Using View.exe to view objects bySchwaa

 View.exe is a useful tool to view objects in Thief's .bin format. It gives you options to check out the properties of most Thief objects like textures, rotations and polycount.

To use View.exe you need to place it in a folder along with a shortcut to the DOS Command Prompt

You'll also need to place the object .bin file and it's textures in the same folder. Sometimes artists will use Thief textures but not include them in the zip file, if so View will ask you to browse for them. Just pull them out of the Thief/Res/Obj zip and place them in the same folder.

With Windows XP, CMD can be found in the Windows folder, make a shortcut and place the shortcut in the folder you are going to use. I believe in Windows ME you can create a shortcut from the start menu CMD.

Using View.exe is very simple, double click the CMD shortcut and it should show the path to the folder, type view objname.bin and the View Window will pop-up with the object in it.

Keybinds
  • Q,W,E,A,S,D - Move object in window, works like Dromed
  • Arrows - Rotate object left/right (Z plane), Rotate up/down (X plane)
  • O, U - Rotate object (Y plane)
  • R - Large Window toggle
  • T - Shows Textures, Texture size, Texture file size
  • ` - Toggles objects, Allows you to view partially hidden objs
  • 1 - Object brightness (light to dark)
  • 2 - Object brightness (dark to light)
  • -, = - Zoom in/out
  • Esc - Close window
  • X - Start stop rotation, centers rotation?
  • C - Recenter object
  • V - Cycles palette for background (opposite direction as B)
  • B - Cycles palette for background (opposite direction as V)
  • N - A strange spinning halucinatory effect of the objects
  • M - Toggles Bitmap, face, lit wireframe rendering
  • P - Shows Palette
  • Y - (Toggle) Gives obj name, polycount, vertice count, radius and size on screen/ Vertice alignment/ Bounding box/ Some kind of sphere size (might be for Sphere obj type in Dromed)/ Vertice coordinates

    • Here are a few pics showing what the keybinds will do.