MaxScript MDX Importer/Exporter

ATTENTION: Outdated, Importer / Exporter further down.

Download:http://kmkdesign.8m.com/downloads (Sorry it's freeservers)
This is for 3ds Max. It was made for max 4, also works for 5 and gmax. It's still work in progress. It imports geometry and animated object visibility at present. Animated visibility means that the corpse only appears at certain stages and various other bits appear and disappear. Materials need to be added manually, see below. Bones, helpers and lights should be next, then animation before an export function.

Please report any bugs, suggestions, etc.

To make the materials for most models:
Use DJBnJack's Wc3 Image Extractor to extract the main model texture as a tga file
Material 1 (main texture): Diffuse map is the tga file. Opacity map is tga file but under Mono Channel Output select Alpha.
Material 2 (team colour texture): Diffuse map is the tga file. Diffuse colour is whatever you want the team colour to be (I use red).
It should be fairly straightforward which material you use where.

KMK

PS. The script will remain encrypted until a final version is made

To view textures see above post

How to run the script:
1. Go to the utilities panel (hammer icon) and from there select MAXScript.
2. Select run script and open importmdx.mse.
3. Select MDX Import/Export from the utilities drop down menu.

Error Messages:
"not MDX file":
An mdx file begins with "MDLX". If it doesn't begin with this then it hasn't been extracted properly.

--Runtime error: Feature not available "fopen write mode"
Using gmax. Gmax does not support the export capabilities

--Runtime error: Index should be less than NumNoteTracks, got: <something, usually 1>
Reason: There's no note track for the sequences.
Solution: Import an mdx of a unit with similar sequences (if your modifying a unit then that use that unit otherwise try to make it the same caste, eg. spell casting, peon, etc.) having set the import option as animated visibility and then delete the meshes created by it.
This should resolve the problem.

-- Unable to convert: undefined to type: Integer
Part of the mesh isn't uvw mapped. If you add a uvw map modifier to it the export should work.

Just a small progress report, the file hasn't been updated.
So far I have managed to get these features working:
geometry, including texture co-ords and normals (no problems)
object animated visibility (no problems)
bones, helpers, etc. (some problems with larger files)
skin modifier for objects (takes a long time)
animated bones (problems with rotations)

So the import function is nearing completion. Once I've fixed the rotations I'll update the file. Materials and collision objects might be added at a later stage.

If anyone has any idea what event objects are could they tell me.

If there's anything you think I've missed please say so.

KMK

event objects are about the only thing I don't understand in regards to converting back to mdx, I'll see if I can work them out or at least find a pattern. However there are a few other difficulties, such as texture paths. Will I have to say that any textures must correspond to the mpq path, eg. path_to_texture.tga corresponding to path\to\texture.blp? I also need to work out how to create notes and read notes in the track view. Then I can use those to work out the sequences, so at the first frame of Attack there is a note 'Attack' and at the last frame a note '/Attack' or some similar system. Can anyone think of an easier way?

What I think Blizzard has done is create several sets of skeletans for warcraft 3. These skeletans would include all the animations imagionable that, that type of character might need to do. ie They would have a Biped and a quadped and so on.
It was the fact that each model has around 30,000 frames of animation. It would just be far too much to have custom animations for each character, and also why would blizzard animate actions for a unit if they where never going to use it?
Is it possible that there are several animation files that are in mpq and that through a compiling program Blizzard apply these animations to the models - and convert them to the mdx format.
I'm almost certain that something along those lines is happening because of the very small filesize of the models. 150k file wouldnt hold all that info.
Anyway I'm just trying to be helpful.

There are almost no interchangable skelly animations in war3 (exceptions include human and orc peons animations). Creating these referrable skeletal animations would not only be tiresome but also mostly useless.
And about the file size, what you're saying it's far from true. Although max .3ds files are exceptionally large, blame Kinetix for that, lightwave files of low poly objects and their skelly animations are very low in size, most (.lwo and .lws included) don't exceed 100kb. As for animation frames, stop thinking about outdated formats - as the ones used in TA and TA:K object files and assorted anims. Bones system animations record only key poses and bones rotations, which means very tiny records.

-MaDDoX

MaDDoX is right.
For the bones the information recorded is the vertex group affected by it and later on the pivot point. Then the animation settings basically use keyframes and float values to describe the animation. The only animatable properties, for bones, are position rotation and scale. Some other objects have animatable visibility instead (lights, standard geometry).

The MaxScript Importer has been updated. It loads bones, helpers, attachments (as point helpers) and lights (i think). There is the option to load it as static, with animated visibility, with animated vis and animated bones, and, lastly, all this plus a skin modifier. The problem with the skin modifier is some bones are linked to multiple vertex groups and there doesn't seem to be a way to determine which groups they are linked to resulting in them not affecting any vertices.
The static and animated visibility options only load renderable object, ie. no bones, lights, attachments, helpers.

Please report any bugs including the information recorded in the Listener. You might have trouble loading large files like the knight when choosing options 3 or 4.

KMK

wow! great work on the importer man
the textures are perfectly placed, and it looks like animation is on it's way

btw a thing i noticed - while i checked the importer i saw that some of the bones are imported as bones, while some are imported as helpers

is that planned?
(the model i checked was the captain model)

I said the animation still needs work. The main problem will be getting the skinning working with the bones that affect multiple vertex groups.
The MDX format has bones (imported as bones), helpers (imported as helpers), lights (imported as lights), and attachments (don't know the equivalent, imported as helpers).
The reason for the scattered bones is the only information given is their pivot points. If the bones don't have any children in the heirarchy then they are only 10 units long and use the rotation of their parent (point in the same direction as parent). It just seems that they choose weird pivot points.

I know the priest shows reasonable bones along the cape and staff, the animation should resemble something like the natural movement. The footman's sword has reasonable bones as well and seems to resemble walking, although the feet and other parts don't move (they are influenced by a multiple group bone).

KMK

Can somebody please brake this down for me. How do I "deffuse" in psp7?

okay, this is a very noob question and i feel VERY stupid to ask this, but here goes:

since i need to import some wc3 models to help me with my own 3d models i downloaded this script.

i have it running in max (r4) and sofar no problem :D

the only thing is: where are the MDX files situated? :confused:

i know... i know...
go easy on me aight :P

greetz,
Arch_Angel

Arch_Angel: the mdx files are situated in the war3.mpq file and other mpq files. There is plenty of information on how to get them out.
Sypher: If you want the team colour to work in max follow the instructions. You need to open the material editor in max to make the materials then follow the instructions. If you have further troubles I'll see if I can simplify it a bit.

KMK

Oh, defuse in max. I thought you ment in psp. Thanks for clariflying that up for me.

All the skinning should work fine now, any animation problems will probably due to the trackview. It doesn't seem to like doing one after another of the full conversion, nor does it like converting large files. You'll probably get an error "cannot convert undefined to type: float" or something like that.

I've attached the file to make it simpler