Mapping in 3dsmax

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Contents

[edit] Mapping with 3ds max

By harry

[edit] Intro

THIS IS NOT A MODELING TUTORIAL. If you don't know how to use 3ds max, this will be useless to you. This article covers the pipeline from 3ds max into the game, rather than actually making the map.

I personally don't like to use heightmap imports, as most tutorials for M&B maps seem to go. I prefer to model my scenery. I'm a 3ds max user, and it took me a bit of messing around to get a map exported from max, into M&B, working correctly.

The advantages of modelling your map by hand is complete control over the tri count. In some threads, i've seen people mention that the topology of the mesh is used in some way by the party AI for doing distance checks. As far as I can tell this is utterly untrue, and would be more resource intensive than it needs to be. From my experimentation, it seems you can structure a map just ab out however you like, distribute detail to the correct areas for best performance, and so on. You can also operate on much smaller details than default map editors.

To summarise, the up-sides to modelling your map in an external modeling package:

[edit] Tools

[edit] Considerations

[edit] OBJ export settings

If you aren't using an antiquated version of 3ds max, when you export the map as an OBJ, you will have a rather complicated dialog. The conversion tool is rather sensetive, and needs its OBJ files formatted so it can easilly digest the data. Barf discovered the ideal export settings for this. To save you scrounging through forum threads, here it is.

settingsi.jpg

Now, seeing as there's a chance of that image going offline, i will also list the ideal settings in text form.

[edit] After Export

I recommend firing up Thorgrim's editor to check your textures, map borders, and party positions. Remember that you can use co-ordinates from 3ds max to place towns using module_parties.py - With this method the unit scale is 1:1.

Peace Gents, enjoy mapping -harry

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