BinEdit ReadMe
BinEdit
(Readme.txt)
by Oliver Pieper
************************************
THIS FILE IS HOPELESSLY OUTDATED!!
I'm sorry, but writing a documentation is an arduous task and not as
much fun as programming. This text should still offer some insight to those
new to BIN editing, so I keep it in the ZIP.
************************************
Special thanks to Tom Berezansky for updating the text!
=============
BINedit beta
=============
--------------
0. What's new?
--------------
see changelog.txt
-------------------
1. What is BINedit?
-------------------
INs are the three-dimensional models used in the Microsoft/Terminal
Reality games MTM, Hellbender, CART and MTM2. This program was developed
with MTM (and MTM2) in mind, but should work with the other programs, too.
BINedit is a utility for editing the BIN files (aka boxes, models, or props).
Unlike my normal beta programs which tend to be quite stable,this one
is REALLY BETA! I do my best to release only fairly stable versions, but
I won't take any responsibility for lost BINs and similar stuff 8-)
Please report any bugs you find or send me some general suggestions.
Improved versions will be released in irregular intervals
Because the program is still under development, this readme file will
not yet discuss the functions in greater detail.
BINedit is POSTCARDWARE. If you use it and have not sent me a postcard
yet, please do so. See POSTCARD.TXT for details.
-------------------------
2. How to install BINedit
-------------------------
BINedit will only work if you did use the "First Time Setup" feature
of TRI's TrackEd (or some similar procedure that extracts BIN files and
the appropriate textures to your hard drive).
Simply copy the files
BINedit.EXE
opengl32.dll
glu32.dll
to a directory of your choice.
The Program should be ready to run.
*****************************************************************
WHEN YOU ARE USING BINEDIT v0.907 (or higher) FOR THE FIRST TIME:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The first thing you have to do is use the "Preferences" command in
the "File" menu and select the default color table (for MTM it is the file
"METALCR2.ACT" in the ART subfolder of the MTM folder), the default BIN
model directory (for MTM it is the MODELS subfolder of the MTM folder),
and the default .RAW and .ACT folder (for MTM it is the ART subfolder of
the MTM folder).
*****************************************************************
BE SURE TO USE A SCREEN MODE WITH AT LEAST 64K COLORS! 256 COLORS ARE NOT ENOUGH!
---------------------
3. How to use BINedit
---------------------
////////////////////////////////////////////
// The basics of BIN editing:
A BIN file describes a three-dimensional model for MTM (and Hellbender,
and CART, and MTM2, and...). The basic structure of a BIN consists
of 3D points. I will usually call them vertices (singular: vertex).
A vertex is not visible in MTM.
1 +
+ 2
3 + + 4
Three or four of these vertices can be used to form a visible surface.
I will call these polygons faces. A face has only one visible side.
The faces is visible from the side where the vertices seem to be defined
clockwise.
1 +--------------+ 2
! /
! /
! /
! /
3 +---------+ 4
This face will only be visible from your side of the screen, if it is
defined as 1,2,4,3 or 2,4,3,1 or 4,3,1,2 or 3,1,2,4. Reverse the order,
and the face is only visible from within your monitor 8-).
Each face uses a RAW file (a MTM texture file) for the rendering of
its surface. Several faces can share the same texture.
1 +--------------+ 2
!xyxyxyxyxyxyx/
!yxyxyxyxyxyx/
!xyxyxyxyxyx/
!yxyxyxyxyx/
3 +---------+ 4
////////////////////////////////////////////
// Keyboard commands of BINedit
| Keypad + |
: zoom 3d view in (SHIFT to zoom faster) |
| Keypad - |
: zoom 3d view out (SHIFT to zoom faster) |
| Cursor Keys |
: rotate 3d view (SHIFT to rotate faster) |
| TAB/SHIFT TAB |
: cycle through vertices (forward/backward) |
| Space/SHIFT Space |
: cycle through faces (forward/backward) |
| CTRL-X |
: delete current face |
| X/SHIFT X |
: move selected vertex in positive/negative x direction |
| Y/SHIFT Y |
: move selected vertex in positive/negative y direction |
| Z/SHIFT Z |
: move selected vertex in positive/negative z direction |
| N |
: cycle through vertices of selected face |
| SHIFT N |
: select first vertex of selected face |
| F |
: Tag (mark) selected face (still without real function) |
| I |
: information on model/selected vertex/selected face |
| T |
: toggle display of current vertex' texture (the colors are not
correct) The red outline shows which part of the texture is used
for the face. Press N repeatedly to see which vertex corresponds to which
point of the red shape. Point and click with mouse to move current
vertex to new texture coordinates, or use X/SHIFT X and Y/SHIFT Y.
|
| SHIFT T |
: Select new texture for current face. Select the new texture from
the texture pool.
|
| V |
: Tag current vertex. Some trasformations can be restricted to tagged
vertices only, like the TRANSLATE command.
|
| CTRL-V |
: Set vertex Coordinates |
| CTRL-A |
: Select all Faces |
////////////////////////////////////////////
// Menu commands of BINedit
| FILE |
|
| New |
- Clear current BIN |
| Open |
- guess... |
| Save As Model... |
- save the current BIN as normal model
NOTE: For future storage of additional BIN infos, BINedit will create
a file <binname>.BIN.info for every saved BIN!
|
| Save As Backdrop... |
- save current bin as a backdrop model. This will only work if the
model was already a backdrop when it was loaded.
NOTE: For future storage of additional BIN infos, BINedit will create
a file <binname>.BIN.info for every saved BIN!
|
| Save as Hellbender Bin... |
- Save the current file as a hellbender model |
| Insert... |
- Load new model into current one. Use this function to combine two BINs |
| Import Truck... |
- Import a truck(.trk) into BinEdit. You may need to extract files
from the Game and Truck pod files in the System directory to view the trucks.
|
| Import Wavefront... |
- Insert a file in Wavefront/Digital Arts format (See Appendix A) |
| Export Wavefront... |
- Export a model to Wavefront/Digital Arts format (See Appendix A) |
| Export as VRML... |
- Export the current file as a usable VRML file. If you have the right
software you can view the VRML file as well.
|
| Play |
- auto-rotate current model |
| Preferences... |
- displays a dialog were you can set some basic file and path names |
|
|
| VIEW |
|
| Zoom To Fit |
- will zoom the model view to fit the 3d window. |
| Change Background Color |
- Select the color of the background of all the views. |
| Wireframe, solid untextured, and textured |
- Changes 3D view. |
| Follow Current Face |
- When checked the 3D view will center to the selected face. |
| Show only 3D view |
- guess... |
| Show Axes |
- When checked the location of the Axes is shown in the 3D view. |
| Show Vertices in 3D view |
- When checked it shows the vertices in the 3D view. |
| High Quality 3D textures |
- When checked if you are in textured mode the 3D textures are brought
into a higher quality.
|
| Toggle Vertex Status |
- Toggle the small window with vertex info on and off. |
| Toggle Browse Window |
- Toggles the browse window for selecting bin files. Double click on
one to open it.
|
|
|
| MODEL |
|
| Rotate x,y,z |
- rotate model around selected axis |
| Center x,y,z |
- Center the model on the selected axis |
| Center all |
- Center the model on all axises |
| Resize |
- resize model (values are in feet, one foot equals 256 editor units)
Old size is displayed in left column. Enter new size in right column.
To keep the proportions, check the "keep proportions" box before changing
a value on the right hand side. The other values will be calculated automatically.
|
| Translate |
- move the model (values are in editor units, 256 editor units equal
one foot)
|
| Normalize Texture |
- select ONE new texture for ALL faces. |
| Write textures to textfile |
- will write the names of all textures that are used by the model to
a text file. Useful when creating response files.
|
|
|
| VERTEX |
|
| Set Coordinates |
- change the coordinates of the current vertex |
| Add |
- Add a new vertex. A dialog box will prompt you for the coordinates. |
| Delete Current |
- Delete current vertex (if it is not used by any face). |
| Delete all unused |
- Delete all vertices that are not used by any face. |
| Merge close vertices |
- Merges vertice within certain distances that you specify. |
| Select all vertices |
- Selects all vertices. |
| Deselect all vertices |
- Deselects any selected vertices. |
| Jump to Vertex #... |
- Jumps to the vertex # you specify. |
|
|
| FACE |
|
| Add |
- Add a new faces. Write down the vertex numbers of its corners before
entering the dialog box. The faces will get the first texture in the
texture pool. To change texture, select the face and press SHIFT T to select
a new texture from the pool.
|
| Delete current |
- delete the current (selected) face. |
| Flip Face |
- Flips the direction of the face. |
| Flip and rotate texture |
- as the name says. Flip doesn't work for triangles. |
| Select all faces |
- Selects all faces |
| Deselect all faces |
- Deselects all selected faces |
| Select by facing |
- Selects the faces which are facing along the selected axis or it's
negative, or up to a certain degree away.
|
| Properties |
- view/change properties of current face (vertex numbers, texture type
and texture image)
|
| Jump to face #... |
- Jumps to the face # you specify. |
|
|
| TEXTURES |
|
| Load |
- load one or more new textures into the editor's texture pool.
Only loaded textures can be used for faces.
|
| Define Animation... |
- define a new texture animation. You will have to specify a name,
the number of frames per second and the textures for the frames. The new
animation <name> will appear as "ANIM:<name>" in the texture selection
dialog.
|
|
|
| GROUPS |
|
|
When you press F or V, the current "F"ace or
"V"ertex will be marked as selected. With "Define ???? Group" you
can assign a name to the current selection of faces or vertices. With "Restore
... Group" you can either restore a previously saved selection group, or
- by selecting the unnamed group - clear the selection.
Vertex selections are in use only in "MODEL/TRANSLATE".
The selections will be saved to and restored from the .BIN model's .INFO
file.
|
//////////////////////////////////////
// Mini-tutorial: the hay pyramid...
Ok, let's build a hay pyramid to get a feeling for the program 8-)
Start BINedit. Do not load an object! (Or use the FILE/NEW function)
Our pyramid needs a square base and four triangular sides. To add a
face, we need vertices first. Let's start with the base. We need four vertices.
For simplicity's sake, we will insert them at a y-coordinate of 0.
Add the first vertex at x= 1000, y=0, z= 1000
Add the second vertex at x= 1000, y=0, z=-1000
Add the third vertex at x=-1000, y=0, z=-1000
Add the fourth vertex at x=-1000, y=0, z= 1000
Press the keypad "+" key a few times to see the vertices in the 3d view.
Viewed from the top (from the positive y-axis), they would look like this:
/\ z-axis
!
!
3 + ! + 0
!
!
----------------+--------------------->x-axis
!
!
2 + ! + 1
!
!
Press TAB a few times to see the 3d cursor cycle through the vertices.
Before we can add the base face, we need to load the texture. Select
the menu option TEXTURES/LOAD... and load HAYSTACK.RAW.
Now we can add the face. It should be visible from beneath the pyramid
(negative y-axis), which means that the vertices of the face will have
to be defined clockwise when looking from the negative y-axis. My sketch
of the vertices is from the positive y-axis, we need to use a counter-clockwise order:
3, 2, 1, 0 will do. Select the menu option FACES/ADD and enter the values
in the edit fields. The new face will appear in the 3d view (well, it will,
if you rotate the model with the cursor keys until you can see the pyramid
from below). Since there is only the haystack texture in the texture pool,
it will already be assigned to the face. We can test it by changing the
FACES/PROPERTIES to "textured". The 3d view will now display the face with
its texture.
The pyramid still needs the four sides. First, we have to add the last
vertex, the one at the top of the pyramid.
Add the vertex (it's # 4) at 0, 1000, 0. This is 1000 units above the
center of the base face:
/\ z-axis
!
!
3 + ! + 0
!
! (4)
----------------+---------------------->x-axis
!
!
2 + ! + 1
!
!
Now we can add the four sides. Defined in clockwise order, they are
4, 0, 1 (face nr. 1)
4, 1, 2 (face nr. 2)
4, 2, 3 (face nr. 3)
4, 3, 0 (face nr. 4)
(the base is face nr.0)
To add triangles, leave the last vertex value at -1.
That's it! We've just built a (simple) MTM BIN model...
Select FILE/SAVE AS to save the creation (I called it haypyra.bin).
You will be warned that the model is not centered along the y-axis and
asked if BINedit should center it vertically. Unless you are editing a
truck shape which is usually floating above the ground, the left button
('Ja' is German for 'Yes') is the correct one. The pyramid will be lowered a bit.
Now fire up the track editor and use the new BIN!
////////////////////////////////
// Modifying the pyramid
The pyramid is about 8 feet wide and about 4 feet high. To change its
dimensions, use the menu option MODEL/RESIZE.
To move a single vertex, select it with TAB/SHIFT TAB and use the X/SHIFT
X, Y/SHIFT Y, Z/SHIFT Z keys to move it in 100 unit steps. Or use the menu
option VERTICES/SET COORDINATES.
Now let's change the texture of two opposite faces. First we need to
add the new texture to the texture pool. Select TEXTURES/LOAD and load
the GOLFGRAS.RAW texture.
Press SPACE or SHIFT SPACE until one of the side faces is selected (tinted
purple). Now press SHIFT T. You will see a list with all textures in the
pool. Select golfgras.raw. Now select the opposite face and do the same.
Voila! Now we have a pyramid with two different textures.
Experiment!
------------------------------------------------
4. Known Bugs and Limitations (it's still BETA!)
------------------------------------------------
- too many to mention!
- some few BIN files are not yet supported
(may have been fixed with 0.904. Please report any BIN that
still does not work).
---------------------
5. BINedit homepage
---------------------
BINedit.com
------------------------
6. The author of BINedit
------------------------
Oliver Pieper
Student of Computer Science at the
Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany.
email: pieper@ViaRegio.de
WWW: www.ViaRegio.de/pieper
**********************************************
* APPENDIX A - Wavefront/Digital Arts format *
**********************************************
Wavefront/Digital Arts is a very simple format that stores three dimensional
models as ASCII files. BINEdit implements only two Wavefront/Digital Arts
commands:
One. v #x #y #z defines a vertex at coordinates #x, #y, #z
Examples:
v 0.34445 -12 133.4
v 1 1 1
Two. f #1 #2 #3 or f #1 #2 #3 #4 defines a face using the
vertices #1 #2 #3 (triangle) or #1 #2 #3 #4 (rectangle)
NOTE 1: Wavefront numbers the vertices 1, 2, 3... but BINedit starts
with vertex 0.
NOTE 2: Wavefront supports faces with any number of vertices, BINedit
only 3 or 4.
Examples:
f 12 33 4
f 1 2 3 4
f 0 1 2 3 is invalid (vertex 0)
I use this format to define my model shapes "off line". Its easier than
using the menu commands to add each vertex and face. I've included the
BARREL.OBJ that I've used to define the orange barrels for Derailed. View/Edit
it with Notepad.
To convert other formats (Autocad DXF, 3D Studio 3DS, ...) to Wavefront OBJs I use
Pixel 3D
1996 (c) Forward Design
http://www.wavetech.net/~pixelboy
The shareware version is limited to a certain number of program starts.
Make certain that Pixel 3D has access to your Windows directory. It needs
to modify the file C:\WINDOWS\WINSYS.DLL every time it is started.
Strange DLL, by the way. It is definitely no Windows system DLL.
*********************
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
*********************
Resale of this product is strictly prohibited unless given explicit
permission by the author. Distribution on CD-ROM is strictly prohibited
unless given explicit permission by the author. All material contained
with the ZIP file is considered copyrighted by the author.
©1997 Oliver Pieper
**********************
DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT
**********************
LIMITED WARRANTY
THIS SOFTWARE AND MANUAL ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS. THE
AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES RELATING TO THIS SOFTWARE, WHETHER EXPRESSED
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR ANYONE ELSE
WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION, OR DELIVERY OF THIS
SOFTWARE SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL
DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE SUCH SOFTWARE, EVEN
IF THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR CLAIMS.
THE PERSON USING THE SOFTWARE BEARS ALL RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE
OF THE SOFTWARE.
(sounds professional, doesn't it? 8-) )
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