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Vewing KotOR models in Maya?


NiuHaka

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I have maya and I am currently working on some retextures for K1 & K2. I would like to be able to see my textures instantly with maya. I don't have any interest in remodeling or animating... at least not right now. Is there any way to get the models from KotOR into maya?

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If it makes you feel any better i was strickly a lightwave guy for years until coming here. After seeing tools made for 3dsm I decided to just get 3dsm and learn it.

 

3d concepts are all the same really, its learning the ins and outs of 3dsm that takes time. I am always asking Quanon where things are :lol:

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hmmm... well, i'm a game artist/animator by profession and I use Maya all day so learning new 3d programs tends to cause my brain to cross wires and sometimes go on the fritz. I pretty much just need something that will allow me to view my texture changes quickly while I work. I've been using the character creation screen set to my tv while editing the textures in photoshop on my computer monitor but it gets kinda buggy. This way I can see the face textures up close while I edit them. I might just continue doing what i'm doing if this ends up being too much of a hassle.

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Does Gmax save to a format that Maya can read? If so Gmax is free so all you would have to do is export to ascii (via mdlops) load in to Gmax, then save as whatever format is compatible with Maya. You probably could not reverse the process but since all you want to do is view texture edits on the model that wouldn't matter.

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hmmm... well, i'm a game artist/animator by profession and I use Maya all day so learning new 3d programs tends to...........

 

 

 

I guess your lucky in that respect NiuHaka. Years ago I was told by a rep. from a software game company that Art tech's and Animators that were hired, needed to know various 3D model software applications in order to work for any game/computer software company. But that was then, it probably doesn't even matter now.

 

 

I can remember back then, the only 3D software applications that I was familiar with was SOFTIMAGE and Genesis 3D SDK. But I've learned how to work with other 3D programs since then, and those weren't too bad. It just took some time learning the different aspects of those programs.

 

Anyway, GMax is pretty good for a freebee and somewhat easy to learn and use, but of course..it doesn't compare to Maya. ;)

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Gmax is a very old version 3Ds Max, IIR its a simplified 3Ds Max 4.

Now where at version 3Ds Max 2010, version 11 or 12.

 

I can honestly say the program has improved :lol:

If you got experience in 3D I don't think the jump from Maya to Max isn't to big modellingwise. I'm no expert, but I've been hanging and lurking about 3D forums where all kind of Pro's post.

 

It did give me some insight and info. But since you're only talking about textures. I think Gmax is a good choice. Its viewport don't show your texture in full quality though. And you don't have a renderer.

 

There are plugins for Gmax, so you can export out your work in more formats. I believe there's even a simple renderer as well. You might have to use the search function of this forum to get some links. IIRC Darth Parametic posted about that.

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There are plugins for Gmax, so you can export out your work in more formats. I believe there's even a simple renderer as well. You might have to use the search function of this forum to get some links. IIRC Darth Parametic posted about that.
Yes, the method for non-Max users is to export custom models from your app of choice as OBJs and then importing them into GMax via scripts to turn into game-useable models. You can also go the other way, exporting game models out of GMax as OBJs. That is only for static models of course - no animations. It's perfectly fine for things like weapon models and the like. You're going to have to learn the rudiments of Max though, as you have to use GMax (in conjunction with NWMax) as the gateway in or out. The process has been detailed elsewhere, as Quanon said.
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I guess your lucky in that respect NiuHaka. Years ago I was told by a rep. from a software game company that Art tech's and Animators that were hired, needed to know various 3D model software applications in order to work for any game/computer software company. But that was then, it probably doesn't even matter now.

 

Well, it's still kind of the same but a studio will have one animation program and more and more of them are using maya. That's probably just because more schools are only teaching maya. Just do a job search and you will probably see more of them requiring maya.

 

So it looks like GMAX will work if it exports .obj. Thanks for the help people. Live long and prosper... Oops! wrong forum for that.

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Héh, I had one year of classes about 3Ds Max. The teachers there said, there's a bit of an odd split in the 3D world.

 

Max is seen as nice good program to do the actuall modelling, but isn't that well for animation.

 

While Maya does a good job of animating, it's a bit less on the modelling side.

Though that's there opinion of course.

 

The only thing that's sad is that there's no Blender things for Kotor modding.

It's a bit an odd program, but the support by the community is immense.

Plus its free.

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Héh, I had one year of classes about 3Ds Max. The teachers there said, there's a bit of an odd split in the 3D world.

 

Max is seen as nice good program to do the actuall modelling, but isn't that well for animation.

 

While Maya does a good job of animating, it's a bit less on the modelling side.

Though that's there opinion of course.

 

The only thing that's sad is that there's no Blender things for Kotor modding.

It's a bit an odd program, but the support by the community is immense.

Plus its free.

 

Yeah my teachers have said pretty much the same thing. Now that i think about it I've mostly only done local job searches and all the schools around hear teach maya. Studio's probably use what the local schools are teaching.

 

I have been wanting to dive into 3dsmax because whenever I see rendered images they always seem to look better than what Maya produces. It's probably in my head though.

 

Blender- my first 3d software and probably the hardest to figure out so far. It is very odd. It seems to be geared towards a more sophisticated mind than my own.

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I believe render quality depends on what sort of renderer you're using.

Thought the standard Skyline renderer of Max can do good things. If you know how to do it.

 

Mental Ray does an amazing job as well, though it has even more buttons. My knowledge on that, is just good enough to get some nice shots on what I'm working.

 

I believe there something called Rhino and V-ray, both plugins, expansive, that do really awesome real life like renders. But I'm sure you can do a whole study just to get them to work.

 

And the materials... oh boy :lol:

 

I often get handy tips and insights from here:

CLICKY

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Blender- my first 3d software and probably the hardest to figure out so far. It is very odd. It seems to be geared towards a more sophisticated mind than my own.

 

 

Now that you mention it NiuHaka, I always got the impression that I was dealing with a high-end CAD program; don't know why, just seemed that way. But then again, I only played with it a few times. It is somewhat complicated, but like Quanon said: "Plus it's Free" and you can't beat that now-a-days when your a beginning amateur of 3d modeling. Not to mention the money you save when using it for practice or a hobby.

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Dang, normally Blender has some nice sites, with a ton of tutorials.

Like I said Blender has very good support.

 

Its been a long time sinc I opened it and I'm sure the newer version has improved. :p

But you need to have some luck to get tools for your game.

 

Bethesda games have a lot of tools that work with Blender for example.

But I'm sticking with Max, there are more creative ways to get a program :lol:

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There's also a rumour people from Autodesk and Adobe itself, infact give a sort of support ot these other means. They make it easier: so people know there program or get the chance to get to know it and be kind bonded to the brand :p

 

Though of course these are rumours to be taken with a truck load of salt :xp:

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  • 3 weeks later...

If you have or can aquire 3dsMax, it has a handy export funtion to .fbx which is the Autodesk base file, which of course Maya can read. I learned Maya first, as well, and I wish there was a NWMax app for that as well, since I find the setup more intuitive. For me the material editor in Max is crap, so back when I attempted to paint textures I swapped it over to Maya for just that purpose. The auto file reading in Maya is wonderful for texturing as it accepts PS files.

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