3ds max 9 CMP Exporter (Help Request)
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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 probā¦ 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.
Iāll put the project on the forge as soon as I got the component functionality working (thats likely as far as Iāll 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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Thatās well cool. Iāll 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 thatās what I see as the biggest draw back of the milkshape version. I dunno if itās a milkshape thing or what ever the reason for that is. I just know that thingās would be much simpler if we could export more than the current mesh limit.
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Yes, thatās also what Im thinking.
Iād like to make it possible so that every 3ds max object (so every āmeshā) 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, Iām guessing itās not compiled for 3ds max 9 though? Because it wouldnāt load in my version.
None the less it never worked for me. What version is it for? Itās 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 Iāve 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 donāt 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 canāt link to that either.
So here goesā¦
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 ā_lod1ā 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 ā.surā file extension from the remaining parts when making the sur input file) and then you donāt 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 authorās method of naming them āzomgbayxxā 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 dosnāt create a convex shape, you can check this using 3dsmaxās 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 thatās Physx aswell.
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Sorry my mistake - Havok Content Toolsā¦
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 v9ā¦
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Thereās a part of the physx plugin thatās called rigid body tools or somthing like that, itās just the same as havok. Just works better sometimes.
I donāt remember the exact ins and outs, itās been a while since I used it.
Iāll 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. Iām sure it was the physx one, Iām sure havok would just make 1 shrink wrap mesh round the entire model if you done that.
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There is a User Guide in the zip I attached in my previous post.
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Alright, the source is on the svn if youād like to try compiling it:
http://forge.the-starport.net/projects/maxcmpexport/repository
