I need help exporting from Gmax to 3DC

steamdrivre

Narrow gauge or nothing
Hi all,
I have a friend that has and uses Gmax.
I am using 3D Canvas.
I can export to him but he can't export to me.
Question is, is there an add-on or plug-in for Gmax users to export into a format 3D Canvas users can use???

These are all the formats I can import into 3D Canvas. Can Gmax export into one of these???

importou4.jpg




Thanks all,

Rick
 
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Yes there is a way to export from GMAX to other formats and it's hidden in a recent forum post.

A university based flight sim found a way but I've forgotten what it was.

Cheerio John
 
Yeah, that would be me. Does someone have a link or the actual plug-in for MSTS? The actual MSTS website doesn't help, it's only an ad for what's next, and the one tutorial link I found only points to that website as the source. I own MSTS but haven't touched it for a couple of years, does anyone know if the plug-in would be included in the installation disks? Any other plug-ins, like Flight Simulator, look like you have to actually own the program to get them. Thanks for any help.
Norm
 
Thanks John, anything I found always said the plug-in was included with the program and I didn't want to buy FS. Ben Neal gave me the other info about MDLCommander and Middleman, but didn't know where to get the FS Gamepack. I'll try out the tut.
Thanks again,
Norm
 
Well, that was no good. The link that the Panda site gives is no longer any good. In order to get the SDK, you have to own the DVD. So does anyone have the MSTS plug-in? Must be after 2005, Microsoft suddenly stopped allowing people to download the plug-in. Sorry Rick, looks like we're out of luck.
Norm
 
There's a possible way.

Gmax will export QuakeIII .MD3 format files.

The modeling program Milkshape will import (and export) this format, and will itself export in most of the common 3D formats, including OBJ and 3DS, so you could use this app as an intermediate step.

Milkshape is shareware with a 30-day free trial, and 25 euros (or $35) to register. You can download it for free here;

http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/ms3d/register.html

Note that I haven't tried the above steps myself (though I have Milkshape), and I don't know how much of such things as UV mapping and texturing would be preserved, but you should at least be able to transfer the mesh if nothing else.

Hope this helps.
 
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Thanks Heaton, I'll give that a shot.
Norm

An update.
I finally found the .m3d exporter, and the textures won't carry over on the mesh I was trying to convert. Loaded that into MilkShape, no problem, but the trial version won't let you save, so I don't know if the program will actually export something useable yet.
 
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Thanks Heaton, I'll give that a shot.
Norm

An update.
I finally found the .m3d exporter, and the textures won't carry over on the mesh I was trying to convert. Loaded that into MilkShape, no problem, but the trial version won't let you save, so I don't know if the program will actually export something useable yet.

Ah, sorry, I didn't know that. I seem to remember that the trial used to be fully functional, but it's a good while since I first found it.

I will try myself to run through those steps with my own registered version and report back. If you've imported into Milkshape it should work (although I can understand that you wouldn't want to buy the prog without knowing for sure!).
 
Heaton,
What version of Milkshake do you have? It still might be around out there somewhere.:)

Milkshape:)

Hi. It's the latest version. Once you've registered you get free upgrades. I'm not absolutely certain that the original trial version was fully featured, it's just that I don't recall it being save-crippled when I first tried it. Could just be my memory though.

That was a few years back, so they could have put limits on it since, owing to not enough people actually buying it.

The essential thing, though, is that if you can find a way to convert MD3 format (as used in the Quake III game engine) to one of the more common and widely used 3D formats, then Gmax becomes a lot more useful as a general purpose modeler.

EDIT: I just did a quick Google and found this;
http://3d2f.com/programs/7-890-quick3d-geometry-download.shtml

Haven't downloaded it or tried it (and I've found in the past that some of these vaunted solutions can be all mouth and no trousers; trans. All hat and no cattle). It could be a conversion solution though.


MORE EDIT: I was looking up some more info about this MD3 format, and found the following, which should be borne in mind;

MD3 Limits

The MD3 file format has several limits that you should consider when making a model for this format. These are outlined below. If your model has more that the MD3 limit, the file will not be saved correctly and you should get a error message dialog.
  • Only faces and verticies in a group get saved.
  • The MD3_PATH+file name cannot be longer than 63 characters. (Textures and model names)
  • The group name and point name cannot be longer than 63 characters.
  • Maximum of 1024 animation frames
  • Maximum of 16 Points (Quake 3 Tags)
  • Maximum of 32 Groups
  • Maximum of 256 Textures per Group
  • Maximum of 8192 Triangles per Group
  • Maximum of 4096 Verticies per Group
 
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He he, I hit the K instead of the P, he he...:o

Blender is free also, will it not export into one of my formats for 3D Canvas? (I could try that, I guess...)
 
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Thanks for the info Heaton. I bit the bullet and paid for registration. Sounds like you haven't gotten into the program too deep yet, I'm curious how it would be for modeling. But I did export the mesh, unfortunately to .dts instead of .dst, oops, but I'll send out what I can to Rick and see what happens. Too bad we can't find another exporter for gmax. Thanks again,
Norm
 
Thanks Rich. I've got both the tempest gamepack and lithunwrap and I'll test them out. Can't be any worse than exporting to md3 then MilkShape. Looking foward to CL3.
Norm

I must be missing something. When I export using the tempest game pack, the only option is a .map file which lithunwrap won't load.
 
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Thanks for the info Heaton. I bit the bullet and paid for registration. Sounds like you haven't gotten into the program too deep yet, I'm curious how it would be for modeling. But I did export the mesh, unfortunately to .dts instead of .dst, oops, but I'll send out what I can to Rick and see what happens. Too bad we can't find another exporter for gmax. Thanks again,
Norm

Hi. No I haven't used Milkshape much, though I've had it quite a while. It's mainly aimed at game modelers and has useful boning and animation tools, but I find Metasequoia a more convenient modeler for detailed work (using Lithunwrap for texturing and format conversion).

As I'm both poor and a tightwad (:hehe:)I've tried most of the free/v.cheap modeling apps over the years so I have quite a few of these still on the HD. Each of them comes in handy from time to time, but I tend to work mainly with a couple of favourites.

Glad you found Lithunwrap. It's a fantastically useful prog for texture mapping, and also just for format conversion. There's a superior payware version called Ultimate Unwrap that you can trial (no save though, as I recall).
 
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