DMX

DMX (Data Model eXtensible? Data Matrix?) is a binary file format used in newer Valve technologies. It appears to be a generic replacement for ASCII formats like SMD or VDF. Currently it has two known uses: Particle systems (.pcf) and model source data (.dmx).

DMX has several advantages over VDF. It is:

1. Efficient, especially when storing large ints or accurate floats
2. Generic, and able to store most memory structures
3. Robust, since it does not have to worry about delimiters, line breaks or unclosed quote blocks

Using DMX

With DMX being a binary format, it is not practical either to infer how a given file works from reading it, or to alter one by hand. When the tools for reading/writing them aren't publicly available, this is a problem!

Models

DMX model source files are presumably generated by Valve's Maya plugin. Some editing options are available with the Source 2009 tool dmxedit, including export to OBJ (unweighted, no animations).

^[Todo]

Programming

#include "cbase.h"
#include "dmxloader/dmxloader.h"
#include "dmxloader/dmxelement.h"

CON_COMMAND(test_dmx, "Loads and interprets a DMX file")
{
	DECLARE_DMX_CONTEXT();
	
	CDmxElement* DMX = (CDmxElement*)DMXAlloc( 50000000 );
	CUtlBuffer buf;

	if (UnserializeDMX(args[1],"MOD",false,&DMX))
	{
		for (int i=0;i<DMX->AttributeCount();i++)
		{
			CDmxAttribute* cur = DMX->GetAttribute(i);
			Msg("%s\t%i\n",cur->GetName(),cur->AttributeDataSize(cur->GetType()));
		}

		SerializeDMX(buf,DMX);
		// write buf to file
	}
	else
		Warning("Could not read DMX file %s\n",args[1]);
}