Game Development Community

MAX confusion ... for non art major

by Jeff Yaskus · in Artist Corner · 04/11/2010 (9:29 pm) · 5 replies

Ok, first off - let me admit I have no experience with Autdoesk 3DS max.
As Bones might say "I'm a programmer not an artist, Captain!"

I found myself in a pinch where I purchased some 3D models for my RTS game.
Its a simple "defense tower" model with (3) animations; Build, Idle , Destroy

However, when I opened the ZIP ... I found (3) files, one for each animation "state".

Is this typical with MAX files ?

I was going to use my licensed copy of Ultimate Unwrap 3D to convert these, but found its not supported.

Downloaded the "trial" version of MAX -- but am overwhelmed by all its options and can't even seem to export a single DTS file.

Would anyone be willing to provide some assistance or direction ?

I'd be more than willing to repay with some coding or such ...

#1
04/11/2010 (11:04 pm)
..you can not use plugins in a trial version of 3dsMax.
Animation files can have single or multiple animations, there are a few formats that can hold the animation information and there is alot more to all of it than I can explain here.

So you want your model to work with the AFX animations and add in your 3 new animations ? ..
You may only need to add a few nodes and re-export the model, or you may need to re-rig the model completely. No matter what, you will need to export/re-export the 3 DSQ animation files. I suggest you save some $ and contract this out to someone like me or whoever feels like doing this work for you.
#2
04/12/2010 (9:25 am)
Thanks Eb - I purchased them from TurboSquid.com, so I opened a ticket with them to see if they can convert the building model to something besides max.


#3
04/12/2010 (1:50 pm)
Jeff..it's just a tower ?( I was half asleep when I posted)
Link me to the Turbosquid page, perhaps I can help you real quick one day this week. If it will only take me a few minutes, I'll have no issue with that.
#4
04/12/2010 (2:38 pm)
It was a "pack" of 5 rts buildings - here is the url;
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/medieval-buildings-construction-3d-model/494316

Lets see if they are able to export it first -- I sent them the link to the max2dts plug in.

EDIT:
The bastards!! They took the cheesy way out and said they only convert up to 5 models and this pack contains 25 models.

So now I have the 3ds max source files -- and they are useless to me.
#5
04/12/2010 (7:35 pm)
let's chat by email I am sure we can come to a solution
www.ericrbarth.com/uploadpanel/view/eb.jpg