[Tool] Blender add-on for MRF

[wiselen]

MRF is a legacy feature from Warcraft III: TFT used to store per-vertex (morph target) animations. It works by saving a sequence of mesh snapshots (vertex positions/normals/UVs) and playing them back in-game. These files were used by Blizzard in the Arthas vs Illidan cinematic for the cloth animation on Arthas’ cape. You can find them in the game archive under doodads\cinematic\arthasillidanfight\arthascape*.mrf.

This Blender add-on lets you import mesh animations to Blender and export directly to the .mrf format. You can animate your mesh in Blender (shape keys, cloth sim, or any per-vertex animation), run the exporter, and use the generated file with your Warcraft III model as an event object.

There are four options to display the MRF model and play its animation:

• Output a SPRITE frame via Frames API using a camera from the MDX/MDL model.
• Using model with MRF as a transition model via the native PlayModelCinematic(MDX/MDL model) function. For example PlayModelCinematic( "Doodads\\Cinematic\\ArthasIllidanFight\\ArthasIllidanFight.mdl" ).
• Using a model as a unit portrait. MRF models can be displayed in the portrait view of units, using the MDX camera.
• Using a model as 3D main menu screen in pre-reforged patches.

As for the world space and the space of 3D campaign screens, MRF will also be rendered there, but only as a static object, that is, the mesh from zero frame of the MRF will be loaded.

For installation, usage, and all the details, check out the GitHub repo.