3ds max 9 CMP Exporter (Help Request)
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Is the last download link the source of the latest version or did you develop it further?
I’d like to have a look at it because the smoothing problems with the Milkshape cmp exporter(s) are driving me nuts, and since we dont have the source for them….
/err seems like the last download link is down… anybody got the latest source for this?
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Yeah basically that’s as far as I got with it. Here’s the link to the DL file
http://www.filefront.com/15941947/maxCMPExport.rar/
If you have any questions about it feal free to PM me through the forums or skype if you use it. I dunno how much I could help though. Most of what I done was just trolling through the 3dsmax API changing the calls and stuff to what I thought they should be.
There’s a problem with saving also. For some reason I couldn’t stop the old milkshape save dialog popping up, so you had to save twice to get it to work.
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Glad to hear, I was afraid it would be too much of a mess to do anything with it.
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Just a follow-up why the normals/uvs werent working right:
3ds max only saves one vertice even if it has 3 different normals because of 3 different faces referencing this vertice. Thats why you cannot simply take the vertices out of the vertex array and calculate the normals, you have to actually do some crazy operations and duplicate vertices when they are not in the same smoothing group OR if they do not share the same texture uv coordinates.
Long story short, I think I will save myself the trouble and simply create [3*faces] vertices so every face has its own vertices. It may not be ideal for performance and file sizes, but if later someone wants to have a look at it and sort out the mess, be my guest.
/oh actually I just got a rather simple idea of how to tackle this prob… simply creating the 3*faces vertices list and then merge any vertices that are identical
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Well, I got something. The attached plugin cannot do much, but it can generate working .cmps. It only exports one root node though, so no components whatsoever.
I’ll put the project on the forge as soon as I got the component functionality working (thats likely as far as I’ll develop this exporter for now).
Any suggestions? Would be cool if someone could try it out to spot any obvious errors on the base implementation.
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Excellent work W0dk4! I will check it out as soon as I can get some free time, thank you!
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That’s well cool. I’ll give it a shot and see how it goes. You never know maybe this will be enough to spark some interest in a 3ds max exporter. Biggest thing I can think of for functionality is the ability to export more than 18 mesh groups. That was my main aim when I started converting this for use in 3ds max. Fact being that’s what I see as the biggest draw back of the milkshape version. I dunno if it’s a milkshape thing or what ever the reason for that is. I just know that thing’s would be much simpler if we could export more than the current mesh limit.
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Yes, that’s also what Im thinking.
I’d like to make it possible so that every 3ds max object (so every “mesh”) is exported as a component.
Ideally, there should only be one exporter that exports all, a .sur, a complete .cmp and .mat. Maybe we can extend the max exporter to provide all of that functionality one day but for now, my aim is to make it export unlimited components, correct smoothing (the milkshape exporter or milkshape itself sucked at doing that) and finally optional tangent information for normal mapping.
The latter two are already done, just need to add the component functionality and then Im pretty much done on it, leaving it to other motivated devs
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I gave it a try, I’m guessing it’s not compiled for 3ds max 9 though? Because it wouldn’t load in my version.
None the less it never worked for me. What version is it for? It’s no big deal, I imagine it could be recompiled to work in most versions, 3ds is funny that way.
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Yeah, the version of 3ds and the sdk I have are for 3ds max 9. No worries, I can recompile it myself when the source becomes available.
EDIT: And no, the only way to make 3ds plugins backwards compatible is if you compile it with the relevant sdk.
The only plugins I’ve seen work on more than one version is I think 2009 or 2008 and 3ds max 9 because the sdks are simular.
I dunno what the new versions of 3ds are like though.
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Mine is version 2008.
Hope someone can recompile it for mine at some point please?
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Yes but when you say things like this, kosacid, you have to explain it, because people who don’t know much about this subject will still not know after reading this thread, and the search facility on this forum is next to rubbish. And the EOA site is down so I can’t link to that either.
So here goes…
Havoc Tools for 3DS Max includes Convex Hull, which makes convex shrouds around each of the mesh groups. You can do this then export them as a model in Lightwave or Wavefront format, or now cmp, and then import that into MilkShape.
Then from MilkShape you can export the sur using Sur Exporter v1.1, either as a complete sur or as individual parts and then splice them using Sur Splicer. Remember if you want to use Sur Splicer you should add “_lod1” to the end of each group name and then export them one at a time.
When you want to use Sur Splicer, by keeping this name format you will remember the naming, which will be correct, (the first part will be named Root, and just remove the “.sur” file extension from the remaining parts when making the sur input file) and then you don’t need to import the cons_fix.dat file into the cmp file, because all it does is fix the part names which were corrupted by the author’s method of naming them “zomgbayxx” and adding additional surplus dummy groups in MilkShape. This method uses ship part cmp group names, which is what Freelancer does. In some cases you may need to add a few additional dummy cmp parts but I advise against this, split your ship into more groups instead so that you have a sur part covering and having the same name as each ship group.
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PhysX also has a tool that works better in some cases, Havok sometimes dosn’t create a convex shape, you can check this using 3dsmax’s built in convex shape checker thing. Usually when this happens PhysX will do the job and vice versa.
Also one allows you to go over 64 faces, think that’s Physx aswell.
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Sorry my mistake - Havok Content Tools…
http://software.intel.com/sites/havok//?page=tryhavok/PhysX Tools v2.01:
http://developer.nvidia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3990
But note:
"Some PhysX features available in the previous plug-in are not (yet) exposed on the new version. Fluids, cloth, force fields, and soft bodies are not supported with this release. "What can the PhysX plugin do for convex shapes, and how to use it?
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@SilentAssassin82 if it dosent crate it there a error in the model try weld if that dont work you have to fix it manuel
thats why i like using it
i found also if havok can sur it LS sur builders fine
so its a good test to see if there errors in the first place -
I found this PhysX plugin today, an earlier version for 3DS Max v9…
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There’s a part of the physx plugin that’s called rigid body tools or somthing like that, it’s just the same as havok. Just works better sometimes.
I don’t remember the exact ins and outs, it’s been a while since I used it.
I’ll look through my stuff and see if I can find the version. I remember 1 thing though. One of them you could select every mesh in your model at the same time and it would make 1 hitbox mesh for each mesh group. I’m sure it was the physx one, I’m sure havok would just make 1 shrink wrap mesh round the entire model if you done that.
