MD3 smoothing probs & ASE missing textures

(DickDastardly) #1

Hi all,
I’ve recently been making some models in gmax and exporting them to md3s with pop n fresh (beta 5). The problem I had, though, was that smoothing groups were borked in the md3. I then tried rebuilding the normals with Npherno’s md3 compiler. This improved the smoothing, but still introduced big discrepancies between what I applied in gmax and the end result on the md3. Next I tried importing the md3 to 3dSM (3.0), reapplying the smoothing groups and exporting as an ASE, but the model appeared in gtk with “shader image missing” and as holodeck in Q3 (despite having appeared textured in 3DSM). I experimented with different combinations of export options with no luck.

Can anyone let me know:
1-Is there any way to get an md3 from gmax/3dsm3 with properly working smoothing groups?
2-Do ASE model’s smoothing groups work properly in Q3?
3-What export options should I be using to convert my model to an ASE from 3DSM? (I saw a post in another thread which had a link to a screenshot of the correct options, but unfortunately the link didn’t work)
4-Is there any plugin for gmax to export models directly in ASE format?

Many thanks in advance,
DD

(ydnar) #2

Smoothing groups are not honored. If you want a seam, you must unweld the vertexes at the seam.

In order for ASE models to work correctly, the Max material name is the EXACT shader path that the model will use when imported into GtkRadiant/Q3Map2.

y

(DickDastardly) #3

Thanks Ydnar, I changed the material name as u said and the texture now works fine on the ASE model. The problem I’m having with smoothing, though, is not so much stuff being smoothed when I don’t want it to be, but the reverse i.e. faces which are adjacent (and sharing vertices) not being smoothed together. Is there any way to tweak which faces will be smoothed? (I tried using a shader with q3map_nonplanar and q3map_shadeangle 120 on the ASE but that didn’t seem to do the trick).
Cheers,
DD

(Browser [ICE]) #4

Have you tried loading your MD3 into a working Quake-3 map (simple room for example) and compiled with the standard Q3MAP ? This is just to see if the smoothing group problem is visible in Quake-3 and not Q3MAP2 related.

If so, then the problem is most probably related to the MD3 exporter of GMAX. In the bypass procedure of using that pluggin, did you see if your smoothing groups were ok in MilkShape ? Did you try to re-smooth them before exporting back into MD3 ?

I know that MD3 plugin has problems. I am amongst the first ones who reported it and even reported to Discreet directly. I have the new MD3 plugin version from 3d MAX 5 which had some bugs fixed. I just didn’t have time to adapt it to GMAX (need to recompile it with GMAX SDK).

(pazur) #5

let`s say i have a cylyindrical object as lightmapped ASE model. after some tests i made this produces kind of “hard” edges of shading at the model. i also tried q3map_shadeangle with no effect. i think a working q3map_shadeangle on ASE models would be very useful

(cloudscapes) #6

You might want to try -shadeangle in your light compile too. You never know.

(pazur) #7

i had -shade … hmm. gonna try it with -shadeangle (%d) :slight_smile: