I went searching around the web the other day and found a great site that explained all the little details of the md3 file format. I thought, "Great!! Now I can have models with bones that move!!" I eagerly open the .md3 file and stare at the forror that faces me: bunch of wierd symbols that do not mean anything to me (yes, I know it''s the later ascii characters. I know how the MD3 is set up now, but is it encrypted? Do you have to open it using a special c++ command? Do you have to use hex format for some reason? BTW, Mental Vortex''s site (where it has the MD3 Info) is down at the moment, but I think I have a mirror site. Reply if you want it and/or can help with my problem -Thanks --SkyFire360

MD3 is a binary format. Certain information is contained at certain locations and you must know how to load that information and where to find it.

Well, does anyone know where I may be able to find some info on how to load the MD3 files? I''ve fount Mental Vortex''s MD3 File Specs, but I have no idea where to go. Now I know that it''s in binary, how do I load it?

Loading a binary file is standard practice in programming. I''d suggest flushing out your knowledge of C/C++ (assuming that''s the language you use). A fairly good free online resource is Bruce Eckels Thinking in C++ 2nd Edition available at
http://bioweb.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~tang/TIC++/tic_c.html MSDN is also an valuable reference tool (msdn.microsoft.com)

Beyond that, as far as I know, the md3 format doesn''t have bone info. (It *does* have keyframe data though) The new md4 format does have bones, but I haven''t seen any info on them yet (I also haven''t looked in a while.)