming, and I doubt they or Mr. Taylor are lying when they say it. That said, a lot can happen in a short span of time in the game industry, and it's not like this would be the first time ever that a publisher blew a fuse when it came to allowing users to play with 'their' content. Some of us (like, for instance, myself) also have a little bit of leeriness in the back of our minds with the fact that the development tools aren't available from the get-go. The game's been out in public beta format for how long, now? And didn't Mr. Taylor say that he would do what he could to package the development tools with the game?

Again, it's not that I think GPG isn't doing it's best to support the modding community (just look around at these fabulous forums!) or that the tools aren't coming - I just want to Blend with the comfort of knowing that when I'm done, it'll just be a matter of playing with another tool on my hard drive before my guy is in the game. No offense, but I have better things to do with my time than make 3D models that are just going to collect dust in My Documents until my next HD reformat and I'm not prepared to deal with another gut-wrenching, 'Oh, geez, I'm really sorry - but our boss says you can't add that stuff to OUR game afterall'.

I think GPG have their priorities in the following order:

1. big patch, including DX10 support and performance/stability enhancements
2. balance and tuning patch, fixing a lot of details that didn't fully work or feel right
3. release mod tools


Fortunately, GPG isn't a small indie developer, so work on these three things doesn't have to be entirely sequential.

Indeed!
my 8800 card can't wait for dx10 support. It told me in my dreams

me? mildly annoyed. i'd use that model for something else. just portfolio material, learning experience, whatever.

at this point the chances that you wont be able to get it into supcom at all are nil. the model format has been released. its only a matter of time. if wasting the work is a real problem, then sure, dont start. my comments were directed at the multiple people saying "I cant wait!". so... if you cant wait, dont. get started. if you're patient, then sure. wait a few days or weeks and someone will have model exporters going.

concept design, and a high detail model, will be 100% non-wasted, useful work right now. we WILL be able to get models into supcom, and they WILL use normal maps, and it is possible to convert models from one app to another, in case the first exporters come out for something other than what you're using.

the question is just how impatient you are. =]

You shouldnt need to worry. The tools will get here when they get here. you can do nothing about it. In the meantime you can plan out what you want to create so that modeling goes faster.

I wouldnt worry.. the TA community managed to make all the dev tools for themselves with very little support from the developers.. Even in the unlikely event that the GPG tools arent released, they've allready given out enough information for someone to make the required tools.. it may not be today, it might not be tomorrow.. but tools we shall have

Has anyone heard of anyone even looking into making an importer/exporter for models and animations yet?

You should read the whole thread.



The basic import and export seems to work. I have only tested very roughly, but i was able to load the model of the Aeon Quantum Reactor, and export it again after tinkering with it.
It had no textures but it showed ingame.