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Dark GDK / 3DS - Good Converters, anyone?

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TerryRussell
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Joined: 11th Dec 2010
Location: Chichester, UK
Posted: 5th Mar 2011 19:46
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Hi.

I know that the 3DS functions in the GDK don't work (even though Ian M said it was on his "to-do" list back in ?October?). That seems well documented in this forum.

I have a lot of models in 3DS format that I was hoping to use in my programs. I have managed to convert a few of them into .x format and some work OK. But many of them don't. They quite often work OK in the viewer that comes with the Microsoft DicrectX SDK, so I guess that the TGC GDK doesn't even handle these 100%.

I have used the 3DS->X converter that comes with the DirectX SDK to convert to .x, and I have tried using other graphics programs to export into .md2. The results have been less than wonderful, so far.

Does anyone know of any good converter programs that I can use to convert 3ds and max models to something that the Dark GDK can use?

Free is nice!

Thanks!

****

Alternatively, does anyone have any pointers as to which functions or classes might be wrong within the GDK? I've been poking around in the code, but it's somewhat convoluted. Any pointers would be gratefully received.

Amazing Simulation
www.amazing-forum.com
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Cetobasilius
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Location: Mexico
Posted: 6th Mar 2011 00:43
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some months ago i loaded a .3DS model in gdk correctly, the load time is veery slow. i convert .3ds models with Milkshape 3D to .x and it works well most of the time. i think blender also has the option and its free

hi
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TerryRussell
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 10:47
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Thanks, Cetobasilius!

I've got Blender, Carrera 7 and AC3d installed here. Some of their outputs work OK with the Dark GDK, but many don't. Sometimes their conversions are not proper, as the Microsoft DirectX Viewer reports errors in them.

So, I am looking for other converters, so that I have an arsenal of them, in the hope that at least one will convert each of my models into .x or .md2 etc.

I have waited for eight hours in one case with a 3DS model in Dark GDK, and it eventually crashed the program. That was the best result I've ever had...

Amazing Simulation
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Cetobasilius
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 13:50 Edited at: 6th Mar 2011 13:50
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hehe yes, 3ds models are a headache sometimes. And, i also have some problems with the Directx viewer, sometimes reporting errors on my models and not loading them, but Darkgdk does load them, depending on the case. Even if the viewer says there were errors, try loading them with DarkGDK maybe you will see something! The worst case is some UV mapping weirdness lol hope you get your model to load!

hi
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Neotron
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Location: I am in an underworld , making a E.Army
Posted: 8th Mar 2011 16:42 Edited at: 8th Mar 2011 16:43
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I am also having the same problem.I have 3ds max 8 with panda exporter.But when i export it in .x, three things happen.
1->When i export with bones, the model gets scrambled (all the vertices gets disturbed) , no animations and no texture maps.
2->When i export without bones , the model gets exported like a charm with last exported frame,but no animations and no texture mapping.
3->I don't export the model at all and still get nothing ....lol.

ALLAH IS THE GREATEST
May he forgive me
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TerryRussell
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Posted: 9th Mar 2011 11:13
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In the absence of any signs that anyone at TGC is going to do anything to make the 3DS import routines work properly, I plan to see if I can fix it myself.

I've had a quick look and I can see the basic structure of all the interlocking classes and functions, so maybe, just maybe, I can figure out what is going wrong with the 3DS functions. But it is quite complex.

I am currently making some changes to the sound functions, so that I can create the equivalent of "MakeSoundFromMemblock". That way, I can encrypt my files, then load them into memory, decode them and play them directly from the allocated buffers. I'm quite well into that now, so maybe in a few day's time I start to look at the 3DS punctions. But no promises...

I won't be releasing my amended GDK libraries (too many problems with too many versions floating about), but if anyone here is seriously interested, I will let them know what changes I made to the C++ files and then they can recompile them for themself.

Amazing Simulation
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WLGfx
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Location: NW United Kingdom
Posted: 9th Mar 2011 17:31
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I've not worked with animated objects yet so I guess I've had no problems with exporting them. But I will remember to watch for the signs in the future though. I mainly use .x in general and .dbo's for lightmapped scenes. No animations (cos I'm lazy!).

Warning! May contain Nuts!
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DeadTomGC
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Posted: 9th Mar 2011 17:44
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I don't know how helpful this will be, but here is a software that can convert to a lot of formats and preserve the animations on most.
The software was designed for anim8or though, so you need to convert to .an8 and then to what ever other format you want.

http://texel3d.free.fr/projets/ani2pov/index.html

I'll get a new signature someday.
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Cetobasilius
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Posted: 10th Mar 2011 07:37
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post your model, i can try to convert it for you and see if i can recover the animations.

hi
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TerryRussell
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Posted: 10th Mar 2011 19:45
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Hi DeadTom.

Thanks for that. I haven't looked at that one before. I'll give it a go and see how it goes.

Hi Cetobasilius.

Thanks for the offer. It isn't animated objects in particular. It's all of them. I have a very large library of objects, mainly in 3ds and max formats.

I am working on a new simulator (I did a lot of work on Ship Simulator 2008, previously - all of the superpacks!) and unless I can figure out what is wrong with the 3ds routines in Dark GDK I will either have to convert everything into .x or .md2 (which is causing problems) or else go and use some other set of libraries.

Amazing Simulation
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