Modeling Resource: Customized Vertex Editor

[MiniMage]

I was delighted when I heard of this tool. I followed the tutorials supplied, although the third was the only one of minor usage, while the one numbered zero helped me set the thing up.

Anyhow, to the point. I was thinking about using the tool to give my own custom models a couple of animations. First off, stand animations would be using the Goblin Shredder animations. Anyhow, I'm not sure if it's a bug only I encountered, but when you import models, specifically larger ones. By larger I refer to filesize, of course. I also have a long range of textures.

Anyhow, when my model is loaded, 80% of the terrains wrap stop working. A chair wrapped with the alchemist texture ends up blue in the MatrixEater. Even though I wrapped it with the wooden part of that texture.

 

[Tauer]

This tool looks really awesome! I wish it had been there back in the day when I used make model edits.. Looks cleaner and way more useful than Oinkerwinkle's tools..

 

[PROXY]

Holy shit. I did not notice this existed. This is just... Far too perfect for words. I have been messing around with some fun wrap stuff(give the Rifleman a Paladin face texture, for instance) and it works PERFECTLY. You are simply a god, Retera!

Now, doing the above, I've come upon a few problems I didn't notice before. What bugs me the most, at the moment, is that the program does not seem to be compatible with Magos' War3 Model Editor. When you try to run both of the simultaneously, the program that was opened last will fail to properly display textures as it will be unable to access the MPQs(or so I assume) because the other program is using them, or something like that. This is quite annoying, as I like to use Magos for material\bone related tweaks as well as for easier\better 3D viewing while working on the mesh and wrap in other programs. If you could somehow fix that, I would be very grateful!
Now, I don't know if it already exists(if it does, please do tell me how to find it!), but a function that I would love to have would be the ability to easily 'split' geosets without screwing up the animations\wrap. It would be great to have a right-click drop down menu to change the material of a geoset as well - I'm not sure if that's possible at all in the current version, but I haven't been able to find out how to do that. This is useful for unwrapping scenarios such as when you want to split a few body parts from an existing model to re-wrap them to a different texture without affecting the rest of the geoset(for example, split the rifleman's head from the rest of the body so that it could be retextured to the paladin's face texture). Another function which would be nice to have is the ability to hide\make uneditable individual verticles or parts of the geoset, without having to hide the entire geoset, much like how it works in Milkshape 3D.
Finally, a few UV Editor improvements could include the ability to work on specific geosets(by hiding the rest of the model on the wrapping table) without having to hide the geosets in the main viewer, and having the corresponding points on the UV Wrap be selected when parts of the model are selected(much like in Vertex Modify and Milkshape 3D) would be fantastic as well.
Overall, I'm loving this tool more and more. It's absolutely amazing. Keep up the great work!a

Mdlvis is able to do everything you mentioned if I recall right.

I'm loving the way the matrix eater takes btw

 

[Retera]

@MiniMage
The MatrixEater's 3D display is not always accurate. Was the model wrong in the MatrixEater's display, or in the actual game?

Note that the "Load Texture" button in the UV editor right now only changes what is loaded for display in the Matrix Eater, and does not change which texture any of the mesh is actually set to use in the file. Could that be it? Would you like a button to assign a particular texture to a geoset next time I make an update?

 

[Kyrbi0]

You're back!

 

[Retera]

I struggle to see when I'll ever truly be free to be back. If modding warcraft paid, I'd definitely make that my job, but I've been in college and I keep having to struggle through heavy workloads and stuff and I hardly have time for hobbies, or really just for anything. Maybe I should sell what I made at www.spacegons.com; I sort of wrote my own crappy warcraft last semester between classes.

Hopefully someday I'll have some spare time again.

 

[Kyrbi0]

I struggle to see when I'll ever truly be free to be back. If modding warcraft paid, I'd definitely make that my job, but I've been in college and I keep having to struggle through heavy workloads and stuff and I hardly have time for hobbies, or really just for anything. Maybe I should sell what I made at www.spacegons.com; I sort of wrote my own crappy warcraft last semester between classes.

Hopefully someday I'll have some spare time again.

:<

Believe me, I know what you're going through. If I were honest with myself & better at controlling myself, I probably wouldn't spend much time here or modding either... Not much at all. So much to do, so little time, already so far behind... Still.

We understand. You've already done so much for many of us here. While we will/would miss you, do what you need to do. Just... Check back occasionally, 'k?

 

[Retera]

THE BEST MATRIX EATER IMPORT VIDEO: (Because it helps you understand the vital import function in less than 5 minutes.)
Part 4: Basic Animations and Importing

I feel good about this one. Couldn't tell you how many times I've heard someone say "How do you import animations in the Matrix Eater?" This video does not directly answer that question. Rather, it's a step towards understanding what the Matrix Eater CAN do, and how easy it is. I had this video on my hard drive gathering dust from when I made the Basics series and I decided I really just had to release it.

@Kyrbi0
I hear you! I suppose I shouldn't complain. Last night I was up until 4 am helping someone on a programming project I'd already finished; I've been living with a growing sleep dept, and I just need to make sure I don't let it get to me too much.

 

[Kyrbi0]

THE BEST MATRIX EATER IMPORT VIDEO: (Because it helps you understand the vital import function in less than 5 minutes.)
Part 4: Basic Animations and Importing

I feel good about this one. Couldn't tell you how many times I've heard someone say "How do you import animations in the Matrix Eater?" This video does not directly answer that question. Rather, it's a step towards understanding what the Matrix Eater CAN do, and how easy it is. I had this video on my hard drive gathering dust from when I made the Basics series and I decided I really just had to release it.

Yay!

@Kyrbi0
I hear you! I suppose I shouldn't complain. Last night I was up until 4 am helping someone on a programming project I'd already finished; I've been living with a growing sleep dept, and I just need to make sure I don't let it get to me too much.

No no, complaining can be cathartic.

'4 am'? Man, what a living. I got about 3 hrs of sleep last night... And got around 4-5 two other days this week (this week has been an anomaly, though; I actually stayed up doing Wc3 modding stuff, surprisingly enough ). Yeah, no good. I actually need to go to bed now, for work early tomorrow morning. Whatta life.

Sleep is important man.

 

[Deolrin]

Mdlvis is able to do everything you mentioned if I recall right.

I'm loving the way the matrix eater takes btw

Yeah, well. Most of the things I mentioned can be done through other programs, but the progress is difficult, long, or buggy. I personally really dislike MDLVis because the controls\hotkeys seems counter-intuitive to me(after working for so long with Vertex Modifier and Milkshape and such), and it tends to screw up models so that they could not be viewed properly in Magos, or linearize Geoset Animation keys so that I have to manually fix them later, etc. If all of those features were added to the Matrix Eater it would be absolutely unsurpassed in terms of usefulness and awesomeness as a modeling tool.

 

[Retera]

For anyone who could still use it, I had somebody ask about animation blending and made a new video for how to blend animations in the Matrix Eater's import!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqzAkMUNZxU

Edit: New Version of the Matrix Eater is Out, and with some much needed features!

1. Added a "Recent" dropdown like Magos, for efficient file maneuvering (Thanks to Kaiser a while back for this idea)
2. Now able to open MDX files! (Still experimental stage)
3. Added the "Disarm" program's model-fetching, so your favorite Warcraft III unit models are just 1 click away!
4. Fixed the abhorrent "You can't open this at the same time as other programs," "Could not find or load WC3 archive", screen filled with errors bug (this means NO MORE "Here's how to hack this program by copying your warcraft directory and wasting 500 MB of hard drive space just to get this buggy program to work....." Never again!)

Download from the attachment! You know you want to!

If you're motivated, maybe bump this for notification to people.

 

[Kyrbi0]

a TOTALLY-MOTIVATED BUMP

 

[PROXY]

Amazing, really amazing. Man that software 10 years ago and wc3 would have experienced a totally different modding era.

 

[Hawkwing]

I finally have had an opportunity to try this out and it really changes my whole outlook on creating models for Warcraft 3. This tool really unifies much of the process into one program. Whereas before I had to deal with all of Oinkerwinkle's tools, Magos, and MDL/X Converters, I now can do most of what those programs do here. There's a lot of seemingly simple things as well that are hugely beneficial: having a perspective window and the ability to hide/freeze geosets primarily. The automatic loading of textures is great as well, especially when modifying the UV's and you don't want to go through the hassle of locating the textures yourself and converting them to a readable file type. The import function of course is brilliant, but I think watching just one of your videos demonstrates that. You shouldn't need anyone to vouch for you in that regard. Whether you have time to continue working on this or not, your contribution is greatly appreciated!

 

[Kyrbi0]

I finally have had an opportunity to try this out and it really changes my whole outlook on creating models for Warcraft 3. This tool really unifies much of the process into one program. Whereas before I had to deal with all of Oinkerwinkle's tools, Magos, and MDL/X Converters, I now can do most of what those programs do here. There's a lot of seemingly simple things as well that are hugely beneficial: having a perspective window and the ability to hide/freeze geosets primarily. The automatic loading of textures is great as well, especially when modifying the UV's and you don't want to go through the hassle of locating the textures yourself and converting them to a readable file type. The import function of course is brilliant, but I think watching just one of your videos demonstrates that. You shouldn't need anyone to vouch for you in that regard. Whether you have time to continue working on this or not, your contribution is greatly appreciated!

That is so gratifying to hear. Hope it helps you make some awexome stuff!

 

[Retera]

That is so gratifying to hear. Hope it helps you make some awexome stuff!

Couldn't have said it better myself! Let me know if there's anything you think would be simple to add that the program really needs -- I'm always happy to make little updates on the simple things!

(And happy to update the bigger things like adding features, but that takes more time)

 

[z00rtaz]

This software is some A-class shit. Well done.

 

[Hantoo]

the texture all gone after update

 

[Hawkwing]

Here's something that bothers me a bit: I don't seem to have the option when importing to use visibility data from geosets already present within the model. The only visibility data I can use is from attachment nodes and particles. Also, if you're interested in expanding this tool slightly, something I would really like to see is the ability to move nodes like attachment references and particle emitters. I currently do this in Magos and am forced to simply type in coordinates, which often takes a few tries to get right.

Also the ability to disconnect UVs (the opposite of snapping them together) in the texturing coordinate editor would be helpful.

 

[Retera]

If you change the "View Controller" to its second tab and turn on "Show pivot points" and "Show pivot point object names" but NOT "Only show pivot points for active geosets", particle emitters should already show up and be editable in the current version.

About the visibility, if I recall correctly my goal when coding it was that geosets would not show up on the list if they used "Always visible" because that would have been redundant. Are you certain the geosets that were not on the list also did have changing visibility over time? If so, could you suggest or link a similar model with that problem for me to test with to get it fixed?

I have observed that if you open the default blademaster and save it without changing it, the Matrix Eater will lose the visibility on the Ribbon Emitter during the dissipate animation, specifically. That was such an obscure problem specific to the blade master that I was never quite sure of the cause, but if I get to a point of understanding what exactly is slightly off in that system I can certainly try to get it fixed.

That UV idea is one of many good suggestions I've had for the UV editor. It might take some time to implement correctly, though, so hopefully at some point I'll get a chance to make the UV editor better. (Edit: Note that you can undo a "UV snap" if you undo from the main program screen after editing in the UV editor.)

 

[Kyrbi0]

Just opened your newest (.17, right? Should probably link that back on the first post) version for kicks... Noticed a teensy little spelling error that, while not worthy of it's own update, might hopefully make it into your next one. : )

On the "Texture Coordinate Editor", upon clicking "Load Image", the "Load Image" question-box has the phrase "to find avaiable textures". The word you want there is "available".

 

[Hawkwing]

If you change the "View Controller" to its second tab and turn on "Show pivot points" and "Show pivot point object names" but NOT "Only show pivot points for active geosets", particle emitters should already show up and be editable in the current version.

About the visibility, if I recall correctly my goal when coding it was that geosets would not show up on the list if they used "Always visible" because that would have been redundant. Are you certain the geosets that were not on the list also did have changing visibility over time? If so, could you suggest or link a similar model with that problem for me to test with to get it fixed?

I have observed that if you open the default blademaster and save it without changing it, the Matrix Eater will lose the visibility on the Ribbon Emitter during the dissipate animation, specifically. That was such an obscure problem specific to the blade master that I was never quite sure of the cause, but if I get to a point of understanding what exactly is slightly off in that system I can certainly try to get it fixed.

That UV idea is one of many good suggestions I've had for the UV editor. It might take some time to implement correctly, though, so hopefully at some point I'll get a chance to make the UV editor better. (Edit: Note that you can undo a "UV snap" if you undo from the main program screen after editing in the UV editor.)

Today I learned there's a rollout menu in the "Import Existing Animation Visibility" field. All the particles and attachment nodes go to the bottom and the geoset visibility data was at the top of the list, so I wasn't seeing it.

 

[Retera]

I'm a bit concerned... I wanted to do some quick modeling work the past two days, and I've been working with the Matrix Eater V17 that I released rather than the version in my code editor, just for the sake of ease of use.

I've been seeing an issue I haven't pinned down exactly, but where I think the program is deleting all of the models I make with it. It's something to do with saving them as MDX files, and the program flagging the MDXs as temporary files.

This is a tremendous issue because it means anybody who has used the new version of the software to save MDX files may have had some or all of their progress and the models they made deleted at some point by the code a while after they were working.

Has anyone else experience this issue, and does anyone have any pointers about where in the code I should look to fix it? I had encountered it with an older version of the MDL->MDX java function I wrote, but I really thought I had it fixed.

 

[z00rtaz]

I'm a bit concerned... I wanted to do some quick modeling work the past two days, and I've been working with the Matrix Eater V17 that I released rather than the version in my code editor, just for the sake of ease of use.

I've been seeing an issue I haven't pinned down exactly, but where I think the program is deleting all of the models I make with it. It's something to do with saving them as MDX files, and the program flagging the MDXs as temporary files.

This is a tremendous issue because it means anybody who has used the new version of the software to save MDX files may have had some or all of their progress and the models they made deleted at some point by the code a while after they were working.

Has anyone else experience this issue, and does anyone have any pointers about where in the code I should look to fix it? I had encountered it with an older version of the MDL->MDX java function I wrote, but I really thought I had it fixed.

I had this issue, so I've taken the habit to never save my models using the same names. I -think- the easiest way to cause it to happen is to import one .mdx into another .mdx, and then save said model as an .mdl, without editing names.

Apart from that, I have a suggestion for future updates. Matrices that don't have a set bone, could your tool create and assign all those to Bone_Temp or somesuch? Would make importing less tedious when you only want to import the mesh of something, and rig it later outside the import. Right now you have to manually set all matrices to a bone if the models do not share bone names.

 

[Retera]

Apart from that, I have a suggestion for future updates. Matrices that don't have a set bone, could your tool create and assign all those to Bone_Temp or somesuch? Would make importing less tedious when you only want to import the mesh of something, and rig it later outside the import. Right now you have to manually set all matrices to a bone if the models do not share bone names.

^ is a really good idea. I hate that too.

A lot of times when I'm in the 3d art mindset, and not the programming mindset, I just go and use the "Re-assign matrix" thing on the model before I import it, or import it all to the glitchy empty setting where it assigns it no bone, then "Re-assign matrix" after it's imported so it's all just on one click.

--> As a note, since I was at my computer just now I was looking into this. I'm confused by the fact that I already see code to do exactly that - always add the ObjectID-0 bone to the list if it's an empty list -- but it clearly doesn't actually do that in production.
I'll have to look deeper in the code.

 

[Hawkwing]

I've been having troubles with .mdx as well, so I've stuck to using .mdl's.

 

[z00rtaz]

I just go and use the "Re-assign matrix" thing on the model before I import it

Jebus do I feel like dumbass now, clicking every goshdarn matrix.

 

[Retera]

Don't discount the fact that I built an interface that encouraged you to believe you had to click every single matrix. Adding some kind of button for that would be pretty nice.

Edit: Not supposed to double post, but I just fixed 4 things in the matrix eater code:

1. "Tool" dropdown activates after a model fetch
2. Temporary MDLs and MDXs should not be deleted in any case
3. Some guy asked for a animation length slider bar, so I drafted one up that (seems) to work (see picture)
4. When importing a model set to invalid matrices, a dummy bone is created for the imported mesh. (See the new error message in the images below.)

 

[Edge45]

looks like I'm a little confused on the last add-ons
but will try it out,

 

[z00rtaz]

Don't discount the fact that I built an interface that encouraged you to believe you had to click every single matrix. Adding some kind of button for that would be pretty nice.

Edit: Not supposed to double post, but I just fixed 4 things in the matrix eater code:

1. "Tool" dropdown activates after a model fetch
2. Temporary MDLs and MDXs should not be deleted in any case
3. Some guy asked for a animation length slider bar, so I drafted one up that (seems) to work (see picture)
4. When importing a model set to invalid matrices, a dummy bone is created for the imported mesh. (See the new error message in the images below.)

Wow, you work fast! And thanks for saving my lazy ass 3-5 extra clicks! Cant test it atm but will as soon as Im back from greece.

 

[z00rtaz]

I just acquired a copy of Windows 8.1, attempting to open any model gave me an error message and won't load the textures of said model (I do run it as administrator),
"initGL failed because of this exact reason:
UnsatisfiedLinkError: C:\Program Files\MatrixEater3DV0.17B_Windows\JStormLib32.dll: Can't find dependent libraries"
I can see the file in the proper directory, so I'm at loss.

 

[Retera]

I don't currently have any sort of Windows 8.1 machine to test on, but I have a hunch about something since I don't know enough about Windows 8.1.

This sounds super silly, but try this: rename "JStormLib32.dll" to "JStormLib32_not_used.dll" inside your Matrix Eater folder, then rename "JStormLib64.dll" to "JStormLib32.dll".

Let me know if it gives the same error message, a different one, or nothing at all.

 

[z00rtaz]

Followed your instructions, no change regarding the visuals.
The new error message:

"initGL failed because of this exact reason:
UnsatisfiedLinkError: C:\Program Files\MatrixEater3DV0.17B_Windows\JStormLib32.dll: Can't load AMD 64-bit .dll on a IA 32-bit platform"

If you want to fix this problem and want more error logging from me, we could go through pm's to save your thread ugly error messages.

 

[JokeMaster]

Hey retera i have a question, is it possible to make mirrored animations/ bones?
Explaation: I need to make a lefthanded archer and all in game archers beside the skeleton are righthanded.

 

[Retera]

@JokeMaster Yes. It is not only possible, but easy to do with the matrix eater. In order to mirror animations like this, you must select the Pivot Points that represent the bones you wish to mirror.
In other words, to mirror an Archer, open the Archer, then go to the second tab on the View Controller, and check the top 2 boxes for viewing and editing pivot points. Then, select the entire model, making sure not to miss anything. Push "Tools -> Mirror X" and you'll have an archer who shoots with the other hand. I specifically coded this to mirror animations as well as shape when you do it that way, because I wanted that feature also.

@z00rtaz You got me with that one, it's not going to be as easy to fix as I thought. What you've told me means that Java is finding the library (hence it can complain about whether its 32 or 64 bit), but your computer is loading a 32-bit library with a 32-bit Java virtual machine (like it should be doing) and it's still not working.

A little online research suggests that your Windows 8.1 computer is missing some particular DLL files that were referenced by the newer JStormLib when it was created by the original authors (from the Matrix Eater credits). As I am not actually familiar with how that library was written -- but rather with what it does -- I'd have to do more research about what dependency DLL files you might need. PMing is probably a good idea, so maybe I'll throw you a message if I figure more out.

 

[JokeMaster]

WOW that's awsome and even works as it should, now after renaming the bones back to their originals( switching the left/right names) i can transfer the normal anims again, time to create a proper archer.

EDIT: Ok I've got another question, can i simply import animations without importing the rest of the model so that the base model utilizes both animation sets?

 

[Retera]

Yes, but it takes more clicking in the import dialog. You have to tell it explicitly what you want, essentially.

So, you push "Leave All" on the Geosets Tab, "Import All" on the Animations Tab, but then do "Motion From All" in the bones tab -- so it knows you don't want any new bones or stuff like that, you just want the motion of the imported character on the current one (but in all new animation sequences).

You'll have to set a couple of other things for your import, like Visibility settings.

Also, you probably want "Leave All" on objects, but if there are any cool fire effects in the animation or something that you want to import, you might want to import them, too.

A lot of times if you try to do that it might not work out, also, because the program guesses how to map one guy's animations onto the other based on bone names. That doesn't sound important, but it means if the footman's left shoulder was named "Bone_Arm1L" and the bandit's left shoulder was named "Bone_ArmUpperL01", then it would not move the animation because the names don't match. But wait, there's more...

That was the old problem with the oinkerwinkle animation transferer, which is why in the matrix eater you can manually override it all. So, if your transfer doesn't work, you gotta go into the Bones tab and click around to say that you want to map a shoulder to a shoulder and etc., and tell it how to map it (which takes more clicking). But, it can almost always be done and work out pretty well, as long as the characters in the models are both the same shape (both person-shaped, for example).

Checkout this video, it might help a little!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqzAkMUNZxU

 

[JokeMaster]

I made sure that the bone names are identicall, i changed all regular skeleton bones to exact the same names and to almost perfectly fitting positions, time to try it out.

 

[Hantoo]

my norton antivirus keep deleting blplabcl.exe any solution to let it ignore it?
i restore it and trust it couple of time and it is still removing it

 

[JokeMaster]

Add it manualy to exceptions? Most anti viruses have such an option, well atleas those that i used - Kaspersky, AVG and Avast had.

 

[Oilman]

Hey Retera, MatrixEater seems to be unable to read my mpq files in order to display textures. Any idea what this could be? I'm running as admin.

EDIT: Just looked on the last page and it seems I'm not the only one - for reference, I'm using Windows 7.

DOUBLE EDIT: Hadn't updated to version 17, and now that I have it works fine. Sorry!

 

[Hantoo]

im using old version i don't know if new version has this problem
Matrix Eater can't open Malfurion
im using DV0.16C

 

[Retera]

Yes, even the current version bugs when opening MalFurion. I think I know why, but it would take some time to fix because of a very obscure issue with the MalFurion model and the Matrix Eater's file parser. If you would like to open Malfurion, attached is a copy of Malfurion that will open in the matrix eater. Nothing is different except that I removed the "\n\n\n\n\n\n\n" characters that were in the Stand Ready animation that shouldn't have been there anyway -- this is the fix the Matrix Eater doesn't know how to do for you.

 

[MiniMage]

Do you need special files to tweak em? I figured that if it became as easily accessible as the magos mpq handling aspect, this tool would be the number one tool on my list.

A text based tutorial with images would've been lovely as well. As it is rather difficult to learn something from a quick video where you breeze through it all.

It's still a neat program though.

 

[Oilman]

I've been playing with it for the past few days, and it's incredibly powerful! The only feature I've really needed another program for is creating and editing emitters.

 

[BlinkBoy]

Yes, even the current version bugs when opening MalFurion. I think I know why, but it would take some time to fix because of a very obscure issue with the MalFurion model and the Matrix Eater's file parser. If you would like to open Malfurion, attached is a copy of Malfurion that will open in the matrix eater. Nothing is different except that I removed the "\n\n\n\n\n\n\n" characters that were in the Stand Ready animation that shouldn't have been there anyway -- this is the fix the Matrix Eater doesn't know how to do for you.

Why don't you try making a native MDX reader feuture?

The format is actualy way more simple to read and write than MDLs.

Also you could solve that issue fast if you trim everyline at reading.

 

[Marchioly]

Why don't you try making a native MDX reader feuture?

The format is actualy way more simple to read and write than MDLs.

Also you could solve that issue fast if you trim everyline at reading.

That is a good idea. From looking at the source code OP posted, it would be similar to the way he has it. You could accomplish this by just adding an extra load/save method to each one.

 

[Retera]

While it's not as ideal as what you described, I started on a native MDX -> Matrix Eater project using a Java MDX API posted here on the hive (it literally just loaded it into their Java classes, then ported it into the matrix eater classes) and it was going pretty good but then exams and classes and other things caught up with me and I haven't finished it.

As more time becomes available, I should be able to finish that. If anybody else wants that source code to try to race me to it, I could provide it here.

PS: Also realizing how many things in the matrix eater code probably could've been done better, it seems like it really would be nice to do a rewrite of the classes in a way that combined MDX and MDL readers into one optimized Java MDLX API. But, that would definitely require even more time.

 

[Himperion]

Ok something interesting that i found yesterday, its posible to transfer animation using "Motion from bone" in the Helpers, for some reason it transfers the info in the child bone even if the bone had a different name.

I tested this with a Captain and a Peasant model.

 

[BlinkBoy]

While it's not as ideal as what you described, I started on a native MDX -> Matrix Eater project using a Java MDX API posted here on the hive (it literally just loaded it into their Java classes, then ported it into the matrix eater classes) and it was going pretty good but then exams and classes and other things caught up with me and I haven't finished it.

As more time becomes available, I should be able to finish that. If anybody else wants that source code to try to race me to it, I could provide it here.

PS: Also realizing how many things in the matrix eater code probably could've been done better, it seems like it really would be nice to do a rewrite of the classes in a way that combined MDX and MDL readers into one optimized Java MDLX API. But, that would definitely require even more time.

To be honest, seeing the bugs you are having. You should rewrite your MDL reading code with a parser generator such as JFlex. With that you can read even buggy mdl files or find precise errors when reading them.