Archangel35757

Are the original .XSI files available? Can you contact the original author and get them? Or better yet the original 3ds Max (Or Softimage) files?

Update: Ok... so it seems we got lucky. I just compiled the dotXSI 3.0 exporter v1.9 source code for 3ds Max 2017 using the Max 2017 SDK and the XSI Crosswalk 2015 SDK (which is no longer being supported). I emailed it to a few people to beta test. If you have Max 2017 and would like to beta test it for me... then send me a PM. Thanks!

I just emailed the Max2017 MD3 v2.2 exporter to a few people to check out (and try to break it). If you already have 3ds Max 2017 installed and would like to beta test it then send me a PM.

Update: Ok... so I have the new "About" dialog (and it's button on the Export Options Dialog) incorporated into all versions Max6-Max2017. I also just compiled it for Max2017 (had to use VS2012 for C++11) and everything appears to work correctly. I still need to update most versions with the "backslash" fix... but v2.2 is close to being officially released.

Optimization is always a good thing... especially for sabers used by NPCs.

@@Rooxon - Your LODs don't really drop the detail very much.

@@Rooxon -- format those stats as a code block.

@@UniqueOne - Any updates?

So after chatting with @@DT85... we decided to add an "About" button and dialog. Here's how they look: Currently finalizing all versions.

Yeah, the XSI exporters purely use the material slot name-- so the artist has the ability to manually type forward slashes. I guess it couldn't hurt to have it check the material name in the XSI exporters.

Update: Ok... so I have started the fix of replacing backslashes with forward slashes. I have my method coded and updated it in the Max6-8 exporter code. Everything looks good... forward slashes show up in the textures when you do a "View Loaded-Models Info" in MD3View and I also have it fixed in the stats dialog. Now I just need to update all the other projects.

Absolutely you did! I'm standing on yours, Pop-N-Fresh's, and Vortex's shoulders. I'm just your co-author in this endeavor. Without Pop-N-Fresh's original source code, Vortex's enhancements, and your bug fixes and Unicode conversion efforts... I doubt I would have undertaken these additional enhancements to your code base. @@eezstreet was also helpful with some Snippets. I plan to send you all the v2.2 source code when I'm finished.

Update: Ok... with @@Rooxon's assistance I've found the problem causing shaders to not work correctly with 3dsMax exported MD3 files. The problem is that files paths were written into the MD3 with "\" ( backslashes)... but the game requires "/" (forward slashes). There currently exists a way to force forward slash usage-- which is, do not apply textures from the game folder but use a folder outside of that ..\models\ file path structure, and name the material slot with the proper relative path (using forward slashes). But I will fix the code so that it always uses forward slash regardless... so you can use whichever workflow you desire.

Update: I've got all the new changes for version 2.2 incorporated and compiled for Max 2013-2016. I've emailed the exporters to @@DT85, @@AshuraDX and a few others to test out.

I believe you should re-start at the last checkpoint save.

HmmK... well the ProgressBar will be an easy fix... I simply forgot to change that in the huge LOD-handling block of code I added... since it comes from Max6 and was not in your base 2013. But the fixes I added to restore the "named objects" export options isn't making Unicode 2013 happy...

Update: @@DT85 - Ok... the one bug that was causing the crash has been found and squashed! The Max2013 exporter results match the Max6 results for my test scene. But I found two other issues... The ProgressBar messages looked like Chinese because they are still "ASCII" and were not converted to Unicode; so I need to fix that. Something isn't working with the restored features of specifying only named objects and tags. It works in Max8 but says "No data to export." in Max2013. So I need to resolve those two issues. EDIT: I just did a quick compile and test of the Max2012 x64 plugin and all features (see #2 above) are working (Unicode issue #1 above doesn't apply). So more Hybrid-debugging required to resolve #2 for the Max2013 build. My goal is to have all versions (Max6 to 2017) compiled and tested for the new LOD support and restored "named objects only" features in a week or so. It should go quickly once I resolve the issues above for Max2013.

@@Xycaleth - progress at any speed is welcomed and very much appreciated!

Yes, I started with all of your project repositories. The crash is occurring in the code I added for LOD export. I should be able to resolve it by doing a hybrid debug session. I just need time... hopefully I can resolve it tonight after work.

Update: So after incorporating all of the code changes in the Max2013 code base for better LOD support, I got it to compile (after cleaning up some Unicode conversions I missed). Good news is that it works as expected when you deselect exporting of LODs. Here are the statistics from a test: D:\base\models\map_objects\ships\2013_noLODs.MD3: Frames: 1 Tags: 2 Meshes: 7 Mesh< boxCOD >: 108 Triangles, 56 Vertexes ( +40 verts for SmoothGroups, +0 verts for UV map ) Mesh< Plane01 >: 2 Triangles, 4 Vertexes ( +1 verts for EditNormals, +0 verts for UV map ) Mesh< Plane02 >: 2 Triangles, 4 Vertexes ( +2 verts for EditNormals, +0 verts for UV map ) Mesh< myBox >: 32 Triangles, 18 Vertexes ( +6 verts for SmoothGroups, +31 verts for UV map ) Mesh< boxCOD_1 >: 48 Triangles, 26 Vertexes ( +28 verts for SmoothGroups, +0 verts for UV map ) Mesh< boxCOD_2 >: 12 Triangles, 8 Vertexes ( +16 verts for SmoothGroups, +0 verts for UV map ) Mesh< myBox_1 >: 12 Triangles, 8 Vertexes ( +4 verts for SmoothGroups, +15 verts for UV map ) Geometry Total: 216 Triangles, 267 Vertexes But attempting to export LODs immediately causes 3dsMax to crash and close. So I'm going to have to make a Hybrid build and do some debugging to find where and why it is crashing. Exporting of LODs works great for the Max6-8 plugin... and I don't expect there will be any issues in compiling versions up thru 2012-- but dat Unicode conversion is a minefield. @@DT85 - I saw you had changed the "Total:" line to "Scene Total:" -- but since you can do "Export Selected" it may not represent the full [3dsMax] scene. So I changed it to "Geometry Total:" since that is what the file contains.

So I've updated the source code for the 3dsMax MD3 exporters for Max6-Max2012 (for both 32 & 64-bit versions). I'm starting to compile them within the hour. I still need to add all the source code changes I made (that restored a couple of export options and added option to export LODs to their own MD3 files) from Max6 to the Unicode Max2013, 2015 projects. I also will attempt to compile it for Max 2017 (I'm currently downloading Visual Studio 2015-- which Max2017 requires... but I could try VS2010 to see if it works first I suppose).

nice work... the barge/ship shadows seem too strong.

I would think the transport shuttle would have landing feet pads and not sit on its frame or engine nacelles.

Isn't that what Sprites are? you could take a look in EffectsED...

Ok... well, I have some awesome FX plugins for 3dsMax: glu3D for water FX, Afterburn & FumeFX for fire, smoke, explosions, etc. If you have some parameter to know the water depth we can vary the effect... Big puddle versus 1 foot deep, etc.