Max 2016 Import / export script for .3db?
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This is probably a big ask, but… does anyone have one of these or can anyone make one. Something that would allow me to avoid using Milkshape?
I really want to contribute and do stuff, I have even made things already but milkshape is just terrible, it’s holding me back, I cant get it to work properly, it either crashes constantly or the exporter isn’t working right for the thing’s i’m trying to accomplish.
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I did make my stuff entirely in 3ds max without touching milkshape whatsoever. However there isn’t exactly a push-export-button complete solution, as far as I know, exporters I had used have their own quirks too, but ultimately I was able to get things done and test modifications in-game relatively quick. Basically the process consisted of exporting into .cmp and then using UTFEditor to reassemble into .3db (if it’s a single-part model) or restructure it for a proper .cmp. Granted I didn’t do this entire process every time I had updated model, thankfully copy-pasting specific nodes like VMeshData and VMeshRefs to correct spots makes things a lot easier and doesn’t screw up with other data like hardpoints, animations and embedded resources. Had also a few custom made tools to assemble animated parts together, but otherwise it was mostly 3ds max and utfeditor. Made ships, interior/exterior environment models, hitboxes, starspheres with vertex color and opacity as well. Don’t need milkshape at all.
edit:
A while ago I started writing doc on cmp/3db internals, how data in nodes is related to other nodes and so forth. I had never finished the doc because quite frankly I realized there isn’t really an audience for whom it would be useful, aside may be from one or two persons. Here’s the google doc sharing link: google doc. I hope diagrams at least would prove useful to help manipulating mesh data.
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That looks very helpful, thank’s for sharing the additional guide. I tried a cmp exporter for max, but think possibly it was for an older version and crashed max upon loading.
All I am trying to do, is replace the existing asteroids in the game with refreshed versions so the guide should help me with that.
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I’m not sure which exporter is supported by latest 3ds max, if any. Like said I use old exporter version along with long outdated 3ds max version 2008. Thankfully they both work fine on modern windows and I have not encountered any significant issues (obviously do make iterative backups of your models as 3ds max sometimes has a tendency of taking out saved file during a crash). Exporter I used (attached below) is a slightly customized version to support vertex color and transparency I needed to mimic vanilla starscapes. It’s buggy and unfinished but so long as used correctly it works fine, most certainly a lot better than milkshape expoter (which doesn’t even export vertex normals correctly), just don’t bother with it doing multi-part mesh arrangement, best do it yourself like mentioned in doc.
Converting single-part cmp to 3db is fairly easy, all you need is UTFEditor to open and find “.3db" node in exported .cmp, look for VMeshPart (probably will be somewhere in ".3db/MultiLevel/Level0”), copy it and its VMeshRef into root node (“”), get rid of “Cmpnd” tree and “*.3db” entirely and save file as .3db.
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I made ports for this for 3ds Max 2017 a few months ago, I’ll make downloads available for the compiled plugins shortly (the source is on the Forge).
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@FriendlyFire:
Does this version support exporting vertex alpha/color? I seem to recall some 3ds max exporters floating around had this feature missing entirely. -
I’ve only ported whatever was on the repository. If whoever made the vertex alpha/color changes did not commit them, then they aren’t part of it. Since we don’t use those at all, I don’t know whether they’re enabled.
