At this time ASE2PRM.exe and ASE2W.exe
(ASE Tools) have been tested with 3D Studio Max R2.5 and R3.X.
They enable custom Cars and/or Tracks to be
converted from 3DS ASCII SCENE EXPORT v.2.00 files (.ASE) to formats that
the Re-volt game engine can use (namely instance [.prm], world [.w], and
collision [.ncp] files). Details of .prm .w and .ncp files can be found by visiting
Gibblers RV Extreme
Site . (external)
The tools also allow attributes
like Transparency, Glossiness, Surface Type,
Double Sided, Invisible Polygons to be manipulated from within modelling applications like
3D Studio Max.
The ability of other 3D modellers to
export to a compatible .ase format is unknown but may exist. (Please
let us know). No file converters with the complete
ability
to convert between popular 3D formats (such as .3ds) and
.ase have been found. The closest canditates are "IVCON" [source code available] (which is
able to convert between a number of 3D file formats and .ASE but
discards some data such as materials, mapping coordinates, and
vertex colours in the process); and "NEMAX
" which promises to offer full or partial conversion from a
number of file formats in the future.
If you do have experience with
converting between popular 3D file formats and
.ase or if you feel that you could
contribute to extending one of the current 'converters' by lending
your programming skills to the effort, please contact ali and/or
post a message at the Re-volt Forum at
Racerspoint
. If you are
new to 3D Studio Max and or Extreme editing:
The
ASE tools are best understood by people who already have some
familiarity with Re-volt extreme editing and 3DStudio Max, it is not within the scope of
this document to teach you these techniques and many operations are explained at
a level that a complete beginner will find very uncomfortable, you may
however still be able to find useful tips within these pages. If
you are having difficulties, questions are usually welcomed at any of the
Re-volt community sites providing that you make reasonable efforts to
understand your difficulties before requesting assistance.
If
you are a veteran extreme editor with some 3D studio max experience:
Read the documentation all the way
through before proceeding to try the tools. The ASE tools offer many new
ways to accomplish car and track design for Re-volt. Many operations already available
with rvglue are accessible using an entirely different
way using the ASE tools package. You need to be pretty familiar
with 3DS Max as well, the more the better.
Should you feel any section is wildly inaccurate or could use
additional information that you can provide, please
contact Antimorph
so
that we can implement any suggestions that you have.
If you are a experienced with 3D studio max but
don't know a lot about extreme editing: You'll possibly have the
easiest
job of the lot (at
least
in terms of car/track visuals), if you've done cars before the process
is very similar for the ASE tools (if you plan to make cars with
this tool note that you cannot use multiple bitmaps, therefore you can
choose just set up the first material in the when you get
to the material editor section). |