Improved Max2Dts Exporter

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Alienforce   (Jul 03, 2007 at 22:38 GMT)

Thanks Stefan!
Will test this one later on tonight :)

Timothy Aste   (Jul 03, 2007 at 23:06 GMT)

Very cool! Any chance of a Max 9 version in the pipe?

Magnus Blikstad   (Jul 03, 2007 at 23:13 GMT)

Yep. We need a max9 version.... =)

(send me an email, might have a few moments to spare to fix the max8 to 9 differences and compile it with the 9 sdk).

Logan Foster   (Jul 03, 2007 at 23:24 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Ya no kidding. We've all moved onto Max 9 :)

Andy Hodges   (Jul 04, 2007 at 05:55 GMT)

Looks great Stefan!

-Andy

Christian Herzog   (Jul 04, 2007 at 09:13 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Great!

I'd love to do some export testing with the editable poly thing - but I also need a max9 version ;)
If you give me the source, I can recompile it with the max9 sdk.
(or at least try to =D )


edit: Giggsy@gmx.at
Edited on Jul 04, 2007 09:29 GMT

Russell Fincher   (Jul 04, 2007 at 12:53 GMT)

Well, some of us are still working in Max 8. ;) Will this work in 8?

Stefan Lundmark   (Jul 04, 2007 at 13:51 GMT)

Compiling for Max9/10 involves code changes because some methods have been deprecated in favour of new ones. I'm working on it, should be up in a few hours from now.

I'll see what I can do about Max 8 support.

Edit: Tried to find information about compatibility between versions of plugins, but couldn't find anything. I know Max 4/5 work together, and so does 6/7 and 9/10, but what about 8?
Edited on Jul 04, 2007 14:07 GMT

David Dougher   (Jul 04, 2007 at 15:19 GMT)

At one point the Max 8 SDK was available for free download for development purposes from their site. I still have a copy around in my files I believe. if you need a copy I believe I can make it available to you.

Tim Heldna   (Jul 04, 2007 at 15:22 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

In most circumstances Max 7 plugins will work with Max 8, there's very little difference between Max 7 & 8.

I use Max 8 and tried your exporter and it worked - except Torque crashes on level load. The DTS I exported is a little complicated (LOD, nodes, custom bones, skinning data and transform animations) however it exports and works just fine with the official Max plugins from this site.

I've yet to try a simple object like a primitive cube - I will do this soon so that I may determine whether the above problem is with your plugin or my scene.

Tim Heldna   (Jul 04, 2007 at 15:28 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

I tried exporting a simple static shape with your exporter and Torque crashes when I drop it into the scene via the mission editor.

Stefan Lundmark   (Jul 04, 2007 at 15:51 GMT)

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David Dougher said:
At one point the Max 8 SDK was available for free download for development purposes from their site. I still have a copy around in my files I believe. if you need a copy I believe I can make it available to you.

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So it has been available freely before? Ok. Please do send me anything you can to my public email and I'll make a binary available as soon as I get it.

Quote:

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Tim Heldna said:
I use Max 8 and tried your exporter and it worked - except Torque crashes on level load. The DTS I exported is a little complicated (LOD, nodes, custom bones, skinning data and transform animations) however it exports and works just fine with the official Max plugins from this site.

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I haven't tested the exporters with Max 8 and it could be the referencing stuff which was changed around there somewhere. The soldier pack and most weapon packs I've bought export perfectly with Max7 though.

Would you mind if I send you an altered build which you can use to tell me where it crashes?

Logan Foster   (Jul 04, 2007 at 16:06 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

The list is as follows:

Max 4 and Max 5 - While you can load Max 4 plugins into 5 there are stability issues and other potential annoyances like incompatability with the Multires modifier.
Max 6, 7 and 8 - This group of three works fine together. No major SDK changes, no compiler changes.
Max 9 and ??? - New compiler and SDK changes mean a break from the compatability. No official word yet if the next Max release will do the same, though the public should know by Siggraph.

Stefan Lundmark   (Jul 04, 2007 at 16:12 GMT)

Thanks Logan!

Can anyone else confirm if they get the same crashes as Tim? Max 9 version has been uploaded.

Oh and Tim, since the exporter doesn't ask you where you want the file (I forgot to add that back in) you'll have to keep the .cfg file in the same directory as the .max file. Failure to do so can crash Torque if the node it wants does not exist in the scene.
Edited on Jul 04, 2007 16:13 GMT

Tim Heldna   (Jul 05, 2007 at 08:21 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Quote:

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Would you mind if I send you an altered build which you can use to tell me where it crashes?

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Sure, go for it. Although the exporter itself isn't crashing - Torque crashes when trying to load the exported shape.

I just tested the latest Max 8 plugin you provided, version 0.91, and am still experiencing a crash when loading the exported shape in Torque.

Show Tool shows this in the console:

Quote:

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Error: attempt to load a version 78 dts-shape, can currently only load version 24 and before.

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Edited on Jul 05, 2007 09:10 GMT

Stefan Lundmark   (Jul 05, 2007 at 12:35 GMT)

Woah, what version of Torque is that? 1.2?

Edit: I'll fix it, but I'm suprised you even got the error. Pre 24 shape reading shouldn't have been in Torque since forever.
Edited on Jul 05, 2007 12:36 GMT

Tim Heldna   (Jul 05, 2007 at 13:07 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

No, I'm using Torque version 1.4.0.

Show Tool Pro, where the error is reported, was probably built from an older version of Torque as it was created a long time ago and doubt that it has been updated to the latest version of Torque.

bank   (Jul 05, 2007 at 13:31 GMT)

@Tim: current version for ShowToolPro is 1.04 (build Jan 12 2007). But running echo(getVersionNumber()); in STP shows 1200, so it means that it's based on Torque 1.2... and yeah, it's "quite" old..

Tim Heldna   (Jul 05, 2007 at 13:44 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Thanks Bank, I didn't know about the 'getVersionNumber' function.

That's what I suspected; the engine code that Show Tool Pro uses hasn't been updated. There may be circumstances where there are inaccuracies between models viewed in Show Tool Pro and current versions of Torque, not a good thing.

Stefan Lundmark   (Jul 05, 2007 at 14:50 GMT)

Well, you still get a crash in Torque which is bad.. no matter what Show Tool says.

I can't reproduce it though. :/ Neither in TGEA nor TGE 1.4.2.
Are you sure that you have removed (as in, removed from the plugins directory) the official exporter before trying this one? Obvious, yes - but sometimes one forgets.

Additionally, I would really appreciate a DTS file (or even better a .max file) of that static mesh so I could try it out. I appreciate your help, Tim.
Edited on Jul 05, 2007 14:51 GMT

Tim Heldna   (Jul 05, 2007 at 15:37 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

I will send you both a dts and a Max file via email, right now.

Yes, I'm quite confident that I'm not doing anything wrong on my end.

Stefan Lundmark   (Jul 05, 2007 at 15:50 GMT)

Good thing, I'll get to work immediatly after I receive the files.

Stefan Lundmark   (Jul 05, 2007 at 16:58 GMT)

I still can't reproduce the same .dts file as you, though the one you sent me does freeze Torque.

When I get back home I'll try with the Green Guy and the Simple Shape tutorials.
If those work then there's gotta be something which the plugin is doing that's upsetting Max 8, because it sure is working in Max 7.

No one else tried yet?
Edited on Jul 05, 2007 17:04 GMT

Tim Heldna   (Jul 06, 2007 at 11:46 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

It's a pity that no one else with Max 8 is willing to help.

I really feel that you're doing a good thing here Stefan and would encourage all people with Max to provide as much help and test data as possible.

Stefan Lundmark   (Jul 06, 2007 at 16:19 GMT)

It's a pity there have been lots of downloads but only one user has sent feedback. Was planning more versions with optimizations and more bugfixes, but at this rate it won't happen as I can't cover much testing at all since I'm no artist and I only have access to Max7.

Logan, I still haven't received that list you were talking about. Not sure your emails are getting trough, but please send again if you see this.

Andy Hodges   (Jul 06, 2007 at 16:46 GMT)

@Stefan - I have some DTS shapes to export this weekend so I'll give this a try and report results. I've been using MAX 9 though, but I do have Max 8 as well.

-Andy

Thomas Shaw   (Jul 06, 2007 at 17:46 GMT)   Resource Rating: 3

heya. downloaded the exporter. I am using Max9. So far, the exporter has crashed or frozen up on both the things I have tried to export.

One was a fully rigged and animated character. The other was a typical car setup.

I'm not sure what to tell you other than that... Does Max have an error log for when i t crashes?

One thing I do notice tho, is that the exporter doesn't ask me where I want to save the DTS files - it just goes straight to the exporting.

Sorry for not being able to be more helpfull

Stefan Lundmark   (Jul 06, 2007 at 18:00 GMT)

Quote:

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Andy Hodges said:
@Stefan - I have some DTS shapes to export this weekend so I'll give this a try and report results. I've been using MAX 9 though, but I do have Max 8 as well.

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Thanks man. Based on what others say though, I wouldn't expect too much out of it. Seems it crashes. I *hope* it's either that it's Max 9, or a config file issue. I think I had a freeze when my config file wasn't present once, but considering Tim has tried with a simple shape (which hopefully doesn't rely as much on the config) it probably won't help.

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Thomas Shaw said:
I'm not sure what to tell you other than that... Does Max have an error log for when i t crashes?

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It's not really Max that's crashing, but the exporter. The exporter will write out a dump upon export, and stop dumping when it dies.

I appreciate your patience and thanks alot for the feedback. I'll upload a new build in a few hours that has warnings for when the config is not loaded, and with the old "Save to File" dialog.

Thanks again guys.

Stefan Lundmark   (Jul 08, 2007 at 12:30 GMT)

Updated version available now which adds back the Save To File dialog. If the crash was due to nodes not being exported because of missing config files (the previous saving mechanism changed where the config files had to reside) then those should be gone now. I'll test this tonight as well.

Russell Fincher   (Jul 10, 2007 at 20:06 GMT)

Quote:

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It's a pity that no one else with Max 8 is willing to help.

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Quote:

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It's a pity there have been lots of downloads but only one user has sent feedback.

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Sorry fellas. I'm using 8, but I'm at the very end of a project and really shouldn't change the pipeline now. Should be switching gears in the next week and will give it a try.
Edited on Jul 10, 2007 20:06 GMT

Stefan Lundmark   (Jul 11, 2007 at 19:09 GMT)

No problem Russell. Max 8 version has been up since we started however it was never marked as such since I didn't know. In any case, it's too much to support a community version at this time.

Thanks though.

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