Editor/Tool: PR:BF2 3DsMax9 Tools (v0.44)

[Rhino]

NOTE: These Tools have now been replaced by these ones which include the advances in these tools: https://www.realitymod.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=145720

Hey guys,

These are some tools we have been working on over the years, based off of the PoE2 3DsMax9 Tools (which where previous based off of Rexmans tools), which are used to Export objects etc in Max and these are essentially the same tools but with a few small improvements and features added to them.

New Features Include:

• Anchor Position Export - Just place the "*__Anchor" helper (that will be automatically created from the "StaticMesh Total Hierarchy Wizard") in the position you want the anchor to be ingame and the script will code it into the .con file
• Col Material Export Coding - If you name your col materials with the BF2 Martial ID number in the materials window in max by separating the name and MatID with "||" (no quotes), it will code the correct material for the object in the exported .con saving you coding it with the editor. Ie, "Wood_Solid||15", which will result in a "ObjectTemplate.mapMaterial 0 Wood_Solid 15" in your .con file.
• Occlusion Mesh Exporter - Providing your Occlusion Mesh (.occ) is parented to a "occ" Dummy Helper, which in turn is parented to the Geometries LOD0, the Occlusion Mesh will be exported with the static at the same time (Set up to work in Metric Meters, scale may be off in other unit setups)
• StaticMesh Total Hierarchy Wizard - The script will fully setup all selected Levels of Detail (LOD), Collision Meshes (cols) & Occlusion Meshs (.occ) into the correct hierarchy with helpers providing each LOD is prefixed with "LOD*_" (with * for number starting with 0), all cols start with the "col*" prefix and Occlusion Meshs start with "OCC", meaning no manual hierarchy work required to export a simple static.

  Before Wizard:
  
  
  After Wizard:
  

• Col Mesh Import Button in the Utilities Window - This allows you to import col meshes by browsing to the mesh itself and selecting it.
• Export "Selected Roots" check box in Export Window - Allows you to export multiple selected objects in the same max scene, but not all the objects in the scene unlike the "Export All Root Nodes" checkbox.
• "Resume" feature added to 3DsMax Lightmapping - If this box is checked when you do a lightmap pass, it checks if the current object's LOD its about to lightmap has any previous lightmaps before generating lightmaps for it and if it dose, skips that objects LOD and moves onto the next LOD, until all LODs of that object are done then moves onto the next object and its LODs and if it finds an object LOD without LMs it generates LMs for them, until its confirmed all objects have been lightmapped.
• "Newer Versions of Max" Lightmaping Support - This basically means you can generate the LMs for a map in a later version of max like 3DsMax2012. But you must import the objects into a scene with 3DsMax9 first, then load that scene in 2012. The advantages of this is newer versions of max are better at rendering and also have 64bit and multi-core support, so faster and better LM generation with also less chance of running out of RAM if on 64bit. Note may not work with all versions of max but have tested it in 2012 I think was the latest I last used iirc. Should work in the latest versions too unless anything significant has changed with how their scripting works.
• "All Lights" Lightmapping Pass Support - This feature allows you to render the lighting of all Sun, Sky and Point light in the same light pass, unlike before where you where required to generate them indervidually, which overall takes a lot longer to do.
• Non-Square Lightmapping Support - This Enables you to be able to Define a Non-Square Lightmap Size for Statics with Custom, Non-Square Lightmap UVs, such as the Wooden Fence Static Series in your Lightmap Sizes File, by putting a * between the Width and Height Pixel Resolution for each LOD. Example: 256*64 128*32 64*16
  Any Static LOD only defined with one number and no * in the middle will still use that rez for both its width and height as per the orignal setup.
• Lightmap Padding - Before lightmaps generated with 3DsMax had no padding and as a result, you often saw lighting errors in the mips when going far away from objects since just outside of the lightmap UV was just black (no light) which was very obvious to see. But with Lightmap padding support, the entire area around the UVs is filled with the nearest colour which makes "pixel bleeding" errors much less likely and less obvious when they do happen between UVs which are too close together. The default padding setting is 128 and can be changed in the BF2 Lightmapping Window in the bottom right.
• Collision Setup Wizard in Utilities - When using the above mentioned Col Mesh Import utility you still have work to do to setup the right materials and Hierarchy. When you are doing collision mesh edits specifically this script will help take care of that. It will setup the multi-sub material and Hierarchy for you so can simply make your collision changes and export it again. A video tutorial on how to correctly use this script can be found here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ9-mu3OHY4

Download & Installation:

First Download and Install the PoE2 3DsMax9 Tools v0.30a

Once the PoE2 Tools are installed Download the PR:BF2 3DsMax9 Tools v0.44 and simply extract the bf2 folder in this .zip into "\Autodesk\3ds Max 9\Scripts\" folder, overwriting anything you have there already in that folder and restart max.


Credits:
Original 3DsMax Tools: Rexman / DICE
Updated 3DsMax Tools these are based off: Point of Existence: 2 - Battlefield 2 Mod Team
Original Collision Mesh Import Script: Remdul - Forgotten Hope 2 - Battlefield 2 Mod Team
Original Occlusion Mesh Export Script: Remdul - Forgotten Hope 2 - Battlefield 2 Mod Team
Collision setup Wizard Script: [R-DEV]Mats - Project Reality - Battlefield 2 Mod Team
New Features in these Tools: [R-DEV]Mosquill & (partly) [R-DEV]Rhino - Project Reality - Battlefield 2 Mod Team


Happy Modding!

[SPYKER]

I just found this thread,
Rhino, thank you very much!
I greatly appreciate your work!