As far as I know, it's just using the development-kit of it which is right here.
After that, it's just a matter of using the same commands as "md5". Some useful information about that is available right here.

Currently, you can't just add another playermodel in Sauerbraten, as it supposed to be hardcoded (I'm not sure it is though). Just replaced one of the existing playermodels.

I hopes that helped a bit...

About Question 1;
Are you really sure the model is inside the correct folder? Also, don't use capital symbols as some OS are sensitive for this.

About Question 2;
In theory the scale could be too small, but I doubt that except if you specified the size of the boundingbox (else you wouldn't be able to see that as well).
This happened to me sometimes either and the problem was that it just couldn't load the skin of the model (so only an invisible mesh will be displayed).
Be sure the skin is specified correctly either.

About Question 3;
As far as I'm aware of, there is no other way than quitting and restarting Sauerbraten all over again, as models will be "saved" when reloading the same map, even after you've executed "newmap" between several maps (this only is in charge if the model is specified in a map's config-file).

About Question 4;
Be sure to use "*" as less as possible, if you have named the mesh (like "torso" for example). This could fix the problem.
Also don't forget if the mesh, skin, bump-mapped skin, etc isn't inside the same folder as the configuration-file, be sure to specify it correctly (like putting "./" just before the path when it's in 1 of the other folders that are in 1 folder backwards).

About Question 5;
Because settings of models are currently still static, you won't be able to load a model just by pressing "md3load mesh.md3" in the console line. Even if it would be possible, then it would only load that particular mesh, not even the skin of it, neither other settings.
If you want to load a model just ingame, be sure to use commands like "mmodel pathname" or "mapmodel sq_radius height pathname shadow". It is not recommended to use the "mapmodel" command as it's being used for loading already existing models, but with different settings about collision. Beware of loading the mapmodel just from ingame, as it's not saved anywhere (not even after saving the map, as only the mapmodel-slot will be saved).

You can use several programs for that and it can be done on several ways actually.

The oldskool way:
- Load 1 skin which is "wrapped" around all meshes.
The advantage of this technique is that just 1 skin has to be loaded, so (almost) nothing can be messed up badly. Another advantage is that this could save up file-size compared to the other technique.
The disadvantage of this way is a loss in quality, as often a line (which looks ugly) will be displayed when the skin isn't "tile-less" (take the planet model of makke for example, or even just the ogro model).

The "other" way (can't call it "new"):
- Load several textures which are loaded on meshes that are specified as groups.
The advantage of this technique is that you will have a minimum loss of quality in resolution, compared to the oldskool technique.
The disadvantage of this is way is you could get "stretched" textures in certain circumstances, which leads to a loss of quality again.

If you don't know how to make your own skin, I wouldn't advice you to do so (as I don't know exactly either, except on MisfitModel3D, which is a very easy but also very basic modeling program). I often use existing textures instead like I for the monitor model which I posted a while ago (I'll fix the content and update it another time :P).

- This tutorial is somewhat helpful:

http://cube.wikispaces.com/Blender+Animated+Md3+Export

Although the instructions for changing the orientation are not working for me. The correct sequence in latest blender is r z -90 . However I found with the Buck Bunny model that it was r z 90 . According to Eihrul there is no magical orientation that works for all engines so each model may need a different orientation depending on which engine it is intended for.

- For future reference I found this video tutorial very enlightening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwpwzHPtqMc&feature=relmfu

You probably won't get any smarter from reading the code, as the data of the skin is just saved in the mesh itself (as for example, in "tris.md3"). Cube Engine 2 just "reads" the mesh's data and just does what's being told.
As I already said, a skin is being "wrapped" on the mesh, so it's like trying to wrap a piece of rubber (which appears as a round shape) around an apple. You would need to stretch out the piece of rubber to make it exactly fit the shape of the apple.

Is this a MisfitModel3D related question? If so, then you have the same options as I already notified you (but will go more specific in 1 of the two).
- Just select vertices and add them (or assign) them as group, then assign a material to the selected group (were a texture has been setted to the material).
On this way, the model will have a certain amount of textures, but no need to create a very own skin.
Be sure to save the mesh after you've set the texture coordinates, as it won't be able to "remember" the correct position of the new skin (neither Cube Engine 2 will).

- Just select vertices and add them (or assign) them as group, then assign a material to the selected group (were a texture has been setted to the material), but use "paint texture" instead (after checking the "texture coordinates" section).
As far as I experienced, a dull looking texture will be created, but will contain the shape of the selected mesh. Be sure to save that dull looking texture.
After that, you can modify the dull looking texture in a program like Photoshop, Gimp, Paint (whatever you use) and add some nice looking textures on the right position of the dull looking texture.
Be sure again to save the mesh after you've set the texture coordinates.

If not, then I guess you mean how does a game engine like Cube Engine 2 stretches and concentrate pixels of the skin?
In that case, that sort of data contains the .md2-, .md3-, .md5-, .iqm-, .sdm- or an .obj-file. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have some command so you can modify any texture coordinate of a model but for now, that won't happen (as it would achieve a lot of bugs when messing around with it).

I hope that helped...

P.S.
Be sure to use the "reply" button at the bottom right of each commend, when your replying on someone's comment. This makes it a bit less confusing also.

Thanks for your reply. Didn't spot the reply button until now.

I found some skins for the blend file I ma using so now I have a bunch of skins and a blend file that I have exported to iqm format via blender. I dropped them all into a folder in "/packages/models/mapmodels/justice/". For testing I have added one of the skins to the iqm.cfg file. However the skin is not displayed when I load the model. I don't get any error messages about missing skins when loading the model using the steps outlined above.

So now my question is how do I confirm that the skin/s are going to be mapped correctly to the iqm or other model format. I notice that obj files have some text specific to the name of the skin. The iqm is binary so I'm not sure how I can verify that it knows what to do with a skin.

Otherwise I suppose the mesh might not be exported correctly. If I don't 'convert to triangles' before exporting will that cause it to error when loaded into sauer or will it silently fail and just not display anything?

As I've never played around with the IQM Development-kit, I can't give you any information about that. Be sure to ask eihrul about that as he created it.
I can't give you much information about Blender either, as I don't use it very often (like never :P).
Why does it has to be in iqm-format anyways? Is md5 (or even md3) not good enough?

I actually can't remember I stated how to make sure the skin is getting loaded, except in the model-prefab I once made.

If a skin isn't getting loaded, it sometimes helps to rename it to the default name for skins, just "skin"(-.jpg or -.png, a format like -.bmp isn't recommended). This also counts for meshes, which carry as default name "tris". Of course, this is kind of a problem when you have more than 1 skin and/or more then 1 mesh, even it could be avoided by putting each skin and/or mesh in separate folders (isn't looking very professional though).
Remember, it's never a good idea to use long names like "my_sweet_little_sugar_bunny" (or something similar to that), on anything actually, from meshes till configuration-files.

I am trying to get iqm to work as it seems to be the most modern format. Supposedly the commands are identical to md5 so it makes sense that we can apply learnings from working with md5 to the iqm format :-)

Being the most modern format isn't meaning it's the best also. Besides, as it is the most modern format, don't expect everything will be answered that easy, neither quickly, just because there aren't that many people around which have the same knowledge about iqm as of the other formats.
That's why I prefer the md3-format and would recommend it for using it on animated mapmodels, as it is just as simple to use as an md2-format, but being less "shaky" and being able to define certain settings to 1 particular mesh only. It generally lacks bone joints though, that's why it's not a bad choice to use the md5-format for such thing as playermodels instead.
Both of those formats are way more common to modelers and you have a way higher chance of being helped, as getting answers on your questions about it.
The md2- or obj-format should be considered for using as static models which only contain 1 skin, while having animations optionally on the md2-format.

If you continue using the iqm-format and having specific questions about it, be sure to approach certain persons like eihrul personally, instead of just general like on this forum.

Well IMO you are doing an excellent job at helping me to get my head around the differences between the formats and have provided a tonne of useful information in this thread so far. If you are happy to continue assisting in this thread I am happy to continue poking away at the various options until I get the result I want. Maybe if others see us making progress it will inspire them to join in too :-)

What I am ultimately trying to do to add some new characters to the game play. For purely selfish reasons of course. I'm not intending to make a new version of sauerbraten, I just have some ideas which I am working on bringing to life. That's another reason why I am focusing on iqm. I understand that some people like yourself are well versed in working with md3/md5 but I think that it is a worthwhile exercise to try to apply the collective knowledge to mastering the iqm format as I am sure eihrul has very good reasons for taking that path and going to all the effort of developing the code and exporter ;-)

I also appreciate that you are not an expert on the iqm format. Your assistance in this thread has been very helpful.

It's nice to hear you preciate my help, but don't forget I'm not helping people for nothing. I help to see some (damn nice) result(s) in the future from that particular person. So the community benefits from the help and the effort which as been put in that project either.

I never actually worked with md5, as I never imported any model with such format (as the programs I use aren't supporting md5-format).
I will try to import some model which I found once on the internet and probably release it on quadropolis afterwards.
But for now, some old projects which I've released deserve to be updated first.
For example, the Quakish Mapmodels content, as they could be improved on a lot of points.
But don't think that will be done next week, as some other projects deserve an update even more...

Definitely want to see the results of this discussion feed back into the community :-)

There are several steps in this process that I have identified as needing my attention. I hope that my efforts will be well received at a later date too.

It turns out that I didn't properly convert the model to triangles before exporting. Now that I have figured out that step I am having an issue with too many bones in the blend file that I am working with which causes the exporter script to error out. I confirmed with Eihrul on the cause of the error.

So now I am faced with two options. Either strip back the model to a more basic version which has less bones in the rigging or find a simple model to work with for my testing purposes. Maybe I should start with one of the blend files in the models folder and take it from there...

Here's the error message from blender - iqm exporter in case anyone else comes across it and is wondering what it means:


Traceback (most recent call last):
File ".blender/2.60/scripts/addons/iqm_export.py", line 1048, in execute
exportIQM(context, self.properties.filepath, self.properties.usemesh, self.properties.useskel, self.properties.usebbox, self.properties.usecol, self.properties.usescale, self.properties.animspec, matfun, self.properties.derigify)
File ".blender/2.60/scripts/addons/iqm_export.py", line 1019, in exportIQM
iqm.export(file, usebbox)
File ".blender/2.60/scripts/addons/iqm_export.py", line 615, in export
self.writeVerts(file, ofs_vdata)
File ".blender/2.60/scripts/addons/iqm_export.py", line 517, in writeVerts
file.write(struct.pack('<4B', v.weights[0][1], v.weights[1][1], v.weights[2][1], v.weights[3][1]))
struct.error: ubyte format requires 0 <= number <= 255


Well, there's always 1 main rule in modeling for games like Sauerbraten:

- Keep the geometry (and bones) from a model as simple as possible, while having a similar result.

Why?
When you the model needs to be rendered several times in a frame (like for playermodels), it's unwanted that the frames per second drop just because of that (as for some people the mr.fixit and ironsnoutx10k model do).
A good example how to keep it looking pretty is the model of Captain Cannon, which has considerably less vertices than mr. fixit and ironsnoutx10k (look at the hudgun for example).

I still prefer playing with the old ironsnout though, as it's even cheaper on vertices, moving more funny and easier to modify while still looking great.

About the bones;
I don't know much about the ammount neither bones itself (except the basics), but I think like 17 bones would be enough (hands 4, arms 4, feet 2, legs 4, back 2, head 1).

captin cannon looks like shit -.- and inky too..

yes it is desirable to lessen the vertices but if you want the game to look pretty this does not help. Cube needs to stop supporting those with pentium 3

What I'm looking to do is going to be run on very powerful machines so I'm more concerned with getting my model to load at this stage and will work on the efficiency after that.

So, I have exported the model with triangles and not too many bones, included a skin, and configured iqm.cfg but the model doesn't display. There are no error messages either. Any ideas on what I can do to trace the issue or should I just recompile with a bunch of printf's to see where it is failing?

If by "doesn't display" you mean there's just no model it all, it might be that it's just too small to be really visible. Try putting "mdlscale 10000" or something like that into the config and see if that helps.

Thanks for the tip but it doesn't fix the issue for me.

Looks like I have to dive into the code now.

Or you can use the .md5-format which is more common, even outside this community...

:-) hint hint nudge nudge...

I'm trying that one now too as a comparison and even though I can export the iqm sucessfully the md5 exporter bails for some new reason.

Probably easy enough to fix if I knew what that error meant and where to make the changes in the Blender UI but because the error message is not detailed enough I have to spend a few more hours of my life trying to figure out what the meaning is and how to fix it...

Then I have no guarantee that the model will actually load or display.

But as I'm in no immediate hurry so I can afford to spend the time on this process.

the reason for this error is that you had no animation data. if you select the armature and add one key frame which will add an action and will allow you to export the md5. thats all that needed to happen =)

Changing commands like "mdlscale" have no effect on the skin, except if the skin isn't really attached to the mesh itself (which I once managed, oddly).

How did you managed to get 258 bones into 1 model and what's purpose of all these bones?

ok as for the texture. to have the abiltiy to use a smaller texture is just to go resize the texture down then while in blender have your smaller texter selected and put your mesh in edit mode then it should project your mesh in the photo editor then just resize the flat mesh to the size of your resized texture then just take your mesh out of edit mode then export and DONE!! =) hope it helped

So when will people on here will see some results from a project which you made =P?

Before getting started with rigging I needed to fix the eyeballs.

http://iguanapro.com/cube/screenshot_58651.png

I had to position them in the correct place in the model so they would show up in the iqm first and then I had to change the UV from Generated to Mapped. I followed the tutorial above to setup the correct config for the shading to "GLSL", changed the view mode to textured and set the mapping coordinates as UV instead of generated.

Then I applied the following sequence.

1: select the eyeball in edit mode
2: u -> project from view
3: then I had to adjust the pixmap image size in gimp by adding some extra background area and scale the eyeball so the iris was in the correct proportion and position in the mesh.

Easy huh?

Just to make sure you haven't forget and to prevent your wasting a lot of effort and time;
Have you also already optimized the mesh itself about triangles? It's pretty senseless to rig a mesh which has so many vertices that it can't be used properly for (almost) all computers because they couldn't handle it.