Max Import/Export Tool

from Sins Forums

I have a script that was written about 5 years ago by a member of the community (Aractain) that was, for me as a modeler, much a much more powerful and elegant design when compared to the original tool made by Stannum.  As I get back into the swing of modding, however, I think I've realized that it needs to be updated for the final release of Rebellion to actually be usable.  The last time I did any work was Diplomacy, and I know there have been changes to the mesh file since then.  

I have the entire .mzp archive file, but I have no clue where to begin.  Is there anyone with the coding skill that would be willing to update the script?  I know the community would love to have it at their disposal if it can do for Rebellion what I was able to do in Diplomacy with it.    

Here's a link to the file for anyone interested in taking a look or giving the script a spin: https://www.dropbox.com/s/roflqq1xrsudqp8/Aras%20SoaSE%20Max%20Tool%20v0.995.mzp?dl=0

modding
9,241 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

There really wasn't many changes between the Diplomacy and Rebellion mesh files, though the XSI to Mesh converter may have been more substantially improved. Only a single line that the vast majority of meshes do not use, and one that has no influence on the mesh in max.

I just use Max as an intermediary so I don't know it very well or its scripting language, but if you have the code readable I could probably figure it out. Especially if it has some things the other tool does not, like supporting multiple materials, mesh points or even just importing with the correct rotation. :p

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Well, I don't have a problem importing/exporting models that I've worked on in the past, but maybe it isn't a Rebellion-specific issue.  The script won't recognize any other mesh regardless of the expansion because it says it's in neither text or binary format.  I'm just not sure what to make of that, and it's kind of halted me in my tracks as far as making adjustments to an exiting mod.

The script itself will import and export while rotating the mesh, preventing mirroring, autolinking points, scaling (on export), and tangent creations/options.  It also allows you to create, modify, scale, and hide/show points (or arrows) quickly with a single click.  

Under the materials option, it seems like it only supports a single data material right now, but it also allows you to easily copy and then manipulate a tangent map as a second material.  The lone data material was all I ever needed to worry about, but that might be something that could be easily added. 

One of the most helpful elements for me is the Visualization tab, which colors the ship with its texture map, its tangent map, or (what I used most often) the variance map.  The variance map colored the entire ship blue while showing any tangent issues in red.  So I could quickly identify bits of the tangent UV map that might need to be flipped or adjusted.  It's able to update that in real-time, but that option always slowed my machine way down, so I stuck with the manual update.  There's a series of numerical thresholds to go along with the tangent and variance values, but I never experimented much with those.  

I've also added a dropbox link to the original post so anyone can download the files and take a look or experiment with them.

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Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Thanks for the tip.  Usually I handle simple material issues in the mesh text file, but this may be worth a look.  If possible, though, it would great to have everything incorporated into a single, easy to use tool.  As far as I can tell, this script from Aractian is closest to that in potential right now, but it needs someone with a programming background to finish it off.