Nice job!!

Oh myyy... I have been waiting for this for the last 10 years!!!

Amazing job, Tasev! Special thanks to everyone in the credits as well!!!

Newbies; remember you can get 3ds Max for free if you're a secondary school or university/college student!

so wait this is basically like gmax but its custom built for aom and user friendly?

No, it's an exporter for 3ds max (which is the pro version of gmax) that enables us to create new models for the game in ways never thought possible! This is a good time to get into modding, aom expert

Tasev really has done amazing work here. I think we've all been waiting for the freedom to use all the functionality of BRGs.

We can use attachpoints without having to enter in values for each frame.

You can animate uv coordinates for things like flowing lava or flames running up walls.

This plugin can even do things like combining player colour with self illumination and transparency to make a player colour phoenix style model.

So many options, now we just have to get to work making awesome new models!

You should really try the mesh format "Rotate" and Mesh property "FollowTerrain" if you do not know what they do. IMO those 2 are the best after Animated UVS or "MovingTex"

Also, we should tell everybody loud and clear that the last hurdle in AoM modding has been cleared. I would hope that the news attracts newcomers to our community. I might write a beginner's guide for 3ds Max and Tasev's plugin for the same purpose.

[This message has been edited by Android GRRR (edited 01-25-2014 @ 04:50 PM).]

This is a good time to get into modding, aom expert

i have experience in modding.

I didn´t tought I´ll live long enough to see this done, congrats Tasev!

Thanks all, I just wish the dl managers would review the file already, so I can get your feedback.

@Emjer, did ykkrosh tell you anything about the ddt's? I want to convert them to dds, but I've only managed to get the one with DXT1 compression working.

[This message has been edited by Tasev (edited 01-26-2014 @ 02:53 AM).]

Now i gotta wait, when a true .exe thingy comes/lot of the bugs are fixed.
I sure with this that i would be able to make a nice spear chariot/cut nostalgic units with this, unless someone plans on doing that already...

(actually i think i may not be able to do that :P)

nope, but he figured out pretty much everything of it i believe. his file format document is in the aomed source code. It's a different format languages than the one i used. but the rules are at the top of the document. There is also the bar and other formats

As far as I remember, there is one particular DDT format that only AoMED 0.6a can convert, with later versions freezing/taking ages to do the job. I forgot which one, unfortunately.

[This message has been edited by Android GRRR (edited 01-26-2014 @ 01:43 PM).]

I thought it couldn't handle terrain textures or something.
Anyways all I know is that the first 4 bits after RTS3 define the texture properties
First bit = the same number as defined between the "[]" brackets when you convert a texture. 0 used to be transparency and 1 player colour but I'm not sure about this anymore since something in the brg also causes player colour or tranparency.
Second bit = 0 for no alpha(Animals) 1 for an alpha(almost every unit ingame) 4 for 4bit grayscale alpha 8 for 8bit grayscale alpha
Third bit = not sure most of the time its 5
Fourth bit = mipmap levels
Thats all I know and this thread ofc
http://aom.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/post.cgi?action=reply&fn=19&tn=29352&f=19,29352,0,20
just scroll a bit down untill you find PrplPplEater post about the format.
I also think I saw a post of ykkrosh explaining the format a bit but I can't find the thread anymore.

I thought it couldn't handle terrain textures or something.

Possibly, or some UI-related stuff.

EDIT: The file is up but I can't get it to work . When trying to open a BRG it produces the following error message:

Could not load file or assembly 'MiscUtil, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=d3c42c4bfacf7596' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

I copied the MS file and the two DLLs into the same folder, producing

-- Runtime error: dotNet runtime exception: Could not find file 'C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2014\scripts\AoMEngineLibrary.dll'.

I also tried running Max with administrator rights and copying ABE into all kinds of other locations, none of which worked. I'm using 3ds Max 2014 and Windows 7.

[This message has been edited by Android GRRR (edited 01-27-2014 @ 01:56 PM).]

Sorry if my directions are confusing. Put the two dlls in the main 3ds max folder, and the ms file in the scripts folder.

Well the readme does say "Extract everything from the 7zip file to your 3ds Max directory" and not copy everything in the same folder .
It does work for me but it doesn't load properly. I did not try the export function yet tho.

Thanks, Tasev.

Could anyone help me with my first steps? I can open/save an existing BRG, and modify it in the ABE interface. However, I cannot successfully export/import a model to/from Max, as described in the readme. Exporting seems to work, but when I try to import it back into ABE (with or without having made changes in Max) I get

Non-negative number required. Parameter name: capacity

or

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

EDIT: It appears like the second error only occurs after the first one, on the second and subsequent attempts.

[This message has been edited by Android GRRR (edited 01-27-2014 @ 05:11 PM).]

@Android Do you use any type of chat program? It'll be a lot easier to help, and solve the bugs if I can talk to you quickly back and forth.

I don't, I'm afraid. It's not too bad though because I'll be busy over the next couple of days, anyway. Do let me know if you have any ideas how to fix this and post them here, maybe it'll be helpful for other people as well! Thanks in advance

How is the rest of you guys getting on?

I have updated the file. Hopefully this will fix the import bugs.

[This message has been edited by Tasev (edited 01-28-2014 @ 00:02 AM).]

I downloaded the update and importing works now! Exciting times. However, I noticed that the program does not export the mesh's animation to Max. It produces the correct number of frames, and the attachpoints are moving as they should, but the mesh is basically just a still.

Then, when importing it back into ABE, the settings always change to #mesh=1 and time=0 and the numbers can't be changed (only TimeMult and U091) so that in AoM you get a static model.

EDIT: Is this happening only for me?

EDIT2: What version of Max are you using, Tasev? I'm using 2014.

[This message has been edited by Android GRRR (edited 01-28-2014 @ 02:21 PM).]

I'm using 2014 too, and I believe it also works on 2013. I have not tried any other ones.

What model did you try this on? I've tested several models, and it seems to export to max just fine for me.

[This message has been edited by Tasev (edited 01-28-2014 @ 05:18 PM).]

Maybe contact an admin to post this grande news on the homepage!

^ Wait until the bugs are fixed so that we don't scare potential newcomers away!

Is it working for you, EmjeR?

Here's what I do:

start max
run script - ABE
open
export (animation is lost - only the attachpoints move)
select object
import (ABE changes settings to #mesh=1 and time=0 (2 and 4 for the priest, for some reason). I can't change them back (only TimeMult and U091). It's like the fields are read-only.)

Models tested:
archer n throwing axeman_idlea
hero g atalanta_walka
special e phoenix_attacka
special e priest_boreda

EDIT: For ease of use it'd be good to ask for default open/save directories, respectively - just a suggestion

[This message has been edited by Android GRRR (edited 01-28-2014 @ 06:13 PM).]