To access Modview, open the game, bring down the console by hitting tilda (~),type the word modview, and hit enter. The model viewer will then open. To view your model in ModView it will have to have been saved out in the q4base directory. To view it with animation, it will need to be set up with def files, a rig, point-weighted, and animated by you or an animator.
To just view your model with the skin on it, you can open it through File/open mesh and then find it in the directory you saved it in.
- Once the model is set up with animations, you can view it and click on differing anims to see how they look on your model, if there are enough polys at the joints, etc. Here’s how to look at it:
Open ModView.
Go to the Groups: pull-down window and hit the arrow to the far right.
From the list of assets, click on monster for creatures, char for Marines, weapon for weapons, etc to select it.
Then go to the Entity Definition: pull-down and select your model by clicking on it.
- Your model should open in the Quake4 window in the default T-pose.
- If your model opens with a weird looking gray and white pattern on it that means that the engine can’t find one or all of the skin files. Either you set up the shaders incorrectly or one or all of the skin files (normal, diffuse, specular, or height map) is missing, etc.
- To rotate your model, just click and hold the left mouse button and push the mouse around to rotate your model in all directions.
- To zoom in and out on your model, hold down the right mouse button and pull and push the mouse forward or back.
If your model has alternate skins, etc, the Skin: pull-down will list them. Click on an alternate skin and it will automatically change.
If there is a list of animations for the model, you’ll see them listed in the tabbed window. Just highlight one of the anims and then click on the Play arrow. To loop the anim hit the double arrowed button four down from the Play arrow.
In the tabbed window, you’ll also notice tabs for Surfaces and Skeleton.
- The Surfaces tab will list all the different parts of the model and their paths. You can click them on and off by clicking in the box to the left of each listed path.
- The Skeleton tab allows you to see the animation rig and how it’s set up.
To update your skin as you paint it and view it in ModView, save your skin in the appropriate folder, then go to ModView. You can leave ModView open as you paint on your skin and then save it and look at the changes nearly instantaneously. Once you have saved your updated skin, go to ModView and click on Tools on the upper tool bar. In the pull-down, click on Reload Images. This will update your skin on your model.
To update the model if there were changes done to it, hit Reload Models.
If you happen to update your model’s shader by adding a glow pass or an alpha channel at a later date, you’ll need to click on Reload Decls to have them show up on ModView.
