You'll need Dx shaders to show .dds textures on the viewport of 3ds max. I will not go into details regarding that since that's generally off-topic, agree? or if I got you correctly. Besides, you could always learn 3ds max basics on youtube or other sites.
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Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
Quick noob question, great work on the importer, exporter first of all. Ok i can import and export models fine textures i set up correctly ,but for the life of my can't find the folders assets/textures where the textures are supposed to be exported to, i have 2 hard drives my C drive is the sc2 folder dir, but widows loads and boots from my D:\ there is also a second os on my c:\ for duel booting reasons making the C:\ always coughing up application requests to accept anything that happens are the textures trying to go onto my c:\? are they supposed to be exported to same folder i saved the m3 model to? or should they be on my desktop just where is "assests/textures" pointing to exactly couldn't find an option to clarify which drive or the full location. I'm kind stuck as to where the problem lays without knowing where they should be. also if i change "assests/textures" because i dont know the original destination it don't help :P. done a quick search but my hard drives are 1 tb and nearly full so tracking down these textures becomes a painful process still no luck hence posting.
I'm using 3Ds Max 2010, windows 7 32 bit, exporter reports everything was fine when exporting .
Sorry if this is wrong place to post trying to navigate round forums is difficult at best lot of clutter :P
@Commlink: Go
I think it's the best place to ask that kind of question :)
The path that you can see while you export refers to internal StarCraft II folders structure.
example:
If you load corruptor model and add its default texture and then export the model it will look for the corruptor_diffuse.dds in game assets files in the internal StarCraft II assets folder which you specify during the export. So if you export it with assets/textures, the editor will find corruptor_diffuse.dds because assets/textures/corruptor_diffuse.dds is the default location of this file. All the assets are packed into .mpq files.
It is handy to export all the textures from the StarCraft II mpq files into one folder (let's say "EXTRACT") and use the EXTRACT folder as a default location for max's textures. That way when you import model into max it will automatically apply the game textures.
So remember, it doesn't matter where the textures are on your hard drive. It only matters where they are in the StarCraft II internal structure.
Same applies to imported textures. If you create (in the editor) the same structure as the one you specified during export and place your new texture there, the editor will find it :)
ok i sort of get that, but basically i have a custom made gun that i export, i have used various guides to determine how to add textures correctly as im not using an original sc2 texture it should be extracting to c:\program files\starcraft 2\assets\textures? or is being added to the base file for assets if so which one. very annoying tracking these down might just open up my map in mpq and create an assets texture folder :P but don't think it would render them correctly. Also looked through my entire computer there is no assets/textures folder being created. i have extracted all the starcraft 2 there in max's map folder for easy access on load. Even if i was to change the extractor layout to extract into extracts its still not giving me the base root folder to change or is this done via max it's self? cause it wont beable to auto save into the sc2 directly without permission(and it does not even ask or tell me there was problem =/) as i usually work on my d:\ for modeling and textures.
Sorry if you answered this, i know it may seem really simple to those that know already.
That's ok. Open the editor, open the IMPORT dialog and import the texture you're using on this custom gun model.
Remember to use .dds format. Once you import it, right click on the new file and choose MOVE FILE. In the NEW PATH line enter the same line as in exporter. Notice what happend in the IMPORT dialog.
Then, when you import the model which uses that texture it will find the texture in the NEW PATH specified.
Remember to always restart the editor when you import a new texture (save the map before exiting the editor :) )
You don't have to edit the .mpq file :) The folder you're looking for exists but withing the .mpq files so no search will reveal it.
It doesn't matter where you store the map on the disc. During the export from the max phase the only things that matter are the file name and the texture path that you specify during the export.
It has been a long time since I last worked with this plugin (2010), and back then it had quite a few bugs. I could never get multi-object mesh smoothing to work (it'd only smooth the first channel), never could get alphas to work, there were some bone weighting issues, and one of the models I tried to export had very strange vertex bugs which caused vertexes to end up in the atmosphere somewhere. Oh yeah, and 5 hour long exports.
I decided to try out the updated plugin, which seems to export faster, but nothing we are exporting is showing up in the game. Even previous scenes with models I know worked, and still work in sc2, result in no geometry appearing in sc2. The cutscene editor reports bones and vertexes but missing materials and the geometry is totally invisible ingame and in the viewer. As far as I can tell everything is set up correctly in materials. Everything is editable mesh. So on so forth.
Has anything changed in the materials or exporting manner between the very old version of the plugin and the current one that could cause this to happen?
You may get some errors about niftools and stuff, but these shouldn't effect the scene in any way.
Additionally, if at all relevant, stuff I've tried to export from the wowmodelviewer also have parts of the geometry invisible in sc2 now. (/edit nevermind, we figured out why that particular problem was happening. Unrelated.)
/e Oh, I think it's missing some attachment points.
I don't know if this has happened to anyone else, or if there's some quick fix that I don't know about, but I got the M3 Exporter tools the other day, and started messing with some WoW models from the modelviewer, and I found that if I just export the model as an M3 from modelviewer, the model comes out okay.
If I import it into 3DS Max? The animations screw up majorly.
Simply exporting the model directly from WoWModelviewer:
Importing the M3 model into 3DS Max:
By default, it selects the first animation in the list, and looks like this. It only gets worse as I go through the list of animations.
Setting the animation to None within 3DS Max:
Everything seems fine with the model itself, but not the animations.
But yeah, I've tested this with at least several WoW models thus far, and only one (some random cannon model in WoW) hasn't had its animations broken when imported into 3DS Max.
Now, this could just be something wrong on my end, I'm a complete and total noob when it comes to this stuff, but I don't know.
I don't think I ever reported that bug, I just assumed it was some difference between how the wowmodelviewer exports models and how the 3ds max plugin imports them. That was at the end of my last production which was a while ago, when there was no one working on the plugin.
Reproducing the bug is as simple as exporting an m3 from the wowmodelviewer and then importing it into 3ds max.
Hopefully you can gleam some information from that scene. I have a friend trying to work on another model and he's having even more trouble than I am, so we're both pretty certain something changed between the old and current version of the plugin, perhaps some kind of setting or setup that we didn't need to do before.
That scene is a bit of a mess, by the way. Hopefully it won't be too confusing.
/edit
Here is some more precise information on the first problem we are having.
We have imported models from other games and set up the materials, attachments, etc. in max. Previously, we were able to get these models into the game (with some problems like I mentioned, like no multi-object smoothing, bone weight problems, etc), but they did import fine.
Now we cannot get geometry to export. I have run a few tests and literally geometry is just not exporting. The bones etc. all export but, for example in that first scene I sent you, only the staff geometry exports and not the body. We have no idea why this is happening.
http://code.google.com/p/libm3/wiki/RenderM3
And why do you ask question on hlsl if this is max plugin thread?
this render only use diffuse map how to use other map such like normal map? or you can tell me how max use these map render m3 model?
You'll need Dx shaders to show .dds textures on the viewport of 3ds max. I will not go into details regarding that since that's generally off-topic, agree? or if I got you correctly. Besides, you could always learn 3ds max basics on youtube or other sites.
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
Quick noob question, great work on the importer, exporter first of all. Ok i can import and export models fine textures i set up correctly ,but for the life of my can't find the folders assets/textures where the textures are supposed to be exported to, i have 2 hard drives my C drive is the sc2 folder dir, but widows loads and boots from my D:\ there is also a second os on my c:\ for duel booting reasons making the C:\ always coughing up application requests to accept anything that happens are the textures trying to go onto my c:\? are they supposed to be exported to same folder i saved the m3 model to? or should they be on my desktop just where is "assests/textures" pointing to exactly couldn't find an option to clarify which drive or the full location. I'm kind stuck as to where the problem lays without knowing where they should be. also if i change "assests/textures" because i dont know the original destination it don't help :P. done a quick search but my hard drives are 1 tb and nearly full so tracking down these textures becomes a painful process still no luck hence posting.
I'm using 3Ds Max 2010, windows 7 32 bit, exporter reports everything was fine when exporting .
Sorry if this is wrong place to post trying to navigate round forums is difficult at best lot of clutter :P
@Commlink: Go I think it's the best place to ask that kind of question :)
The path that you can see while you export refers to internal StarCraft II folders structure. example: If you load corruptor model and add its default texture and then export the model it will look for the corruptor_diffuse.dds in game assets files in the internal StarCraft II assets folder which you specify during the export. So if you export it with assets/textures, the editor will find corruptor_diffuse.dds because assets/textures/corruptor_diffuse.dds is the default location of this file. All the assets are packed into .mpq files.
It is handy to export all the textures from the StarCraft II mpq files into one folder (let's say "EXTRACT") and use the EXTRACT folder as a default location for max's textures. That way when you import model into max it will automatically apply the game textures.
So remember, it doesn't matter where the textures are on your hard drive. It only matters where they are in the StarCraft II internal structure. Same applies to imported textures. If you create (in the editor) the same structure as the one you specified during export and place your new texture there, the editor will find it :)
ok i sort of get that, but basically i have a custom made gun that i export, i have used various guides to determine how to add textures correctly as im not using an original sc2 texture it should be extracting to c:\program files\starcraft 2\assets\textures? or is being added to the base file for assets if so which one. very annoying tracking these down might just open up my map in mpq and create an assets texture folder :P but don't think it would render them correctly. Also looked through my entire computer there is no assets/textures folder being created. i have extracted all the starcraft 2 there in max's map folder for easy access on load. Even if i was to change the extractor layout to extract into extracts its still not giving me the base root folder to change or is this done via max it's self? cause it wont beable to auto save into the sc2 directly without permission(and it does not even ask or tell me there was problem =/) as i usually work on my d:\ for modeling and textures.
Sorry if you answered this, i know it may seem really simple to those that know already.
That's ok. Open the editor, open the IMPORT dialog and import the texture you're using on this custom gun model. Remember to use .dds format. Once you import it, right click on the new file and choose MOVE FILE. In the NEW PATH line enter the same line as in exporter. Notice what happend in the IMPORT dialog.
Then, when you import the model which uses that texture it will find the texture in the NEW PATH specified.
Remember to always restart the editor when you import a new texture (save the map before exiting the editor :) )
You don't have to edit the .mpq file :) The folder you're looking for exists but withing the .mpq files so no search will reveal it.
It doesn't matter where you store the map on the disc. During the export from the max phase the only things that matter are the file name and the texture path that you specify during the export.
ah now that makes more sense, so basically its not exporting any textures really its just requesting where to find them when is exported simple :)
Exactly!
It has been a long time since I last worked with this plugin (2010), and back then it had quite a few bugs. I could never get multi-object mesh smoothing to work (it'd only smooth the first channel), never could get alphas to work, there were some bone weighting issues, and one of the models I tried to export had very strange vertex bugs which caused vertexes to end up in the atmosphere somewhere. Oh yeah, and 5 hour long exports.
I decided to try out the updated plugin, which seems to export faster, but nothing we are exporting is showing up in the game. Even previous scenes with models I know worked, and still work in sc2, result in no geometry appearing in sc2. The cutscene editor reports bones and vertexes but missing materials and the geometry is totally invisible ingame and in the viewer. As far as I can tell everything is set up correctly in materials. Everything is editable mesh. So on so forth.
Has anything changed in the materials or exporting manner between the very old version of the plugin and the current one that could cause this to happen?
We are using max 2010. 2012 throws frame errors.
@IskatuMesk: Go
Yeah, some things may have changed. Attach the max scene so I could look at it at tell you what is wrong.
@Leruster: Go
I have PM'd you a link to the scene.
You may get some errors about niftools and stuff, but these shouldn't effect the scene in any way.
Additionally, if at all relevant, stuff I've tried to export from the wowmodelviewer also have parts of the geometry invisible in sc2 now. (/edit nevermind, we figured out why that particular problem was happening. Unrelated.)
/e Oh, I think it's missing some attachment points.
@Leruster: Go
ha, m3 how to use normal map ,specular map,diffuse map render the model? i use two shaders ,but no effect ....
I don't know if this has happened to anyone else, or if there's some quick fix that I don't know about, but I got the M3 Exporter tools the other day, and started messing with some WoW models from the modelviewer, and I found that if I just export the model as an M3 from modelviewer, the model comes out okay. If I import it into 3DS Max? The animations screw up majorly.
Simply exporting the model directly from WoWModelviewer: Importing the M3 model into 3DS Max: By default, it selects the first animation in the list, and looks like this. It only gets worse as I go through the list of animations.
Setting the animation to None within 3DS Max: Everything seems fine with the model itself, but not the animations.
But yeah, I've tested this with at least several WoW models thus far, and only one (some random cannon model in WoW) hasn't had its animations broken when imported into 3DS Max. Now, this could just be something wrong on my end, I'm a complete and total noob when it comes to this stuff, but I don't know.
@Unhunteds911x: Go
The problem is most likely caused by the version of max you are using.
i would recommend using max 2010 or 2011.
Formally Kinkycactus
@ZombieZasz: Go
Ah, okay. I sort of thought that might be the issue, but I... well I had no idea. Thanks
I encounter this bug in 2010 as well.
@sc2newuser: Go
Did you understand what I wrote? This is M3 plugin thread, not hlsl.
@IskatuMesk: Go
Did you report that bug?
I'll have a look at the scene you sent me when I have time. Tomorrow is a good guess I will have some ;)
@Leruster: Go
I don't think I ever reported that bug, I just assumed it was some difference between how the wowmodelviewer exports models and how the 3ds max plugin imports them. That was at the end of my last production which was a while ago, when there was no one working on the plugin.
Reproducing the bug is as simple as exporting an m3 from the wowmodelviewer and then importing it into 3ds max.
Hopefully you can gleam some information from that scene. I have a friend trying to work on another model and he's having even more trouble than I am, so we're both pretty certain something changed between the old and current version of the plugin, perhaps some kind of setting or setup that we didn't need to do before.
That scene is a bit of a mess, by the way. Hopefully it won't be too confusing.
/edit
Here is some more precise information on the first problem we are having.
We have imported models from other games and set up the materials, attachments, etc. in max. Previously, we were able to get these models into the game (with some problems like I mentioned, like no multi-object smoothing, bone weight problems, etc), but they did import fine.
Now we cannot get geometry to export. I have run a few tests and literally geometry is just not exporting. The bones etc. all export but, for example in that first scene I sent you, only the staff geometry exports and not the body. We have no idea why this is happening.
Hello! this one is what I've made recently, but I encountered this error. Is there something I should handle to prevent this?
http://i.imgur.com/M1D8O.jpg
Work in 3ds max 2012 x64 and m3 exporter 2.1. I just follow the SOP I used to do in 3d modeling, maybe there's something wrong during my process.
I remember I also encountered this error in my last character and I solved it, but I've forgot the details about what I had done. :(
Thanks!!