We found a talented programmer Dáire "Solosnake" Stockdale who was willing to take on the UGLY burden of writing a utility that could read exported 3D Studio MAX files and convert it to Unreal's T3D format. And yeah, although we can do this now with DXF... that format does NOT support the texture call or the texture alignment. To accomplish this we had to pick a format that MAX could Export, that retained texture coordinates AND that could be converted into T3D (for import into UnrealEd). So, we settled on the ASE format out of MAX. Anyway, this exporter utility convert ASE to T3D PERFECTLY! It's a major breakthrough for anyone who needs creative texture alignment on a brush in UnrealEd! I have personally been searching for a utility like this (that I could use publicly) for over 3 years! Well now we all have one! Things like columns, roads, walkways, arch's, etc.. can now be texture mapped in MAX and exported into Unreal! Very cool! This is the first ever PUBLIC RELEASED converter of it's kind to make it into the hands of the Unreal Mapping Community. We all owe a huge thanks and our first born to Solosnake for this honorable achievement!
Some examples of a Lofted mesh created in MAX and imported into Unreal with texture coordinates.
Two of the actual textures used...
MAX mesh with texture mapping converted and imported into unreal.
As for building an entire level in MAX and importing it... Yes, you could do that. But keep in mind that currently it brings everything in as one brush each time. So like this image below, it's 3 brushes built in MAX (the stone floor brush was lofted along the same path as the walls, so 2 there, plus 1 arch) and converted in one shot, it was seen as a single brush when imported as T3D. My guess is you could also end up with a high node count unless careful. AND, you would want to import your subtracts first, then your adds... if you know what I mean.
It's fairly common knowledge that the Next Gen engine will have this type of support, so this utility we would release might have a short life span and we know this. But the main thing is the community does not want to wait, they want it now. Worth noting, this is NOT a "Hardware Brush Importer" like you might have heard about included in the NextGen Warfare engine. It simply lets you create and Import MAX built brushes, and more importantly, the texture coordinates as well.
The actual readme and additional information about this utility can be found here in HTML format!
The following information will change as the Translator utility changes, and was last updated 11/21/01 @4:18pm (Eastern).
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Things that worked perfect, or near perfect using the translator:
- Geometry and texture alignment will translate to Unreal as shown in MAX, this includes lofted shapes.
- Geometry can also be translated with no texture association, in case you don't want or need textures. Simply do not assign a texture in MAX.
- The translator will create a single brush from multiple instances of MAX geometry. So, if you have created 6 separate objects in MAX, they will be combined into a single brush when translated to T3D. The T3D will however continue to reference the 6 different textures on single brush in Unreal (if different textures are used).
- MAX's UV Offset AND UV Tiling translate great from the materials editor.
- MAX's Material Editor translates the "Rotate" function for the W (none for the U or V).
- When a "UVW Mapping" modifier is applied, ALL of the "Parameters" (mapping types Planar, Cyl, Spherical, Shrink Warp, Etc.) work great! Including the Length, Width, Height and Alignment to X Y and Z variables. The same goes for the other "tested" modifiers like the "UVW X-Form" and "*MapScaler" modifiers. These all translate fine.
- So far most all of the the additional modifiers translated, including Bend, Taper, Twist, FFD 4X4X4, etc.. Even when multiple modifiers are in the stack, it translated the end result out just fine. The "Edit Mesh" modifier translated perfect (even after "pulling out" a bunch of vertices to all kinds of crazy directions, not recommend, but I only did it to see if it would screw up in the converter... Nope).
- Multiple Copies and Instanced Copies of a mesh in MAX will translate fine.
- Geometry "Coordinates" carry over perfectly from MAX to Unreal. So if you create a box in MAX and move it to the location of X=186 Y=2000 Z=0 it will be at this exact same coordinate in Unreal after running it through the translator. Same goes for geometry "Size", make a box 256x256x32 and snap it to grid in MAX, it will be the exact same size in Unreal and snaped to grid there as well.
- Texture association in Unreal can be automatic... or not, choice is yours. Before importing the T3D into UnrealEd, the textures should be imported and saved in UED first. Once done, the textures will be assigned to the brush in Unreal automatically during the T3D import by "name association". So the textures used in Unreal need to have the same name as the ones you assigned in MAX, simple enough.
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Notice: The following items are NOT bugs, they simply are not supported with this translator...
- Face mapping does not work from the radial button in MAX's Material Editor, (however It DOES work with a UVW modifier applied to the geometry set to the "Face" mapping type).
- Un-checking "Tile" for either of the UV in MAX's Material Editor is ignored, it still tiles anyway.
- MAX Also has 3 radial buttons in the Material Editor for changing the UV, to VW, or WU... this flips the texture according to the different applicable directions and is IGNORED by the translator.
- Of course Ambient, Diffuse, etc. "Colors" do not translate out... only textures that are assigned. Same for Opacity, Self Illumination and Specular Highlight setting, these are not supported.
- Under the "Maps" tab ONLY the Diffuse texture name is exported ... all others (Bump, Reflect, Etc.) are ignored.
- Smoothing Groups are NOT converted to T3D, Unreal's Add/Sub brush type do NOT support it. This is a current engine limitation and has nothing to do with the translator.
Updated to Version 1.0.2 at 4:00pm -1/07/02