XSI Mod Tool, GMax, and Sins

need help with Sins mesh import/export plugins

from Sins Forums

I've found Stannum's Maxtool for 3DS Max, and I think it's great he's done that. I've tried (so far, once), to adapt it to GMax (no offence Stannum), as I don't have 3DS Max, and also don't have the funds/am too cheap to get it. I do have GMax (v1.2, latest), the XSI Mod Tool (v6.01), and Blender (v2.48a). I haven't tinkered with Blender yet, but I've done a little with GMax. If anyone could provide info on how to make Sins mesh import plugins for the Mod Tool or import/export plugins for GMax, or if anyone could make it, that would be greatly appreciated. I'm not really looking for anything Blender-related, as most of its plugins require a Python installation, and while I have access to both Python and Blender, I'm a bit too lazy to bother installing Python and Blender, when GMax and XSI don't require any other programs.

modding
4,958 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

The matter of modelling and UV texturing existing meshes/textures is an on-going problem in Sins. Simply put, there is no easy way to convert the existing .mesh files into XSI Mod Tool or Blender: the ConvertXSI tool only converts from XSI back to .mesh.

As you mention if you have 3DS Max there is a MaxScript written for Sins can help you there but of course 3DS Max costs money.

When I was running XP I used 3DS Max and Adobe Photoshop (with the Nvidia DDS plugin) to do modelling and UV texturing tweaking (I say tweaking because I'm too lazy to start a ship from scratch when other people have done most of the detailed work (e.g. EvilJedi, 7DS team).

Now that I'm using (and loving) Windows 7 I want to start learning the free XSI Mod tool from Autocad/Softimage (because 3DS Max is unstable in Vista/Windows 7).

I've tried converting .mesh files using 3D Object Convertor (you can Google for it) and the unregistered version supports .IGES format (put the .mesh and textures in the same folder and drag it into the 3DO window). It imports successfully into XSI Mod Tool but randomly crashes after a few minutes or if you try to save in XSI format.

I'm going to look around for some other convert programs to try and get .mesh importable into XSI over the weekend... if anybody has a successful way to do this please let us know!

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

thanks for the help JasonFJ. So far I've tried adapting the 3DS Max MaxScript to GMax v1.2, which is pretty much a dumbed down open-source (FREE!!) version of 3DS Max 4 or 5 (forgot which). 1st attempt- failure (sad face). I'll have try again, as some of the code in the .mzp script file (I think it's pretty much a compile .ms file, containing several maxscripts (.ms)) is unrecognized in GMax. Also, thanks for the 3D Object Converter. Would this tool happen to be called '3D Object Converter for Windows v4.4'?

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Yup. That's the one. There are other converters around as well but I like how 3DO perfectly shows the textured mesh... a pity it's so crippled you can't even test to see if it actually does successfully convert the meshes!

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

I've played around with the DOW demos, and have converted some of the whm models to directx, and then from there I import the directx file into 3DO, convert it to nff, and then import into quick3D, and then save it as 3ds. After that is ALL DONE, I can import it into GMax using a 3ds import maxscript.