(Works with blender 2.93)

This is a plugin for Blender 2.8 that gives the basic ability to import and export models in the Quake 1 and Hexen MDL format.

This plugin was originally authored by Bill Currie and Aleksander Marhall, and they had the license in the source files.

I don't know where I found this originally. I just had it sitting on a drive and kept losing it. I thought I'd put it on github so I can find it, and also, maybe, it'd help out some mod'ers or people building basic game engines.

You should be able to:

• download the source as a zip using the Code > Download Zip button above.
• Inside blender, choose Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Install
• Browse to the downloaded zip file; click install
• Find io_mesh_qfmdl and check activate

You should then see Quake 1 from Blenders normal import and export menu.

Since there are no bones or rigging in MDL files, each frame is loaded as (or exported from) a Shape Key (check the blender documentation) for how this works.

X   auto-convert quads/ngons to tris
o   combine multiple selected meshes into one mdl
    ?   active object determines origin?
    ?   non-active objects' meshes rotated relative to active? all objects
        relative to world?
o   bake image textures to the mdl
    ?   how to handle overlapping UVs?