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M3 Import plugin

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  • 0 Likes
  • StarCraft II
  • 96 Monthly Downloads
  • Supports:
  • 4,659 Total Downloads
  • Updated 05/06/2010
  • Created 03/31/2010
  • 3 Favorites
  • Project Site
  • Comments
  • Release Type: Release
  • License: All Rights Reserved
  • Newest File: M3 Import 0.21
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About M3 Import plugin

Starcraft 2 Model (.M3) import plugin for 3ds Max

A Starcraft 2 Model (.M3) import plugin designed for 3ds Max 2010.
Currently Imports:
- Geometry
- Bones
- Materials
- Animation

If you use any of the code, please provide credit where it's due.

Install instructions

1. Must have 3ds max installed

2. Extract the script (.ms) into your 3ds max '...\Scripts' directory, optionally you can place the script in your '...\Scripts\Startup\' directory to have it automatically load when you launch 3ds Max.

3. Click on the hammer icon on the default right hand side pane, and click on the MAXScript button. If you didn't have 3ds max automatically load it upon launch, click 'Run Script' from the rollout dialog and locate the script.

4. Select 'M3 - Import' from the Utilities drop down menu. From there, use the UI to locate the M3 you wish to import and so on.

Note: When importing models, .dds maps can be automatically applied to the model but you must first setup a map path in 3ds max. To do this, use the menu 'Customize->Configure User Paths...', click on the 'External Files' tab and add the path. The script will check each path until it finds the correct map.

5. Control the Animation Sequences through 'M3 - Sequences' found in the utilities drop down menu.

Enjoy!

Known bugs

  • Model mesh still does not bind to the bones properly for some models (eg. Immortal.m3).
  • 3ds Max can be slow importing some of the larger models if you choose to import animation sequences. This is due to the inherently sluggish nature of maxscript, import animations at your own peril.
  • Some animations are still not animating correctly.
  • Vertex normals at the moment are SLOW to import due to 3ds max being crappy about how to manually set them. For large models it will slow down the import considerably.

Special Thanks

Volcore (http://volcore.limbicsoft.com/): For help with vertice flags and initial architecture of the M3 format

Teal (starcraft.incgamers.com): For UV's and his PHP converter source, helped with geometry importing

Witchsong (http://code.google.com/p/libm3/): Providing a great open source library for documenting the M3 file format and designing the M3->Obj converter. Head to http://code.google.com/p/libm3/ for more M3 file spec details. Helped immensely figuring out the details of the M3 file format.

Sixen (http://www.sc2mapster.com/): An awesome website for hosting SC2 development tools and vast XML documentation.

der_ton (http://www.doom3world.org/): Has done some incredible work with the MD5 format. Alot of his work has been adapted for the M3 file format with great success. Big thanks goes out to him!

ufoZ: One of the original crew to reverse engineer the M2 format and provide a good maxscript importer from which my importer/exporters are based. Huge thanks to his efforts.

0,21 - May 5th 2010
Fixed wrong textures being applied to some models
Fixed missing materials dialog duplicate error
Added reflection map support
Added code to deal with vertex flags
Added vertice normals UI option
Added specular level being set from material data

0.20 - April 30th 2010
Added bindpose buffers for each animation, helps prevent weird translation across animations
Vertex normals now manually set properly (at the expense of processing time :( )
Code syntax improvements

0.18 - April 25th 2010
Added support for new MD34 model format
Bones now animate correctly

0.14 - April 10th 2010
Aligned all submeshes to their appropriate bones
Skinned vertex positioning now based on all weighted bones (thanks to MD5 documentation)
Improved animation processing times (bones animated before vertex skinning)

0.13 - April 1st 2010
Mesh now binds to bones properly for most models.

0.11 - March 30th 2010
Updated Sequence support
Added Sequence UI for navigating sequences
Shift to more object orientated coding

0.098 - March 26th 2010
Added queryBox error for missing textures before creating any scene objects
Updated some of the code regarding sequence data
Minor code improvements

0.096 - March 22nd 2010
Fixed bump mapping (sets to 100 now)

0.095 - March 21st 2010
Some basic error catching added
Fixed initial bone errors

0.09 - March 20th 2010
Added primitive animation support
Code housekeeping
Updated code, improved processing time

0.06 - March 13th 2010
Added rollout menu

0.05 - March 11th 2010
Added bone support, however mesh not binding to bones properly yet

0.04 - March 6th 2010
Major overhaul of code
Reworked tag reading and reference reading, can now read nested structures
Vastly improved material reading

0.03 - March 4th 2010
Vertice normals added
Added material importing

0.02 - February 29th 2010 - March 2nd 2010
Made significant improvements to structures and accessing file data
Can now (hopefully) import UV data
Added submesh functionality

0.01 - February 26th 2010
Initial version of M3 import script

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