Using Model Viewer Version 1.1
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| Working with Terrain |
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Use the Multiverse Model Viewer to view and edit models and animations.
Contents |
Running Model Viewer
To run Model Viewer, double-click on the desktop icon.
Running from the command line
You can also run Model Viewer from a Windows Command Prompt. You must first change your working directory to the Model Viewer directory, by default C:\Program Files\Multiverse Tools\Multiverse Model Viewer.
The command-line syntax is:
ModelViewer [option argument] ...
For a general description of command line syntax, see Command Line Syntax.
The following table describes command line options for Model Viewer.
| Option | Description | Argument |
|---|---|---|
| --mesh_file | Load the specified model (mesh file). | Name of mesh file to load |
| --repository_path | Specify the asset repository. Use this option multiple times to specify more than one asset repository. Default is the default tools asset repository. | Full or relative directory path to asset repository root. |
| --advanced | This enables advanced options. |
Specifying multiple asset repositories
By using multiple --repository_path command-line options, you can specify multiple asset repositories. The order in which they are specified on the command line is the order (in decending precedence) that the tool checks for a given asset.
Loading models
Use File | Load Model to open a .mesh format model file.
To specify the asset repository where Model Viewer finds models, choose File | Set Asset Repository.
To open a COLLADA mesh file directly, choose File | Load Model, and in the file dialog you can select COLLADA format. It doesn't create any materials when it reads the mesh, so if you haven't already created a material file and put the textures in the right place, the models will be displayed with the default material which shows up as plain white.
You can also use the command-line Model Conversion Tool to convert .dae files, containing models in the COLLADA data asset exchange format to .mesh format.
Viewing models
Once Model Viewer has loaded a model, change the view angle (camera location) by left-clicking and dragging the mouse. Zoom in and out by right-clicking and dragging the mouse pointer or with the mouse wheel.
View menu
Use the view menu to change the display and aspects of how the model is displayed. Choose:
- Wire Frame - display the model wire frame.
- Display Terrain - hide or show the ground terrain.
- Show Ground Plane - hide or show a gray grid at the ground plane. Enabling this will disable the display of terrain.
- Show Collision Volumes - enable or disable the display of the object's collision volumes.
- Show Bounding Box - enable or disable the display of the object's bounding box.
- Spin Camera - rotate the view angle continuously.
- Spin Light - rotate the light source continuously.
- Display Bone Information - display a dialog box with information on the bones (for animated models).
- Set Maximum Frames Per Second - display a dialog box that enables you to specify a maximum number of frames per second for the Model Viewer. This is useful to limit Model Viewer's resource consumption.
- Set Background Color - sets the color of the background, for better simulation of in-game environments.
Submeshes
Use the Submesh Tab to selectively display and hide submeshes for a model. This is useful, for example, to view a character with various sets of clothes and armor.
To display a particular submesh, select the checkbox next to the name of the submesh. To hide the submesh, deselect the checkbox. Click the Show All and Hide All buttons to show or hide all submeshes. To show or hide all submeshes whose names contain a particular substring, enter the substring in the text field, and click Show or Hide.
The Material text field displays the material for the selected submesh. Edit the text field to change the material displayed on the model (this change is not saved when you exit the tool). The material name will be shown in red if it is not found.
Bones
To view bone information, select the Bones tab in the left control panel.
The Show Bones checkbox will enable or disable the drawing of lines for the bones and axis lines at the root of each bone.
The Bone Axis Size slider will control the size of the axis lines, so that they can be made clearly visible even on large models, but can be made small if they are in the way.
The X axis is drawn in red, the Y axis is drawn in blue, and the Z axis is drawn in green.
It also allows you to see the hierarchy of bones.
Sockets
To view socket information (also known as attachment points), select the Sockets tab in the left control panel.
The Show Sockets checkbox will enable or disable the drawing of axis lines for the sockets.
The Socket Axis Size slider will control the size of the axis lines, so that they can be made clearly visible even on large models, but can be made small if they are in the way.
The X axis is drawn in red, the Y axis is drawn in blue, and the Z axis is drawn in green.
It also allows you to see the names of the sockets, and displays the name of the socket's parent bone or None to indicate that it is attached to the origin of the model, rather than a bone.
Checking the box next to the socket name will cause an orange box to be drawn around the socket, so that you can determine which of the sockets on the model corresponds to that name. This will only be shown if the Show Sockets checkbox is checked.
Viewing animations
To view an animation, select the Animation tab in the left control panel, then select the animation to play from the list. To continuously loop the animation, check the Loop Animation checkbox. Change the speed multiplier for the animation by setting the Animation Speed value. This value multiplies the normal animation speed: one (1.0) plays the animation normally, larger numbers faster than normal, and smaller numbers slower. Negative values play the animation backwards.
Setting lighting conditions
The Lighting tab enables you to change the color of ambient light and the colors and direction of and directional light. This is useful for seeing how models appear in various lighting conditions.
To change the direction from which the model is illuminated, click on the camera icon and choose Move Directional Light. Then left-click and drag the the mouse to move the light source location instead of the camera. Alternatively, use the Light Direction sliders in the Directional Light attribute group. Other settings:
- Ambient Light Color: click to display a color chooser you can use to set the color of the ambient light.
- Diffuse Color: click to display a color chooser you can use to set the color of the diffuse reflection light.
- Specular Color: click to display a color chooser you can use to set the color of specular highlights (the bright spot of light that appears on shiny objects when illuminated).
- Light Direction: use to set the direction of the light source.
Camera
Use the camera tab to change:
- Camera Focus Height - the height of the camera
- Camera Near Distance - specifies the closest distance from the camera that you can see. Objects closer than this distance are "cut off."
Editing models
Currently, editing a model changes only what you see in Model Viewer. You cannot save any changes.
Converting models
To convert a model from COLLADA format to Multiverse .mesh format, use the Model Conversion Tool.
