I used 3ds max in school, but - lacking the money to buy 3ds max for myself - I’m using gmax for modeling. I’d like to use gmax to create terrain for my map, but I’ve noticed that gmax only allows you to save in the .gmax file format. How easy (or possible?) is it to convert .gmax files into a file format that Radiant can import?
Also, how do model sizes in 3ds max or gmax compare to those in Radiant? Is one unit in gmax equal to one unit in Radiant?
gmax doesn’t export to any extrnal formats other than MD3 (in relation to Q3 engined games) and creating a terrain although technically easy to do it means a hell of a lot of fiddling to make a usuable model for Q3. What you have to do is basically cut the model into 1024x1024(x1024) blocks and each of these has to be centered on the 0,0,0 (x,y,z) axis. You’ll need to snap to grid otherwise you’ll end up with cracks in the model sections where the edges don’t meet properly.
Unless a plugin can be writen (very difficult to do apparently) or discreet offer a ligit way to save to ASE (or something similar) we’re kinda stuck I’m afraid with the limitations of the MD3 format
I’m a bit confused by your reply. Do you mean I’ll need one separate model for each 1024x1024x1024 section, or do you mean that each face will need to be defined within that space? I guess what mainly throws me off is you speaking of centering everything on the x, y, and x axes. Could you clarify a bit? I’d like to know exactly what I’m getting myself into. :huh:
heh sorry bout that… right, if you create your terrain the size you want it to be (massive) in order for you to be able to use it ingame you’ll then need to split the mesh up into sections which when fit back together would recreate you models mesh.
MD3 has some fundamental limits, one of which is a dimentions limitation that’s effectively a box 1024x1024x1024 in size, what’s worse is that the ‘box’ has to be centered on the 0,0,0 axis point (center of the grid as you look at the viewports in gmax) so in effect you’ve got a 512pixel radious in any direction from that centerpoint.
What this means for MD3 terrain models is you having to re-center every section of the mesh around the 0,0,0 axis before you export it out to MD3… if you don’t do this the mesh will get badly borked up (vertexs and faces get ‘folded’ back into the allowable space)
Thanks for the info. Sounds like it’s gonna be a terrible process, but I’m willing to try it out. By the way, would 1024 units in gmax be equal to 1024 units in Radiant? If so, it shouldn’t be TOO bad.
I can’t remember exactly but what you could do is draw a brush in GTK 1024x1024x1024 and then import that into gmax (using the tempest ‘map’ plugin) or grab Leet - http://www.bpeers.com/software/leet and convert the map file to DXF or 3DS (open a map into leet and right click, select export and chose and option. Open gmax and then import the file)
KAT, Correct me if Im wrong here, but why cant he use the Tempest gamepack and build a terrain, and export it as a map?? I havent done this as I use the default terrain generator used in most Radient games, but couldnt this be done as well??
yes it can be done… I generally don’t think of this option coz I use gmax itself so much (I moved the tempest plugins to the gmax plugins folder so I could export MD3 and such from gmax itself)… it’s usually easier to create terrain using Radiant rather than with tempest, but it can certainly be done…
flash ([sings] “ahhhhh saviour of the universe…”) if you’ve got the tutorial as well gmax take a look at those, oh wait… are you using gmax or tempest, if it’s gmax you’ll need to do what I mentioned above… move the plugins from the tempest/plugin folder and copy them to gmax/plugins you should then find you can export MD3 files.
How do I install and configure Tempest for ET? The installation guide gives the paths for Quake III, and I figured I’d adapt them for ET. However, I noticed that it tries to overwrite certain files in my etmain directory. I didn’t have that problem with RtCW.
you might have to fiddle about abit by moving the ET stuff to a temp folder, install tempest and allow it to do what it wants, then place the ET stuff back. I don’t know if anyones successfully ET edited with Tempest //shrugs shoulders
I was wondering if anyone had. I mean, it obviously doesn’t want to work for me. I have Quake III, though, so I could probably just install that, build the models, then export them and move them to the correct folder in ET.
There is a little workaround you can to get GMax to work in RTCW or ET…but it involves much more diskspace…all you need to do is copy the entire directory of ET or RTCW, and rename the appropriate folders and application…so when Gmax is looking for quake3.exe, rename the et.exe to quake3.exe…and the ETmain directory to baseq3. I know I avoided doing this because it took up another 2 gigs of hd space for RTCW, so I just said screw it, and went to Radient. LOL