Author: ShinraCorp [ Sun Aug 08, 2010 6:45 pm ]
Post subject: How to successfully import MDX + Export into M3 with 3DSMAX
Hello folks I am here to show you how to convert your favorite Warcraft IIII models into M3 (Starcraft 2)
NECESSARY TOOLS:
-3DS MAX 2010 (not tested on lower or higher versions)<<code>>
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-M3 Importer/Exporter
-SC2 Objects
-MDX Importer/Exporter (They can be found here: m3-plugin-for-3ds-max-t27.html )
-The Compressonator (or any other image editor that saves .DDS files) http://developer.amd.com/gpu/compresson ... fault.aspx
Optional Tools:
Warcraft 3 Viewer (Can be found in Hiveworkshop's tool section)
Starcraft 2 Galaxy Editor
NOTES: - It's normal to see a black or brownish model in the Import Manager
- You must replace a model in Starcraft II with your new model (example replace Marine with Tichondrius.)
-It's best if you have only 1.BLP file instead of separate files.
-If your trying to get a hero into a .M3 format delete the Hero Glow (bottom of feet) cause the Exporter won't work until every mesh is Starcraft 2 Material.
-All Plurals and Capital Letters do matter in naming the folder.
Step One
Start by installing 3DS MAX 2010 if you haven't done that already, after the installation is complete download the scripts (M3 Importer Exporter and the MDX Importer Exporter, and extract them to the Scripts folder. Extract the SC2 Objects into the Plugins folder. Open up the Compressonator and open up your .BLP file then click on Batch Compress make sure that the Output Format is .DDS (Direct Draw Surface) the rest leave it default select your output folder if you like. One thing is important you must create folders on your desktop for the Importing to work. (Create a folder name Assets then inside of it name another folder Textures)
Step Two
Open the 3DS MAX program, once the loading is complete look at the far right side of the screen you will notice a hammer icon, click on it a menu drops down from it, click on MAXScript, next click on Open Script, find the MDX Importer Exporter and the M3 Importer Exporter which we placed it in the Scripts folder. After you finished opening them click on Run Script on all the scripts you find in it.
Step Three
Now to actually import your Warcraft 3 model, for this tutorial I will use Tichondrious as the model. To import your model go to the MDX Importer Exporter, click on Import MDX... (make sure that the Import as M3 checkbox is checked cause M3 models are 1/100 the size of MDX models. It should show your model on screen. If not then you must of either place the plugins and script at the wrong place, or you just didn't run it yet...
So now we must push the M button on the keyboard to bring up the Material menu. We need to change the materials of the model to Starcraft 2. How to do this is simple click on the Standard button right beside the 01-Default text, a menu pops up and you pick Starcraft 2 out of the list. Now still in the Material menu there is something called Layers open it and you got a bunch of different maps, there are 3 primary maps you must fill: Normal Map, Specular Map and Diffuse Map, click on one of them and then click on Browse... find the .DDS file, repeat for the other 2 maps.Now then a simply click and drag from the big orb thing on the top left corner to your model will automatically apply that material to it. There is also the noob-proof version of doing this... press Ctrl+A to do a select all on the model now drag the material to the model it will give you 2 choices. 1 Assign to Object or Assign to Selection, you want to choose the Assign to Selection to make sure you applied it EVERYWHERE.
Step Four
Almost done, now we must Export the model with the M3 Exporter to do this return to the MAXScript menu if you're not there yet. Now go to the M3 Exporter, make sure everything is checked and the path is Assets/Textures/ click on Export choose a place where you want to save it and name it after the model you want to replace, give it a few seconds a message will pop up saying you have successfully exported the model in X seconds. Now I'm gonna replace my Marine model for Tichondrius (as a example you can replace whatever unit you want) to do this I need to go in the Assets folder, create a new folder calling it Units then enter it... new folder call it Terran once again enter it new folder and call it Marine. Cut and Paste your new .M3 file and place it in there.
Step Five (Optional)
You wanna test out your model in Starcraft 2? Go grab the Galaxy Editor, open the Import Manager (F9) it's normal that you see a Marine (my example) instead of nothing like WC3 does, but test the Document and you will see that it's your imported model that's in the game. It should look like this once you've done it right.
If this is to much text for you I'm giving you guys a video of it. Credit to Kobasac2 for the video
1. Did you set the paths in 3ds max (in the menu of the m3exporter)?
2. Did you convert the Wc3 textures to .dds ?
3. Did yo import the textures to the correct path? (try it with no path at first)
hello im new to 3ds max, i can get the dreadlord model into 3ds max, and i know how to export it out to m3, the problem im having is applying the textures an materials to the model. i select all on that spiderweb like box chart, and go to materials an do "assign materials to selection" but it does nothing for me that i can see. an when i try to export it it says there are no textures. what do i do?
I'm very sorry if my tutorial was lacking some instruction (yes I am ShinraCorp), well instead of Open Script it's Run Script.
@Mangled
The Compressonator doesn't open .BLPs I forgot :P You need to get Warcraft III Viewer (download it from Hive Workshop) and convert the .BLP to .TGA or .BMP from there, THEN you can convert it to .DDS
@Ribley
As for Step 1... you need to go to my site (Starcraft Unlimited) or here and download the MDX Importer/Exporter scripts and the M3 Importer/Exporter, once you finished you need to place these files in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3DS MAX 2010\scripts.
Step 3 is once you open up MAXScript (the hammer icon on the far right side of 3DS MAX) and do Run Script for both M3 and MDX Importer/Exporter you can then import your MDX into 3DS MAX, then push the M button on your keyboard to bring up the Material Menu Warcraft III uses a special kind of Material, but you need to change it to Starcraft 2 Material so click on Standard, select Starcraft 2, go to the Layers fill in Normal, Diffuse and Spectate with your .DDS, as far as I can tell normal is well your normal textures, diffuse is the lighting of your textures and spectate I have no idea... I extracted every M3 and .DDS from Starcraft II and that's what they look like apparently.
ive got the model properly imported into SC2, and in 3DS max i have all the texture maps where there suppose to be, an in .dds form (converted to .BMP using WC3 Viewer) but still my models show up as gray silhouette in both 3DS Max and SC2 editor an actual game.
if i make a video of my steps, (which im pretty confident ive only over looked a small thing) would you be able to pin point what i may have done wrong? or at least give it a look. thanks again for the tutorial, i have great hopes for getting a Demon Hunter into my game =)
@Jinxxx123: Gois it possible to have like a mod with literally 20X of these models, Then add it as a dependancy without having to increase map space?
i'd say try it cuz it sounds very plausable. all it'd do is take up space on your accounts map/data upload limit. but it's worth it as most of us dont plan on uploading 20 different maps, rather than 1 or 2 great ones.
is it possible to have like a mod with literally 20X of these models, Then add it as a dependancy without having to increase map space?
This is the way your meant to do it i think.
Otherwise your map size will be downloaded again at 10mb ( just an example) each time rather than 10mb once and 500kb for the map itself
Also using the mods you can get more models into a map I think anything over 10 is a bit too much but some people might want a 50mb map for some reason.
Ok, I did everything of the tutorial. The editor can read the .DDS texture, but everytime I try to visualize the model, the editor crashes with the message "It ocurred an inesperated DirectX/OpenGL error". What can I do? Please help.
Thanks.
I am looking for the WC3 classic TD models used, such as the arrow, cannon and ice towers for my SC II TD map. I am unable to do the exporting/importing myself but would very much like to create a classic TD map in the SC II editor.
Thanks a bunch
- takeout
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This will be very helpful for some guys, thank you *thumbs up*
Personally I've not had much luck with it at all, I can get the model into SC2 but it has no texture :/
1. Did you set the paths in 3ds max (in the menu of the m3exporter)? 2. Did you convert the Wc3 textures to .dds ? 3. Did yo import the textures to the correct path? (try it with no path at first)
I'm very new to 3ds max so I don't understand what you mean by 1 and 3 but I converted the TGA to .dds.
hello im new to 3ds max, i can get the dreadlord model into 3ds max, and i know how to export it out to m3, the problem im having is applying the textures an materials to the model. i select all on that spiderweb like box chart, and go to materials an do "assign materials to selection" but it does nothing for me that i can see. an when i try to export it it says there are no textures. what do i do?
ok so i think what's also causing a problem is that my Compressonator program cant open .BLP files, but only .BMP files. how do i fix this?
I'm very sorry if my tutorial was lacking some instruction (yes I am ShinraCorp), well instead of Open Script it's Run Script. @Mangled The Compressonator doesn't open .BLPs I forgot :P You need to get Warcraft III Viewer (download it from Hive Workshop) and convert the .BLP to .TGA or .BMP from there, THEN you can convert it to .DDS
@Ribley As for Step 1... you need to go to my site (Starcraft Unlimited) or here and download the MDX Importer/Exporter scripts and the M3 Importer/Exporter, once you finished you need to place these files in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3DS MAX 2010\scripts.
Step 3 is once you open up MAXScript (the hammer icon on the far right side of 3DS MAX) and do Run Script for both M3 and MDX Importer/Exporter you can then import your MDX into 3DS MAX, then push the M button on your keyboard to bring up the Material Menu Warcraft III uses a special kind of Material, but you need to change it to Starcraft 2 Material so click on Standard, select Starcraft 2, go to the Layers fill in Normal, Diffuse and Spectate with your .DDS, as far as I can tell normal is well your normal textures, diffuse is the lighting of your textures and spectate I have no idea... I extracted every M3 and .DDS from Starcraft II and that's what they look like apparently.
ive got the model properly imported into SC2, and in 3DS max i have all the texture maps where there suppose to be, an in .dds form (converted to .BMP using WC3 Viewer) but still my models show up as gray silhouette in both 3DS Max and SC2 editor an actual game.
if i make a video of my steps, (which im pretty confident ive only over looked a small thing) would you be able to pin point what i may have done wrong? or at least give it a look. thanks again for the tutorial, i have great hopes for getting a Demon Hunter into my game =)
is it possible to have like a mod with literally 20X of these models, Then add it as a dependancy without having to increase map space?
@Jinxxx123: Gois it possible to have like a mod with literally 20X of these models, Then add it as a dependancy without having to increase map space?
i'd say try it cuz it sounds very plausable. all it'd do is take up space on your accounts map/data upload limit. but it's worth it as most of us dont plan on uploading 20 different maps, rather than 1 or 2 great ones.
@MangledMind: Go
This doesn't seem to work at all on 3DS Max 2011. Can we get an update? :( Or something that works with Gmax 1.2.
Anyone have a solution for people who can't get 3DSM 2010? :( I can't even find earlier versions of GMax.
not sure if itll work but try blender, it's a free modeling program very similar to 3DSMax
@MangledMind: Go
Actually it turns out I'm just stupid. It works on Gmax and 3DSM 2011.
This is the way your meant to do it i think.
Otherwise your map size will be downloaded again at 10mb ( just an example) each time rather than 10mb once and 500kb for the map itself
Also using the mods you can get more models into a map I think anything over 10 is a bit too much but some people might want a 50mb map for some reason.
Hi, I am also new to 3DS max and somehow lost in the 3. step. I can't find browsing option to find my dds file. Can you help me with this?
SOLVED: Ok, my bad, I got it. By the way, thank you for very useful tutorial.
I'm completely stuck at third step. How can I browse to the folder of my .DDS file? Thanks.
Ok, I did everything of the tutorial. The editor can read the .DDS texture, but everytime I try to visualize the model, the editor crashes with the message "It ocurred an inesperated DirectX/OpenGL error". What can I do? Please help. Thanks.
Hi,
I am looking for the WC3 classic TD models used, such as the arrow, cannon and ice towers for my SC II TD map. I am unable to do the exporting/importing myself but would very much like to create a classic TD map in the SC II editor.
Thanks a bunch - takeout