This document is based on the specification of Metasequoia from Ver1.0 to 4.7.

Attention:
This file format may be changed without a compatibility in the future.

A plug-in SDK contains a sample code for loading .mqo files. Please refer it.

• Character encoding used in a name or a filename is defined by the 'CodePage' chunk, or it is depended on the system locale if the chunk does not exist.
• The return code is 0x0D0x0A; Windows standard.
• Chunk names are not case-sensitive in principle.
• A string is enclosed in "".
• A chunk and data in a line are usually delimited by a space or a tab, and some symbol characters like as parentheses are used as delimiters.
• A byte order for binary data is an Intel format.
• A floating point value in binary data is IEEE standard format.

• When a chunk spans multiple line, '{' is written at the end of the first line. And the chunk finishes at the line that has '}' at the head of the line.
• A chunk may contain child chunks hierarchically.
• A chunk with binary data has [Data size] at the end of the line. Subsequently, binary data is written.

Header

There is the following header at the head two lines in a file.

Metasequoia Document
Format %s Ver %.1f

Format %s	Format	[Text] Text [Compress] Compression (Not support in the current version)
Ver %.1f	Version	[1.0] Not support a polygon with 5 or more points. Always 4 or lesser points. [1.1] Support polygons with 5 or more points. (Ver4.0 or later) [1.2] Support utf-8 encoding (Ver4.7 or later)

A loading must be interrupted if the format or the version is not recognized. But, the difference of a minor version may cause no problem if the parser interprets a chunk hierarchy correctly.

CodePage chunk (Ver4.7 or later)

CodePage %s

CodePage %s

Character encoding

[utf8] UTF-8 [(Number)] Windows code page (Ex:[932] Japanese Shift-JIS, [1252] Western European)

TrialNoise chunk

This chunk is recorded when the license is not authenticated in Ver1.0. If this chunk is detected, a loading must be interrupted immediately.
This chunk has been obsoleted in Ver2.0 or later.

IncludeXml chunk

This chunk is for plug-in own information, and represented like as the following. This chunk will be not written if no information is outputted by plug-ins.

IncludeXml "%s"

InlcudeXml %s

Filename

An extension for an external xml file is .mqx.

Thumbnail chunk

This chunk contains a thumbnail image. This chunk is not used in .mqoz file because it directly contains an image file in the archive. Details omitted.

Scene chunk

This chunk contains a viewport and so on. Details omitted.

BackImage chunk (Ver2.0 or later)

This chunk contains a background image. Details omitted.

Material chunk

This chunk begins like as the following:

Material %d {

%d	A number of materials

There is material data in each line in this chunk. Parameters after a name can be omitted if unnecessary.

%s shader(%d) vcol(%d) dbls(%d) col(%.3f %.3f %.3f %.3f) dif(%.3f) amb(%.3f) emi(%.3f) spc(%.3f)
power(%.2f) reflect(%.3f) refract(%.3f) tex(%s) alpha(%s) bump(%s) proj_type(%d) proj_pos(%.3f %.3f %.3f)
proj_scale(%.3f %.3f %.3f) proj_angle(%.3f %.3f %.3f)

%s	Name	Ver4.6 or older: 31 bytes or lesser Ver4.7 or later: 63 characters or lesser in Wide character encoding
shader(%d)	Shader	[0] Classic [1] Constant [2] Lambert [3] Phong [4] Blinn
vcol(%d)	Vertex color	[0] None [1] Diffuse
dbls(%d)	Double sided face	[0] Single sided face [1] Double sided face
col(%.3f %.3f %.3f %.3f)	RGB color and opacity	(Each) 0 to 1
dif(%.3f)	Diffuse	0 to 1
amb(%.3f)	Ambient	0 to 1
emi(%.3f)	Emission	0 to 1
spc(%.3f)	Specular	0 to 1
power(%.2f)	Power of specular	0 to 100
reflect(%.3f)	Reflection (Ver4.0 or later)	0 to 1
refract(%.3f)	Refraction (Ver4.0 or later)	1 to 5
tex(%s)	Texture mapping	A relative path or an absolute path
aplane(%s)	Alpha mapping	A relative path or an absolute path
bump(%s)	Bump mapping	A relative path or an absolute path
proj_type(%d)	Projection method for a mapping	[0] UV [1] Flat [2] Cylindrical [3] Spherical
proj_pos(%.3f %.3f %.3f)	Projection position (XYZ)
proj_scale(%.3f %.3f %.3f)	Projection scaling (XYZ)
proj_angle(%.3f %.3f %.3f)	Projection angle (HPB)	-180 to 180

A chunk for material will be changed to 'Material2' chunk, and 'Material' chunk will become obsolete. A definition of the 'Material2' chunk is not determined yet.

Object chunk

This chunk begins like as the following:

Object %s {

%s

An object name

Ver4.6 or older: 63 bytes or lesser Ver4.7 or later: 63 characters or lesser in Wide character encoding

There are the following chunks in this chunk, and they can be omit if unnecessary.

uid %d
depth %d
folding %d
scale %.6f %.6f %.6f
rotation %.6f %.6f %.6f
translation %.6f %.6f %.6f
patch %d
patchtri %d
segment %d
visible %d
locking %d
shading %d
facet %.1f
color %.3f %.3f %.3f
color_type %d
mirror %d
mirror_axis %d
mirror_dis %.3f
vertex %d {
}
BVertex %d {
}
face %d {
}

uid %d	Unique ID	An unique ID used by plug-ins. Automatically assigned if not specified.
depth %d	Depth for a hierarchy	0 is under root, and increment depending on the depth
folding %d	A folding of a hierarchy in Object Panel	[0] Normal [1] Collapsed
scale %.6f %.6f %.6f	Scaling factor for a local coordinate	XYZ
rotation %.6f %.6f %.6f	Angle for a local coordinate	HPB
translation %.6f %.6f %.6f	Translation for a local coordinate	XYZ
patch %d	Patch type	[0] None [1] Spline type 1 [2] Spline type 2 [3] Catmull-Clark (Ver2.2 or later) [4] OpenSubdiv (Ver4.0 or later)
patchtri %d	Division of triangles for Catmull-Clark	[0] Divide into quadrangles [1] Reserve triangles
segment %d	Division number of a patch	1 to 16 (1 to 4 for Catmull-Clark/OpenSubdiv)
visible %d	Visibility	[0] Invisible [15] Visible
locking	Lock	[0] Editable [1] Locked
shading %d	Shading	[0] Flat shading [1] Gouraud shading
facet %.1f	Smoothing angle	0 to 180
color %.3f %.3f %.3f	Color (RGB)	(Each) 0 to 1
color_type %d	Color type for lines	[0] Use a color in a configuration [1] Use the object's unique color
mirror %d	Mirroring type	[0] None [1] Separated [2] Joined
mirror_axis %d	Mirroring axis	[1] X axis [2] Y axis [4] Z axis
mirror_dis %.3f	Distance for a mirroring	0 to
lathe %d	Lathe type	[0] None [3] Double sided
lathe_axis %d	Lathe axis	[0] X axis [1] Y axis [2] Z axis
lathe_seg %d	Division number for a lathe	3 to
vertex %d	'vertex' chunk (Vertices)	A number of vertices
BVertex %d	'BVertex' chunk (Binary vertices)	A number of vertices
face %d	'face' chunk (Faces)	A number of faces

vertex chunk

There is the following vertex data in each line in the chunk.

%.4f %.4f %.4f

%.4f %.4f %.4f

A position (XYZ)

Example:

vertex {
  0.5000 1.0000 10.0000
  -2.0000 -20.0000 45.5000
}

vertexattr chunk (Ver2.2 or later)

This chunk contains attributes for each vertex. There are the following child chunks:

uid chunk (Ver3.1 or later)

An unique ID for each vertex. There are same number of IDs as the vertices.

%d

%d	An unique ID

Example:

uid {
  1
  2
  4
}

weit chunk

This chunk contains a weight factor for a patch. 0 is set for a weight if this chunk is omitted.

 

%d	An index of a vertex
%.3f	A weight value

Example:

weit {
  0 1.000
  2 0.621
  7 0.121
}

color chunk

This chunk contains a vertex color for a vertex.
It has been substantially obsoleted because a vertex color is assigned to a corner vertex in a face in Ver2.3 or later.

%d %u

%d	An index of a vertex
%u	Vertex color A color is composed by the following mask: [0x000000FF] Red [0x0000FF00] Green [0x00FF0000] Blue [0xFF000000] Opacity

Example

color {
  0 4278255360
  2 4278190335
}

BVertex chunk

This chunk contains vertices as binary data, and there are following child chunks:

Vector %d [%d]

Vector %d [%d]

A number of vertex Data size

Vector chunk

3 float values represent the XYZ position for a vertex, and there are values for all vertices. The data size is (12 times the vertices) bytes.

weit chunk (Ver2.0 or later)

A value represents a weight factor for a patch. The content is same as the 'vertexattr' chunk.

color chunk (Ver2.0 or later)

A value represents a vertex color. The content is same as the 'vertexattr' chunk.

Supplement:
'BVertex' chunk is used as a standard chunk for vertices in from Ver1.0 to Ver2.1, and 'vertex' chunk is standard now. However, you can use 'BVertex' chunk in Ver2.2 or later by describing "MQOFormat=1" in the System category in the setting file.

face chunk

This chunk contains face data in each line.

%d V(%d ...) M(%d) UV(%.5f %.5f ...) COL(%u ...) CRS(%f ...)

%d	A number of vertices	2 or larger value (Always 4 or lesser in Format Version 1.0.)
V(%d ...)	Vertex indices (Same number of vertices)	0 to (# of vertices)-1
M(%d)	A material index	-1 (non-material face), or from 0 to (# of materials)-1
UV(%.5f %.5f ...)	UV coordinate Twice (# of vertices)
COL(%u ...)	Vertex color (Same number of vertices)	A color is composed by the following mask:  [0x000000FF] Red  [0x0000FF00] Green  [0x00FF0000] Blue  [0xFF000000] Opacity
CRS(%f ...)	Edge crease for Catmull-Clark/OpenSubdiv (Same number of vertices)	Catmull-Clark:  [0] OFF  [1] ON OpenSubdiv: 0 or larger value

Blob chunk

This chunk contains a blobby object. Details omitted.