Wall Worm 3ds Max VMF Exporter finished - Developers

The [URL="http://dev.wallworm.com/topic/47/vmf_exporter.html"]Wall Worm VMF Exporter[/URL] is now finished. You can now easily send your 3ds Max scenes into Source with the world geometry, displacements and models. Here is the general overview of the VMF Exporter. I have more features intended for the future. [video=youtube;veJB3Y9Edag]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veJB3Y9Edag[/video]

now let's wait for someone to port a map from a game

You are incredible

Oh cool, I can port the maps from Lost Planet into Hammer. How much do you have to fix the geometry though after it's turned into a vmf?

So far everything seems good. In most cases, I've been able to compile straight from Max (but to add entities you need to be using Convexity too). If not... you'll still need to open in Hammer and add entities. Not saying everything will always be smooth sailing. So if you do have any problems, take note and share and I'll look into it.

Well, I'd rather add entities through Hammer anyways. Also I imagine complex geometry will have problems with being offgrid.

Does this support exporting of single planes?

Well you have to understand that Wall Worm is an entire toolset. Some fo the tools are for exporting Models, some for textures, and the VMF exporter exports the VMF. Planes are invalid brush geometry... so for them to export you have to make them "models". In this system, you assign a Wall Worm Model Tools (WWMT) helper to anything that is a model. It also has tools for designing the displacements (which are planar to begin with in this system)... but you can sculpt the displacements as a single giant mesh as you would a normal 3ds Max geoemtry. I want to point out that being off grid is really not a problem as long as you understand the system. New mappers who don't understand the differences between brush geometry and models may have that problem... but it's really a non-issue. 3ds Max has grid snapping just like Hammer does--except with way more control. I'm actually lining up a new video to demonstrate using the grid, snaps and Miauu's Work Plane later in the week to share some techniques.

Is it possibly to have some sort of system that takes planar geometry and turns it into a sort of pseudo pyramid? [img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62766551/plane_export.png[/img] The idea is that it would generate a vertex ~1-2 units behind the plane and connect this to the existing corner vertices of the plane. Thus generating a convex object. [editline]6th March 2012[/editline] It's no where near an optimal system, but it would make crude ports of older games more easily possible (ie N64 titles).

[QUOTE=HiddenMyst;35018126]Is it possibly to have some sort of system that takes planar geometry and turns it into a sort of pseudo pyramid? [img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62766551/plane_export.png[/img] The idea is that it would generate a vertex ~1-2 units behind the plane and connect this to the existing corner vertices of the plane. Thus generating a convex object. [editline]6th March 2012[/editline] It's no where near an optimal system, but it would make crude ports of older games more easily possible (ie N64 titles).[/QUOTE] That would certainly be something that can be scripted. However, I'm not the best person for that task. The best would be Michael Little, maker of Convexity ([URL="http://www.maple3d.com"]www.maple3d.com[/URL]). He's a genius and would solve that quickly... whereas it would take me a little time to figure out. But then the question is of incentive. I personally make all of my own tools because they are things that I need/want. I don't have any old levels from old games I need to port. Michael might not have much incentive either since he builds Convexity commercially, and unless it is something that would increase the number of people who are interested in buying Convexity (I recommend it!) then I doubt he will take up the task... If you want to take up the challenge, MAXScript isn't really that hard to learn... :)

[QUOTE=wallworm;35019904]That would certainly be something that can be scripted. However, I'm not the best person for that task. The best would be Michael Little, maker of Convexity ([URL="http://www.maple3d.com"]www.maple3d.com[/URL]). He's a genius and would solve that quickly... whereas it would take me a little time to figure out. But then the question is of incentive. I personally make all of my own tools because they are things that I need/want. I don't have any old levels from old games I need to port. Michael might not have much incentive either since he builds Convexity commercially, and unless it is something that would increase the number of people who are interested in buying Convexity (I recommend it!) then I doubt he will take up the task... If you want to take up the challenge, MAXScript isn't really that hard to learn... :)[/QUOTE] I might look into brushing up on my geometric math and just coding something like that myself then.

I've updated the VMF Exporter. I fixed a bug introduced in my last update that messed up the rotations of Proxies. There is also a new function in recent updates to tag world geometry as func_detail. I've also updated the export dialog with new features and the ability to save your export settings as presets. [IMG]http://dev.wallworm.com/media/1/image/jpeg/original/7_vmf_exporter_1.24.jpg[/IMG] See the [URL="http://dev.wallworm.com/topic/33/wwmt_changelog.html"]changelog for exact updates[/URL].