Is it possible to write an Importer for messiah?

#1

Hello,
I am considering buying Messiah:studio workstation, actually I am pretty sure I will end up buying it, I am just waitting for the holidays to settle to make my order.

Anyway, I downloaded the animator demo and started playing with the SDK, I managed to compile a HelloWorld plugin, which I currently dont know if works or not :), but when I was looking at the mesh functions documentation, I noticed all functions are of the GET type, and not SET or what I was looking for in particular, a fxCreateMesh() function.

So is it possible to write an importer? the API docs and header files are 2 year old, can I safelly asume that the functions I am looking for exist in the full version? Am I looking at the right place for this (messiah_mesh.h)?

Thanks in advance.

#2

The SDK docs are very old and incomplete.
The headers of the full version contain the latest info (don’t know about the demo) but a lot has to be found by trial and error - pmG has a hard time keeping the docs up to date with the development.

I had a similar question lately and I think the answer is negativ - the file functions are missing. While writing out data isn’t a problem, creating importers for meshes seems impossible. You can’t create geometry AFAIK.

What you can do very easily is all kinds of deformation to existing meshes.

You may ask Lyle Milton from pmG directly about the state of the development in that area. He already added some tools that I requested for my shaders, so maybe if you have concrete needs, he may be able to speed up that part.

Cheers!

#3

Ok, Thanks,
what I want to do is write a MD5 (DooM3) importer/exporter, as well as probably a Caligari COB importer since I use gameSpace for modeling.

Importing is not such a big deal as it is exporting to me though, I do find odd the fact that there is no support for creating mesh objects, since that’s pretty basic functionality IMO.

Anyway, I’ll look into getting a hold of Lyle Milton, at the very least I would like to know if the functionality is at least planed, and an estimate on when will it be available.

Thanks again.:thumbsup:

#4

You can get the mesh data and export as you like. You even have access to point weight data. Just have a look at the messiah_mesh.h header.

As far as creating a mesh, it shouldn’t surprise you that you can’t create a mesh in messiah. After all, messiah is not a modeling app. Having said that, we are exploring the possibility of allowing mesh creation & modification via the API. We’ll post when we have more info to report.

-lyle

ps: you should always send me mail via my projectmessiah.com address. It’s very rare that I check CGTalk messages.

#5

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