Tag Differences Between Myth 2 And Myth 3

[GodzFire]

Always wanted to make a nice chart to show the exact tag differences between Myth 2 and Myth 3, so here it is:



Collections and Collection References are in both games, just in a slightly different sense, so that's why I highlighted them.

So for Myth 3, we can extract everything except the Skeletal Animations, and Skeletal Models, which, unfortunately, are the two big ones.

Here's our friend Connacht Llancarfan's Skeletal Model window:


Such a shame that everything we want are sitting in the tags. If only we could figure out a way to get them out.

[Pyro]

Hold Shift when you open Fear to see the uneditable tag types.

[GodzFire]

Well I'll be damned, I never knew that. Re-did the chart.

On a side note, preferences, saved games, and recordings are also present, but I don't really consider them tag pieces, so I left them out.

[Jon God]

No guide anymore?

[Killswitch]

Such a shame that everything we want are sitting in the tags. If only we could figure out a way to get them out.

The Vengeance source code has the 'template' stating what the skeletal model/anim file formats are like and which data is what. So knowing the format of the data is easy. The difficult part is getting someone who

• A) has coding skills
  B) has ample time
  C) cares about exporting the model data

Knowing the Myth community, you'll be lucky to hit 2 out of 3 (most being too busy )

[Zeph]

or implementing the code into myth2

[GodzFire]

No guide anymore?

I thought you were smart enough.

[GodzFire]

Such a shame that everything we want are sitting in the tags. If only we could figure out a way to get them out.

The Vengeance source code has the 'template' stating what the skeletal model/anim file formats are like and which data is what. So knowing the format of the data is easy. The difficult part is getting someone who

• A) has coding skills
  B) has ample time
  C) cares about exporting the model data

Knowing the Myth community, you'll be lucky to hit 2 out of 3 (most being too busy )

So Kills, if I am understanding you correctly, is it theoretically possible to extract the already done skeletal models and animations, much like you did the texture stacks with Patchwork, the thing that would need to be created is a program to do it? Also, if it was possible would the output formats be something we could even use in 3DS Max or another rendering program?

[Killswitch]

Such a shame that everything we want are sitting in the tags. If only we could figure out a way to get them out.

The Vengeance source code has the 'template' stating what the skeletal model/anim file formats are like and which data is what. So knowing the format of the data is easy. The difficult part is getting someone who

• A) has coding skills
  B) has ample time
  C) cares about exporting the model data

Knowing the Myth community, you'll be lucky to hit 2 out of 3 (most being too busy )

So Kills, if I am understanding you correctly, is it theoretically possible to extract the already done skeletal models and animations, much like you did the texture stacks with Patchwork, the thing that would need to be created is a program to do it? Also, if it was possible would the output formats be something we could even use in 3DS Max or another rendering program?

First, the key word here is 'theoretically'.

But yes, theoretically it would be possible. Let's review: Vengeance (Ballistic) takes a 3ds file, converts it to a tag file useable in M3 (the 'recipe' for such file in Vengeance source code). One could reverse engineer the file format, extract the needed data (vertices, faces, bones, etc) and create a 3D file based on said data.

And at the end of the day (week? month?), you'll have some low poly models of so-so quality.

IMHO, creating new units using a modeling app (z-brush, 3ds, etc) of high quality would probably be of greater use. Not only could you render high quality sprites out for M2, but you could create a low-poly down-res version for import into M3. (And if the specs for M3 ever allowed high poly units, you'd have a model ready to import.)

Of course, this is all...theoretical

[GodzFire]

Kills the models for M3 aren't that bad. They are very capable of being imported in high res to Myth 2. Some of the work by Zeph, Khellek, and Road have proved it. Then again, they were working from the original material, not what would be extracted from M3's files. I can't say how those would be, however when I play M3 on my computer, the units do look amazing.

So it is possible then to get the skeletal models and animations out of M3, just a matter of creating a program to do so. It's at these times where I curse myself for not being able to understand programming/coding. I could do so much if my brain would just wrap around the logic. (This is coming from a person who struggled to get a C/B in Intro To VisualBasic and had to drop out of Web II, which featured VBScript and JavaScript)

[Killswitch]

I didn't say they were bad, I said they were so-so. In my opinion, there's nothing too terribly special about the M3 models that would warrant a complete reverse engineering.

Let's say you have 40 hours of free time (an arbitrary number). You can do one of the following: 1) hammer through the hex data/source code files and get the 3D data, then format it back out to another 3D format or 2) create a high res 3D model that looks super awesome.

Time spent vs Results.