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Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Goober5000 on July 09, 2008, 07:54:51 pm

Title: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: Goober5000 on July 09, 2008, 07:54:51 pm: Is it possible? And if so, is it possible without losing important information in the process?
Title: Re: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: peterv on July 09, 2008, 09:01:35 pm: Export/import using 3ds format. Nothing to be used in freespace is in danger.
Title: Re: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: Galemp on July 09, 2008, 10:04:38 pm: 3DS truncates texture names to 8.3, though, which sucks.
Title: Re: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on July 09, 2008, 11:32:23 pm: I dunno about Max, but I know in Maya if you open up the file in like notepad or whatever you can just go and change Maya 8.0 to Maya 7.0 instead and stuff like that. A lot of the file is binary except for those numbers which appear a bunch of times on the first line. But this might not be the case with 3DS max in which case this is no help at all.
Title: Re: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: Nuke on July 10, 2008, 07:16:53 am: this is one of the reasons i hate professional software, they lock you into new versions (usually an expensive upgrade) by making file format version compatibility one way only. truespace is one of the few proggies i used that let you save in older versions of the format. i find it unsettling that a more expensive and better featured package like max would lack such a rudimentary feature.

.....and thats why i make autodesk walk the plank.
Title: Re: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: Omniscaper on July 13, 2008, 02:34:54 pm: If you export to wavefront's OBJ it retains long names smoothing groups and UVs. It sometimes triangulates tho.
Title: Re: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: DaBrain on July 13, 2008, 03:13:47 pm: Quote from: Goober5000 on July 09, 2008, 07:54:51 pm
Is it possible? And if so, is it possible without losing important information in the process?

Depends on what "important informations" are.
FBX would be first choice, but the version for MAX 6 won't import UV coordinates.
OBJ would be the second best choice. It's really only ment to save the model and mapping, but nothing else.
3ds ... I don't like it, but it does save some more stuff.

You might want to take a look at this. It could be the best way to get your model into max 6 wihout loosing anything.
However, I have yet to test the script myself, so I don't know how well it works, other than reading about it.
The interesting thing is, that it should even keep your modifier stack(!)
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/bff-2007
Title: Re: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: ak-73 on July 14, 2008, 09:51:04 am: Quote from: Goober5000 on July 09, 2008, 07:54:51 pm
Is it possible? And if so, is it possible without losing important information in the process?

If my gmax/3dsm io script is finished in a few days it will hopefully be possible to export and re-import across versions without any loss of data.

Alex
Title: Re: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: Col. Fishguts on July 14, 2008, 01:04:54 pm: Quote from: Goober5000 on July 09, 2008, 07:54:51 pm
Is it possible? And if so, is it possible without losing important information in the process?

What exactly do you want to do with it ? Post the .MAX file and I'll try it.
Title: Re: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: Goober5000 on July 14, 2008, 06:50:00 pm: I'll PM you.
Title: Re: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: chief1983 on July 15, 2008, 09:03:03 am: Perhaps DAE could be used here? Or is it not in Max 6?
Title: Re: Converting from Max 9 to Max 6
Post by: KewlToyZ on July 17, 2008, 02:51:10 pm: Autodesk made a free FBX converter for download.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=6839916

I didnt have a working trial of 3DS Max 2009 long enough to test it out and see how it converts to other model types.
Any experiences you guys have with it?