The Ca3DE SDK also comes with a stand-alone Modelviewer program. The Modelviewer can load and render all models that the main engine supports, too. In fact, the Modelviewer and the Ca3D-Engine share the same model support code.

The Modelviewer is very useful to view, test and check models, e.g. during model development. It can quickly load models and render them directly, without requiring you to start CaWE first in order embed the model into a map file.

Moreover, developing model materials or checking for material problems is easily done with the ModelViewer. Refer to the Ca3DE Material System documentation for more information about materials.

The Modelviewer is a command-line driven program. If you run it without any parameters, it prints a short help message:

C:\Ca3DE_2007-03-14\Projects\Ca3D-Engine> ModelViewer.exe

Registering archive "Games/DeathMatch/Textures/TechDemo.zip".
Registering archive "Games/DeathMatch/Textures/SkyDomes.zip".

USAGE: ModelViewer ModelName [SubModelName] [-print] [-bm] [-noS] [-noAnim]

-print    Prints model data to stdout.
-bm       Runs a benchmark (and prints results to stdout).
-noS      If dynamic lighting is enabled, this disables the shadows.
-noAnim   In interactive mode, this turns model sequence animations OFF.
          Intended for code testing only, and not very useful otherwise.

In most cases, just pass the file name of the desired model in order to run the Modelviewer. Example:

C:\...\Ca3D-Engine> ModelViewer.exe Games\DeathMatch\Models\Players\Trinity.mdl

In the Modelviewer window, you see a ground plane onto which the shadow of the model is projected, an abstracted coordinate cross that indicates the position of the light source, and the model itself.

If you cannot see the model at all, that is usually an indication that the ModelViewer could not load the model, or it could load the model but not the MatSys materials for its surfaces.

This section is still under construction.