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The seamless conversion

C

cyganski

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us-massachusetts
I know that the "how to convert from 3DS Max to GMax" topic has been beaten to death before, but what can be done lately? I have 3DS Max 2012 and was looking to export my piper Malibu into GMax for export into FSX. My piper Malibu has features like animations and UVW mapped textures, along with a complex object tree. I'd like all of these (oh, and pivot points) to be preserved in the conversion, especially the textures.

What can be done with the software of today?

Thanks,
Nick

(my Piper Malibu is the last post in the "I am working on" topic)
 
BFF conversion, which I take it you know about, is the closest you can come AFAIK. Object names, hierarchy, texture maps should export/import OK, animation will be trial and error. It's best done in small chunks.

Do you have the article "Converting 3DSMax models to GMax for use with FSX" by Phil Taylor? Google should get that. That should be the point of departure, the rest is trial and error.

I am going that route myself but do all my animations and materials and smooching I mean smoothing in Gmax.
 
I used BFF to convert my Bell 222 and Enstrom 280FX from Max to gmax for export to FS2004 and FSX. My best advice is to export without animations....trust me, you don't want to export animations with BFF:eek:
 
Yes, mjahn, I had found that link and read the article, but seeing as it was written for use with 3DS Max 4, I had no idea how old it was.

First, does BFF converter work with 3DS Max 2012.

Secondly, where can I find it? Both links in that article are dead.

Oh, pivot points?

Nick
 
Works fine with Max 2011 so should be OK with 2012 I think.

I'll attach my copy later, must run.

Edit - Attachment added
 

Attachments

Last edited by a moderator:
Attachment added to my previous. Includes the How-To-Install-and-Run PDF for convenience.

Pivot points may have to be reset I think.

Nick and Euroastar, if you find anything interesting while experimenting, please post.

It would be nice if the BFF encoder script could be made to work from Gmax to Max too, but so far my only solution (short of MCX) is the creation of an obj file.

Remember to tick Export Selected Objects in BFF to begin with...

Let me know if you need any further tips on how to install and operate this.
 
mjahn said:
Works fine with Max 2011...
Click to expand...

Thank you mjahn!

I've seen various people say they were going to try it with 2010, 2011 etc and they then vanished in the boondocks :banghead:, so this fills a hole in our understanding.
 
Like so many other things involving version changes, they said that it would work, but.......

I'll try not to find myself in the boondocks and make sure to post my results after giving BFF a try with 3DS Max 2012.
 
Prepar3d has just released a new FSX/ESP/Prepar3d export module for Max2011 users, with a version for Max2012 users soon.
 
It certainly seems to work with static scenery objects in Max 2011


Sent from my mobile .. words substituted by iPhone at will.
 
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