Format of MDB file - documentation?

[username_2075278]

Format of MDB file - documentation?

There's documentation for a version of the Aurora MDB file format here. But it doesn't seem that the MDB file format used by The Witcher is the same as this, because the documentation says that the file starts with a four character file signature, followed by major and minor version numbers each stored as unsigned ints in two byte fields. However, a hexdump of a The Witcher MDB file shows:

simon@gododdin:~/workspace/medusa/unBIF/_meshes00$ hexdump -C door_gl21_029.mdb | head00000000 00 00 00 00 85 00 00 f0 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|00000010 d4 4e 00 00 85 00 00 f0 40 40 00 00 88 0e 00 00 |.N......@@......|00000020 a0 25 a6 00 80 d4 a2 00 64 6f 6f 72 5f 67 6c 32 |.%......door_gl2|00000030 31 5f 30 32 39 00 18 3f 00 00 00 00 97 15 00 00 |1_029..?........|00000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 aa 07 00 00 eb 07 00 00 |................|00000050 e9 07 00 00 aa 07 00 00 eb 07 00 00 e9 07 00 00 |................|00000060 aa 07 00 00 eb 07 00 00 18 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 |.........8......|00000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|00000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 15 ed be |................|00000090 00 00 00 00 20 7f ad 09 18 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 |.... ....8......|

There's no four-bite file signature and although the nex four bytes might be the major/monir version numbers they don't look likely values to me. Furhermore the documentation says that the packet signatures are 'RIGD, SKIN, COL2, COL3, HOOK, WALK, COLS, TRRN, HELM, HAIR', but apart from WALK which appears once, none of these strings appear as such in the unBIFfed meshes from the game. Hook appears, but only as follows:

simon@gododdin:~/workspace/medusa/blender-test$ grep -i 'hook' /home/simon/tmp/meshstrings    1 ?cs_sex_hooker1   1 ?cs_sex_hooker2   1 _hook2   1 l_hook1   1 texture selfIllumMap cs_sex_hooker1   1 texture selfIllumMap cs_sex_hooker2   2 label_hook1   2 label_hook2   3 cs_sex_hooker1   3 cs_sex_hooker2   3 _hook1   3 hook2

Also, the Blender importer which imports NWN2 models does not work at all for Witcher models.So it seems to me that this is probably a significantly different format. Is there any documentation for it anywhere?

 

[ailinon]

Sorry to derail, but... why would anyone need that? In a "sane" environment, why would you need to modify some existing object's geometry, when it's quite easy - or at least: reasonably feasible - to export your own, in .mdl format? If you don't have the .mdl that was compiled into the .mdb, then it probably means someone doesn't really want you to have it... Copyrights and all...

 

[username_2075278]

Sorry to derail, but... why would anyone need that? In a "sane" environment, why would you need to modify some existing object's geometry, when it's quite easy - or at least: reasonably feasible - to export your own, in .mdl format? If you don't have the .mdl that was compiled into the .mdb, then it probably means someone doesn't really want you to have it... Copyrights and all...

I don't want to export from D'Jinni, I want to import to D'Jinni. But the only thing you can officially do that with is 3D Studio Max, which costs a month's wages, or half the price of a new car. So there's no way I'm buying that. So I need to find out how to do it with tools I can afford. Which means I need to understand the file format, in order that I can write a translator from Blender or AC3D to .mdb.If you know of something standalone - i.e. not a plugin for 3dsMax - which can compile MDL into MDB, I'd be really glad to hear of it.

 

[ailinon]

D'jinni compiles from MDL to MDB by itself, when adding files to a module, and can use both formats - the 3dsmax plugin exports MDLs. Basing on any MDL available - Deidre from Neutrality? - I believe a capable programmer would have little trouble writing a (basic) exporter from any 3D software into MDL. It has open-text vertex and face and tex coordinates... as far as I understand it, anyway.And, since MDLs seem to be the same that Neverwinter uses - NWmax imports them properly, anyway - some other Whatever-to-MDL converter, used for Neverwinter modding, could be coaxed into Witcher usage, very vaguely speaking, perhaps.