Hopefully they'll be of some use.

To make a long story short...

Dnas used to mod for AoM in a time long long ago when most people here weren't modding yet.

Dnas eventually learned to model.

He hated Gmax.

He still hates Gmax.

Dnas liked to model in Blender, a Free and Open Source modeling program. He also used to like to model for AoM.

Dnas was bored one day and decide to make it possible to combine the two so that others didn't have to suffer with Gmax... also Dnas wanted to practice scripting in Python because Python is fun. (To Guido van Rossum: Curly braces are a good thing!)

Anyways, so I wrote Blender versions of the import_gmax.ms and export_gmax.ms scripts. The workflow in Gmax and that of Blender will still be more-or-less the same (brg -> AoMEd -> 3ds -> ${modeler} -> import script -> model -> export script -> 3dx -> AoMEd -> brg) however with some important differences.

1. Blender is tons better than Gmax.
2. You don't have to deal with that silly Listener window and Gmax Exporter.
3. The readme file is a pdf and thus can be viewed without silly word processing software by a certain silly company. And it was typed in LyX which plugs into LaTeX, so the document should be very pretty.
4. The export scripts have lots of auto-merging and mesh-preparation features that make modeling lots easier... the export script should not bug out if you did something weird when deleting a vertex or used extrusion or multiple uvs per vertex or what-have-you. In short, any model is theoretically exportable... within reason.
5. The import scripts are at the mercy of Blenders (relatively lacking) 3ds import... for the moment, you'll just have to work around the problems if need-be and I would recommend using these mostly for from-scratch modeling.

For more information, see the readme file, which incidentally was quite fun to type.

IMPORTANT: If you have not modeled in Blender before, it's interface is infamous for having a steep learning curve. However, once you learn it, it is a very productive and get-the-job-done-quickly interface. (Except for the file chooser dialogs... those indeed are annoying... they should plug into the GTK dialogs... they're cooler.)

Also note that I will not be offering tutorials on learning to model in Blender. I'm not very good at it myself and there are tons of resources out there. Blender has a very active user community.

And as proof that the scripts actually work, here is the first model ever to go into AoM from Blender! (to my knowledge)

(It's the Blender mascot with a 2-minute UV map and a messed up texture with colors at the request of a strange friend.)

Happy modding!

Note that these scripts are still in beta and may have bugs.

If there are any problems with the script, specifically the export script as the import script is subject to the 3ds importer, please try to include the following in your bug report:

- The Python error that shows up in the console Blender leaves in the background. (I believe you can copy and paste from it... not sure though, haven't used Windows for a while...)
- A .blend file of your model
- What your base model was
- Anything else that might be remotely interesting

Hmm... oh! I knew I forgot something!

The files are at AoMH downloads... right around... here.
http://aom.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=6029

[This message has been edited by Dnas (edited 01-24-2007 @ 07:20 PM).]