ok one of my designers has sent me a .max file containing a scene he has created now i export it from max using the panda exporter and when i try to view the mesh using the DX viewer it just says failed to load file ive tested as many combinations of options in panda as i possibly can but still no difference, excuse my ignorance ive only ever used max for exporting basic meshes ive made

anyone?

Here are some settings I used for my www.RocketCommander.com project:
+ means check this option, - means deactivate this option

Pandasofts DirectX Exporter 4.6.0.57 - Options:
===============================================

3DS MAX Objects:
----------------
+Mesh definition
+Materials
-Inline
+Include animations (if we have any)
-Bones (or activate if we have bones, currently not supported by a lot of stuff)
Optimize mesh: None

+Geometric
-Dummy

+Mesh normals
-Flip normals
+Mapping coordinates
-Vertex colors
[-Use local object space]

Animation:
----------
Use Matrix and 3DS Max ticks with default Sampling Rate of 30.

Texture conversion:
-------------------
Just use None.
If using shader effects, active both Include .fx file and Include .fx parameters

X File Settings:
----------------
File Type: Binary
Dx Frame: Do NOT use No Frames if you want animations!
Use Top frame if not animated at all.
Else use Sub frame hierachy for animated stuff with connected meshes and stuff.
+Left handed axis (if you using the default DirectX left handed mode)
-Include Animation options (not required right now)

Other tips:
-----------

Don't save x file with:
- DX Frame set to "None" when Local World Space is activated because no scaling, etc. will happen.
MeshViewer and FX Composer won't display anything (works in engine, but causes problems too).
- Flipped normals or right hand coord. system
- Don't use Vertex colors, not used by any shader anyways

General Panda exporter tips (make sure materials and meshes are named correct, etc.):
http://www.andytather.co.uk/Panda/directxmax_help.aspx

Hope that helps ...

You could try my experimental exporter instead. It works pretty well, but suffers from two known bugs in 3dsmax 8:

1) If you use more than one texture coordinate channel, Max crashes on export.

2) If you use Physique, and there's at least one vertex that's not bound to bones, then Max crashes on export. The Skin modifier does not have this problem.

Both of these problems are also visible in some Discreet-supplied exporters (Collada, XML, etc), so I can't do anything about them until they fix these bugs in 3dsmax 9 :-(

what about fx settings? does your exporter support that? collada, xml, etc. do all no export fx settings AT ALL (they say the do, but you always get empty settings). the panda exporter does at least work ^^

for any bigger project I would suggest writing your own exporter or just use collada (easiest format to import into your engine) and live with the missing features ^^

excellent cheers for ur help

i tried ur exporter and it looks like it could be very usefull, shame the object im trying to export has 2 UV chanels so im gonna have to wait for my artists to get back to see if they can fix it for me

Quote:Original post by abnormal
what about fx settings? does your exporter support that? collada, xml, etc. do all no export fx settings AT ALL (they say the do, but you always get empty settings). the panda exporter does at least work ^^

for any bigger project I would suggest writing your own exporter or just use collada (easiest format to import into your engine) and live with the missing features ^^

nah theres no fx files in my project

dont think ill have time to write an exporter for this project as its for 4E and the projects already gonna take ALOT of time