How to get EQ zones into 3DSMax
 

Now, I know you've always been able to get EQ zones into 3DSMax using Hackerquest's ZoneConverter by importing as an obj file, but that threw away all the texturing information leaving you with a lot of work ahead if you wanted to make some fancy renders of zones. Yesterday I modified ZoneConverter a little and wrote a big chunk of maxscript which imports zones into max while preserving all of the texture mapping.

Needless to say this is very 3DSMax specific, most of the heavy duty work is done in MaxScript. The process you need to go through to import a zone only takes a couple of minutes once you're used to it, but it takes a while to explain and makes use of a few different programs along the way. I'm only going to post the quick start section of the read me and the binaries you need to be getting along with, the source is available on my website if you want it).


Importing EQ zones into Max
----------------------------

Requirements:

Everquest Data files.
Modified ZoneConverter.
New EQModelViewer.
3DSMAx 4+ with DDS texture support (plugin available from http://developer.nvidia.com/view.asp...ression_plugin) Comes with Max5 as standard.
ZoneImporter.ms MaxScript file.

Quickstart using field of bone example:

1) Unzip EQModelViewerBinary.zip, ZoneImportMaxScript.zip and ModifiedZoneConverterBinary.zip into the same directory.
2) Load up EQModelViewer, choose EQ directory (if it's the first time it's been run) click on 'fieldofbone.s3d', click on 'Load S3D' then 'Save S3D files'
3) A directory called 'FieldofBone_Data' will have been created. Rename all extracted BMP files to DDS
4) Load up Zoneconverter and import fieldofbone.wld from the fieldofbone.s3d_Data directory. Wait until it says the logfile is saved then quit (it may crash on exit, doesn't matter)
5) Load up 3dsmax and set a map path for the 'fieldofbone.s3d_Data' directory
6) Load up the ZoneImport MaxScript and click import, select the 'Zonelog.txt' in the fieldofbone_data directory.
7) Wait a while. Done.

I'll post the three binaries and readme you'll need in a minute. For now, here's what the Arena looks like rendered from Max with a gratuitous sky slapped on by me :)

K.

Here's the new version of the model viewer that can save out files from S3Ds.

K.

Here's the modified ZoneConverter

K.

Here's the MaxScript file

K.

.. and finally the full readme so you can see what to do :)

All of these files are also available on my website at www.geocities.com/Kaiyodouk/MaxStuff but it's a geocities site as you can see, so it'll probably fall over if anyone tries to download from it.

The souce for the ZoneConverter and new model viewer are only on the website. You don't need the source for the MaxScript, it's script :)

Hopefully someone can make some nicer renders than I managed, I suck at lighting :)

K.

Cool now all i gotta do is get a bootleged copy of max runnin =P

Did the same for POV-Ray
 

I did something quite similar, but my program exports the info to POV-Ray 3.5 Scene File format.

Get the program, source code, instructions, etc. here:
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mitselpli...Converter.html

Bonus in this case is that POV-Ray is Free :-) No need for a boot leg copy

That's some nice work. I've got a lot of respect for anyone who can understand the ZoneConverter code :)

K.

Thanks K :-)
 

K,
Got a question for ya. I can read C Code and even convert it to VB, but I can't write a C program. I don't have the knowledge and expertise to do what I want done. So I need your help if possible.

What I want to do is do the same thing that EQInside does (basically) in my application. But I don't have the knowledge required to create a COM wrapper for Viktor Voroshylo's DLL.

So I was wondering if you had one of the following: (1) A spec of the S3D file format; or (2) a COM wrapper that mimics the functionality in his DLL, or (3) a way I could get a hold of Mr. VOroshylo to ask him for one of the first two things.

Thanks in advance,
Mitselplik

Well I don't know if this will be much use, but in the EQInside SDK header file Victor's address is given as 'rpginside@yahoo.com', that's dated 1999 though.

I've no idea of the S3D file format, I've not even looked at it. The EQInside SDK doesn't provide any sort of clues to the format either unfortunately.

As for a COM wrapper, my COM knowledge is a bit weak (DirectX and a bit of ATL are the only COM-like things I've messed with) so I can't really help you there either.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help :(

K.

This doesn't seem to be working - the ZoneConverter first required MFC70.dll (which I found on the net) and now I get:

The aplication failed to initialize properly (0xc0000005). Click on OK to terminate the application.

I've got VB6 service pack 5 runtime and .NET installed. I don't however, have any dev tools installed.

Any ideas?

regarding probs
 

Septimus,
Likely you just downloaded the source code or EXE by itself. VB created programs require support libraries and such that will be installed if you download and run the full setup program. The last error you got is likely an issue caused by not having one of the support DLL files registered properly or in your windows system directory. The full setup program does all this for you :-)

Mitselplik

There's no install program for Kaiyodo's modified ZoneConverter. I downloaded the binary, not the source.

Something tells me it's using a dependency of the dev tool or something :/

Yeah, I wouldn't use my version of the ZoneConverter if I were you, there's a better way.

You want to be getting hold of Mitselplik's ZoneConverter and output the zone as a POVRay 3.5 Mesh2 format file, then use the PoVImport.ms MaxScript that I've included in my latest Model Viewer to get the zone into Max.

I don't have the link for Mitselpik's converter here at work, but I know where my model viewer's kept :)

http://www.geocities.com/kaiyodouk/

Hope that helps.

K.

Its in this forum hehe

EQZoneConverter

there it is again :-)