MilkShape-3D .ms3d Importer

This geometry importer reads in the complete contents of a MilkShape-3D .ms3d binary file, including:

1. Mesh geometry with vertex normals and vertex uv texture coordinates
2. Materials
3. Texture maps
4. Skeletons (bones)
5. Mesh skinning weights and associations (deformation of meshes by bones)
6. Animation (rotations imported as Euler or Quaternions)

The importer is an add-in component for v4.1 (or newer) releases of Okino's PolyTrans and NuGraf software packages. You can immediately download and install it by clicking on the following button. The ZIP file is to be unzipped into the "vpclugin" directory where you have either PolyTrans or NuGraf installed on your machine.

MilkShape-3D is a popular low polygon-count modeler and gaming file converter written by chUmbaLum sOft of Zurich, Switzerland.

Okino's Milkshape-3D importer is most beneficial as a bridge between the large selection of import converters supported by the Milkshape-3D program and the large selection of export converters supported by Okino software. For example, the following are a selection of MilkShape-3D import converters which are not natively supported by Okino software, and hence are now accessible by way of the Milkshape-3D program (as a file converter to the .ms3d file format) and the Okino software as a second step converter.

1. Half-Life SMD
2. Half-Life MDL
3. Quake II MD2
4. Quake III: Arena MD3
5. Unreal/UT Engine 3D
6. Unreal/UT Engine Skeletal Mesh PSK
7. Vampire: the Masquerade NOD
8. Genesis3D 1.0 BDY
9. Genesis3D 1.0 MOT
10. Genesis3D 1.0 ACT
11. Serious Sam MDL
12. Max Payne KF2
13. Max Payne KFS
14. Max Payne SKD
15. The Sims SKN
16. Lithtech ABC v11, v12 (NOLF)
17. Lithium UnWrapper
18. Playstation TMD

As examples, you would first use Milkshape-3D to convert a file from Quake III .md3 file format to .ms3d. Then, you could use Okino's PolyTrans, NuGraf, PolyTrans-for-Maya, PolyTrans-for-MAX, etc. to futher convert the file to formats or animation programs such as 3ds max, Maya, Lightwave, Softimage, XSI, DirectX and dozens of others.

The chUmbaLum sOft WEB site also contains a list of additional add-in import converters for the Milkshape-3D program which have been written by third parties.

Dialog Box Options

The following information explains the various options on the dialog box:

Polygon Meshes

Enabling this checkbox will allow all triangle mesh data to be imported from the .md3d file.

uv Texture Coordinates

Enabling this checkbox will allow the uv texture coordinates associated with each vertex to be imported. These uv texture coordinates are important if you wish to apply texture maps to the objects.

Vertex Normals

Enabling this checkbox will allow the vertex normals associated with each vertex to be imported. The normals define the "smoothness" of the polygon model when it is rendered.

Surfaces

Enabling this checkbox will allow material definitions to be imported.

Materials

Enabling this checkbox will allow material definitions to be imported. The materials define the color of the objects.

Textures

Enabling this checkbox will allow texture definitions to be imported. The texture definitions link a bitmap image texture on disk to a material associated with an object.

Bones

Enabling this checkbox will allow the bone (skeleton) hierarchy to be imported. Bones define a skeleton which in turn can be "bound" to a mesh via mesh skinning weights. By moving or animating the bones, the mesh will deform smoothly in relation to the distance each bone moves relative to the base pose.

Mesh Skinning

Enabling this checkbox will allow mesh skinning weights to be imported and for the bone skeleton to be bound to its corresponding triangle mesh. By moving the skeleton, the mesh will deform smoothly in relation to the distance each bone moves relative to their base pose (and affected by the weight strength).

Keyframe Animation

Enabling this checkbox will import the animation data in the .ms3d file and bind it to each bone of the skeleton. You have a choice to import using Euler rotation method (3 explicit X, Y and Z rotation channels) or as Quaternions (one rotation animation channel that always takes the shorted distance between two rotation angles). The option defaults to Euler. If you notice that the imported animation plays back incorrectly then simply revert to Quaternion rotations.