Exporting models from 3D Studio Max
Here's a simple help page that explains how to export in .X format with the Pandasoft exporter.
All the screenshots were taken using MAX 8
1. Prerequisites
We'll be exporting the whole scene, even the hidden and frozen objects, so you need to delete from the scene all objects that you do not want exported. Just keep the model and its bones or biped, then hide the bones or the biped.
In our project we have generic animations that are shared among models so we export the model and the animations separately (of course all the models that use the same animations need to have the same bone hierarchy), this is what I describe here.
We do not use the Pandasoft tool (MAX scripts that call the Pandasoft plugin) but we use the plugin directly though MAX's "File | Export" menu.
2. Exporting a model without animation
Always make sure that "Left Handed Axis" in the "X File Settings" as this box sometimes un-checks itself for no reason. Actually, it is wiser to un-check it and re-check it even if it is already checked.
Then simply click Export
Remark: it's a good idea to use texture dimensions that are powers of 2 or some video cards will resize the texture and your UV coordinates will be all wrong.
3. Exporting the animations
There are many ways to make animations in MAX, we've tested many of them and here's what we found:
Animation method:
Keyframes on Bones: works
Keyframes on Biped: works
IK + keyframes on Biped: works (the exporter generates keyframes at a rate set by the user)
IK on bones: not tested, don't know if this is possible.
Skinning methods:
Physique: works (using either vertices or envelope method)
Skinning: doesn't work (using envelope might work, vertices definitely don't work)
All this has been tested using WME 1.7beta
To export the animations, un-hide the bones or biped then hide the model and use the following exported settings.
Remember to un-check it and re-check "Left Handed Axis".
We're using "Matrix keys" and "3DS max ticks" for our animation options. "Key frames" didn't seem to work (wrong speed). "Positions, Scale and Rotate" could be worth checking.
