Hello fellows. I come to you all seeking help on understanding the sc2 model file. If I can understand it, maybe I can make a plugin that exports it to X3D format (a standard for models) and thus every modelling program like Blender and x3vision will be able to use it and to model for Sc2. Further more, because X3D is a free standard, you will be able to import all types of models, no matter from what game into Sc2.
But it offers little information and I am not sure if it is abandoned, or maybe it's just because I am a newb... I never modelled before in my life, so I will be most happy to see if someone can help me.
Programming wise pretty much everyone in here will be little or no help at all (I dare say)
Modelling wise we can help a little more, though, yeah, that's pretty much all there is. NiNToxicated was developing the .m3 plugins for 3ds max along with updating the information in there, he left months ago due to personal reasons (real life ;o) and that lib has ever since been abandoned.
I think it does help if you actually know how to model because I remember NiNToxicated having to learn how bones worked, how max used particles, ribbons and such in order to write the plugin for them.
You should try getting used to the information in .m3 files by using the 010 template in that site, it has helped me debug information and understand the .m3 format a little bit even if I know closely nothing about programming.
Well, I know a few things about programming, trust me on that :P
My problem is that I have no idea how models work. I know they use vertexes and stuff like that, but that's about it. Your suggestion seems to be a program. Are you suggesting I should reverse engineer that exe file and see what's behind it? I am not sure how good that would do, but still thanks. I searched all over Google for some sort of API about the .m3 file format, but it simply doesn't seem to be one. Is there anything else useful you can let me know? I would really appreciate it.
It sounds like this will be a standalone program, right? Maybe you can check out what the AssImp team are doing and help out, by helping them with adding .m3 to their list of exportable and importable formats. Once that is done, we'll be able to import and export to many formats. http://sourceforge.net/projects/assimp/
Alevice beat me to it, yeah I meant uuse the 010 hex editor and open the template then open several .m3 files and run the template on them. It will parse the model, help you understand the fileformat of what we know about the fileformat and such.
But yeah, that's about all we have, you could also try looking at NiNtoxicated's code for m3 exporting/importing. They're on MAXSCRIPT but it's very similar to C so you'd kinda get it.
there's a lot more in the M3 models than just vertex data. Those things should be pretty easy to get and parse with just a few knowledge of programming and some bits of modeling but things like particles, ribbons, hair and such would be the most difficult to explain and figure out in the format :P But we'll walk you through it ;o
Get used to the m3 format, open a few models with said template, see what information is missing in the template and then we figure it out and we'll teach you how models work :P
@JackRCDF: Go
Unfortunately the m3 format is much more complex than the obj format, to start with the m3 is a dynamic binary file and the .obj format they're making the example exporter is just a plain text format which takes no account on things like length of bytes, variable types, and so, so kinda useless really.
As a heads up, if you're going to be making it a standalone program you're going to be needing an input format which is really standard(I really have never before heard of x3d being standard or heard about it at all), I'd recommend collada (dae) or fbx. and you're obviously going to need to know the m3 format well to output information to it.
He meant dowloading this template, which is used by the 010 Hex Editor to structure the data within the .m3 file.
Thank you kinda sir!
I installed the program together with the template. As a result I get random structures with hexadecimal content. I am not sure the use I can give to that :S
What is the most basic and easy model Sc2 has? I tried the bunker and the armory, but obviously it is too big.
Also, what is the .m3h file supposed to do?
It sounds like this will be a standalone program, right? Maybe you can check out what the AssImp team are doing and help out, by helping them with adding .m3 to their list of exportable and importable formats. Once that is done, we'll be able to import and export to many formats. http://sourceforge.net/projects/assimp/
Well, it was first intended to be a plugin for blender. But then I realised that Blender had an X3D import plugin that was working. This led me to questioning my objective: X3D is a standard to transfer modelling information and scenes. If I can convert .m3 do X3D, not only will I help the blender community, I will also help everyone else along with the process. Therefore I plan on making a small and simple java application (to work on all operating systems) that would convert a .m3 file into a X3D with all the needed information.
As for the Assimp project it seems that it aims to be a program to open as many different formats as possible. However, after a quick test, the Assimp Viewer didn't even work properly, contrary to the advertised, it couldn't, per example, load properly my earth model from earth made on Blender (has a .blend flie extension that was supposed to be supported). Thanks on the link however I may try contacting the team.
Finally, as for the Blender script ... if all goes well I wont be doing one. That's the thing of making standards, should I succeed, not only blender, but every other program that imports the X3D format will be able to read files. And since X3D is a standard, I must say I am excited.
Still, I will read it. I like learning :D
Alevice beat me to it, yeah I meant uuse the 010 hex editor and open the template then open several .m3 files and run the template on them. It will parse the model, help you understand the fileformat of what we know about the fileformat and such.
But yeah, that's about all we have, you could also try looking at NiNtoxicated's code for m3 exporting/importing. They're on MAXSCRIPT but it's very similar to C so you'd kinda get it.
there's a lot more in the M3 models than just vertex data. Those things should be pretty easy to get and parse with just a few knowledge of programming and some bits of modeling but things like particles, ribbons, hair and such would be the most difficult to explain and figure out in the format :P But we'll walk you through it ;o
Get used to the m3 format, open a few models with said template, see what information is missing in the template and then we figure it out and we'll teach you how models work :P
@JackRCDF: Go Unfortunately the m3 format is much more complex than the obj format, to start with the m3 is a dynamic binary file and the .obj format they're making the example exporter is just a plain text format which takes no account on things like length of bytes, variable types, and so, so kinda useless really.
As a heads up, if you're going to be making it a standalone program you're going to be needing an input format which is really standard(I really have never before heard of x3d being standard or heard about it at all), I'd recommend collada (dae) or fbx. and you're obviously going to need to know the m3 format well to output information to it.
So, those random structures are all you know about the file format?! Dang :S I'm pretty much screwed.
As for the plugin, I assume you are referring to this:
http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/m3-export-plugin-3ds-max/?page=2
I don't know how that is going to help me, but I guess I can sure try ... Let's hope they have the code commented xD
As for m3 being complex ... well ... you are starting to scare me ... I hope the X3D standard is strong enough to hold it :S
As for the input format ... I plan on making something simple, like you give the program a .m3 file and the program outputs a X3D file and vice-versa. As for X3D, here is the link of the consortium:
http://www.web3d.org/x3d/
So far, knowing the .m3 file seems to be the greatest problem to me :S
Thank you all for the support.
I think you'll need to have a few more options than simply export to m3, depending on how much control over the process you'll give us ;0 However, it's certainly sounding promising. I hate having to use 3ds max's crappy interface to import and export models >:(
As corbo said, collada (.dae) is more universal than x3d, so you'll want to look into that. Blender supports collada as well so you won't be blocking us off ;0
I am looking into the 3dmax script. I am scared like hell. As far as I can tell from the code, that script is a very big mixed salad. It has code to import WoW models, some sort of WoW2 (I can't figure how that even exists) and somewhere it must have something about with Sc2. Turns out that NiNtoxicated used a 3dmax script for WoW as a base, and then he just fixed some issues and added some new information, mixing it all together in a great mess.
As for collada, I never heard of it xD
Perhaps collada is more used in USA and X3D is more used in Europe (where I live). If I manage to even learn something from this 3dMax script I will definitely give it a look.
For now I will be more than happy to just import something as easy as the geometry (vertexes). If I manage to do that, maybe I can go further, but I can't make any promises. I still need to divide the code into "WoW" code and "Sc2" code because it's all mixed up.
EDIT:
Never mind ... the 3dsmax plugin is simply a plugin for the WoW m2 file that has been changed ... I fail to see the connection between all the wow code and the sc2 code ...
EDIT:
Can someone give me the .m3 file of a cube? For some gay reason 3dmax kills my computer :S
"EDIT: Can someone give me the .m3 file of a cube? For some gay reason 3dmax kills my computer :S"
There's one included with the editor which you can export using the previewer; if you can't figure that out I'll post one tomorrow when I have more time.
No it's not. The M2 format importer is just one of the plug ins NiNtoxicated updated. There's also more, the M3 export the M3 import for 3ds max and M3 sequences. But yeah, I remember, though, NiNtoxicated saying something about basing his work on the m2 plug in code. Still I see the code and I kinda get things. It's not that confusing >.>
M3 of a cube coming right up.
Cube there.
In case you need the info, it's a 0.1x0.1x0.1 metres cube at position 0,0,0.
The texture embedded it's a DXT3 .dds file called white_diffuse128.dds which is 128x128 and completely white (you shouldn't really need this :P)
In the last BlizzCon I saw I remember seeing someone asking for a Blizz 3dModel editor, and they said it was not in their plans. So, I don't really think it is a possibility (it kinda sucks I can't find the youtube video, sry about that :S ).
As for the cube .m3 file, I am amazed about the quantity of information it has.
I assume you can all see the same information I can, so I was wondering if anyone could guide through the header structure, since it seems to be static (it never changes, at least in the 2-3 models I recall seeing).
I joined the buzz. Longer story @ thehive, thehelper.net. Because username Sooda was taken I use here SoodaTH.
I downloaded cube.m3 and white_diffuse128.dds. To start thanks for your input who have replyed and offered resources. I must admit loading this test model vanilla does not work. To make it short:
Name white_diffuse128.dds to cube_diffuse.dds
For some reason m3 viewer which I have is unable to load white_diffuse128 correctly (it is in viewer transparent or black on black background). therefore I used armory_diffuse.dds instead. Result what I got looks like this (attached under post). It is way different than cube (texture needs to be scrambled, that is ok, but vertices are off. Was it in other modeling program a real cube?). I am asking this because my m3 viwer renders default bunker, armory, etc flawlessly.
Anyway it is good model to start learning from nevertheless because it is so basic.
Made it directly in 3ds max, it was a cube, pretty sure it's a cube in the exported .m3 too when I see the information in the mentioned template in the 010 editor and pretty sure that if I tested it it'd be a cube in sc2 o.O
There must be something wrong in the code for your previewer seeing that it also doesn't load the texture name correctly. o.O
Need anything else just ask me, always happy to help ^^
EDIT: I downloaded HEX editor from this thread and read blog about format and looked m3lib project. Then I had heureka! moment and I wrote down my learnings. Flamephonix check it out, it is pdf 3 pages file with examples and easy reading how to understand m3 file in HEX format (or is it binary?).
Still I am in early steps of learning. If we are able to document one m3 file like I have written in my pdf. Maybe exporter is not ages away.
Sad that 010 Editor is 30 days trial, when it expires I am in darkness.
EDIT1: M3 file uses reverse byte ordering, if you are looking for MODL tag, write to HEX editor search LDOM and you find what you are looking for.
EDIT2: It seems exporter for 2.56a Blender does exist: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.5/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/M3_Import
Key to understanding is examining others people code. I somewhat understand how things are ordered in m3 hex file, but fail to find them (where does what start? For that there are these "headers" like MODL).
EDIT3: Things have been evolved rapidly, I found out (with tend to be pretty obvious) that oven hot Blender 2.58 suports vanilla m3 import. Though I had problems with texture (I might dig into it later) but main things like vertices and normals were loaded from m3 hex file without a problem. Took even picture of it.
Importer (I guess eporter) can be enabled from "User Preferences" Add-Ons (just tick box M3 importer). Then go to File > Import > M3 Blizzard.
Good things about all this is we got now python script which reads HEX M3 file to learn from and many (link I posted and turns out at sc2mapster has also Blender M3 import script) to learn from.
To make it short: Blender is under rapid development and IO scripts which worked with old version will not work with newest version only because a) IO script initialization script needs cosmetic update (API calls remain same) which gives fals impression "OMG it is abandoned!".
To get old script working open already working IO python script observe it and write new initialization script (or modify existing old IO script accordingly).
Actually for modeling needs fixed Blender version (get it from repository of old Blender programs @ Blender.org) and version specific IO M3 script is all you need for lifetime SC2 modding.
I know jump from 2.49 to 2.5x Blender had huge changes which I liked and I am glad importers for M3 files are supported. Otherwise we would had to come up with our own solution (luckily it was done for us already).
Still I am interested to understand M3 HEX format and how python script interprets it. If someone is willing to comment what that code exactly does then we can have solid support for upcoming Blender versions too.
The plugin you are referring was actually suggested by me, irrc, along with a list of non-working plugins for the Blender community. I thought the mail had been ignored, but I am happy it didn't. Bad thing is that the plugin is no longer .. well ... maintained.
Converting things to Blender is nice, but to be honest I am way more concerned about completely understanding the .m3 file format. If we can do that, we will be able to convert the .m3 file format to any other program or format.
And I say that the .m3 Blender plugin is abandoned because the owner on the thread (the thread here at sc2mapster) actually said he had no time time to continue the project.
I am going to read your pdf file because that's really the only new thing for me. let's hope I can find something useful there.
You are saying, Cory Perry (muraj), writer of Blender 2.58(!) M3 IO python script is no longer maintaining the code? I consider maintaining keeping script compatile with Blender latest version. Adding new features to script is different story.
Well done, if you managed by yourself, pushing Blender community to update old m3 IO script to work with 2.5x realeases. To short this thing out: Cory Perry (muraj) != sc2mapster thread starter, yes?
My pdf writing style is from humanitarian to humanitarian. If you know something about m3 hex file (how to search tags, specific tag, how to interpret what you see in hex file, etc) share your findings.
I' m into learning m3 hex file structure.
About learning curve, I first have to learn how to understand gurus (or any) comments. What they write is mystery at its own :)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hello fellows. I come to you all seeking help on understanding the sc2 model file. If I can understand it, maybe I can make a plugin that exports it to X3D format (a standard for models) and thus every modelling program like Blender and x3vision will be able to use it and to model for Sc2. Further more, because X3D is a free standard, you will be able to import all types of models, no matter from what game into Sc2.
Over my research I found this link: http://code.google.com/p/libm3/w/list
But it offers little information and I am not sure if it is abandoned, or maybe it's just because I am a newb... I never modelled before in my life, so I will be most happy to see if someone can help me.
Thanks in advance, Flame_Phoenix.
Programming wise pretty much everyone in here will be little or no help at all (I dare say)
Modelling wise we can help a little more, though, yeah, that's pretty much all there is. NiNToxicated was developing the .m3 plugins for 3ds max along with updating the information in there, he left months ago due to personal reasons (real life ;o) and that lib has ever since been abandoned. I think it does help if you actually know how to model because I remember NiNToxicated having to learn how bones worked, how max used particles, ribbons and such in order to write the plugin for them.
You should try getting used to the information in .m3 files by using the 010 template in that site, it has helped me debug information and understand the .m3 format a little bit even if I know closely nothing about programming.
@xcorbo: Go
Well, I know a few things about programming, trust me on that :P
My problem is that I have no idea how models work. I know they use vertexes and stuff like that, but that's about it. Your suggestion seems to be a program. Are you suggesting I should reverse engineer that exe file and see what's behind it? I am not sure how good that would do, but still thanks. I searched all over Google for some sort of API about the .m3 file format, but it simply doesn't seem to be one. Is there anything else useful you can let me know? I would really appreciate it.
Thanks anyway.
He meant dowloading this template, which is used by the 010 Hex Editor to structure the data within the .m3 file.
Go play Antioch Chronicles Remastered!
Also, coming soon, Antioch Episode 3: Thoughts in Chaos!
Dont like mapster's ugly white? Try Mapster's Classic Skin!
It sounds like this will be a standalone program, right? Maybe you can check out what the AssImp team are doing and help out, by helping them with adding .m3 to their list of exportable and importable formats. Once that is done, we'll be able to import and export to many formats. http://sourceforge.net/projects/assimp/
There's a small tutorial here on making an export script for blender; maybe that will help a little with understanding how models work, but you'll probably need more than that. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Advanced_Tutorials/Python_Scripting/Export_scripts
Alevice beat me to it, yeah I meant uuse the 010 hex editor and open the template then open several .m3 files and run the template on them. It will parse the model, help you understand the fileformat of what we know about the fileformat and such.
But yeah, that's about all we have, you could also try looking at NiNtoxicated's code for m3 exporting/importing. They're on MAXSCRIPT but it's very similar to C so you'd kinda get it.
there's a lot more in the M3 models than just vertex data. Those things should be pretty easy to get and parse with just a few knowledge of programming and some bits of modeling but things like particles, ribbons, hair and such would be the most difficult to explain and figure out in the format :P But we'll walk you through it ;o
Get used to the m3 format, open a few models with said template, see what information is missing in the template and then we figure it out and we'll teach you how models work :P
@JackRCDF: Go Unfortunately the m3 format is much more complex than the obj format, to start with the m3 is a dynamic binary file and the .obj format they're making the example exporter is just a plain text format which takes no account on things like length of bytes, variable types, and so, so kinda useless really.
As a heads up, if you're going to be making it a standalone program you're going to be needing an input format which is really standard(I really have never before heard of x3d being standard or heard about it at all), I'd recommend collada (dae) or fbx. and you're obviously going to need to know the m3 format well to output information to it.
Thank you kinda sir! I installed the program together with the template. As a result I get random structures with hexadecimal content. I am not sure the use I can give to that :S What is the most basic and easy model Sc2 has? I tried the bunker and the armory, but obviously it is too big. Also, what is the .m3h file supposed to do?
Well, it was first intended to be a plugin for blender. But then I realised that Blender had an X3D import plugin that was working. This led me to questioning my objective: X3D is a standard to transfer modelling information and scenes. If I can convert .m3 do X3D, not only will I help the blender community, I will also help everyone else along with the process. Therefore I plan on making a small and simple java application (to work on all operating systems) that would convert a .m3 file into a X3D with all the needed information. As for the Assimp project it seems that it aims to be a program to open as many different formats as possible. However, after a quick test, the Assimp Viewer didn't even work properly, contrary to the advertised, it couldn't, per example, load properly my earth model from earth made on Blender (has a .blend flie extension that was supposed to be supported). Thanks on the link however I may try contacting the team. Finally, as for the Blender script ... if all goes well I wont be doing one. That's the thing of making standards, should I succeed, not only blender, but every other program that imports the X3D format will be able to read files. And since X3D is a standard, I must say I am excited. Still, I will read it. I like learning :D
So, those random structures are all you know about the file format?! Dang :S I'm pretty much screwed. As for the plugin, I assume you are referring to this: http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/m3-export-plugin-3ds-max/?page=2 I don't know how that is going to help me, but I guess I can sure try ... Let's hope they have the code commented xD
As for m3 being complex ... well ... you are starting to scare me ... I hope the X3D standard is strong enough to hold it :S
As for the input format ... I plan on making something simple, like you give the program a .m3 file and the program outputs a X3D file and vice-versa. As for X3D, here is the link of the consortium: http://www.web3d.org/x3d/
So far, knowing the .m3 file seems to be the greatest problem to me :S Thank you all for the support.
I think you'll need to have a few more options than simply export to m3, depending on how much control over the process you'll give us ;0 However, it's certainly sounding promising. I hate having to use 3ds max's crappy interface to import and export models >:(
As corbo said, collada (.dae) is more universal than x3d, so you'll want to look into that. Blender supports collada as well so you won't be blocking us off ;0
I am looking into the 3dmax script. I am scared like hell. As far as I can tell from the code, that script is a very big mixed salad. It has code to import WoW models, some sort of WoW2 (I can't figure how that even exists) and somewhere it must have something about with Sc2. Turns out that NiNtoxicated used a 3dmax script for WoW as a base, and then he just fixed some issues and added some new information, mixing it all together in a great mess.
As for collada, I never heard of it xD Perhaps collada is more used in USA and X3D is more used in Europe (where I live). If I manage to even learn something from this 3dMax script I will definitely give it a look.
For now I will be more than happy to just import something as easy as the geometry (vertexes). If I manage to do that, maybe I can go further, but I can't make any promises. I still need to divide the code into "WoW" code and "Sc2" code because it's all mixed up.
EDIT: Never mind ... the 3dsmax plugin is simply a plugin for the WoW m2 file that has been changed ... I fail to see the connection between all the wow code and the sc2 code ...
EDIT: Can someone give me the .m3 file of a cube? For some gay reason 3dmax kills my computer :S
"EDIT: Can someone give me the .m3 file of a cube? For some gay reason 3dmax kills my computer :S" There's one included with the editor which you can export using the previewer; if you can't figure that out I'll post one tomorrow when I have more time.
@Fl4m3Ph03n1x: Go
No it's not. The M2 format importer is just one of the plug ins NiNtoxicated updated. There's also more, the M3 export the M3 import for 3ds max and M3 sequences. But yeah, I remember, though, NiNtoxicated saying something about basing his work on the m2 plug in code. Still I see the code and I kinda get things. It's not that confusing >.>
M3 of a cube coming right up.Cube there. In case you need the info, it's a 0.1x0.1x0.1 metres cube at position 0,0,0. The texture embedded it's a DXT3 .dds file called white_diffuse128.dds which is 128x128 and completely white (you shouldn't really need this :P)
Yes, totally, he didn't even changed the comments for the M2 file format ...it only has 3000 lines, how bad can it be? xD
Thanks for the cube :D
Will Blizzard PLEASE release StarTools with HoTS?
It's a possibility.
In the last BlizzCon I saw I remember seeing someone asking for a Blizz 3dModel editor, and they said it was not in their plans. So, I don't really think it is a possibility (it kinda sucks I can't find the youtube video, sry about that :S ).
As for the cube .m3 file, I am amazed about the quantity of information it has.
I assume you can all see the same information I can, so I was wondering if anyone could guide through the header structure, since it seems to be static (it never changes, at least in the 2-3 models I recall seeing).
I joined the buzz. Longer story @ thehive, thehelper.net. Because username Sooda was taken I use here SoodaTH.
I downloaded cube.m3 and white_diffuse128.dds. To start thanks for your input who have replyed and offered resources. I must admit loading this test model vanilla does not work. To make it short: Name white_diffuse128.dds to cube_diffuse.dds For some reason m3 viewer which I have is unable to load white_diffuse128 correctly (it is in viewer transparent or black on black background). therefore I used armory_diffuse.dds instead. Result what I got looks like this (attached under post). It is way different than cube (texture needs to be scrambled, that is ok, but vertices are off. Was it in other modeling program a real cube?). I am asking this because my m3 viwer renders default bunker, armory, etc flawlessly. Anyway it is good model to start learning from nevertheless because it is so basic.
@SoodaTH: Go
Made it directly in 3ds max, it was a cube, pretty sure it's a cube in the exported .m3 too when I see the information in the mentioned template in the 010 editor and pretty sure that if I tested it it'd be a cube in sc2 o.O
There must be something wrong in the code for your previewer seeing that it also doesn't load the texture name correctly. o.O
Need anything else just ask me, always happy to help ^^
Recommend any good SC2 viewer?
EDIT: I downloaded HEX editor from this thread and read blog about format and looked m3lib project. Then I had heureka! moment and I wrote down my learnings. Flamephonix check it out, it is pdf 3 pages file with examples and easy reading how to understand m3 file in HEX format (or is it binary?). Still I am in early steps of learning. If we are able to document one m3 file like I have written in my pdf. Maybe exporter is not ages away. Sad that 010 Editor is 30 days trial, when it expires I am in darkness.
EDIT1: M3 file uses reverse byte ordering, if you are looking for MODL tag, write to HEX editor search LDOM and you find what you are looking for.
EDIT2: It seems exporter for 2.56a Blender does exist: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.5/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/M3_Import Key to understanding is examining others people code. I somewhat understand how things are ordered in m3 hex file, but fail to find them (where does what start? For that there are these "headers" like MODL).
EDIT3: Things have been evolved rapidly, I found out (with tend to be pretty obvious) that oven hot Blender 2.58 suports vanilla m3 import. Though I had problems with texture (I might dig into it later) but main things like vertices and normals were loaded from m3 hex file without a problem. Took even picture of it. Importer (I guess eporter) can be enabled from "User Preferences" Add-Ons (just tick box M3 importer). Then go to File > Import > M3 Blizzard. Good things about all this is we got now python script which reads HEX M3 file to learn from and many (link I posted and turns out at sc2mapster has also Blender M3 import script) to learn from. To make it short: Blender is under rapid development and IO scripts which worked with old version will not work with newest version only because a) IO script initialization script needs cosmetic update (API calls remain same) which gives fals impression "OMG it is abandoned!". To get old script working open already working IO python script observe it and write new initialization script (or modify existing old IO script accordingly). Actually for modeling needs fixed Blender version (get it from repository of old Blender programs @ Blender.org) and version specific IO M3 script is all you need for lifetime SC2 modding. I know jump from 2.49 to 2.5x Blender had huge changes which I liked and I am glad importers for M3 files are supported. Otherwise we would had to come up with our own solution (luckily it was done for us already). Still I am interested to understand M3 HEX format and how python script interprets it. If someone is willing to comment what that code exactly does then we can have solid support for upcoming Blender versions too.
Just crazy how fast Blender scene evolves Link to picture: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/694/blender258m3importvanil.jpg/
The plugin you are referring was actually suggested by me, irrc, along with a list of non-working plugins for the Blender community. I thought the mail had been ignored, but I am happy it didn't. Bad thing is that the plugin is no longer .. well ... maintained. Converting things to Blender is nice, but to be honest I am way more concerned about completely understanding the .m3 file format. If we can do that, we will be able to convert the .m3 file format to any other program or format.
And I say that the .m3 Blender plugin is abandoned because the owner on the thread (the thread here at sc2mapster) actually said he had no time time to continue the project.
I am going to read your pdf file because that's really the only new thing for me. let's hope I can find something useful there.
You are saying, Cory Perry (muraj), writer of Blender 2.58(!) M3 IO python script is no longer maintaining the code? I consider maintaining keeping script compatile with Blender latest version. Adding new features to script is different story. Well done, if you managed by yourself, pushing Blender community to update old m3 IO script to work with 2.5x realeases. To short this thing out: Cory Perry (muraj) != sc2mapster thread starter, yes? My pdf writing style is from humanitarian to humanitarian. If you know something about m3 hex file (how to search tags, specific tag, how to interpret what you see in hex file, etc) share your findings. I' m into learning m3 hex file structure.
About learning curve, I first have to learn how to understand gurus (or any) comments. What they write is mystery at its own :)