New SOD Exporter for 3DS Max =ALL VERSIONS=

[Mr. Vulcan]

posted on January 26th, 2012, 2:25 am

Last edited by Mr. Vulcan on April 25th, 2014, 3:48 am, edited 5 times in total.

Hi everyone

Some of you might know me from other Armada forums, but even if you don't, I have some good news for ya

After putting this off many times, I decided to sit down and write a new SOD exporter for 3ds max. Originally, I posted this on AFC and MSFC forums. Thought that I should post here as well to get a wider audience.

For those that just want to download and get on with it, here is a linky to the exporter.

I could only test the exporter on 3dsMax 5 and 3dsMax 2012, but given that it is written in MaxScript, it should work in all future versions of 3dsMax. If anyone discovers problems or bugs with the exporter, or wants to make a feature request, please leave your comments here and I will do my best to get back to you.

Why exactly did I write the exporter?
- Bugs in the current exporter driving me nuts sometimes
- 3ds max 5 only runs on XP

For the most part I'm writing the exporter because my XP machine is about to run out of steam and I will be moving on to Win7. I thought it would be easier to write a new exporter for SOD rather than trying to get 3ds max 5 to run on Win7. lol. Up to now, that really was the only reason I still have XP on my machine.

For a full list of features and their use, please see the documentation provided along with the exporter scripts. Here is a brief summary:

- A1 and A2 formats are supported (Separate scripts included)

- Rotation, movement, and scale animations supported.

- Multiple lighting materials are supported on a single mesh. Ie, a single mesh can have parts that are glowing, parts that have specular reflections, or parts that have team colour applied.

- Rotation and position of all hardpoints is properly recorded. You do not have to specify "hp##" for the hardpoint to work properly. Since any alphanumeric name will work, you can now have "dock" and "repair" hardpoints.

- You can animate any node/joint in the hierarchy. Attach any number of nodes and meshes to that node and they will move along with the animated node (as is expected). This is optimized to reduce file size compared to the current SODs.

- Specify animation length. Animation length can be different for every animated node/joint. For example, node_1 can have animation length of 5 seconds, while node_2 can have animation length of 50 seconds. You do not have to add key frames for node_1 to fill the entire 50 seconds of the animations track.

- You can turn off back face culling so that the "back" side of a face remains visible. For example, if you have some kind of plane, empty box or hollowed out shape, you do not have to model both sides of the surfaces. Instead, just turn off the back face cull. You can see this in action when you look at the wormhole; you can see the clouds going around the back of the wormhole. Minor point, but someone might need to use this. I know I do 

- Smoothing groups are properly supported. You no longer have to "break" vertices along smoothing group boundaries in order to create the smoothing groups.

edit: Updated the download link. Version 1.5.1

posted on January 26th, 2012, 2:28 am

Hi Mr. Vulcan, thanks for sharing . As on the other forums, I hope you get some good feedback 

posted on January 26th, 2012, 6:56 am

thats brilliant news with luck should encourage people to learn more skills like animations hope this works

posted on January 26th, 2012, 1:26 pm

This looks good but I do have one issue with it.

Gmax doesn't support MaxScript saving to a file.  Could a version be made for gmax that saves by some other means?  For example, Orbiter's mesh exporter has an application that catches what's in the MaxScript Listener, could you do something similar with this script?

Also, I would like to request a SOD importer.  Last time I checked, Gmax does not have any problems using scripts to open files.

posted on January 26th, 2012, 7:19 pm

well works on 3dmax2012 so thats good since i now dnt need a xp vm warning tho make sure you read the readme as it works different to the old plugin

will a guide be added to the modders hitchhikers guide thingie

[Dominus_Noctis]

posted on January 26th, 2012, 7:47 pm

Last edited by Dominus_Noctis on January 26th, 2012, 8:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

well works on 3dmax2012 so thats good since i now dnt need a xp vm warning tho make sure you read the readme as it works different to the old plugin

will a guide be added to the modders hitchhikers guide thingie

If Mr. Vulcan or somebody else writes one I'd be overjoyed to put it on the guide 
Blade has shown me that there is in fact a guide 

If you wish, Mr. Vulcan, I'd love for the chance to put the download on the guide as a home

posted on January 26th, 2012, 9:44 pm

well done

posted on January 27th, 2012, 5:37 am

Gmax doesn't support MaxScript saving to a file.  Could a version be made for gmax that saves by some other means? 

Also, I would like to request a SOD importer.  Last time I checked, Gmax does not have any problems using scripts to open files.

I will look into how the Orbiter's mesh exporter works. One problem that I see without actually looking into it is that the listener window will show you ASCII text, but the SOD is in fact a binary file.. You would not be able to just copy-paste the output from the listener window into a SOD. However, there may be a workaround. Stay tuned

An importer is in the works, but it may be a little while before I can write one. If there is a really large demand for an importer, I'll try to write one sooner.

well works on 3dmax2012 so thats good since i now dnt need a xp vm warning tho make sure you read the readme as it works different to the old plugin

will a guide be added to the modders hitchhikers guide thingie

The exporter should be able to export a model without any modifications. That is, if a model was exported successfully with the 3dsMax5 SOD exporter, it should export just fine with the new exporter. Having said that, there are additional features in the new exporter that one should be aware of when exporting.

The guide included with the exporter is not a tutorial on how to model with 3dsMax, but I think it provides the reader with all the information they need to know in order to export a model. I would be more than happy if someone were to include the guide as part of a larger modelling reference. The included documentation is a PDF, but I can provide a docx file if needed.

If you wish, Mr. Vulcan, I'd love for the chance to put the download on the guide as a home

The current exporter works well on 3dsMax5, but has not been tested thoroughly on other max software. As such, I'd say that the exporter is in a beta stage. I don't mind if it is hosted on the guide, but I foresee a few updates and bug fixes coming in near future. Hopefully that will not result in different versions of the exporter being hosted at different places. Would be great to have it hosted on the guide at some point though 

posted on January 27th, 2012, 7:00 am

well the main difference seams to be that the node tree now requires the root node which it did not before. When i tried with a mesh i knew to work it only exported a 1k file but once the node things went under a root node it worked fine

posted on January 27th, 2012, 2:21 pm

No worries, just send me a message or post on a forum about the update and I'll try to update promptly - I have a bit of an obsessive compulsive touch when it comes to keeping things updated 

If you don't mind, a docx form would be perfect: I'd like to replace and expand this restrictive section of the guide (as it's reliant on Max5...) with yours : Models and Textures - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Fleet Operations

If you have additional guides/information/tools you want to write, I am always happy to host them there 

posted on January 27th, 2012, 10:27 pm

My bad. I even made a note about it in the documentation. Yes, you need a root or scene_root node at the top of the hierarchy. I suppose that this can change to match the behaviour of the old plugin. Note to self: don't post when in zombie state. Lol

In reference to A1 models, that statement should be valid. The vast matjority of my modding experience is in A1, so please forgive the bias. :-P

I discovered that the texture coordinates are not optimized in the new exporter. Currently testing a fix for this issue. Hope to get an update out tonight.

[Mr. Vulcan]

posted on January 28th, 2012, 6:38 pm

Last edited by Mr. Vulcan on January 28th, 2012, 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have updated the exporter with a few things. Please download the new version for testing. Link in the original post

Also, I would appreciate immensely if someone could test the bump maps and lightmaps. They appear to work on my end, but I my experience with A2 models is nearly nill. If you have a ready model with bump maps and lightmaps, please try exporting it as is with the new script and let me know if all goes as expected.

Dominus_Noctis, I included a docx in the download with a few updates to the documentation. If you want, you can add the documentation to the guide. Let me know if I should clarify anything that's unclear. Cheers

Changes:

Armada 2 model hierarchy no longer requires a “root” or “scene_root” node at the top of the hierarchy. This should improve compatibility with existing artwork.

The default save path name was changed to reflect the 3dsMax installation directory. The save path is now “*3dsMaxRootmeshes”

Texture coordinate vertices are welded upon export. This does not affect the mesh quality, but can reduce the file size considerably. The 3dsMax5 plugin exporter contained this feature

[DOCa Cola]

posted on January 31st, 2012, 3:47 pm

Last edited by DOCa Cola on January 31st, 2012, 3:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

we hope to have time for testing your exporter soon, as we have all the required models available for that however currently we are very busy with other tasks that we want to finish first
looking forward to see how well it works with our models

posted on January 31st, 2012, 6:44 pm

No worries, the exporter is for everyone that needs it. There is no rush in testing it, I wrote it due to necessity on my side as I've switched over to Win7, and didn't want to go through the trouble of running 3dsMax5 on the Win7 machine

posted on February 5th, 2012, 6:27 pm

Just a note on a small issue I discovered.

If you have animation applied directly to a sprite or emitter node, the animation will not export. I am working on a quick fix for this issue.

One workaround right now is to attach the sprites and emitters that need to be animated to a point helper, and animate the point helper instead. Normally, this is the desired procedure anyway, since you don't want to have to animate 10-20 sprites individually. Much easier to just attach all sprites that need to be animated together to a point helper, and animate the point helper instead.

Should have a fix in the next few days as my schedule is a little tight right now.