A few 3DS Max exporter questions

#1 Got some answers on IRC, thanks.

#2 Still problems with the Collision.


As you can see on the picture, according to the documentation this should be the correct linking.

Using the names suggested in the tutorial doesn't work with the exporter, the only thing that works for me is selecting the shape and clicking on embed shape, it will the create the dummy's except Collision-1 which I created myself.

Now the model won't even show ingame, I see it's bounding box, but not the model, and no collision.

I've been through the "documentation" many times now and I'm really having trouble getting this to export correctly.

Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Lars

#3 Ok i try to explain

The col-1 should be linked to start01

You dont have any detail on the mesh so thats why you dont see it.
So there is 2 ways todo it

First example
Add some detail dummys 145,80,60,40 or something Link them to Base01
Apply the multiresmodifier to the sign and use AdjustLOD to it.

Second example
name the sign to sign145
Add a dummy Detail145 and link it to base01

This is a fast explanation so ask if you dont understand.

#4 Thanks a ton Billy!

After connecting Col-1 to Start01, adding an additional detail dummy named Detail145 and renaming the sign to sign145 like you said, collision and mesh works perfectly.

I just want to say that this isn't at all clear in the documentation, atleast not to me, and others too as far as I could see when searching for these problems on the boards.

Thanks again for the help!

Lars

#5 Lars, 145 might not be the best number unless you also have a lower resolution version.

Your shape may disappear after a certain point with such a high detail number. I recommend making multiple levels of detail, or using "detail2" and "sign2"

The number after the detail level indicates the minimum pixel height at which that level of detail is displayed.

Also, since Max6 exporting seems to be working for you, what is the exact version of Max6 that you are running? A lot of people are having trouble with the Max6 exporter.

#6 So if I understand this right, the engine handles detail levels itself?

So by setting only 1 detail dummy, the model will have the same detail level as long as it's visible. By using multiple detail levels, depending on the size, and the number of detail dummys, the model will degrade in detail the further away you get from it, and vice versa.

I've not exported using this Multires feature yet, only single detail levels, and no animation yet either, but this works fine.

However, the documentation on using the Max exporters with Torque does not work with the Max 6 version, there are things explained in the documentation that will not work with the exporter.

Reference: Tutorial

For example, the tutorial says:

Quote:
Create another dummy object and name it "detail5", make it's parent the "shape" object. If you need help linking objects, refer to 3DS Max Online reference for help on the "Select and link" button or linking via the "Schematic View" option.

If you don't create a detail dummy named "detail-1", the exporter will say "No details to export" regardless of wether you have a detail2 or detail145 set. I can't see this mentioned in the tutorial.

Next:

Quote:
create a box whose name is "col-1", position so it surround the entire "crate5" object. You could simply "clone" the crate5 and name it "col-1" to create a collision bounding box of same size, and location.

As you can see, the tutorial says nothing about linking Col-1 to Start01, which is the dummy name in my case, and everyone elses that uses the Embed Shape feature in the exporter.

I would help rewrite the Max 6 tutorial but seeing as I haven't really worked out this Multires yet, nor animation aswell as understanding the detail levels, it's abit soon for me.

A bad tutorial could be the reason people are having trouble with the exporter, without knowing the exact problems they have.

I'm using Max 6.0, Commercial.

Hope this helps, and thanks for the advice on the detail stuff Alex.

Lars

#7 Lars
Im happy you made it ,its was only a short example to get it work.
And you are right about the multiple details.

-Billy

#8 I suspect that the reason it was saying "no details to export" was due to the detail numbers on the detail markers not matching up to the numbers on the mesh (since in your original screenshot the mesh is not named with a number). Creating a detail-1 as well as a collision-1 is probably not a good idea. The same system of record is used for details and collision meshes, with collision meshes just being negative details. Weird things may happen if you have two dummies with trailing -1. Or it might just ignore the second one.

#9 I'll edit the docs to be more clear about where to link Col-1. It has to be in the heirarchy in any version of max, not just max 6.

#10 Yep you were very right about the detail naming, mesh naming and so on, they didn't match that's why I got the error, so ignore that part :-)

Thanks for the heads up!

Lars