Load *.map quake 3 maps in 3ds max?

[Landix]

Hi there,

can i load *.map files from quake 3 in 3ds max?

Is there a plugin ,or is it not possible?

The texture are not important in want to hold the structure.

[obsidian]

Not exactly... you could sort of do it with Gmax Tempest, but I found that to be buggy and it's no longer supported. Tempest was a plugin for Gmax which was used as a map editor for Q3. It's features were very limited.

Otherwise, you can compile your map and then convert it to ASE or 3DS using Q3Map2 and import that into MAX, but then they are no longer brush solids if that matters.

[Landix]

I never saw a function to *.3ds in q3map2

where is this?

[obsidian]

Sorry, nevermind that part.

The tricky part is importing an ASE file into MAX despite the fact that ASE is MAX's native legacy ASCII format. There are a couple of workarounds though...

1) If you're using an older version of MAX, you can give this ASCII Import Plugin a try. You have to rename your ASE file to ASC and then import it. Works for MAX 4-6, possibly for everything up to 8 (Edit: Download importer for 6 and 7) and definitely not for MAX 9 (I tried). The source code is available from Autodesk, so maybe you can recompile it. I'll send you a box of cookies in the mail if you can get it working for MAX 9.

2) Give 3D Exploration a try (google it). It's older software but did a great job of reading ASE files and converting them to 3DS, MAX, or any other plethora of formats. It's shareware but may be limited in functionality depending on version. There was a full featured older version kicking around the internet somewhere that's available for free. The software has been rebranded as Deep Exploration, but that's retail software and mighty expensive.

3) Blender 3D - open source goodness. You can import ASE (I think needs a plugin script that I'm sure Kat has somewhere on Katsbits.com) then model it directly in Blender or export it out to something MAX can import.

[g0th-]

If you have q4 just delete all the entitys in your q3 .map file and then open the map file with the q4 editor and export it as an .obj file

[obsidian]

Yes, MAX does support OBJ import, so D3 or Q4 will work as well.

[Landix]

Thx for your help.

The q4 thingie is good, i got q4 and looks like a fast solution for that.

thanks!

[urgrund777]

does this mean all caulk faces are exported as well? This could be right pain in the ass...

Instead, if you're using Q4/D3, use a proc imoprter to import the .proc into Max. This has the benefit of importing the map as neatly compiled and portal'd map.

[g0th-]

yeah all caulk surfaces are also imported but if you are using a 3d application that can select polys by material, you can easily delete all the caulk surfaces by just a few clicks. You will also need to merge the vertexes on the brush work.

Haven't tried importing a .proc file but for me this workflow is very fast.

[Hipshot]

I think it's simple enought just converting the level to a ASE using map2, renaming to Asc and then just importing it to max - as obsi just said, I do this a lot when I wanna have a good base to make terrain around, then I just "export selected" on the terrain to ase from max, usable directly in Q3, very clean and fast.


Edit: Caulk is NOT imported if you make a level and then ase it from Q3map2, all caulk is removed.

[Landix]

I do the ASE way works fine

thx all