SOD Importer for 3DS Max =ALL VERSIONS=

posted on November 23rd, 2016, 8:46 pm

Your welcome.

posted on April 13th, 2017, 11:19 am

anyone know of a version which will work in a 2010 version of 3ds max?

posted on April 13th, 2017, 2:33 pm

This script should work just fine. Please post any error messages you are receiving.

posted on April 13th, 2017, 2:58 pm

nevermind, im an idiot, never read the readme and dropped the files into the plugin folder expecting it to work.

did as you said and boom, worked first time. :-)

posted on May 29th, 2018, 2:26 pm

I am getting an export error. I am using 3ds max 9 sp2. Is there a log file to see where it failed? If so, where would I find it.? Some additional details: I can import models without issue. If nothing is changed or added then it will export correctly. I thought I may have changed a setting in max that changes the way items are created but I have not been able to locate anything.

posted on May 29th, 2018, 2:47 pm

Hi JkerPlay,

Unfortunately, there is no log or proper error handling in that script. Please post the error message that maxscript generates in the output window.

I may be able to examine the model on my end if you can attach it here.

Mr. V

posted on May 29th, 2018, 11:18 pm

it seems that .max, .3ds & .sod files are not allowed to be attached on this site. Can you message me with an email address for me to send it to?

Also, I took at look at the MaxScript for the exporters. It is written in something very similar to Visual Basics. I may be able to add some error handling to the code if you want me to give it a try?

posted on May 29th, 2018, 11:30 pm

Sent a PM.

I would be more than happy if you want to look around the script and make improvements

Let me know if you have questions on anything in there. Most sections of the code have comments to explain the overall functionality, but the details of implementation are not explained so well.

posted on May 30th, 2018, 1:28 am

I'll reply here regarding export issues.

Armada does not support multiple materials per mesh. It is very easy to accidentally create a mesh with multiple materials in 3dsMax as it automatically creates these multi-material / sub-object materials. This happens when you assign a material while having a selection of faces (or possibly any of the sub-object elements).

The script doesn't handle multi-material definitions. I will either fix this problem in the script (automatically break a mesh into smaller mesh objects according to the material assignments (matID), or give a proper error message.

I may stick with an error message as it isn't clear what the intent of the model creator may have been when the multi-material was created. Armada DOES support multiple lighting groups per mesh (that is, same texture, but different lighting properties. This lets you have sections that are, say, glowing, others that are reflective, and others that are just matte, all in one mesh within a single smoothing group (no sharp edges). I would have no way of knowing if the creator wanted to create multiple lighting groups, or multiple "texture" groups.

FIX:
1. find a meshes that uses multiple materials (sub-object material type). You may have to use the "picker" tool in materials window to "drop" the mesh material into a new slot. Then examine that slot to see what type of material is in use.
2. go into sub-object mode by clicking on "face" selection under the "modifiers tab. You may have to convert the object to mesh first.
3. in "surface properties" rollout, "material" section, select by ID an assigned material IDs on that mesh. (1, 2, 3...)
4. click "detach" in "edit geometry" rollout. Detach as separate mesh (not element or clone).
5. Assign the correct material to the newly detached mesh.
6. continue until the original mesh is empty. Delete the empty mesh.
7 optionally, combine any meshes that use the same material (use attach). If 3dsmax gives you a warning / options to combine / replace materials, then the two meshes are not using the same material, and should not be combined.

The last point will make the mesh size smaller and potentially improve game performance (ever so slightly )

Lastly, make sure that you do not leave an empty mesh (no faces). This is also not handled by the script. I'll provide an error message for this.

posted on May 30th, 2018, 3:31 am

Depending on the error encountered an explanation of what caused that particular failure is helpful in solving the issue. I think a more detailed error message box is in order. The same information could also be included in a log file. I will see what I can come up with.

posted on May 30th, 2018, 1:11 pm

So there is a way to create a log file and to write text to it when something fails a true/false test. I am surprised there isn't a "GoTo" function to skip past failed lines. There is a loop function to do this but will complicate the script. The idea behind this is see what all fails instead of stopping the script at the first failure. I'll keep digging.