You do not have the required textures in the 3ds max "maps" directory. Try extracting them with the editor or with an MPQ tool and putting the exported file in the 3ds max maps folder. That should do it.
Tested it myself too and it seems to be alright and working.
Can I have a modified exporter that exports only bones/animation information, that doesn't export mesh nor geometry and doesn't check for them.
I'm requesting this to make more tests on the .m3a format and while I was doing the modifying myself the code confused me beyond reason and never could get my changes right :P
The current exporter doeshave checkboxes but even if you deselect export geometry it errors if it doesn't find a mesh.
But anyway what you should be doing is use the M3 sequences plug in to assign a range of frames to an animation, for example, you model's frame 500-2000 might be the "walking" animation so in the M3 sequences plug in add a new sequence called "walk" and set the start frame to 500 and the 2000th frame as the ending frame. For animations that "move" you want to also set speed and for looping animations like the walking check the "looping" box.
Repeat this process for every other animation and when you're done export it, remember to properly set your FPS as to the sort of animation you made and that the "export animations" box is checked on the M3 export plug in.
Things to note: Animations use some sort of standard naming, just open a few Starcraft 2 models and you'll see that they all have common names like Walk, Attack, Stand, I recommend you to use this naming as well. Also note that the frames 0 and 1 are used by the exporter so it is very much advisable that you do not use them in any of your sequences.
What you do is, take your regular purple/magenta/whatever normal map.
Go to the "Channels" window (should also be next to layers tab on the right side of the screen in default settings) -> select all of the "red channel" (ctrl + a) and copy it (ctrl + c) and copy that to the alpha channel (ctrl + v) -> fill the "red" channel with pure white and the blue channel with pure black. and done.
If you could send me that modelI'll work on it. As for now I'm doing a ramp -> first floor - stairs -> second floor test. Second floor directly on top of the other one.
@beacon666, yes, tigerija is right, you have to select the model -> right click -> convert to: editable mesh. You also have to apply either a multi/subobject material or the "Starcraft 2 Material" coming along with the plug in and you should be ready to export.
Yeah, this was just a minor test, I'll work more on an actual model tomorrow (or more likely later since it's tomorrow already) but yeah, I can think of at least 3 solutions and I'll try them all tomorrow.
Ledges could be fixed with a couple "no walking zone" regions. Ceilings could be some sort of stacked model that's not a terrain object.
It might also have something to do that I just did a terrain object, didn't modify anything else within it whatsoever, I just literally just put the model and nothing else. But yes, it's the terrain object method that I linked to, it's not hard at all, doing the model took longer and you can see that the model's crap :P
EDIT: also, I just noticed the collision sphere, I was going to do it that way, but apparently unhide all no longer shows the collision sphere, did you take that out NiN or was it never supposed to be that way? :P
And there's another guy that found out how to do stairs, there's some kind of mesh collision involved there I guess? but everything must have been done with hardcore triggering much likely.
The "boundary box" for sc2 models is a sphere, you can see it if you import a model and unhide everything. Maybe duplicate the mesh and make that your boundary sphere? dunno :P
You can try just changing the name of the texture with a hex editor, I can walk you through on MSN, this is so you don't loose all possible extra information the model could have in the whole import to 3ds max and export back to m3 process.
There was an animation speed somewhere in the editor if I recall correctly other than that yeah, you'll have to edit it in 3ds max and fix.
You needn't do anything with 3ds max at all. If you've already edited the cloud texture and recolored it all you need to do is import your texture to the editor with the original name it had and in the exact same path so you replace the old texture with your new recolored one.
You also have to do something more to make a SC2 normal map. If you note they're not regular purple shaded maps, they're orange.
@tigerija: To make your normal maps, since you don't know how to do them, you want to use either the NVIDIA NormalMapFilter plug in for PS or crazybump. You'll get better results with crazybump but they'll also be smoother (sort of) so you really don't want to use crazybump for non organical things or things that are meant to be sharp and have pretty well defined edges. (So in this case I advice you to use the NVIDIA plug in)
To ready a normal map for SC2 you have to do this:
- Get your normal map open in something that can manipulate channels in RGB.
- Copy the red channel to an alpha channel
- Delete the red channel and fill it with white
- Delete the blue channel and fill it with black.
That should give you a nice orange-y normal map to use on SC2 UNITS. Terrain normals are different.
I promise I'll make a vid later today?
Seems more like a normal issue. Did you make a normal map for your unit? if not try putting in as normal a completely white texture to get a uniform shading (this will probably make your unit darker) but that'd be just to test if it's a normal issue or not.
@sc2newuser: Go
No, that's just you going to a sub object that depends on another modifier...it really says that in the error :P
If you want to edit the mesh, just add an edit mesh modifier, you'll break the skin if you go to the subobject.
You do not have the required textures in the 3ds max "maps" directory. Try extracting them with the editor or with an MPQ tool and putting the exported file in the 3ds max maps folder. That should do it.
Tested it myself too and it seems to be alright and working.
is it allowed now' It showed like allowed to me, I didn't test it but I was like WHAT DISPLACE MATERIAL?!?!?!
So I tried to accept it but it said it wasok? So i'm asking if it shows for you if it's accepted otherwise i will accept it asap
Can I have a modified exporter that exports only bones/animation information, that doesn't export mesh nor geometry and doesn't check for them.
I'm requesting this to make more tests on the .m3a format and while I was doing the modifying myself the code confused me beyond reason and never could get my changes right :P
The current exporter doeshave checkboxes but even if you deselect export geometry it errors if it doesn't find a mesh.
Mind going deeper into your exporting process?
But anyway what you should be doing is use the M3 sequences plug in to assign a range of frames to an animation, for example, you model's frame 500-2000 might be the "walking" animation so in the M3 sequences plug in add a new sequence called "walk" and set the start frame to 500 and the 2000th frame as the ending frame. For animations that "move" you want to also set speed and for looping animations like the walking check the "looping" box. Repeat this process for every other animation and when you're done export it, remember to properly set your FPS as to the sort of animation you made and that the "export animations" box is checked on the M3 export plug in.
Things to note: Animations use some sort of standard naming, just open a few Starcraft 2 models and you'll see that they all have common names like Walk, Attack, Stand, I recommend you to use this naming as well. Also note that the frames 0 and 1 are used by the exporter so it is very much advisable that you do not use them in any of your sequences.
@tigerija: Go
What you do is, take your regular purple/magenta/whatever normal map.
Go to the "Channels" window (should also be next to layers tab on the right side of the screen in default settings) -> select all of the "red channel" (ctrl + a) and copy it (ctrl + c) and copy that to the alpha channel (ctrl + v) -> fill the "red" channel with pure white and the blue channel with pure black. and done.
At the end you should have something like this:
@IskatuMesk: Go
If you could send me that modelI'll work on it. As for now I'm doing a ramp -> first floor - stairs -> second floor test. Second floor directly on top of the other one.
@beacon666, yes, tigerija is right, you have to select the model -> right click -> convert to: editable mesh. You also have to apply either a multi/subobject material or the "Starcraft 2 Material" coming along with the plug in and you should be ready to export.
Yeah, this was just a minor test, I'll work more on an actual model tomorrow (or more likely later since it's tomorrow already) but yeah, I can think of at least 3 solutions and I'll try them all tomorrow. Ledges could be fixed with a couple "no walking zone" regions. Ceilings could be some sort of stacked model that's not a terrain object.
It might also have something to do that I just did a terrain object, didn't modify anything else within it whatsoever, I just literally just put the model and nothing else. But yes, it's the terrain object method that I linked to, it's not hard at all, doing the model took longer and you can see that the model's crap :P
EDIT: also, I just noticed the collision sphere, I was going to do it that way, but apparently unhide all no longer shows the collision sphere, did you take that out NiN or was it never supposed to be that way? :P
@IskatuMesk: Go
How's this for a start:
I'm pretty sure you cannot do mesh collision with the models, however you could do a combination of that custom mesh along with some no walking blocks or movement restriction crap combined with the bridges tutorial here: http://forums.sc2mapster.com/development/tutorials/893-data-terrain-bridges-a-terrain-objects-and-footprints/
And there's another guy that found out how to do stairs, there's some kind of mesh collision involved there I guess? but everything must have been done with hardcore triggering much likely.
The "boundary box" for sc2 models is a sphere, you can see it if you import a model and unhide everything. Maybe duplicate the mesh and make that your boundary sphere? dunno :P
You can try just changing the name of the texture with a hex editor, I can walk you through on MSN, this is so you don't loose all possible extra information the model could have in the whole import to 3ds max and export back to m3 process.
There was an animation speed somewhere in the editor if I recall correctly other than that yeah, you'll have to edit it in 3ds max and fix.
You needn't do anything with 3ds max at all. If you've already edited the cloud texture and recolored it all you need to do is import your texture to the editor with the original name it had and in the exact same path so you replace the old texture with your new recolored one.
Path should be Assets\Textures\
You also have to do something more to make a SC2 normal map. If you note they're not regular purple shaded maps, they're orange.
@tigerija: To make your normal maps, since you don't know how to do them, you want to use either the NVIDIA NormalMapFilter plug in for PS or crazybump. You'll get better results with crazybump but they'll also be smoother (sort of) so you really don't want to use crazybump for non organical things or things that are meant to be sharp and have pretty well defined edges. (So in this case I advice you to use the NVIDIA plug in)
To ready a normal map for SC2 you have to do this:
- Get your normal map open in something that can manipulate channels in RGB.
- Copy the red channel to an alpha channel
- Delete the red channel and fill it with white
- Delete the blue channel and fill it with black.
That should give you a nice orange-y normal map to use on SC2 UNITS. Terrain normals are different. I promise I'll make a vid later today?
Seems more like a normal issue. Did you make a normal map for your unit? if not try putting in as normal a completely white texture to get a uniform shading (this will probably make your unit darker) but that'd be just to test if it's a normal issue or not.
This please :P
I need them for a few of my pokemons.