Ta-da! So here it is after far to many months of faffing around trying to find time to work on it.
This is an “alpha” release meaning I can’t be 100% sure it’s bug free and it doesn’t contain all the features I’d hope to add to a final version. Most noticeably it doesn’t re-create smoothing groups (it uses vertex normals instead) and currently doesn’t support animation imports. That said, it’s got a couple of nice extra features I added.
I’ve also made a small update to the SMD exporter plug-in to enable it to export vertex normals correctly. This is important if your just importing/exporting from Max without editing.
As usual I welcome feedback and bug reports but remember I can’t fix a bug without a good description and the file that was causing the problem. I have to be able to replicate the problem to solve it.
Thanks to all for your patience and apologies it took so long. Sadly real life and my innate crapness at mathematics is to blame for the delay.
Edit: Oops, put a wrong file in the archive. Fixed it now.
- 3DS Max SMD Importer version 0.1a
- 3DS Max SMD Exporter version 1.4
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Responses to “3DS Max 9/2008/2009 SMD Importer – Alpha release.”
Ah good new! I have been waiting for this. Unfortunately it does not work for me. I use 3ds max 2009 and installed the plugin. When I try to import a tf2 model or a hl2 model I get an error message. I tried importing multiple models and got this message.
“Loading and re-indexing SMD data…
Error: Unparseable keyframe data (line 70).
Done!”
I tried modifying it with notepad++, but with out any success.
I did accomplish to import it in Maya.
Can you send me the SMD files? I can debug them then and spot where it’s falling over.
Great plugin. Been wanting to import Counter-Strike Source SMD’s so
I can get bones and animations from CSS models and hack them into
custom models and hacked half-life 2 models. ie. Alyx.
Used Cannonfodder’s MDL Decompiler to extract SMD’s.
Cannonfodder’s MDL Decompiler Settings:
Dump Old Unweighted SMD’s: Unchecked.
Do No Fix Rotations On Animations: Unchecked.
Use Steam File Access: Unchecked.
When I import the reference SMD’s from any of the CSS models,
there is a bone “ValveBiped.Bip01_Spine” that extends from the models
back upwards over the head.
On some models there are bones that extend from arms down as far as
the models feet:
“ValveBiped.weapon_bone_RHand”
“ValveBiped.weapon_bone_LHand”
I’m not sure if this is normal but the bone:
“ValveBiped.Bip01_Pelvis”
doesn’t extend across the whole pelvis area, only on the left side
of the model.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I hope It’s something I did
and can be corrected.
The mesh imports beautifully as well as the .vtf importer.
Thanks for your great work.
Having the same problem as boedy on Max 2009. http://rapidshare.com/files/166305506/smd.rar.html
Great job man, really appreciate the being able to uninstall milkshape3d.
One thing that would be really nice in a future release is being able to import SMD’s with the VTF’s.
The only issue I’ve had was some message about not being able to set a read-only flag on the SMDImporter script, but it might be talking about a different script entirely.
Wow, lot of comments to reply to
@Spearmeat: Bones in max are not actually the blue “diamonds” that you see. A bone is effectively two points connected in a hierarchy. The blue diamond simply a visual representation of the link to indicate position and orientation and doesn’t necessarily have any bearing on the bone structure beneath it. Hence if a bone is too long (apparently) that doesn’t mean that the skeleton structure is wrong.
The length of the visual bone is calculated as an average length between it and it’s children so it’s possible it’s not always right depending on the position of the children. That said, the spine bone does sound way off so I’ll look into it. As for the pelvis issue, its because the visual bone represents the orientation of the pelvis bone (say pointing to the right) and the average length of it’s children. That’s why, although there are two “thigh” bones, the pelvis is pointing right and it draws the length as the distance between that and the thigh.
@Tuna: boedy and I talked on MSN and tracked down the source of the bug and I made a fix. It’ll be solved when I release and update hopefully next week.
@MüNkEy: All that’s in the SMD is the texture filename, which might be BMP, TGA, VTF, JPEG, etc. It has no idea where those files are and can only set the filename. I know Cannonfodder’s plug-in would prompt you to browse for the textures but I found that annoying as it doesn’t tell you which one you’re browsing for. I just think it’s easier to set them and then just browse for them from the material library.
Just a reminder, Autodesk purchased Softimage’s all major products, including XSI short time ago. Valve has to pay Autodesk for XSI license. They might release official plugins for Max one day.
p.s. yes, I love dreaming.
I love you!!
Oh, finally. Thanks man. I really appreciate your work. I wish I could donate you, but I spent my last money on Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead.
Posted by Barnz
Fri, November 14th, 2008 @ 17:47