Getting Started

Installation

From release binaries

Download the latest binary for your platform from the GitHub Releases page. Place it somewhere in your PATH.

From .deb / .rpm packages

Debian/Ubuntu and RPM packages are attached to each tagged release.

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i modelconverter-*.deb

# Fedora/RocketLinux
sudo rpm -i modelconverter-*.rpm

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/mgerhardy/q3modelconverter.git
cd q3modelconverter
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --parallel
# Optional: install system-wide
sudo cmake --install build

The resulting binary is at build/modelconverter. No external dependencies are required beyond a C11 compiler and CMake 3.16+.

First conversion

# Convert a Blender export to MD3
modelconverter -i mymodel.glb -o mymodel.md3

# Also emit a .skin and .shader sidecar
modelconverter -i mymodel.glb -o mymodel.md3 --skin --shader

Verifying output

# Print model info
modelconverter --info -i mymodel.md3

# Run format-limit checks
modelconverter --validate -i mymodel.md3

Drop the .md3 plus its textures and .skin file into your game's .pk3dir and verify in-engine with r_showtris 1.