HI folkspandasoft has released his newly pandasoft DX export version 4.3.0.46 for 3d studio max 4 and 5 (this includes 5.1 sp1 ) that works to compile a makemdl .x friendly file...so it can be processed with makemdl and get a fully usable aircraft without using gmax even a bit ... without exporting and importing meshes.. without loosing animation or texture data ...you can now export airplanes in 3d studio max directly to fs .. without using gmaxgo here to get it http://www.pandasoft.demon.co.uk/or directly to http://www.pandasoft.demon.co.uk/Files/3ds...daDXExport5.dleit can be used to export .x files for use for every app that needs meshes in that format .. but has been tested to work just perfectly with fs2002 makemdl :7the version 4.3.0.46 is the only version that works with makemdl.exe so theres no 3dsmax 2 or 3 supportit can be adjusted the specularity glossines and some other settings from 3dsmax to get the desired dynamic shine effect..the plugin comes with lots of configurations and settings but i got one that produces an .x file that works just fine .. here are the settings that i got to work correctly:in the 3dsmax objects tab select this :mesh definition, optimize, materials, include animation, geometric, mesh normals, mapping coordinates, vertex colors, in animation tab select this:position,rotate and scale keys, sampling rate at 30 frames, keyframes instead of 3dsmax ticks, include animation options, open and linear positions, in x file settings tab select this :text, sub frame hierarchy, left handed axis,the settings of the texture tab are optional .. those are onyl for the people who wants to get his texture converted to the selected image file format or be scaled to nearest power of 2 when producing the .X fileso i would like to thank andrew tather owner of pandasoft and creator of this great pluggin ... for his such enormous help and for listen people suggestions. cuz without his help all this new posibility couldnt be posibleKINDEST REGARDS TO ALL DAVID SEGOVIA:-wave

Hello David.Wow, this is amazing news! I had never heard of a plugin to eliminate gmax from the equation 3ds = FS. This is fantastic! I will give it a try immediatly!Thanks a lot for the heads up.

hi.. yea this is superb !! .. i personally use 3dsmax.. and believe im so happy that i think im gonna xplode lol :7.. you dont know how annoying was to export from 3ds and import in gmax to animate and texturize and export :-erksi also have found that with this pluggin you can make very very large aircraft models .. i have tried a near to 70000 polys dummy aircraft and it got compiled! so the old 60,000 polys limit is gone :7hope this great tool helps you as it helps me... thanks for the kind comments ;)KINDEST REGARDS TO ALL DAVID SEGOVIA :-wave

I may be wrong, but if you exceed 60000 for interior + 60000 polys for exterior, makemdl will not compile the file. I say that because most of my models are around 120000 polys and gmax+middleman+mdlcommander+makemdl have always correctly export them. have you try 70000 polys for exterior+70000 polys for interior?

no i really havent tried 70,000 polys for exterior and 70000 for the interior... i will try it soon .. to see what i get hehehe ...didnt know about the full 120,000 polys limit ... i thought it was 60,000 including interior KINDEST REGARDS :7DAVID SEGOVIA

You guys are definitely killing me ... 120000 or 170000 polys !!!!Does the word "framerate" still mean something for you?Your designs will surely be very appreciated by people with highend computers, but some others will definitely kill you :-D

Hey Pascal.That does not mean we will go up to that many. Herv

Meljet is around 40,000 polygons I think

my alouette 3 was 51000, exterior and 42000, interior.Still runs fine on my pc with a geforce 4 mx420.Alan

It's the textures that'll hurt FPS more than the number of polys.

Actually Melvin ;) told me the poly count was ranging from 60000 to 67000 depending on the engine variant, for the 777. V2 should have over 100000 polys, with a 4MB MDL file.Cheers,:) Melvinwww.meljet.comhttp://www.meljet.com/images/MelJet-logo-01.jpg

I just have a quick question for those of you who with this method.Can you add a virtual cockpit easily as well? just curious.

hey guysI know its a very old post, but I havent been following 3d studio max lately.Will all features gmax has (XML etc) be able with this too?(its because I am thinking of stepping over from gmax to 3dmax)

>hey guys>>I know its a very old post, but I havent been following 3d>studio max lately.>Will all features gmax has (XML etc) be able with this too?>>(its because I am thinking of stepping over from gmax to>3dmax)Albert, the XML encoding is done by MakeMDL.exe when it parses the MakeMDL.parts.xml file, so yes... you will still have that feature, since it really has nothing to do with GMax at all.Be aware though, that the Pandasoft Xporter only exports Diffuse Color and Specular Color information.Ambient Color and Self-Illumination Color are NOT exported, so you would need to hand-edit the .x file to add that information if you want to use _LM, or _L lightmaps in your model. :(

Thanx for the answer. Pitty thought that you need to hand edit it. I will think very good before I start. Gmax aint bad at all, I just would love the render feature. :9