I'm writing a conversion tool in C++ now, instead of in MaxScript as I don't really like that language and this will be more generic. I'm still going over the model format; right now I'm working on converting between the common file formats (3ds, obj, fbx, etc), and then I'll be adding in functionality for Warcraft and Starcraft file formats, and maybe a few others. My issue right now is that I rarely write programs anyone else might look at the source of, so my programming is... not very clean (I use goto left, right, and center. Everyone else in the world hates it, but it's so much easier than making big loops), so I've been taking it kind of slow and rewriting every other function a few times over to make it cleaner.
The rendering engine is almost done, having a couple of issues with lights, and then I'll be working on loading up models. Sorry I'm going so slow, but I have some other projects, like I said, that are taking precedence. Once I have it loading .obj's and running animations, I'll release the source, as someone might be able to do it faster than me.
Edit: Son of a bitch why does it do this?! Can I set plain text as the default markup?
I'm not entirely sure if I'll get much further than Nintoxicated did; at the very least it'll be a generic converter that isn't specific to one environment. I'm also using C++, which gives me a lot more control (MaxScript isn't bad, but it's for obvious reasons not as powerful as C++. Thus the reason you write plugins in C++, and scripts in MXS).
Hopefully by the end of summer I'll have a working version. I'm also hoping to have my game engine working around that time... then I can announce what I intend on doing.
Edit: every time... EVERY TIME. Why does ++ make things green? It's a very common thing to say.
HI everybody,
Iam quite new and want to beginn with some modeling in 3ds max 2009 on a 32 bit system. My Problem is that everytime I try to import a *.m3. I got this message from 3ds max: "Import failed. Unknown property: position is undefined".
I already googled a lot but cant find any solution. And my knowledge about this stuff is to weak to help myself :/. Anyone any idea ?
There aren't any tools for 2009. Only 2010. If you download the M3 Model Viewer from that Russian site (like xgm or something? Search M3 Model Viewer) you can export the models to .obj, but you can't convert them back as far as I'm aware (otherwise I wouldn't be doing anything).
so will your version have better particle support varine?
or will it just be a conversion of nintoxicated's script?
i'd like to alter some protoss buildings myself but alot of the materials and particles get messed up
especially the death animation of stuff like the gateway.
If all goes well it will. I'm not really converting his script, so much as using it for notes The syntax between C++ and MXS quite a bit different, and I'm dealing with different file formats, so it's quite a bit different and a lot larger.
I've got the rendering engine working for the most part. Well so far all it's really doing is displaying triangles and squares, but I mean it works. Now I'm writing extensions to load a few different formats that most modeling tools can export to, and converting between them, and then I'll start trying to get .m3 into it, then out of it, then with animation, then with texture paths. Once I have basic meshes working I'll start with lights and particles and whatnot. I'll have to make a UI for it as well since I think people will have some issues with command line input. People always seem to get scared when they have to type in the commands.
Then I go back to putting my attention to profitable projects and hopefully have my engine releasable next year. That'll be awesome, my terrain engine is great and I have to talk about it because I'm already posting and I love it. It's a controllable procedural heightmap editor that runs via a series of splines to determine the paths of features, like to add a mountain range you set up the path and size and strength on it, and uses fractals and noise algorithms to generate it along the spline instead of over the entire map like most of them do. And unlike those that DO have controllable procedural features, it makes some amount sense (like Shiva engine's terrain for instance, WTF is that about? It would be a good engine if it didn't take having to read a ten page manual on how to change anything, and then only knowing about a tenth of what the editor can do).
I got some basic things to work with it, but I haven't worked on it for some time as I've been a little pre-occupied (I really need to get my engine working).
I'm watching/following this... I know it's been awhile since someone last posted, but how is the progress? I'd be really interested in a file converter for the m3 file format.
NiN's progress has stopped. All of my projects have stopped except one as it needs to be working soon, and there was another guy working on it but I think he's stopped as well.
Hey there!
Just a question: who's in charge of the m3 exporter right now? We're (I mean me and my friend) nearly done with our improvements (Cameras for portaits) and I wanted to share it with the community.
I know that the HoTS tools will be out soon(ish) but if someone is interested in using this feature then I'd be more than glad to make it happen :)
Hey there! Just a question: who's in charge of the m3 exporter right now? We're (I mean me and my friend) nearly done with our improvements (Cameras for portaits) and I wanted to share it with the community.
I know that the HoTS tools will be out soon(ish) but if someone is interested in using this feature then I'd be more than glad to make it happen :)
Hehehe I don't need to be encouraged to share it :) I just want to do it in a specific manner, not to add a chaos to already started project since it's based on NINtoxicated's work.
Anyway, great to know that not only I struggled with it
No one is. Nin stopped working on his a while ago, and I'm doing anything as I no longer feel like contributing to anything under development by Blizzard, as I don't like them. Plus my network is more or less going to be in direct competition with them so I want Bnet to crash and burn.
Ok so here goes version 0.23 with added Portrait Camera support :)
Quick HOW TO:
- Near Clip and Far Clip values are taken from the Camera (clip basically makes the camera show everything that is within that range, everything before and beyond the values is trimmed)
- DOF falloff end and start are taken from camera's ENVIRONMENT ranges
For now the value of DOF is set to 0.5 (or 1, I don't remember :P) but there will be a field added to change that (or taken from other camera value that is not used nor needed).
The Camera needs to be targeted.
Special thanks to my friend Jakub for making it happen :)
I would advise making a new thread, as this one is very full of clutter and it's hard to find information on the previous versions. It would be far more organized.
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I'm writing a conversion tool in C++ now, instead of in MaxScript as I don't really like that language and this will be more generic. I'm still going over the model format; right now I'm working on converting between the common file formats (3ds, obj, fbx, etc), and then I'll be adding in functionality for Warcraft and Starcraft file formats, and maybe a few others. My issue right now is that I rarely write programs anyone else might look at the source of, so my programming is... not very clean (I use goto left, right, and center. Everyone else in the world hates it, but it's so much easier than making big loops), so I've been taking it kind of slow and rewriting every other function a few times over to make it cleaner.
The rendering engine is almost done, having a couple of issues with lights, and then I'll be working on loading up models. Sorry I'm going so slow, but I have some other projects, like I said, that are taking precedence. Once I have it loading .obj's and running animations, I'll release the source, as someone might be able to do it faster than me.
Edit: Son of a bitch why does it do this?! Can I set plain text as the default markup?
I can't really complain, Varine. No one can. Whatever it takes man, but don't donate an arm. ;)
I'm just thankful you're working on it, and I hope you can expand the functionality of the tool and what it can do. But, like I said, it's your call.
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
I'm not entirely sure if I'll get much further than Nintoxicated did; at the very least it'll be a generic converter that isn't specific to one environment. I'm also using C++, which gives me a lot more control (MaxScript isn't bad, but it's for obvious reasons not as powerful as C++. Thus the reason you write plugins in C++, and scripts in MXS).
Hopefully by the end of summer I'll have a working version. I'm also hoping to have my game engine working around that time... then I can announce what I intend on doing.
Edit: every time... EVERY TIME. Why does ++ make things green? It's a very common thing to say.
HI everybody, Iam quite new and want to beginn with some modeling in 3ds max 2009 on a 32 bit system. My Problem is that everytime I try to import a *.m3. I got this message from 3ds max: "Import failed. Unknown property: position is undefined". I already googled a lot but cant find any solution. And my knowledge about this stuff is to weak to help myself :/. Anyone any idea ?
There aren't any tools for 2009. Only 2010. If you download the M3 Model Viewer from that Russian site (like xgm or something? Search M3 Model Viewer) you can export the models to .obj, but you can't convert them back as far as I'm aware (otherwise I wouldn't be doing anything).
@Varine: Go
Thanks a lot. I dont know what Iam doing now for editing but I have a friend with a 2010 version. Hope he will help me out :)
so will your version have better particle support varine?
or will it just be a conversion of nintoxicated's script?
i'd like to alter some protoss buildings myself but alot of the materials and particles get messed up
especially the death animation of stuff like the gateway.
If all goes well it will. I'm not really converting his script, so much as using it for notes The syntax between C++ and MXS quite a bit different, and I'm dealing with different file formats, so it's quite a bit different and a lot larger.
@Varine:
nice :)
I've got the rendering engine working for the most part. Well so far all it's really doing is displaying triangles and squares, but I mean it works. Now I'm writing extensions to load a few different formats that most modeling tools can export to, and converting between them, and then I'll start trying to get .m3 into it, then out of it, then with animation, then with texture paths. Once I have basic meshes working I'll start with lights and particles and whatnot. I'll have to make a UI for it as well since I think people will have some issues with command line input. People always seem to get scared when they have to type in the commands.
Then I go back to putting my attention to profitable projects and hopefully have my engine releasable next year. That'll be awesome, my terrain engine is great and I have to talk about it because I'm already posting and I love it. It's a controllable procedural heightmap editor that runs via a series of splines to determine the paths of features, like to add a mountain range you set up the path and size and strength on it, and uses fractals and noise algorithms to generate it along the spline instead of over the entire map like most of them do. And unlike those that DO have controllable procedural features, it makes some amount sense (like Shiva engine's terrain for instance, WTF is that about? It would be a good engine if it didn't take having to read a ten page manual on how to change anything, and then only knowing about a tenth of what the editor can do).
So you understand how to extract useful bits out of m3 binary file? I am going for mxs to python port but I do lack testing environment.
I got some basic things to work with it, but I haven't worked on it for some time as I've been a little pre-occupied (I really need to get my engine working).
I'm watching/following this... I know it's been awhile since someone last posted, but how is the progress? I'd be really interested in a file converter for the m3 file format.
NiN's progress has stopped. All of my projects have stopped except one as it needs to be working soon, and there was another guy working on it but I think he's stopped as well.
Hey there! Just a question: who's in charge of the m3 exporter right now? We're (I mean me and my friend) nearly done with our improvements (Cameras for portaits) and I wanted to share it with the community.
I know that the HoTS tools will be out soon(ish) but if someone is interested in using this feature then I'd be more than glad to make it happen :)
@Leruster: Go
I would kill for it...........
Is that enough incentive for ya?
Hehehe I don't need to be encouraged to share it :) I just want to do it in a specific manner, not to add a chaos to already started project since it's based on NINtoxicated's work.
Anyway, great to know that not only I struggled with it
No one is. Nin stopped working on his a while ago, and I'm doing anything as I no longer feel like contributing to anything under development by Blizzard, as I don't like them. Plus my network is more or less going to be in direct competition with them so I want Bnet to crash and burn.
Ok so here goes version 0.23 with added Portrait Camera support :)
Quick HOW TO:
- Near Clip and Far Clip values are taken from the Camera (clip basically makes the camera show everything that is within that range, everything before and beyond the values is trimmed)
- DOF falloff end and start are taken from camera's ENVIRONMENT ranges
For now the value of DOF is set to 0.5 (or 1, I don't remember :P) but there will be a field added to change that (or taken from other camera value that is not used nor needed).
The Camera needs to be targeted.
Special thanks to my friend Jakub for making it happen :)
I would advise making a new thread, as this one is very full of clutter and it's hard to find information on the previous versions. It would be far more organized.