3D studio max r3...

[Warfreak]

 ............. I got it......................

K, well I said i'd make a tutorial, here it is; the rough version

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Alright everyone who has 3DS MAX 7, first thing is first, open up MAX.

From there make a box and 2 spheres.

link one of the spheres to the box and link the parentless sphere to the already linked sphere.

now, click the time configuration button and under animations set the length to 5.

now, click the "child" sphere (the sphere linked to a sphere linked to a box) and go under the motions tab.

From there click on the "position" dropdown list and click the assign controller button.

From there set the "TCB Position" on the list and click "ok"

Now, add a key to every frame.

Set the key values as such:

[key on 0] X = 0, Y = 0, Z = 0

[key on 1] X = 1, Y = 1, Z = 0

[key on 2] X = 2, Y = 2, Z = 0

[key on 3] X = 4, Y = 4, Z = 0

[key on 4] X = 8, Y = 8, Z = 0

[key on 5] X = 16, Y = 16, Z = 0

Now, diselect all objects............ (DO NOT MODIFY THE PIVOTS, we are jsut seeing if this will export)

Export the model as a .xsi.

Close Max and open the .xsi in notepad.

Go all the way down and there should be the numerical entries that we put in.

CONGRADS, exporting in MAX  7 

[Avatar]

That seems like a very complex way of making an animation...  I prefer to just move and rotate pieces myself, hitting the 'position' or 'rotation' key buttons as needed OR just turning on 'animation' (yes, looks like it's a 'key' icon now but the same button) and doing it.

Anyway, glad it's figured out... 

-Av-

[Warfreak]

Actually, I used auto key (works the way you like AV )

Just put the key typing thing so that people see that this method works fully...........

Just got to make sure that rotation works now 

[bigbadbogie]

how do you link things?? (first nooby question of the year)

[Warfreak]

I didnt expect anyone to understand that text fully.

Im making a video tutorial atm, but you know the icon with 2 boxes and a chain in between them, thats the link button, select the object to be linked, click the link button, click on the "Select by name" icon (the one with a mouse and a list) and select the object you wish to link it to.

[Avatar]

I'm curious as to what advantage using a controller gives you over just positioning the pieces where you want them and making it a keyframe...  The controllers are nice for complex objects, but nothing in BZ2 (not even walkers) is anywhere near that complex.

Say you have a character's face with dozens of 'muscle groups'.  That's where the beziers come in handy, if I'm thinking of the right thing.  Using that sort of controller lets you make complex facial expressions 'by the number'.

For a game object all you usually need to do is rotate a little, move a little, and maybe keep track of the rotation in degrees (tells you at the bottom of the screen) to duplicate the motion, say, for the other leg...

Not that I'm complaining, just saying it seems a bit more complex than is needed...

Turn on the key, move the slider, rotate/move the object, move the slider, repeat until done.

-Av-

[Nielk1]

The point for me is mute now because by Max wont start at all anymore.

I installed Portal (The Orange Box) and had to update my Video Drivers, and now, despite Repearing and a complete reinstall, I get a "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000142)" error. I tracked that number to mean that a DLL is missing or corrupted, but I have no way to find out what, where, or how.

[bigbadbogie]

reinstall max -- i have portal and my max is fine

[Nielk1]

I did.

First I did a repair.

Then I did a reinstall.

Then I took it back out and removed it from teh entire PC, removing every registry and HDD reffernce.

Reinstall.

Error...

[Nielk1]

Turn on the key, move the slider, rotate/move the object, move the slider, repeat until done.

Aparently that is the issue in later versions of max. It isn't that simple

I will reset my whole PC again sometime this week, I just have to move arouund about 500 gigs, and, buy more burnable DVDs.

Sometimes its good to take it all back to start and install things in a differnt order.

BETTER WORK

[Warfreak]

Well, got a video tutorial put together............. Shows how to motion animate a simple "orbit".........

Ill do a rotation and scale one later on... Should mention,  I know the .7z says 2mb, but the movie is actually a 150mb .avi. 

Well here it is: Position Animation in Max 7 video Tutorial (.7z)

And a 28mb .zip version: Position Animation in Max 7 video Tutorial (.zip)

Its my first one, so it will be a little crappy

[Avatar]

Avatar,
I do that alot too but still those controlers are what allows you to export so you use them reguardless.

The exporter also does bone animations but I never worked on it enough to figure it out, after all, this was used for DRII bone animations right?

No, at least not that I know of.  The bones shown in the BZ2 models are Softimage creations, with nodes and such.  Max 3's bones are totally different animals and look nothing like what I see in BZ2.  I never saw any bone helpers in any of the DR2 models I looked at, but then I only looked at some of them using the Pandemic viewer, which may not even show such things...  who knows...

As far as I know Softimage was used primarily to create the objects for both games.   I always got the impression the Max exporter was just to allow for Max creations to be used, or to humour someone on the Dev team that preferred Max.   

The bit you posted is very interesting, and I'd like to know if using a controller with 7 allows you to do vertex animation.   I'd also like to know if just keyframing a simple object also makes it into BZ2, like I'm doing with r3...  if it's the same exporter it seems like it'd work the same...

Anyway, the idea that the exporter can do more than I've seen is intriguing...  I'd like to find out more.  I wonder who wrote the exporter to begin with and if they're still around?  We could sic GSH on 'em... 

-Av-

[Warfreak]

Just a note, I tried to export a "deploy" animation for a turret, ingame the turret loops through the animation instead of stopping at the end like a turret should............... This probelm does not occur with it's fin animations.

Might just be me skrewing up again though.

[Avatar]

Both the first and last frame must be fully keyed...  so make sure your first and last frames have both position and rotation keys for anything that moves.  Otherwise when the animation is finished playing the unit will quickly 'snap back' to the undeployed position.

-Av-

[Warfreak]

k, Thanks Avatar.