MDL Reducer -polygon reduction software for 3DGS

Hiro, the MD7 format is described in the new manual (see the manual forum if you don't have the latest, but the MD7 format has been around for a while now). Just ask JCL if you need any more info, I'm sure he'll be happy to have someone working on 3rd party tools for his engine.

I was just wondering, how do you think 3DGS would go in Japan? Being a geek paradise, I think it would go off. I have done a couple of translations of software into Japanese (e-107 PHP and Advanced Installer to be more specific), and have often thought that 3DGS would be poplular in Japan if the language support were available.

This is a very nice and usefull tool! Thank you very much for sharing it! I will try it as soon as possible.

Trying this out now. Found one snag.

I have an older model - but it says it is MDL5 format - It has one skin - checked - it is is 24 bit rgb and no mipmaps. But I got a unknown format error just the same. If you want to test it out - you can get the model here

@mk_1:Though there is an anothor author of the original model of the xmas cap and he says it isn't a completely free model, I like the xmas cap too.
@Gafgar:Thank you for the information of the MDL7! I will check it.
@A.Russell:Oh my 3DGS manual has been an old version.. Thank you for the information! And I think many Japanses would choose 3DGS too, if the language issues which you mentioned are solved, and 2D animated culture which constitutes the main part of the "geek paradise" are turned into 3D more. Actually I myself am introducing 3DGS into Japanese people, but I think I need to arrange more Japanese documents and Japanase sample games of 3DGS though..
@ChristianA:Thank you.
@Jamie_Lynn:I checked your model above and noticed that while MED 6.24 says the model's skin is 256x256x16, the exported skin image from the model is 24bit certainly.. Though I don't know the reason of this, I succeeded to convert it to 256x256x24 by importing the same 24bit skin from TGA.(BMP and PCX were not imported as 24bit.) (Anyway, sorry for such a many requirements of the input model of the current version of the MDL Reducer. I will improve it. )

Thank you very much for this usefull tool.

Can't wait for the md7 format, thanks again for the great contribution

Matt Coles

Looking forward to mdl7 support, since all of the models I am doing are in this format, I would be wasting my time to tyr your product now, it does look wonderful, and I would realy like to download it now and make use of it, but my current project, as stated above, uses the mdl7 format.

Yep, me too. Keep it up!

Hello Hiroyuki,
I downloaded your polygon reducer, and it worked great. Got a 20% reduction in polys with no discernable loss in quality. For me, I can use this well, even with the MDL5 limitation, just by doing the poly reduction and then converting to MDL7. I guess it would work better to do the poly reduction before animating. I would also encourage you to make another version that handles both model formats, but this is very usable as it is. Happy new year!!
Best regards,

@ALL:Thank you very much for encouraging comments above! Although now I have less free time than the New Year's holidays, I will improve it and want to support the MDL7 before long.

I just tried it after looking around for exactly such a program, and it worked quite well. Some of my skin UV mapping came out odd, but that likely has to do with the way I mapped it in the first place

I'm going to try this with a bunch of my models that can use reducing. MDL7 would be great, but for now converting the model myself is fine. Great job!

EDIT: He moved links! New link: http://www.type74.org/en/downloads/mdlreducer092.zip

OMG... Does it support mdl7?

No but you could comvert it to mdl5 and back.

hmm. nice I'll try. any good/bad experience with it?

sivan@ just downloaded it, and as I didn't give it a try yet, I've moved throw the thread to see feedbacks, people say that it works pretty nice for everyone

cool. thanks. I just have no time in these days at all for 3dgs works... hopefully next week.

I couldn't get this to work.. I've converted "pinetree" model via fragMOTION into mdl5, and this tool says that it's opened and could be reduced. Then I set "Reduction Number" to "2" (I've tried all of the possible values) and "Reduction Level" to "1" (also I've tried all of the possible values) and I press "Reduce" but the amount of vertices and faces are just the same as they were when I just imported model into this tool. And new saved model is just the same as the original. Here is the screen, I've used the max possible values:
I have no idea, why this doesn't work for me, maybe I've made something wrong??

LOL the polycounter of the tool fails for me too...
Ever openes model in MED and watched if it worked?

I'm not sure Fragmotion's mdl exporters/importers are perfect. I have many problems with them, I'll report them on FM forum if make tests. It's much better to use MED and save as there as MDL5. But still had no time to test it...

But as you see on the first screen, model is successfully opened (I can open it with MED as well). Anyway, I'll try to export it with MED as you said.

doesn't work if I export from MED.. it can't even open it!

If iam right it only saves MD5 models ( no bones ). So u could use Milkshape aswell. The reducer of milkshape works but has the same prob as MD5: bones are lost.

btw
The mdl reducer here did not work for me too.

I wanted to use this one for vegetables only.. but no luck.