animated characters

[KakCAT]

Hi!

I have an animated character in 3dsmax 2009. Nothing special, just what a coder can do From frames 0 to 100 is walk, from 100 to 200 is duck, etc...

Which is the easiest path to use it in irrlicht?

I've read that irrlicht support the following animated models (with my comments about them)

b3d (never heard of this before, are the exporters for 3dsmax9?)
milkshape (how do I move from max to milkshape? usually converting to 3ds breaks all my textures due to the 8:3 format)
ms directx (which exporter should I use?)
quake 3 models (can be exported directly from 3dsmax?)
quake 2 models (same as q3)


would you recommend me moving from 3dsmax for animated meshes to something else? (i.e. milkshape)

Thanks

[B@z]

for b3d use: http://www.onigirl.com/pipeline/
i think max has built in exporter for .x, but not sure. if not google it
exporting to 3ds will do nothing good, coz 3ds format not support animation.
md3 and md2.. i dont know, maybe

i like b3d, use that for a long time, and i think its the best

i personally dont like 3ds max. kinda like "not for games"
but lot of ppl addicted to it, so idk.
i use blender for animation, and i like it.
but this is just a personal opinion

[Bate]

i personally dont like 3ds max. kinda like "not for games"

Hehe, not for games?

"Autodesk 3ds Max is a powerful, reliable, and accessible 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and compositing package. It's also a favorite among character animators and game artists."

"Online game developer Mythic Entertainment used Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk® Kynapse® middleware to help reinvent a legendary game with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning."

I'd say it's particularly for games


Panda Exporter is pretty reliable

[B@z]

well most of the 3ds max functions (such as NURBS, suburbs, etc) are useless for games. and what can be used for games, are just the same as other, sometimes free (blender) softwares.

but i didnt ment to start a flame war, sry. its just my very personal opinion

[KakCAT]

thanks for the answers! :)

The reason to use Max instead of any other is just that I'm a coder and some years ago I spent some weeks trying to learn to use it (when it was max2 or something like this)

Unfortunately for me :) I'm a very unskilled artist and very impatient trying to learn to use "artist tools". I've tried with blender and milkshape, but it beats me, take me away from MAX and I'm absolutely lost. Anyways the fun is in the code, not in the modelling tools ;)

self-ranting apart, I've tried kw-xport and works quite well. I had some nightmares some months ago trying to get animated meshes into Ogre, but the Irrlicht process has been a lot faster. Somehow, I thought the .X format couldn't handle animations.

Browsing the forum I've found about ISkinnedMesh and "reusable animations" which is what I'd love to have (as I said, the less time spent with DCC tools, the better ;) )

Thanks again!

[Virion]

well most of the 3ds max functions (such as NURBS, suburbs, etc) are useless for games. and what can be used for games, are just the same as other, sometimes free (blender) softwares.

but i didnt ment to start a flame war, sry. its just my very personal opinion

3dsmax, blender, maya, etc all have nurb functions, which are useless for games. nurb is outdated (old) technology that's why its there.