Vol II Issue 2: 3ds Max Export Tool - A First Look

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3ds Max Export Tool - A First Look
by John Hessler
Multiverse Technical Art Director
Multiverse recently released a new tool, the 3ds Max export tool, that enables you to quickly and easily export models directly from 3ds Max into Multiverse mesh format. The export tool redefines the pipeline process from 3ds Max, enabling a larger number of developers to move assets into their worlds and dramatically speed up the process for art teams already in development. It enables faster iteration of assets in the development process, and helps improve the final assets qualitatively and quantitatively. The tool also reduces production time by creating a layer of functionality between the command line process and the 3ds Max export process. Artists can also use the tool to organize their work on model sets and animations.


To help you understand this tool better I will describe each of its rollout categories and describe the major features, benefits, and potential work process solutions:

Model Set - The model set is an umbrella functionality added to the exporter to enable processing many models with similar export requirements, so that you can process more than one model at a time. However, use of this layer isn't a requirement for successful export from the tool and you can exclude this level if you prefer to export models individually. To use this layer, the model definitions of individual models must already exist having been created by the following rollouts of the tool (see the sections below). In upcoming releases, this will also be used to facilitate the incorporation of Level-of-Detail (LOD) into the export process, so it is a good idea to become familiar with even if you do not intend to use it in your current production pipeline.

Model Definitions - The heart of the export tool is the Model Definition rollout, which includes the Animated Model Components sub-category. When you save a model, the tool also saves information from the Animated Model Components rollout and associated Asset Repositories. It is important to remember to re-save the definition file after making permanent changes to these aspects of your model. There is a considerable amount of flexibility designed into this rollout to allow for varied asset creation processes that include differing types of assets.

In this rollout, you define the model as static (non-skinned / non-animated) or animated (rigged and skinned). If the model is defined as an animated model then the animation rollout becomes active and visible (see below). If the model is defined as a static model there are two options for the next steps:

One model per file
Shared scene file, where multiple static models such as swords share the same file.
The shared system works by associating meshes that are part of the same object. This requires using a common sub-string after any Multiverse prefixes (such as "mvcv"). Any objects without a common sub-string are output as individual models.





For an animated model, there are three schemes for incorporating animations into a the base model:

Bip files
Scene files
Shared file
When using biped to animate characters and creatures, you can save the animations out to bip files that are loaded one at a time at export time and then incorporated into the model export.

Individual scene files (in which the model and rig are the same) enable you to separate every animation and rig in its own file. This is a good workable solution fro non-biped animations.

With a shared file, all of the animations share a single timeline and are exported in pieces from the scene file. (This functionality is not yet fully integrated at this time so it is best to avoid this solution in the current builds.) With animated characters, specifically, there is a different setup of the collision volume due to the animated aspect of the model. The tool gives you an easy and simple way to create and modify a physics file for this in the form of the Collision Volume Capsule portion of the Animated Components rollout.

Assets Repositories - In this rollout you specify one or more asset repositories to which to export the models. If you are working on multiple projects or are doing testing you have the option of redirecting your output and exporting to multiple repositories.

Export Options - This allows for the setup of the export processes to special cases. For more information, see the article on the Developer Wiki.

Configuration - This rollout allows the tool to use non-standard implementations of the programs that are used in the export and conversion process. This enables the use of tip builds or older versions for testing and error checking. The defaults are the settings that most developers will want to use.

In summary, he 3ds export tool is designed to speed up your development process and support your team in the process of rapid prototyping. If you want to use the Multiverse platform to its fullest check out the tutorial and give the tool a try.

Resources

If you haven't yet downloaded the tool: Download 3ds Export Tool. For more information on this tool, see Using the 3ds Max Export Tool on the Developer Wiki.
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