I have tested it in some minutes.
Just...as allways, test that md3 does not support shared UVs (is a thing from the past; *.3ds either does) , so, if u pla to output an md3 for the engine, allways try to do the uvmapping areas so that u hide the uv seams in non seen parts.
I think it was an old md3 making recommendation, but I sometimes forget these things.Provided uv seams are well hidden the format is usable.
I've tested with the only way I like to make md3 files: no shaders, no tags, no chunks...all the model is a single piece, so I control the way meat bendes thanks to my bones and weights, that howwever in export get "baked" to the md3 vertex animation (interpolated)
So, now there's 2 ways for free to export md3 :
-gmax+ mojo.gmaxsupport.com md3 gmax plugin
-Blender and this script.
The r2d2 irrlicht md3 loader was reported to work with the single piece, non shaders, no nothing smooth bending model....so...
Anyway, u see in a comparison, clear limits in comparison to x...
* x has not a tri limit (enough huge to disturb me, anyway) while md3 is 8.192 (yet too much today for a character, but...)
* x allows shared UVs, does not create sharp geometry edges in shared uvs (then end of any uv chunk u made in the uv editor) , and sadly, md3 does.
* md3 does not loose the smooth looking achived with bones and weights in blender or gmac (if done as single piece model, if not , go and trust on the 50% weight automatic caculation of any engine for it, between md3 parts(torso, neck, etc)
...)* as for this, you can't access bone by code, once md3 imported in the engine, as actually md3 is a bunch of meshes interpolated in time: poses. No bones, though it looks smooth. For this also, they are more heavy in memory than just bones.
- the good side of md3 is...several in a multiplayer game are supposed to be calculated better than several bones and weights models,if the user pc is really old and his card does not support well weights by hardware.
Not an issue today, unless u target really very , very low end pcs.
So, it has its pros and cons, each to decide the format.Irrlicht for now has cal3d format -I think- and that tool I mentioned for it, md2, md3, and x, and plenty free or comercial tols to export it.
And they all support exporting a shoulder bending correctly (not so much with md2; I'd save that one ofor rts games of many models at once and seen allways at a distance)
OOPS
the md3 updated thread :
http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 241#306241