Improved Max2Dts Exporter
by Stefan Lundmark · 07/03/2007 (3:12 pm) · 31 comments
Improved Max2Dts Exporter
I'm working on a (unofficial) new version of Max2Dts which has some improvements over the older exporter. This one is very different from the Dark Industries exporters in that it does not supply you with any additional tools, it's just the old exporter but more stable and easier to work with.
Download
As of today (10th of July 2007) the improved exporter is no longer available for download. There has been far too many downloads of it compared to the feedback and we're just going to keep it internally instead of supporting a community version.
It's impossible and totally out of our ability to test it ourselves if we're going to support community needed functionallity, rather than the functionallity we need ourselves, and so this is the path that is going to be taken.
Thanks Tim Heldna for an honest try.
Features:
* Exceptionally faster, especially when exporting sequences.
* Less prone to crashes.
* Support for exporting skinned Editable Poly/Patch meshes.
* Detail levels should work again in Max7. Needs more testing.
* More user-friendly UI's.
What I'm looking at next:
* Billboard crashes.
* Blend references crashing when set to anything else than the first frame.
* Even more sanity checking.
Support
As my limited testing only can show as much, I've reached a point where I need testers to be able to nail more bugs. If you think you can help out with testing this beast, please download the exporter above and use it. If you run into any issues, you can send me a message and I'll take a look at it. There are still a ton of bugs that I haven't reproduced or that I know of yet, and if we can work together then this might turn into something even more useful.
Cheers!
About the author
#22
07/05/2007 (8:50 am)
Good thing, I'll get to work immediatly after I receive the files.
#23
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?
07/05/2007 (9:58 am)
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?
#24
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.
07/06/2007 (4:46 am)
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.
#25
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.
07/06/2007 (9:19 am)
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.
#26
-Andy
07/06/2007 (9:46 am)
@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
#27
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
07/06/2007 (10:46 am)
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
#28
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.
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.
07/06/2007 (11:00 am)
Quote:
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.
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.
Quote:
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?
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.
#29
07/08/2007 (5:30 am)
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. 
#30
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.
07/10/2007 (1:06 pm)
Quote:It's a pity that no one else with Max 8 is willing to help.
Quote:It's a pity there have been lots of downloads but only one user has sent feedback.
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.
#31
Thanks though.
07/11/2007 (12:09 pm)
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.
Torque Owner Tim Heldna
Yes, I'm quite confident that I'm not doing anything wrong on my end.