Anyone Remember The Ames Room Illusion

[Christopher]

Is this some arbitrary limitation on the part of Cyan?

AFAIK yes. I think someone (JWPlatt or Cyan itself) mentioned in the thread that Cyan want the raw .max files and not the .prp files.

Christopher

[Deledrius]

Ah, I was worried that might be the case. That's quite unfortunate. I wonder if they also need to be Max 7 files as well.

[Karkadann]

That would explain all the extra work

[Christopher]

I wonder if they also need to be Max 7 files as well.

I assume this is the case... I doubt Cyan has a newer version of Max.

[matthornb]

Actually, I think it's very likely that Cyan Worlds has a newer 3d-animation solution than 3ds Max 7, for use on RM:ME, Obduction, etc, but you're right that it looks like they're still using Max 7 for anything output to URU.

And yes, Cyan wants to have the .max scene files. That's one reason for sending it all to Karkadann. He has a compatible copy of 3ds max, and can use the 3ds max plugins, and I don't have that. Another is that although I have a partially-functional age in Blender, with all the graphics looking nice, collision mesh working, and panic link region, footstep sounds, and a few simple-to-implement basics like that, it is at this point lacking integration of most of the music and ambient sound effects, code for a journal, as well as code for each linking book that must be added. So it's not like I have a completely finished version of Sevkor working in Blender anyway.

At the time we initially planned this, it was informally agreed that Karkadann would construct these scripts, and I thought he would do a better job on them than I could. (I have zero experience with Python right now and it could take me months to get up to speed. I'd be willing to attempt it but right now it may not be our best option.) It was also thought that the 3ds max plugin for output to CWE-based shards would be far more reliable and capable than the Blender options then available. A finished release of Korman is still way, way off in the distance due to the intrinsic difficulty of the project, and PYPRP2 - the other Blender option - is still buggy and lacking a lot of useful features. In hopes of saving Karkadann the hassle of getting the Blender content ported into 3ds Max, I'd toyed with the idea of doing the same work myself - during a hectic one-month effort using a rented copy of the current version of 3ds max through Autodesk's subscription option, at a personal cost of $190. But the 3ds max age creation plugins aren't yet modified to work with the current version of 3ds max. I asked Hoikas about the idea of making the plugin compatible and he told me it could be done (and done much more easily than finishing korman), but it isn't done yet, as far as I know.

All that is to say... given Cyan's requirements and everything else, I've pretty much exhausted every option other than handing off the whole thing to Karkadann or someone else with a copy of 3ds max 7.

[Christopher]

I'd toyed with the idea of doing the same work myself - during a hectic one-month effort using a rented copy of the current version of 3ds max through Autodesk's subscription option, at a personal cost of $190. But the 3ds max age creation plugins aren't yet modified to work with the current version of 3ds max.

That wouldn't help Karkadann anyway I think. The max files from newer Versions are incompatible with the ones from older versions. AFAIK the oldest version the current (2014) version can save to is 2011.

I asked Hoikas about the idea of making the plugin compatible and he told me it could be done (and done much more easily than finishing korman), but it isn't done yet, as far as I know.

Basically anything could be done. The problem with the newer Max versions (2013-2014) is that they added unicode support to their SDK. It may be easier to rewrite the plugin to work with newer Max versions than finishing korman, but it's still a lot of work noone wanted to do so far. The other problem is, that this could also break compatibility with older max versions.

Christopher

[janaba]

So much energy, time and effort went already into this once so promising project, and its future still seems to be so vague and open ...

Many kudos and hugs to matthornb, Karkadann and all who contributed to this by now and further on ...

[Christian Walther]

I think someone (JWPlatt or Cyan itself) mentioned in the thread that Cyan want the raw .max files and not the .prp files.

And yes, Cyan wants to have the .max scene files.

Is your source for that more recent than this (credits to JWPlatt for finding the quote for me), from which I gather the opposite?

If Sevkor can be transfused successfully and more easily than converting it to Max, that would be an excellent case to show Cyan that there is demand for a PRP-based contribution workflow and to test it.

[Christopher]

I have no idea where or when I read this (or if I possibly misunderstood it...). But I think the whole "The age must be ported to 3ds Max" stuff must have started somehow...

But if Chogon says he may also have the .prp files I think transfusion would be the better option.

[Deledrius]

I have no idea where or when I read this (or if I possibly misunderstood it...). But I think the whole "The age must be ported to 3ds Max" stuff must have started somehow...

But if Chogon says he may also have the .prp files I think transfusion would be the better option.

If it were finished, but from what matthorn is saying, there still remains work to be done by Karkadann. Conversion is only part of the equation if I'm understanding correctly.