I have been searching for tools to improve mod development, and in particular level construction. Does anyone remember Jamlander for UT2K3/4? It is a plugin for 3DS Max that let the designer construct nearly every aspect of a map in Max and export as a .t3d. Is there anything like that out there, or in the works? Also, it might be a good idea to start a section devoted to tools.
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I rarely say this but www.google.com -
Don't patronize me.Comment
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Why would you want to .t3d into UT3?
With UT2004 it was understandable since StaticMeshes only supported per-vertex lighting, so bringing in geometry as brushes afforded texel lightmaps.
However, with UT3 StaticMeshes support lightmaps. They also support instancing etc. So a map is much better created as StaticMeshes. There is no longer any advantage to using CSG construction (other than quick in-editor design planning).
If you already have/know Max, just bring everything in as StaticMeshes.Comment
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Thanks you for therespomce. One thing that Jamlander did, was export all static meshes from a max scene at once, and added them into packages, recognized instances, and converted Max lights to Unreal lights. I know Unreal, but it is much faster and accuracte with a pipeline like I am asking about.Comment
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You can get Jamlander from a number of sites...
But it won't do you much good.
UE3's .t3d file format is different than UT2004.
The staticmesh and lighting setup is also different.
Movers and Triggers are handled differently and use Kismet etc.
Essentially a complete new set of plugins would have to be developed.
Any Jamlander versions that I am aware of are also for older versions of Max, so if you are using a newer Max they won't be compatible.
While I do agree with you that constructing an entire map or a large portion of it in Max may have some benefits for certain designs, there are too many issues when working that way for most conventional maps.
Creating an entire map in Max essentally eliminates the advantage of object instancing unless the plugin replaced cloned entities with mesh instances in UEd. An what do you do if you wish to mix custom content with stock? Getting meshes from UEd out to Max is not always an easy task. I could list dozens of issues, which essentially makes it more work than not for most...
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I am well aware of Jamlander's availibilty. It will only work on 3DS Max 8,7,6, and 5, that is why I asked if there was something like it or something in the works. I am aware of many of the things you mentioned plus some. As mentioned in my lsat post Jamlander did handle instancing. I didn't really want to go here, but since my meager 6 posts seems to lead the readers to not take me seriously, I am a professional designer with three AAA titles: including professional experience with Unreal, and an honorable mention in the 2004 MSU Contest.Comment
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The only community tool I am aware of is a UE2-UE3 .t3d convertor, but afaik it is not comprehensive.
I have some tools under development, but they will be available to studios before the community (for targetted beta feedback), and are not specifically what you are after.
Post-counts are irrelevant to me, I treat everyone the same on the forums, I am only here to help people and answer questions.
With your previous "experience" the unedit3 list and UDN3 Licensee area would be a better place to look instead of the community forums.Comment
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it happens to every1 on these forums at one time or another...Originally posted by Juce View Post
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I noticed that you're looking for more of a map/texture tool , but I thought I'd mention something I wrote just recently to extract the ogg vorbis files from UT3 packages.
If it comes in handy to anyone else, then it's cool with me.
http://www.zenebo.com/word/tools/unr...kage-explorer/Comment
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Thanks for the post abramhoff, and the work on the tool. This is the type of conversation I am trying to spark.Comment
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