Heditor

Heditor is a super-simple 3D modelling tool which outputs it's models as C header files. This allows models to be imported into C, C++ and Objective-C programs with no tool chain and no need for any model loading code.

Apart from the compulsory 3D modelling feature of creating triangles and moving them about, the only other trick that Heditor has is it's smoothing algorithm. You create a control mesh with a small number of triangles, set smooth weights for your vertices, and the editor will generate low, medium, and high LOD (level-of-detail) versions of your model automatically. All three LODs are output in the header file.

I originally developed this program for personal use in a specific application, not expecting to release it to the public. Heditor doesn't have common modelling features like materials, animation, or texture mapping. But simplicity is it's advantage. I've released Heditor because I think people who are working with OpenGL or DirectX 3D to build a game prototype or code up a tech demo would find it really useful to get low or high-poly models into a project without thinking about file converters, asset directories or loading libraries.


In C++ this is how much code you need to get a model into memory in a format that you can copy into a render buffer:

#include "model.h" // path to the header output by Heditor

struct HeditorVertex
{
    Vector3 pos, normal;
};

const HeditorVertex * model =
  reinterpret_cast< const HeditorVertex * >( MEDLOD_model );

You can replace Vector3 with the name of your three float vector structure and model will then point to an array of vertices, with each group of three making a triangle. The number of triangles in this array is also in the header file. Documentation is included in the program zip to give you more details.
 


Download Heditor Software (0.07Mb)

You may also need to install the DirectX 9 Runtimes.