Model viewer for skinning

nkoste

Currently when I skin a model I use the MS3D Model Viewer by Mijacs. It's a small viewer window that loads ms3d files and uses the DevIL image library. You can place it on top of your curent apps and it then reloads your texture about every second. That way I can work in photoshop and every time I save my psd file I can view the texture changes instantaneously on my mesh. There's no switching between apps which gives a really good workflow.

Now my question is: are there any similar tools like this one, preferably cheap or free and, floating around on the web? Or perhaps some modeling programs where this feature is available? I'm asking because I'm missing a similar tool on my mac and all my web searches just leads me nowhere.
In general if anyone feels like sharing their methods for skinning and tool preferences it would also be appreciated? Anything that would give a better insight to what methods exist.

Thanks in advance.

poopinmymouth

When you do find a viewer, there is a handy free utility from download.com called "always on top" or somesuch, and it adds the option to right click any window and ensure it stays "always on top". Not sure if there is a Mac Equivalent.

Soccerman18

I have an old 3D Exploration program that works the same way, even does some simple rendering. Although I think it may be called Deep Exploration now, made by Right Hemisphere I think.

Kirin

You know what? ... I wonder if there's such a model-viewer for Mac, too! Right now, I've been using Maya as a model viewer when I skin and well ... it just doesn't sound very feasible to have Maya open when I'm not doing an modeling work and prefer to have a separate low-memory viewer instead.

Ruz

you could use the microsoft mesh viewer that comes with the sdk. its reads x format and works cool for me. not as good as having an instant preview, but i just do a quick export wiht the panda x exporter from max, load her up and it done

Michael Knubben

Poop, thanks for that suggestion, all of the other programs that do this are way too bloated with other crap fuctions i don't want, and this one's pretty good!

So, for me it's Deepexploration (3dexploration doesn't work properly with my videocard or drivers or something.. so i just use the trial version of deepexp, it's really not that much bother), and ontop
I like how deepexp loads md2 as well, so you don't have to fuck around with classics (read: not always very functional nowadays)like npherno's

nkoste

Thanks for the inputs fellas. I got a couple of leads now, unfortunately not many mac-compatible solutions. There's not much demand for a mac skinning tool I guess. If I could find something like that ontop program and a web3d viewer it might do the job - seems like a hassle to me. Other than that I really recommend the ms3d model viewer I linked to in the first post. Seems like most people use milkshape for import/export nowadays so if you can export ms3d files it's an excellent tool.

jzero

I know a couple of things about this.

On the Mac, nothing since has beaten PakRat, which was last updated in 2001. It's a Quake3 model viewer, but it also allows a lot of other Q3 editing-related activities like shader editing. The tough part will be getting your model out into MD3 format, but once you're there it works great. Lots of drag-and-drop features. It even exports model poses to DXF and OBJ. I use it for almost all my skin work, since I only have Photoshop on the Mac.

I was looking for the same thing for Windows, and I came up with Ultimate Unwrap 3D, the descendant of LithUnwrap. You can use the demo version for just skinning, even though it disables your copy/paste. It even auto-updates when you save in Photoshop.

Good luck.

/jzero

nkoste

PakRat's bookmarked. I'll check it out when I get on my mac and post the progress. Thanks a bunch jzero

nkoste

PakRat works splendid. Too bad it doesn't support psd files - a little extra work there outputting and I haven't figured out how to disable the animation when I watch the full md3. It'll come - at least now I have a working tool on my mac.
Next monday I'm starting on my working debute as a game artist for a small studio here in denmark. I'm doing texture work for levels and objects and I noticed they used a free utility called QSDK for meshviewing and skinning. It's available for macs also so there's an extra option for mac users. I think you need max or maya to export to it though, not sure.

Next question:
Are there any artist-friendly skin/model viewers/tools out there, also preferable free, that lets you load multiple textures like spec and normal maps on an object? Either window or mac osx compatible? I would like to get into doing more than just diffuse textures and I wonder if there are any apps besides expensive model programs that lets you do this? I'm not that experienced with more advanced 3d so all info is welcome.

jzero

AFAIK, PakRat has a checkable menu item for playing or not playing the animations when the MD3 loads. You can also play the specific sequences with key shortcuts, and step through the individual frames. It IS splendid!

I'll bet that the free normal-mapping tools you can get, like nVidia's, will let you load and view that type of thing. I don't know much about that stuff, but you should check those out.

/jzero