Well, my searches have brought me here. Im trying to get 3ds max 6 to export to a custom (arbitrary) format, which i will define myself (its my own format which i have yet to decide on), first of all, is this possible? And second of all, where could i find some good resources and tutorials on max script? (other than discreet’s website, for whatever reason whenever i try to download something it never does anything, like it shows the ftp site its accessing and everything, but nothing ever happens) so an alternative to that would be great.
Aditionally, if theres simply a detailed (official prefferably) and accurate description of the *.3ds file format used by 3ds max 6, that would be even better for me, so i could just write my own little conversion program in c++ rather than learning another language. Thank You
-Dan
3DS is the format of 3D Studio DOS (RIP, 1990-1995).
Don’t use it unless you have to – it is old, obsolete, limiting.
There is no official specification available, although there are unofficial sources.
Either write your own format (so you know what you have), or go with some simpler and well-documented format like OBJ.
http://www.scriptspot.com is the repository to search for resources.
The MAXScript Help has some simple examples of exporting a mesh to an ASCII format (look under “How To…” tutorials chapter). I admit it is not the best format there is, but it is a start.
MAXScript also supports Binary I/O. Obviously, it is much easier to prototype, but would be slower to execute.
Also check out my BFF attempts (BFF is a scene format similar to the Maya .MA format, but using MAXScript instead of MEL). It might give you some ideas. http://www.scriptspot.com/bobo/darkmoon/bff
Then, there is the MAX SDK which has some examples, and I think the source code of the Max’s own ASCII format, ASE, and a sample Renderer (CJRender) are available so you can use them as a starting point if you want to export data straight from the Max scene to a binary or ASCII format.
Cheers,
Bobo
You can write export formats.
This is a good resource. Well worth the cost:
http://www.lyric.com/maxscript101/index.htm
Bobo has some great stuff too: