Blender Quake MDL Import / Export
(Works with blender 2.93)
This is a plugin for Blender 2.8 that gives the basic ability to import and export models in the Quake 1 and Hexen MDL format.
This plugin was originally authored by Bill Currie and Aleksander Marhall, and they had the license in the source files.
I don't know where I found this originally. I just had it sitting on a drive and kept losing it. I thought I'd put it on github so I can find it, and also, maybe, it'd help out some mod'ers or people building basic game engines.
Installation
You should be able to:
- download the source as a zip using the
Code > Download Zip
button above. - Inside blender, choose
Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Install
- Browse to the downloaded zip file; click install
- Find io_mesh_qfmdl and check activate
You should then see Quake 1
from Blenders normal import and export menu.
Animations
Since there are no bones or rigging in MDL files, each frame is loaded as (or exported from) a Shape Key
(check the blender documentation) for how this works.
Original TODOs
X auto-convert quads/ngons to tris
o combine multiple selected meshes into one mdl
? active object determines origin?
? non-active objects' meshes rotated relative to active? all objects
relative to world?
o bake image textures to the mdl
? how to handle overlapping UVs?