Third Wire Max Exporter Notes addendum for version Dec 2010-C: This exporter version has a different Plug-in name and ID than previous version, so both versions can co-exist in the same "3ds Max 2009\plugins" folder. The new version of the exporter should be available as "TW Exporter Dec2010-C" in the Utilities menu. The following changes have been incorporated into the Exporter since the "Exporter Notes" was last updated in 2001. INSTALL PROCEDURE ================= Copy the file "twObjectExporter Dec2010-C.dlu" into "3ds Max 2009\plugins" folder. This exporter only works with 32-bit version of 3D Studio Max 2009. MATERIAL ======== You can now also assign Bump (Normal) Map and Specular Map in material editor, and they can be exported and used by the game engine. Bump Map -------- To add Bump Map, check the box next to "Bump", select "Bitmap" as Map type, and then select the texture map you want. Only the texture map name is exported, and none of the other Bitmap parameters are used. The texture map used in the game must be converted to RGB Normal Map format (you can find tools to convert B&W bump map to RGB Normal map on various game development sites, for example, on nVidia website http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html ) Bump maps are applied per model basis - ie, each aircraft model can only have 1 set of Bump maps - and should be included in the aircraft's main folder. Bump Map only works when running the game in DX10 mode. Specular Map ------------ To add Specular Map, check the box next to "Specular Color" in Maps, select "Bitmap" as Map type, and then select the texture map you want. Only the texture map name is exported, and none of the other Bitmap parameters are used. The Specular color map (can be any format including .jpg and .bmp) is multiplied with the regular specular setting, set either in the INI file or using Specular Level checkbox, to reduce the amount of specular at each texture position. So white color (255,255,255) has specular as usual, any other color reduces the specular at that pixel, down to no specular with black (0,0,0). The R, B, G amount can be adjusted to shift the specular color as well, so red (255,0,0) pixel will have a red specular, etc. Specular maps are applied per TextureSet basis, and should be included in each of the texture folder. Specular Map only works when running the game in DX10 mode. Effects on the Maximum Number of Decals per Mesh ------------------------------------------------ Adding bump map or specular map reduces the max number of decals you can have on each mesh. The maximum number of decals you can have on a mesh without any effect layer is 7 (plus 1 for basic texture, for maximum limit of 8 texture layers). Reflection takes 1 texture layer and subtracts 1 from the limit, reducing the maximum to 6 decal layers. Adding Specular map also subtracts 1 from the limit. Adding Bump map also subtracts 1 from the limit. So a mesh with Reflection, Specular Map, and Bump Map has a maximum of 4 decal layers allowed. OBJECT PROPERTIES ================= There are 4 "User Defined Properties" that can be set to better control how the mesh is exported and rendered in the game engine. Right click on a mesh, select Object Properties, and select User Defined tab to edit these properties. The following properties are available: AllowDecals = True/False CastShadow = True/False CatchShadow = True/False UseFlatNormal = True/False AllowDecals ----------- AllowDecals property, when set to False, causes this particular mesh to be exported as if it was using "Export - No Decals" button even when the "Export - Decals" button is used. It has not effect when exporting using "Export - No Decals" button. Exporting using AllowDecals=False causes the vertex to be shared, so it can reduce the size of the .LOD but also causes decals to "bleed" along the edges. CastShadow ---------- CastShadow property, when set to True, causes the mesh to cast shadow. By default, this is True for solid mesh, and False for transparent mesh. The shadow is always cast using the mesh geometry, not by transparency on texture. CatchShadow ----------- CatchShadow property, when set to True, causes the mesh to catch shadow and be rendered with shadow on top. If this is set to False, the mesh will not be rendered with shadow on top. By default, this is True for solid mesh, and False for transparent mesh. Transparent meshes cannot CastShadow and CatchShadow at the same time. UseFlatNormal ------------- UseFlatNormal property, when set to True, causes all normal vector of this particular mesh to be a straight up (0,0,1) vector. The default is always False. This property should generally be left False. ANIMATION ========= Scaling and vertex manipulation animations are now also supported. When a mesh is animated at vertex level, 10 copies of the mesh are saved out (one for each key frame). This may cause the file size to be excessively large, so it should be used for mesh with small number of vertices. For best result, animation controller should be set to use TCB type controllers. (Later Max versions default to Euler XYZ and Position XYZ). To assign animation controller, select a mesh with animation, go to Animation tab, select Assign Controller, and select "Rotation: Euler XYZ" (or "Position: Position XYZ"), then click on the "?" button right above the edit box, and select "TCB Rotation" (or "TCB Position"). If you want to keep the max default setting, you must set the controller type for each of the mesh animated, and for each controller, Rotation and Position. Or you can set default animation controllers to be TCB controllers by hitting the "make Default" button at the bottom of the Assign Controller dialog.