My 3DS Max keeps crashing when i attempt to auutomatically search for textures to load. Only manual searching works.
Happens either in max 7 and 8 version.
Anybody has any advice how to fix that?
I also tried importing models into blender, hoping that i could then export into the old 3DS, and back into the game.
But the blender import plugin does not work for me at all...
I have no idea about the reason of your crashes but I think to have read somewhere that 3DSMax 8 won't work correctly (or not at all?) above Windows 8.1. One of the reasons why I still haven't upgraded to Window 10 or 11. Maybe someone will confirm that idea... What OS are you using?
And I think it's also better to exclude 3DSMax from the controle of your Antivirus.
Well this exactly came to my mind also. I use windows 10.
I will try to make a virtual PC with windows XP or windows 7... if i find some space on my disk
This whole thing takes up quite some space
My goal now is to do some improvements on models, since modern hardware can handle so much more polygons than what the game was created for.
I for example took the ARRIVAL.bes map, and used TurboSmooth function on the terrain. It looked great in game, despite the terrain having only some textures loaded for reasons stated above
Unfortunately the smoothing creates holes in the terrain surface, caused by it being split into several meshes.
Dont know how to fix this yet. Maybe merge all the parts into one mesh before smoothing, if this does not create more problems.
Otherwise i will have to fix it by hand.
Furthermore i attempted to smooth out character FACE models, it looked great in MAX, but the game did not load the model for unknown reason so far...
I don't know if you finally found a solution to your problem but some more ideas came to my mind...
- Is it possible that your textures' folder contains "corrupted" or "incompatible" files?
- Are you using the correct "plugins"?
- I also strongly advise to install 3DSmax outside of the program files folder because, years after years, Windows protects way too much that folder for "security reasons" (hummm...). It has become very difficult to edit and modify a game in that folder even though we have admin control! For example, in my case, I'm unable to record "back" a texture I have edited with (and from) Photoshop... I have to record the new texture(s) first in another place before to copy it again in its original folder.
I guess you've already tried my suggestions but "who knows", maybe they will help you or someone else...
Well i figured it out. In the game files, there are linked texture files in various formats used in the game development, which were later all converted into DDS format. When the game engine searches for them, it ignores file extensions. But when 3DS Max searches for them, for instance looks for texture 123.bmp, and finds a texture 123.DDS, it does not load it, like the game does. It just crashes... So i have to load all textures manually (sometimes it can take more than 15 minutes). Then reexport. Then the auto texture works with correct formats...
So i scratched nearly all my plans with smoothing out the 3d models.
Taking in account they almost always break apart when i try to smooth them automatically.
So the whole mod will be "just" a complete HD texture pack (about 5GB so far, because the file system is a mess with many duplicates).
New weapon sounds (from Rising storm Vietnam)
And hopefully improved (smooth and partialy transparent) vegetation.
Plus added post-processing.
I aim to release the modpack (It probably WILL be standalone afterall, to make it easier for new players to install) in march next year, along with the 20yr release anniversary.