So here are the 2 formats being covered in this document,

the Binary (Machine Friendly Code) Format


and the Tex... Yes TEX (User Friendly Code) Format

As you can see there is a huge difference. One you can read and if you've taken a crash course in DME programming, you can easily edit the various elements of the file in a text editor. The other, is machine code and in order to edit it, you have to be well versed in Hex and use a Hex Editor to change anything.

Where you may have to switch between the 2 formats is when using 3rd party tools that can import DMX files, such as Blender, IpiSoft, and others. Some of these tools require the format be one or the other.

This is just an example, as I believe that Blender Source Tools and SFM now support both formats for import. But at one time they didn't.

So you've been working away at a taunt and have exported the animation as a DMX file using the Export Animation or Taunt function of SFM. As you press the OK button, SFM burps out a DMX and immediately crashes. You have no idea if the DMX is good, or if it's corrupted and you want to check it out in Blender and maybe finish tweaking it there.

You launch Blender and use it to import the DMX file and it complains about the format. So you try to load the DMX back into a new session of SFM and SFM crashes immediately, so for some reason you can't import the DMX and use the SFM tools to convert the file to a format usable by Blender.

NO Problem... Use DMXConvert to do the job for you.

I'm using Windows 10 here, but the process of launching a Windows Command Prompt window hasn't changed much since I believe Vista (maybe even XP, I can't remember).

It is important that you open an Administrator (also known as an Elevated) Command Prompt to avoid permissions issues when working with files.

If you Right Click on the Windows Start Icon on the bottom Left of the TaskBar, you should be presented with a menu. Locate Command Prompt (Admin) and click it. For those that have the UAC set, you'll receive a confirmation prompt to start the program. Select OK and the Command Prompt window will open.

For those that are not seeing a menu or the Command Prompt(Admin) option following the process above, Open a Windows File Explorer Session and navigate to C:\Windows\System32. Locate cmd.exe and right click on it. Choose Run As Administrator. Say OK to the UAC prompt if it appears.


If you want to save typing and haven't already done so, open a Windows File Explorer session and navigate to your Sourcefilmmaker\game\bin folder and set your screen up so you can pop back and forth between the explorer session and your Command Prompt session.

Now in the Command Prompt window type CD {with a space after it} then pop over to your Windows File explorer session and select the Path Line (it should turn into a normal path statement), select the entire path and right click on it then select copy. Pop back into the Command prompt window and right click the window and select paste, then hit enter.

OR
In the command Prompt window Type
CD {then the path to your Sourcefilmmaker\game\bin folder} and press enter

This makes the bin folder the active folder in the command window.

You now have to determine what format your current DMX file is in. Try to open it in a text editor. If it opens and you can read it, It's in TEX format; if it doesn't open and crashes your text editor or opens and is full of a bunch of NULL and weird symbols, it's in Binary Format (Refer to the Format type pictures above if you're not sure.)

The syntax for the command line is
The entire command syntax is typed out on the command line and wraps at the end of the available line without pressing Enter until it is completely typed out

So assuming I had a Binary DMX file sitting in my C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SourceFilmmaker\game\usermod\elements\MyTaunts folder called wiggle butt.dmx and I wanted to change that to a TEX Format and place it on my desktop, my command line would look like this:


Notice the Quotation marks around the Path and Filename here, these are extremely important if you have spaces in the path or the filename.

If the Original DMX was in TEX format and I wanted to convert it to Binary format, the command line would be



And there you have it..... You're now able to switch format's and avoid Format Errors in your programs.

By the way, if you just type dmxconvert in the command line, you'll get this help screen.


Because of lack of documentation, I do not know what the other functions do... {yet!}