Content creation

[madborg]

Originally Posted by Vipermmx

Windcatcher you plan on doing a spell editor as well? I know there is a hex image flating around somewhere showing what each line in a hex editor is for editing spells

Did anyone grab that image? I was going to and then forgot.
I liked the image because it was color coded and fairly easy to pick out the meaning of various regions.

[madgamer2000]

Relevant or not? Hehehe, i honestly dont know, but i do remember seeing this (the top article) when it was first posted and it caught my eye. Heres the developers site . Never used it or seen it running, so couldnt tell you much about it, but it is free (aka something anyone who wanted to try world building could get at) and doesnt look bad. Sure lightwave, smax, or maya would own it, but those cost a couple grand each. Give it a look.

edit: Read the FAQ. Not sure how well it would work without the games specific support. The files are less than 25 megs for the prog and some textures though, so someone with a cable/dsl connection or whatnot could maby dl it and see. Just a thought

[Windcatcher]

Of course

[Windcatcher]

Of course

dang it. its too big to post.

[Vipermmx]

3dmax is cheap if you know where to go =) Why the hell would any normal person pay 2000 for an editor they use for personel and no profit use. heh.

I sure in the hell hope someone does work on a spell editor. Its needed bad and I cant find the image. doh.

[madborg]

I am dling gmax as we speak. The biggest drawback that I saw at the time I looked at gmax was the fact that you cannot
"render with, or write plug-ins for the free version".
If you look at the chequip.s3d files, you will see that a lot of that was created with plug-ins to 3DS Max. But for a free product, gmax is a great deal.

The other one to look at is Blender, also free. They have their own format but I think there are plug-ins for other formats.

And finally, Milkshape. It is not free but really cheap. It converts between the various common game formats and also renders. A very handy tool to have. I keep expiring my 20-day trial period so I don't have a working Milkshape.

[foley]

this what you're looking for madborg?

[madborg]

Originally Posted by foley

this what you're looking for madborg?

yes, thanks. It is now in my super secret library.

as for gmax, I get the joke now. Sure the stuff is free if you can actually download it. I have been at this since last night with two computers on two lines trying to get the stuff. The dl rate goes down to a whooping 80 byes/second for files that are 14 MB or more. Then everything times out.

I am dling from the Autodesk ftp site so that could be the problem.

[madborg]

Originally Posted by madgamer2000

edit: Read the FAQ. Not sure how well it would work without the games specific support. The files are less than 25 megs for the prog and some textures though, so someone with a cable/dsl connection or whatnot could maby dl it and see. Just a thought

The game support is because Discreet is trying to get all the game makers to use their software instead of writing their own editors, viewers, or plug-ins. I am fairly certain that Q3 pak only works with gmax and is not compatible with Worldcraft.

The only reason that I could see that someone would want gmax/dev is that they need more SDK support and ability to write plug-ins, or want to use the game pak distribution method.

The biggest drawback is that if you can't write your own plug-ins then you are stuck with doing OBJ exports, which is okay but not as complete as a full MAX to whatever conversion. The MAX format is proprietary so the closest you can get is 3DS format -- not the same as MAX.

But if the MAX format in gmax is the same as in 3DS Max (as it will e I am sure), then it is not that big of a problem once someone writes a plugin for the big brother software -- but it has to be a legal MAX, not one of the bargain basement Maxs because you can't write plugins for them.

[madgamer2000]

Thanks for the info man. I was somewhat unclear on all of that, as far as what you could and couldn't do without the programs specific support. here are two more pics that talk about spell editing, but they arnt of much use without the word doc that went along with em that told specifically what each number corresponded to. strike9 wont let me upload a text file though, and i dont feel like makin a geoshities site (or have time) atm just to post the text file.

[Trumpcard]

I think this program allows you to view the spell information out of spells.eff and spelldat.eff .The source code is included at the website, Im sure it could be modified to tinker with the spell files..

I had completely forgotton about this thing till someone mentioned it too me today, I thought it fit along in the vein of where this conversation had gone..

Check out eqcaster at
www.eqcaster.com

[madborg]

finally downloaded gmax. it is a nice, quick program. Unfortunately I also saw some things that don't seem right.

-file format is gmax instead of max. Unless I find a gmax->max
and max->gmax convertor this is going to be a problem

-import limited and doesn't include OBJ
-export does not include OBJ, may not even include max

apparently if you want seamless integration to 3ds max 4, you need the dev version.

I also see that plugins are support some dlu format. I suspect that the plugins are done through the development system.
Maybe a search for gmax sites will shed more light on the system. The help is really light on the whole import/export thing.
Beside my import/export options never became active.

[madgamer2000]

I downloaded gmax, the textures, and the help files, but as you said, i havnt yet been able to figure out how to import/export any file type other than the .gmax. Im downloading the tutorial atm and am hoping that it might shed some light (but i doubt it ) on it. To Windcatcher though, the zone converter its self works great. I opened a bunch of the exported files with another program i have and played around a bit with some of them and it, and it was very neat.

[nuncio]

i would be happy to help with whatever i can.
im afraid i can only help with texture creation though. im a professional graphic artist, set designer and traditional animator. my email is in my profile, feel free to contact me.

[madborg]

I spent a little more time with gmax and here is what I came up with so far:

-it's a lot like 3DS Max 3 (don't know about 4), so its a good tool for those that want to get some experience using 3DS Max experience.

-found some import filters for 3ds, obj, and md2 (quake 2). Uses Maxscript to do the importing which means that you can actually read the script. It's only a matter of time before someone does the corresponding export filters -- assuming that the functionality is there through scripting.

-chances are good that max import/export is not supported.

** added **
Nevermind about my max statement. Just found the Maxscript tutorial on 3ds max file loading and saving. This is great if I can get it to work cause I have some nice max models that would be fun to work on with gmax.

**added some more**
The documentation for Maxscript doesn't match what happens -- I guess its the same doc for Max and gMax. Anyway, the commands for loadMax and saveMax results in gmax files, not max.

A possible workaround, build a Maxscript to export to a text file that is the ascii form of the various formats that is needed for EQ. The asciiwld would need a convertor to wld, but the files for chequip.s3d would not need a convertor.

It's a start.

Unforunately Lightwave actually make the best tool because their format is well documented and the file is in ascii already. The cheapest Lightwave is around $800 for 6.5.

Whatever format you use, you have to have one that is complete:
-geometry
-texture and uv mapping perserved
-bone and animation perserved

I tried an OBJ import into gmax a and the file did not show. So I don't know how well the OBJ importer works.

I am going to get some md2 files and see if how well the animation and texture is perserved into gmax.