Naming Convention For Models

[Domarius]

I think the def file naming convention is good;

tdm_ai_citywatch_elite.def

 

So we have everything in our mod in a tdm category,

we have an ai category under that,

and the 3rd level of categorisation is left up to the creator's discretion at the moment it seems.

 

 

 

Problem is that the model that is exported in to Doom 3 doesn't follow that.

For example you type "testModel elitecitywatch" to make the city watch model appear.

Also the original maya files don't follow that standard either.

Also the folder structure doesn't follow that... well it does sort of, but it reffers to AI as "chars" instead.

If we be consistant, you can look at the file name of a def file and know exactly where its dependant files are, and vice versa,

 

Since the Thief isn't really being used at the moment, I'm going to rename everything about him to follow this proposed standard as an example, and see what everyone thinks.

[ascottk]

I think the def file naming convention is good;

tdm_ai_citywatch_elite.def

 

So we have everything in our mod in a tdm category,

we have an ai category under that,

and the 3rd level of categorisation is left up to the creator's discretion at the moment it seems.

Problem is that the model that is exported in to Doom 3 doesn't follow that.

For example you type "testModel elitecitywatch" to make the city watch model appear.

Also the original maya files don't follow that standard either.

Also the folder structure doesn't follow that... well it does sort of, but it reffers to AI as "chars" instead.

If we be consistant, you can look at the file name of a def file and know exactly where its dependant files are, and vice versa,

 

Since the Thief isn't really being used at the moment, I'm going to rename everything about him to follow this proposed standard as an example, and see what everyone thinks.

 

We also need to do something similar to materials & texture directories. oDD's materials & textures are not to be followed as examples! The builder guard is a prime example of that, builderbottom & buildertop? WTF? Both materials and textures are both top & bottom & that's very confusing especially when were breaking up the model for damage uses.

[Domarius]

Yeah part of this is also the layout of the folder structure.

 

For starters, directly under models, you'd expect chars, to contain the character models, right? No. It contains only their textures. To get to the actual models, you first have to go into md5, where the entire structure is duplicated again, but this time for models. Essentially we're saying models\textures, and models\models. It's crap.

 

I am moving the thiefs models, anims, and textures, into models\ai\thief

 

About the materials folder - is there any way to split up the chars.mtr so that we can have a materials folder for each character to put in their folder, such as models\ai\thief\materials? It's unlikely that entries directly referencing the thief textures will be used on any other character.

 

For materials that will be shared, like the sword, we should categorise them by their usage, like the existing mtr files. So maybe a weapons material file, or a sword material file. And they should start with tdm (not all of them do, currently).

[Domarius]

Every single bitmap in the game goes in the textures folder. Every single material in the game goes in the material folder. And for textures and materials that are specific to a model, the folder structure should follow the model structure;

textures\ai\thief

materials\ai\thief

Def files are an exception because sub folders under def are not scanned by Doom 3 (correct?) so they have to include the folder structure in their name; tdm_ai_thief.def

 

Any thoughts?

[OrbWeaver]

Generally I prefer to keep modelskin textures with the models, so the TGA files are actually in the same directory under models/ as the LWO or ASE. I believe the current Dark mod policy is to keep all model textures in a single directory under models (models/props/textures IIRC) which I find very confusing as it is using a single level of model categorisation to include the textures from ALL models, even those that aren't in props/.

[Domarius]

I just found out you can define the materials in the def file. You just need to preceed the block with the keyword "material". In fact, a material file is just a def file, where the keyword material is assumed.

 

material models/chars/thief/thief_head

{

diffusemap models/chars/thief/thief_head_d.tga

}

 

We could do that for textures that are meant to be uvmapped to a specific mesh, such as character templates.

 

My goal is to keep the things together that are meant to be together. So yeah, I agree Orb, right now I'm thinking we should put the textures in with the mesh files, for the ones that shouldn't really be shared.

[Springheel]

That's fine for the characters. Though keep in mind that the weapon textures will be shared and should be in models/weapons.