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Hello there, I'm just starting SWBF2 modding, and I've got just a few questions so that I can be on my way.

First, a bit of an introduction. I have a book entitled "Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons". I plan to make several maps based off locations in this book, then, once I have the experience needed, move onto interior maps (I can see how they would be more difficult) and then finally make a couple maps I have planned out which were my original reason for wanting to make some maps.

I'm starting with Antar Four. "Antar Four is a moon, the fourth of six large bodies orbiting the gas giant Antar... unusual night/day cycles and exceptionally harsh seasonal changes... The tenacious creatures that evolved under such conditions are quite different from the norm."

I only have three small monochrome drawings with which to draw a general assumption of arhitecture, but I'm mapping the capital city, Temba Port Capial. The buildings in the drawing are not neatly shaped, and has several cylindrical towers. Since the planet is implied to be an odd one, I'm using green colored textures for the buildings. The plan is to make it similar in layout to Mos Eisley, but with a clear space in the center with the CPs is a ring around it. It will probably be smaller than Eisley, too.

Now for the big question. Stop skimming now if you didn't like the wall of text.

I am using 3DS max 7 for the modelling. I've made 9 different buildings and a crate. My question is what is the best way to get them from the local file format (.max) to the Star Wars Battlefront 2 format (.msh) while preserving the textures, which, at the moment, are saved as 24-bit bitmaps (.bmp), and then make the necessary .odf file, and then put them in the correct directories so that I can use them in ZeroEditor.

Thanks in advance.

This'd fit better in the modelling forum. I'm not familiar with the workings of 3ds, but Blender and Vivaty (see modelling FAQ for links, I think) are both good pipelines for conversion to an XSI-readable format (Blender can export .objs, and Vivaty can do those and .xsi).

I have Blender, the only in/export options it's giving me are VRML 1.0, DXF, and STL.

I googled Vivaty and only got a game as a result. Whether or not that's what you were talking about, I don't think I care for it.


I found this software called '3D Object Converter' that can convert a whole ton of 3D file formats, including 3ds and msh, but when I open the 3ds files, their textures don't show up in the viewer, and I also don't know what to do with the texture files for ZeroEditor (which I've since converted to tga)

Come on you people who know what you're doing, I want to get on with my map! Help me!

hmm, you could export them as obj http://www.facegen.com/mesh_max.htm
then you can import them in xsi and use repsharpshooters MeshEX to get it ingame
i think repsharpshooter also tried making a direct 3dsmax to msh exportter but i think something iddnt work then..

I have XSI 6, but it's configured for Valve's Source engine. Must I do anything special to use it for SWBF2?


EDIT: Download link? I found the topic ofr MeshEX, but no such luck so far. (Nevermind, found it. Info on how to actually use it wouldn't be too bad, either)

the instructions are here right above the downloadlink

I got beta 4, is that less stable or something?


EDIT: Augh, this is getting really annoying. XSI keeps throwing random errors at me, may have to reinstall, won't let me import the obj files that max is exporting. Don't even know if max is doing it right, because I don't belive I have crosswalk at all and yet it's still giving me the option to export as obj.

Isn't there anyone here who uses 3DS and can tell me how to get the models into battlefront? I don't exactly like modeling in XSI, otherwise I might use that from the start.

repsharpshooter and taivyx use(d) 3DS max but both havent been much around lately

biohazard wrote:I got beta 4, is that less stable or something?


EDIT: Augh, this is getting really annoying. XSI keeps throwing random errors at me, may have to reinstall, won't let me import the obj files that max is exporting. Don't even know if max is doing it right, because I don't belive I have crosswalk at all and yet it's still giving me the option to export as obj.

Isn't there anyone here who uses 3DS and can tell me how to get the models into battlefront? I don't exactly like modeling in XSI, otherwise I might use that from the start.

Try going to the XSI website and look for another updated obj importer, the one that is shipped with xsi for some reason is faulty, it gives you vbs errors yes? Sorry I don't have a direct link for you. The file you should be looking for is wavefrontconvwin32v32.xsiaddon

Well, SWBF MSH Viewer imports .wrl, and 3ds exports it, so I thought I found my solution, but the textures won't show up in the viewer. I've yet to see if they show up in ZeroEditor or anything.

EDIT: Well, that was fruitless. When I saved it as msh, the tga file is zero bytes. Anyone know how to make the textures work with it?

If the textures you used are anything but tga files they will need to be conveted to tga files and be power of 2 in size, 64x64 128x128 etc. The pandemic exporter as well as mshex doesn't convert to tga. Well pandemic trys but as you see it does a very bad job of it.

Yes, all my textures are .tga, without RLE compression. I also tried a model using bmp textures, but the same thing happened. My texture sizes include 64x, 128x, and 256x. All of them are squares.


Mind providing download links for mshex and pandemic exporter? Having tga beforehand is no issue at all. It'd actually be a bit easier that way.