Ship texturing
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Yup.
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I think first ya must put it into milkshape cause there is the cmp plugin
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So… lemme get this right
You have a ship… built and textured in Max…
You wish to make it into a .cmp via Milkshape…Ok the model will import into Ms3d… but your textures… hmm… wouldn’t u have to have .dds (or .tga grr) versions
of ye textures at the ready to export a .mat file?? … nicley Miped as well i may add
now… im pretty shure you can texture in max… and the model will still remember were the textures lay…
when you import it into Milkshape… then convert your original textures you used to miped .dds Via (I use)
Paint.Net (its free) but you’ll have to find the .dds plugin… its on here somewhere or just goto Nvidia siteIn milkshape… there’s a materials column re-tex your ship by that chosing the same textures only now your .dds versions… then use normal export stuff as per tutorials found here as TSP… worst case scenario… you’ll have to completely re-tex your ship in Ms3d and not just slap em back on… but… Your model should work… there are a variety of import options & plugins for Ms3d… if one export dont work as a .3ds… out of max, try it as a .obj … ect…
Best of luck… ;D
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So… lemme get this right
You have a ship… built and textured in Max…
You wish to make it into a .cmp via Milkshape…Ok the model will import into Ms3d… but your textures… hmm… wouldn’t u have to have .dds (or .tga grr) versions
of ye textures at the ready to export a .mat file?? … nicley Miped as well i may addnow… im pretty shure you can texture in max… and the model will still remember were the textures lay…
when you import it into Milkshape… then convert your original textures you used to miped .dds Via (I use)
Paint.Net (its free) but you’ll have to find the .dds plugin… its on here somewhere or just goto Nvidia siteIn milkshape… there’s a materials column re-tex your ship by that chosing the same textures only now your .dds versions… then use normal export stuff as per tutorials found here as TSP… worst case scenario… you’ll have to completely re-tex your ship in Ms3d and not just slap em back on… but… Your model should work… there are a variety of import options & plugins for Ms3d… if one export dont work as a .3ds… out of max, try it as a .obj … ect…
Best of luck… ;D
No. I have many ships built in Gmax. I could convert them into 3ds. I have never tried texturing i have no expert on it, but i tried milkshape and it was nightmare. If someone could help i may ask, but if i can do texturing in 3ds (gmax is “light” version of 3ds max as far as i know) i will.
Tutorials i read many werent clear for me about milkshape so i want to avoid this program except cmp that must be done in milkshape.
About texturing: nothing spec im gonna use vanilla textures of the vanilla ships, i have all tga and/or dds files.
Of course if someone could tell me something about texturing in 3ds max i’d appreciate that.Â
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First thing you need to consider is how Milkshape and the CMP/3DB exporter will handle your texturing. Each part (mesh) can only be assigned one material, so plan ahead for how you will assemble the model. You can have multiple meshes in one group to achieve your goals; say afterburner grille, exhaust nozzle, rear fairing -all with different materials. You can also re-use the same material for every mesh, and just fiddle with the UV mapping coordinates.
Next thing to remember is that the FL exporters in Milkshape can only handle up to 18 groups (with numerous meshes in each group).
As for 3DS Max, if you have a texture unwrapper plug-in, that makes life so much easier when adjusting your texture mapping. With it, you can also output a render of the mesh unwrapped. This lets you import the rendering into whatever image editing program you use, and paint on the face outlines. The one in papa Max has options to solid fill the unwrapped parts, or just outlined faces, or gradients according to face normal direction. This method is basically like taking apart your model, flattening it on a sticky sheet, and drawing decals which will stick to the model after you’re done.
The other way is to just use projection mapping (top->bottom, left->right, etc) but this tends to waste texture space and take up more room on the hard drive by using more textures. However, it works fine on some things, like asteroids, nomads, etc.
Personally I always export from Max in .OBJ format, because .3DS has the old DOS 8.3 file name limitation for texture and mesh names.
There are also a couple stand-alone UVmapper programs that have similar functionality to Max’s UVunwrap.
UVmapper
LithUnwrapCouple side-notes: Some times materials are not fully imported into Milkshape; in that case you’ll have to go to the material tab, then browse for each file to refresh.
It’s also easiest to have textures in one directory, otherwise the material exporter can get confyoooozed.Keep 3 copies of UTF Editor onhand (1.0, 1.3, and 1.4). In time you’ll want to add glow maps, opacity maps, etc. The only way to do this is manually with a UTF editor. With that you can open up the mat / txm / cmp / 3db file and tweak the Material & Texture libraries, plus import the ones Milkshape leaves out.
Check out the tutorials section, I believe there is at least one tut for texturing. After that, dig into the boards here
some things have been ironed out a bit more since the guide was made.Last note, there is an export plug-in for older versions of Max (7 maybe? can’t recall), which will let you export to .ms3d format. That makes determining proper scale much easier. Should also be cleaner in regard to normals alignment and smoothing groups -which tend to get biffed every once in a while.
Unfortunately, there still are no Max exporters to CMP/3DB format.
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@Mini_Me: Thanks the answer, well-detailed.
When im trying to import into md3 (quake) format from gmax, a window appears:The Following Frames:
Only Objects Whose Name Starts With:
Only The Following Tags:Position Relative to Tag
.none  .tag_head  .tag_torso  .tag_floor*I dont really know what doest it mean, i have only one body/group.
I have a plugin in the gmax:\stdplugs directory name is md3exp.dle
And dont laught at me, but nevertheless ive made many shipmodels in gmax, still dont know what are these uvmapping, unwrap, and shrink wrap, whats need when i want to export, true i have never tried texturing and for that, exporting, so its not surprised.
I searched for definitions of this three things but i havent really found good ones. -
Here’s a link to some Gmax plugins and such, hopefully some help ya out. I haven’t used it but for like 5 minutes.
http://www.davidhsmith.net/Essential_Tools.htm So I haven’t used the md3 exporter, sorry m8 =(Can’t find my links to UV unwrapping tutorials, but Google should come through, mainly gaming sites are most efficient on these. Unwrap, box, sphere, shrink wrap, cylinder; all just different ways of projecting an image onto your model.
Remember you can select faces and apply mapping to only those, as well. Then collapse, select next faces, repeat.
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Here’s a link to some Gmax plugins and such, hopefully some help ya out. I haven’t used it but for like 5 minutes.
http://www.davidhsmith.net/Essential_Tools.htm So I haven’t used the md3 exporter, sorry m8 =(Can’t find my links to UV unwrapping tutorials, but Google should come through, mainly gaming sites are most efficient on these. Unwrap, box, sphere, shrink wrap, cylinder; all just different ways of projecting an image onto your model.
Remember you can select faces and apply mapping to only those, as well. Then collapse, select next faces, repeat.
Thanks, I have already found that website before, and i downloaded all of plugins.
I saw in milkshape to assign areas in the texture, and it wont put on the whole texture only that area. Is it possible in 3Ds max?
When i convert from gmax to 3ds, what should i switch on? Shrink wrap in convert or else?
