Topic: Texture disaster :(

[Captain Adam]

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[Rod ONeal]

I believe Max 3 and 4 use the same plugins. If so, THIS plugin package for .nif format should work. Just install the Max4 plugin. Maybe one of our ancient Max guru's knows for sure?

It works for Gmax, if all else fails, and you can get the GMax mod plugin at Battleclinic.

[Kreeargh]

Okay, I have 3ds max V3 with the mod plugin, I recently downloaded a BC ship, imported it to my friends 3ds max 2012 with the nif plugin importer/exporter, exported it to 3ds and when I went home to convert it to .mod most of the texture were there except the ones with long names surpassing the 8 character limit, it was renamed but as a result the saucertop and bottom are now screwed up, i have no clue how to apply or in this case reapply textures which in every forum is said to be the easiest solution, is there any work around this so i can keep the textures as is, or rename the texture prior to exporting them to 3ds and if so how?
 or better yet, any nif imp/exp for my old 3ds max 3 version so i can just imp and exp to mod

thanks guys, any help is deeply appreciated

Adam

3ds files created from max 4-5  have a 6 character limit not 8. Max files are for what you want to name them in max format not a convert file.

3ds Files was  created so max files can be used for other formats.
Dont forget for SFC the scale of the map has to be within the sfc specs or it will not work, ie 513x512 wont work it needs to be 512x 512 . If you see an odd number on the texture files it dont work for the most part.

Adam I bet the issue is names of the maps. Max 5 had a 6 character limit  on the 3ds export. I dont know the max 12 exported file should have more than a 6 but whatever. 

[Kreeargh]

The plugin didn't work, get a weird error message on 3dsmax 3, guess its only for 4.2, i was hoping it would work...  thanks tho

Max  5 can work the nif file ok but lower than max 4.2 as you said , the error messanges from max,  the nif file did not exist at that point. Get max 5 if you really want things to work in sfc. max 4 wont work in vista or 7 so ALL WHY I use free Gmax. Yes alot is lost but its free and still works even with vista and 7.

[Kreeargh]

The nif works for gmax now?

[Terradyhne]

ehhh cant find 3ds max 4.2 update, its sad, really sad

for max 4.x you need the c-dilla update to get it working under XP, check the following link to my site, its on the bottom:
http://www.terradyhne-yards.de/Tools.htm

[Rod ONeal]

Like a charm, it was fast and painless. I was so use to using 3ds max I just didn't think gmax would cut it but it was such an easy install and very simple, all I need to do now is create the self illumination maps and it's done..., thx u so much rod, worked perfectly...

Adam

No Problem. You're welcome. As far as differences, besides limited file types, there's no rendering with Gmax, which is painful.

[atheorhaven]

Thx to everyone again, I got the conversion thing worked out. Next question is how to get the illumination maps working. The texture files do have alpha channels, but what's the procedure for taking the texture and removing the alpha and making a self illumination map. I have gmax, psp7.0. I was messing around with psp7.0 but still am having difficulties. Any help would be appreciated.

Adam

Simplest way is to open your glow.tga file and save as BMP.  That saves the main texture out, just remember to make sure it's saved to a scale like 256x256, 512x512, 2048x2048, 128x1024, that sort of thing.

Simplest way I've found to do illumination maps from glow tgas is to use something like TGA Tool.  Load your TGA, load the illumination, copy it, and paste it into PSP 7.  Then save that file as a *i.bmp filename and you should be pretty well good to go. 

[GotAFarmYet?]

okay, update: so after endless reading and researching online, this is how i do it,
1)load the tga on psp
2)save it as bmp
3)load the alpha channel (from selections tab) on the tga and copy it
4)make a new black bmp same size as tga, load the alpha channel on this blank black one, then paste into selection to keep the location
5)grey scale it, then save to namei.bmp

hows that?

Adam

with the *i.bmp you can reduce the scale after making it and it will save allot of space you can also reduce the color resolution to 8 bit or less

[Bernard Guignard]

You can try this group

http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/