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3ds max model

OpenGL
Started by StarGaze 1 reply 900+ views
Original Post
StarGaze
StarGaze
Hi there, I'm having a go at using the 30 day trial 3ds-max software and finding it very flexible. However I want to load (lets say for beginner purpose) a sphere into an opengl program. How do I go about doing this? (so I've got my rendered sphere) how do I load?? I've looked at the GameDev tutorial (for the java port - language I am using) for the rotating face, and am finding this a very confusing starting point. Can anyone who is used to this technique: a) Reccommend a tutorial more basic than this for my meagre brain (for the opengl part). Which maybe gives the steps to take for the sphere, and explain the relevance. I've looked for a very long time and have come out empty handed. b)Briefly Explain the opengl part....Do I need to make a note of where the chunks would be as you would if you were modelling a 3d world??? Your time and help would be much appreciated as I would love to get past this hurdle
"The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself."
StarGaze
StarGaze
Sorry I forgot to Mention It's 3ds Max 7.
"The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself."
Doggan
Doggan
I'm not sure which article you're talking about... rotating face? So I can't comment on that... Anyways, to attempt to answer your questions (please forgive me if I make no sense, as I'm going to bed right after I post this, heh).

This isn't an easy task. I spent few solid weeks piecing together details before I finally was able to successfully export any 3ds model and render it into an OpenGL application (lighting, materials, etc). There are really no 'complete' tutorials on how to do this. You have to try to figure out the file format by looking at different specifications. Some don't provide full detail; some have errors; etc. It's quite painful.

Also, I can almost guarantee you won't find anything pertaining to Java on this subject. Everything is in C/C++, so you should understand it (although it's so similar to Java, I'm sure you do).

The basic technique... Read a chunk ID, figure out what it means and what info it stores; if you want it's info, process it.. if you don't, skip over it; repeat till the end of the file. Now, ideally if you organized everything properly, you should have an array of every vertex in your scene, and an array of ever index. Then you render the data. It gets complicated when you want to incorporate textures/materials, and lighting, as 3d studio max does not necessarily export everything in the format you need.

Here are some links you should find helpful.

Some actual code for loading 3ds models:
link 1 (good link to start at)
link 2
link 3

..And the actual file specifications:
link 1
link 2 (search for 3ds).

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