Hello to you,
i have a small problem: i like to load MAX files for using in my engine - currently i´m using 3DS files, but the loader doesn´t know all the features, an so i´d like to write a complete new MAX-loader.
BUT: i cannot find any description ? I have the 3DSMAXSDK - is here the solution, perhaps ?
DOES ANYONE KNOW A SOLUTION - PLEASE HELP !!!
A small problem, huh? Gotta say you got a pretty large problem if you want to load .MAX files. As far as I understand, .MAX files doesn’t contain any vertices like normal files do. Instead they got pointer to objects, which in turn is plugins in MAX. Say you draw a sphere in MAX and save it. Then the files doens’t contain the vertices that builds the sphere, but rather a pointer to the sphere routine, with all the parameters you can set in the modify-panel. Ever loaded a file which requires a certain plugin which you don’t have? You can’t see the model because MAX doesn’t know how it works, because the plugin is missing, and the object itself is not stored in the file. So if you want a MAX-loader, you not only have to decode the format, you also have to code all the plugins you want to use.
So my advice is, stick to .3DS files and forget about .MAX.
If you have the SDK, you should have access
to all the information you need to export
exactly all the data you need into whatever
format you can dream up. While it is nice to
use standard file formats, in cases like
this, you often have to resort to something
“custom”. (Although documenting your custom-
ness will make amends for not using a
standard 
Yes, this with the .MAXformat sound logical.
But i don´t know how to interpret the texture-coordinates, which gets my 3DS-loader out of the 3DS-file.
Does anyone have a functionally 3DS-loader with all features of the 3DS-file ??
Or is it a bug with my 3DS-loader, which returns wrong values and than produces wrong texturing ??
i forgot this…
the .MAXSDK is not really good “readable” - it´s not funny to read…
DJS
[This message has been edited by DJSnow (edited 12-14-2000).]
The texture coordinates are just u/v
values for each vertex that you can pretty
much directly feed into OpenGL. I don’t
remember anything weird about them (though
I’m not at my code right now).
Of course, if the mesh was exported without
a texture (or material?) assigned, then you
will not get texture coordinates.
Yes BGL,
you right.
And now we are at the point of my other discussion, running in the message board over this message !
Read this.
DJS