.x file question

benny53 · Post by **benny53** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:20 am

any chance of supporting the compressed version as well? Cuz that seems to be used more so than the text files. And it really is a hassle converting all those files...

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:59 am

Simply use it (in case you mean the binary format).

Spintz · Post by **Spintz** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:58 pm

No, he means the compressed binary data, there are 3 possible formats for .X files, text, binary and binary compressed. I've looked into the binary compressed format, but could never find any information on it.

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:06 pm

How does it safe considerably more space than the binary only format? Anyway, compressed format is not supported for .x (I think we only have compressed support for some image file formats), so you have to convert your meshes to plain binary.

Spintz · Post by **Spintz** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:19 pm

No clue, that's why I said this -

I've looked into the binary compressed format, but could never find any information on it.

Who said it saves considerably more space than regular binary?

monkeycracks · Post by **monkeycracks** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 12:33 am

the words 'compressed binary' suggest it does

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:46 am

er...huge tip here.

I know it's sort of OT, but addresses that specific functionality problem.

MD5.

That format is crazily light in comparison. If u looking for problem free, uber light meshes, that's md5 . The der_ton md5 Blender exporter not only takes care of constraints well with no bake needed, gives no probs at all -at least to me, no extra fix needed!- , but also, separates mesh from animation. *.MD5mesh is the file (well, actually, u need to set in a text editor the path/name of the texture, is the only needed, but is important...where it says "shader"...Probably will be, even for an artist, to do a tool that adds in a batch way a texture to n files, but i dont see a need of this, as is only one mesh for all anims...) with vertices, bones, weights, texture,(actually, texture path, texture is a file apart!,usually tga dunno if png) normal map(idem), spec maps, etc... while *.md5anim (yep, long extensions) is only the anim! Result, your FPS character may have 50 animations, but perhaps each of it is only like 48 Ks...(is an example, is THAT small)

I see it waay convenient.

besides, again, are text formats and easily ediatble later, but even so, are usually very fast in performance in the engines I checked.

The md5mesh is also very light in my tests.

SIO is working on it, but waiting till Luke great animation system rewrote, am equally interested in b3d format as is like a one for all format, quite complete for both levels and characters.(and have already quite a number of tools exporting it, like md5 has others)

Yep, I know, they're not yet there...But...imo, they should be the future , maybe near future, of irrlicht formats... My two cents...

The comparison in memory size bewteen x and b3d and md5 is crazy....x files, I think being the heavier...
Indeed, I have not seen anything lighter yet than md5...And is a free format too...

IMO, md5 is a format, (like b3d), thought for games since start(not a bunch of fields like applications, games, etc)...And thought by ppl who know a bit about the matter

Spintz · Post by **Spintz** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:44 pm

monkeycracks wrote:the words 'compressed binary' suggest it does

Compressed says it saves space, but not how much. There are many methods of compression, some better than others. So I ask again, where is the information on this compression? I'm asking where it was heard, to try and gather more information on it.

God, these forums are funking useless and filled with more 6 year old attitudes these days.....

Spintz · Post by **Spintz** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:00 pm

And amazing.

After doing more research on it, it's actually a very shitty compression algorithm!!!

So, no, the compression isn't good. And you can actually compress both Text and Binary formats. They use MSZIP compression, which is based on LZX compression. MZX compression is known to be better than zip and other compressions, however, MSZIP compression is the lease efficient version of LZX compression( probably to keep some level of accuracy in the file ).

Seems you'd be better off using a maximum level compression with .ZIP, than using compressed binary format. However, if you're going to support .X, you should probably support the compressed binary and text formats as well. So I don't think it should be ignored. Does the Zlib library support LZX compression?

monkeycracks · Post by **monkeycracks** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 6:13 pm

I seriously thought that's where he may have gotten it from -.-

But more on-topic, I agree with Vermeer on the md5.

Spintz · Post by **Spintz** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:41 pm

Sorry for mis-interpreting what you said.

I don't know about MD5, it may be better and if so, it should be supported. However, if .X is going to still be supported, the compressed formats should also be supported.

I looked into Zlib, and don't believe it supports the LZX compression. LZX is used by windows CAB files and I believe also by the UNIX/Linux compress utility. I found some source code for a LZX compression library, I got to look into the license for the code though.

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:29 pm

LZMA I think compresses a lot more, but I am a total ignorant in these matters... I think bz2 also.

At least in what user compressor utilities is all about...

in the matters of open source and programming stuff, there I get lost...

yes, *.MD5 is way too many times better, a lot evolved is the plugin, I mean, is, rare thing in a blender plugin, problem free in my experience...And the strong advantages of size, and many I havent mentioned, like more easiness at coding level for accessing the bones,etc (that I've been told by certain programmers...) besides can port spec, normal maps... itself...
Blender and Max can export very well in md5...also gmax.(maya, xsi, you need to have the game installed.)

Spintz · Post by **Spintz** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:35 pm

There are different levels of LZX compression, the MSZip is the lowest ratio of LZX compression for .CAB files. Good news is, at least for Windows, MS provides a free lib/include files for compressing and decompressing LZX data.