.pz a new model format?

General Discussion
1

Hi All,

I’ve just spent the day playing around with the new version of Panda3D. I’m really liking it and it seems to be loading much faster than before. Also the new feature tutorials are marvelous and very much needed. So a big thankyou and pats on the back to all those involved :smiley:.

Looking through the samples, I think I’ve noticed a new model format ‘.pz’. In the ‘Roaming Ralph’ sample for instance, there is a ‘ralph.bam.pz’ and a ‘ralph.egg.pz’ and so forth.

I’m just wondering what the .pz is, is it a new model format? If so, is it better than the plain old .egg and .bam formats? And can 3ds Max and Maya export it?

Just curious :unamused:.

Cheers

2

Nope - same ol egg or bam format, just in a zip file.
P3D 1.2 can read models directly from the more space-efficient compressed files.
There are two panda utilities, pzip.exe and punzip.exe (in the …/bin directory).
If you make a copy of a .pz file into a temp directory to experiment with,
then run “punzip x.egg.pz”, (where x.egg.pz is whatever you copied)
it will extract the .egg file into the usual state.

(make the copy, because punzipping removes the original .pz file - this is unix gzip type behaviour, rather than winzip/pkzip behaviour)

nb

3

Ah I see, thanks for the explanation nb.

Cheers

4

Hmmm I’ve just tried running the ‘punzip’ application in the bin folder (I simply double clicked its icon).

A window briefly popped up and then quickly closed, so I guess that’s not the right way to run it.

I want to ‘unzip’ the world model from the ‘roaming ralph’ example so that I can import it into 3ds max with the new .egg importer (this is a great addition by the way, thanks).

So could some kind soul please tell me how to run it?

Cheers

5

It’s a command line application. You have to start a DOS windows to run it.
“start->run” and enter “cmd” if you are using XP.

EDIT:
Then you have to use the CD command to take yourself to the dir the .pz file is in, and use punzip there.

6

Thanks Deps, so I guess it’s like running a python script. Once I navigate to the correct directory would I just type >>>>ppython punzip at the command prompt? Or some other command?

Thanks

7

C:\tmp>
C:\tmp>copy c:\Panda3D-b\samples\Feature-Tutorials–Roaming-Ralph\models\world.egg.pz .
1 file(s) copied.

C:\tmp>punzip world.egg.pz
world.egg

C:\tmp>dir
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 742D-8D51

Directory of C:\tmp

04/26/2006 02:51 PM .
04/26/2006 02:51 PM …
04/26/2006 02:51 PM 17,132,448 world.egg
1 File(s) 17,132,448 bytes
2 Dir(s) 183,087,398,912 bytes free

8

Pzip and Pzip are executeables.
Python is a scripting language so it doesn’t have executeables you need a interpreter(python or ppython) to run a script.

9

Hi,
I just started to play with panda, and the “roaming ralph” example seems very interesting. I work in 3dmax, and i have a problem with the punzip program (i work in winXPpro), when i try to decompress the world.egg.pz file, punzip gives me this:

:express: zlib error in inflate: Z_DATA_ERROR = incorrect header check

:question:

if anyone can help me, i would really appreciate it.

Thanks.

10

Sounds like the world.egg.pz file has been corrupted somehow.

David