[WIP] Q3ME: a 3ds Max Level Design Plugin

[AshuraDX]

From what I've played around with so far this is really cool. I was able to setup 3dsMax easily with the game and entity file paths, got the textures loaded, and even exported a 32x32x32 cube into Radiant. Entities were also searchable but I didn't mess with those but they are there.You can't, however, create geometry that is not supported. So making a pipe that is 4x4x64 with 12 sides will give errors in Radiant as I tried several times . Guess those have to be models.

Error messages or just glitched appeareance?

[IrocJeff]

Error messages or just glitched appeareance?

 

WARNING: brush plane with no normal

[AshuraDX]

WARNING: brush plane with no normal

oh, yeah I have seen that a few times. But I don't know what causes it. Q3Map2 doesn't seem to complain about that one anyway.

[Lord Grievous]

How is support for terrain patch meshes coming along?

 

Could you add vertex coloring/alpha blending to the terrain tools?

 

Does it support 3ds Max 2017 also?

 

Thanks again for making this

 

EDIT: Maybe you could take some inspiration from the http://dev.wallworm.com/ tools?

[AshuraDX]

How is support for terrain patch meshes coming along?

 

Could you add vertex coloring/alpha blending to the terrain tools?

 

Does it support 3ds Max 2017 also?

 

Thanks again for making this

 

EDIT: Maybe you could take some inspiration from the http://dev.wallworm.com/ tools?

you used a really old build back then, the tool has been extended with alpha blending tools for terrain a few months ago.

 

Support for Terrain Patches has been changed slightly, it's way easier to set up now and can be monitored and edited a lot easier than before.

But in essence it still works just the same, one patch per 3-4 sided polygon.

 

and yes: it works in max 2017

[AshuraDX]

[Langerd]

These are later brushes or patches? If the first one ... this would safe me huge amount of time.

 

Would this work on bigger scale objects such as terrain?

[AshuraDX]

These are later brushes or patches? If the first one ... this would safe me huge amount of time.

 

Would this work on bigger scale objects such as terrain?

These are exported as brushes.

 

Terrain works a bit differently, this is really just like wrapping the entire object in plastic and using that hull for collision. Which isn't ideal for terrain.

 

I'll record a quick terrain demo later.

[AshuraDX]

Okay, here we go.

This became incredibly rambly and kinda rushed but here it is: a terribly badly commented demonstration video showcasing how to export terrain from 3ds max with my plugin.

 

here's the .map file for those itnerested:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uyf8o0t5zz35ygb/TerDemo1.map?dl=0

 

The tutorial I was referring to that explains the cocnept of alpha poles/fade brushes:
http://www.simonoc.com/pages/articles/terrain2_1.htm

 

and last but not least the textures and shaders I used:

http://www.simonoc.com/pages/artwork/tp_terrain.htm

 

@@Langerd

[Archangel35757]

Awesome toolset! Looking forward to the official release.

[Tempust85]

Superb!

 

Btw, is a .map importer still planned?

[AshuraDX]

@@DT85

It's on my todo list, but not top priority atm.

[RAILBACK]

Okay, here we go.

 

This became incredibly rambly and kinda rushed but here it is: a terribly badly commented demonstration video showcasing how to export terrain from 3ds max with my plugin.

LOL, how modest.

[AshuraDX]

Just dropping this here

 

EDIT:

Also added 3 Point Clipping!

 

 

I got a little carried away and messed with other features of my Kit and standard 3ds tools

[AshuraDX]

Not actual progress but something I spent way too much time on these past few days:

 

This is an aniamted lava shader (32 frames animmap) with vertex alpha control over the crust/liquid ratio. So this is essentially the same as a terrain blending shader.

[AshuraDX]

Something I was playing with that will make it into a future release of Q3ME, but will be left out for the first release due to the amount of time it will take to finish.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KNit9f97iU

 

This allows me to visualise the way the vertex alpha shader looks ingame inside of 3ds max while painting the alpha values in Realtime. which is insanely cool imo.

[NumberWan]

I can't stop to wonder, that one game could raise so much interest among fans to create maps and models (in the past, the first Golden age of JK, I would call it), with so much more now – even more impressive things to be developed in terms of coding and JA engine. I am certain this nice addition to mapping process (and a possible farewell to GtkRadiant with all of its limitations) could indeed indicate, that JK:JO/JA is in a state of another Golden age of modding and storytelling.

[RAILBACK]

Something I was playing with that will make it into a future release of Q3ME, but will be left out for the first release due to the amount of time it will take to finish.

 

 

This allows me to visualise the way the vertex alpha shader looks ingame inside of 3ds max while painting the alpha values in Realtime. which is insanely cool imo.

If you could simulate more movement without so much repetition. I guess have another alpha move in a diagonal direction?

[AshuraDX]

If you could simulate more movement without so much repetition. I guess have another alpha move in a diagonal direction?

A better solution would be to use a larger texture resolution and tile the texture half as much.

Adding a diagonally moving layer would ruin the illusion of the directional flow.

[RAILBACK]

A better solution would be to use a larger texture resolution and tile the texture half as much.

Adding a diagonally moving layer would ruin the illusion of the directional flow.

Agreed. I LOVE LAVA! I take my kids for walks and pretend the ground is lava and you can only step on rocks and wood. 

 

I just looked at it again ingame. Then, I looked at Lava test 1 video which I think is even better! So, forget what I said about more movement, LOL. It's pretty dam awesome dude! I think a heat wave distortion would be really cool if you could add that. You know, like force_push where it slightly distorts your view, only it would be a steady wave as soon as you get close.

[AshuraDX]

Slowly sneaking up on a public release...

I have been ironing out bugs on top of bugs on top of even more bugs for the past 3 weeks, but today I managed to get some work in on introdcuing a new feature to my ClipGen modifier

 

My Q3ME ClipGen modifier can be used to quickly create bounding geometry for all sorts of objects, previously it was capable of generating a bounding box or a simple convex hull.

Now I have added the option to export ANY geometry to a file format that can be loaded by the modifier and allows the modifier to apply user made clip shapes to any object.

As demonstrated with the dog statue in the video.

 

EDIT: I messed my OBS Settings up quite badly, so the video quality is shit - gotta record a new and proper tutorial when I'm ready to release the plugin.

[AshuraDX]

Soon with roff support!

[Teancum]

Nice! It makes me wish your character was holding a little RC remote control.

[Archangel35757]

pretty cool stuff.

[AshuraDX]

fixing bugs...