3D Max importing into Torque
by Tom Phipps · in Torque Game Engine · 03/15/2005 (5:04 am) · 4 replies
Hey Everyone,
Have been a long time reader (well, a couple of months but it seems ages) of the forums but first time poster :)
I need some advice from more experienced users in relation to a problem I have.
I am currently completely a full 3D model of a University Campus for my final year project and have been asked to implement it into a gaming engine. Currently all the buildings and terrain are in 3D Max 5.
Is there anyway to export the complete model into Torque so the user can roam around the campus.
The buildings do not need to be interactable, it is literally a program to familiarise the user with the layout of the campus so the buildings are just basic shapes with the textures of the buildings placed on top.
Thank you for your time in reading this and if anyone can send advice my way it would be gratefully received.
Also if this sort of query has been answered before I apologise but i haven't been able to find my answers to this anywhere.
Cheers! Tom
Have been a long time reader (well, a couple of months but it seems ages) of the forums but first time poster :)
I need some advice from more experienced users in relation to a problem I have.
I am currently completely a full 3D model of a University Campus for my final year project and have been asked to implement it into a gaming engine. Currently all the buildings and terrain are in 3D Max 5.
Is there anyway to export the complete model into Torque so the user can roam around the campus.
The buildings do not need to be interactable, it is literally a program to familiarise the user with the layout of the campus so the buildings are just basic shapes with the textures of the buildings placed on top.
Thank you for your time in reading this and if anyone can send advice my way it would be gratefully received.
Also if this sort of query has been answered before I apologise but i haven't been able to find my answers to this anywhere.
Cheers! Tom
#2
Thanks for the quick reply!
The "right" way that you mention above certainly sounds better then breaking my models apart. Will this work for the terrain and the buildings? I have these in three different ways at the moment:
The buildings by themselves
The terrain without buildings
The terrain with the buildings included.
So if I understand the "right" way mentioned, I could export them all individually as .maps, transform them in Quark (or the others) into difs and reunite them in torque? The major thing i am worried about, as i don't mind making the buildings again in Quark, is the terrain would take a substantial amount of time to do which is why I am hoping to just use the terrain model I have in 3D Max.
Apologies for all the questions, the .map/.dts/.dif understanding has been making my head spin for a while trying to understand them all.
One thing for certain, its definately going to keep me busy over the Easter period. :)
03/15/2005 (7:25 am)
Hey Adam,Thanks for the quick reply!
The "right" way that you mention above certainly sounds better then breaking my models apart. Will this work for the terrain and the buildings? I have these in three different ways at the moment:
The buildings by themselves
The terrain without buildings
The terrain with the buildings included.
So if I understand the "right" way mentioned, I could export them all individually as .maps, transform them in Quark (or the others) into difs and reunite them in torque? The major thing i am worried about, as i don't mind making the buildings again in Quark, is the terrain would take a substantial amount of time to do which is why I am hoping to just use the terrain model I have in 3D Max.
Apologies for all the questions, the .map/.dts/.dif understanding has been making my head spin for a while trying to understand them all.
One thing for certain, its definately going to keep me busy over the Easter period. :)
#3
The good news is that the terrain is a bit easier. What you can do is render a heightmap (grayscale version of the terrain from the top view, where lighter greys are higher in elevation than lower greys), and then just load that file into the terraform editor in torque.
Out of curiousity, how big is the campus?
03/15/2005 (7:47 am)
The buildings are going to take a bit of massaging. Ive never done the export-as-map-and-open-in-quark things before, but I can say that map2dif can be fussy with complex geometry. I imagine that anything you build in max and export as a .map is going to be more complex than something you built as a .map from the get go. What it may boil down to is exporting as a map, opening it in quark, and then using the exported version as a guide for you to rebuild with cleaner geometry.The good news is that the terrain is a bit easier. What you can do is render a heightmap (grayscale version of the terrain from the top view, where lighter greys are higher in elevation than lower greys), and then just load that file into the terraform editor in torque.
Out of curiousity, how big is the campus?
#4
The campus is ummmmm...... how do i put this....large, very large :)
The scans that were used to make up the terrain were 16 pages of A2 size paper, if that gives you a rough idea of how large the overall terrain is. I tried to find out the exact size of my university but no one was manning the phones when I called.
Do you think the size of the terrain may be a problem for Torque to handle?
Cheers again for your help - I'll be sure to put your name in the credits :)
03/16/2005 (5:23 am)
Hey Adam,The campus is ummmmm...... how do i put this....large, very large :)
The scans that were used to make up the terrain were 16 pages of A2 size paper, if that gives you a rough idea of how large the overall terrain is. I tried to find out the exact size of my university but no one was manning the phones when I called.
Do you think the size of the terrain may be a problem for Torque to handle?
Cheers again for your help - I'll be sure to put your name in the credits :)
Torque 3D Owner Adam
Adam deGrandis
I hate to say this, but there is no easy way of doing what you want to do. The "right" way of doing it would be to export your max files as .maps, then open them in Quark or Hammer or Cartography Shop and export them as difs.
You could technically export them as dts files from max, but any given dts can only have 9 collision meshes... which means that youd have to break your models apart (if they arent already in pieces) and rebuild everything in Torque.