Guild of Writers

Revision as of 20:36, 10 April 2011

What is the 3ds Max Plugin?

The 3ds Max Plugin is what Cyan originally used to create all the ages you'll find in Uru. It was released in its built form by Cyan on the 13th April, 2010. On the 6th April 2011, Cyan released the source code for the plugin.

The 3ds Max Plugin (as it stands) only works in two versions of 3ds Max - versions 7 and 8. Trial versions of both of these Max versions can be found on the internet.

The 3ds Max plugin offers the user a reasonably user-friendly interface with which to develop maps for the Cyan Worlds Engine, without as many scripting requirements as PyPRP. However, as it requires out of date versions of Max, its usability by the general modding community is limited.

Setting up the 3ds Max Plugin

Firstly, you need 3ds Max version 7 or 8. Trial versions of these two programs can be found on the internet.

Following this, make sure you have the latest service pack for your Max version.

3ds Max 7: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=5663191&linkID=9241178

3ds Max 8: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=7176150&linkID=9241178

Then, you will need to install the plugin. TheMagician created an excellent video shortly after the release of the plugin on how to do this. It is included below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjUomH6IMJ0&fmt=22

To set up the 3ds Max plugin, you need to do the following:

1) Copy all the .dll files that exist in the base directory of your Myst Online: Uru Live Again folder to the base directory of your 3ds Max installation.

2) Download (see below) and extract the plugin. Copy over the MaxPlasmaLights.dlo and PlasmaMax.gup files to your Max version's "plugins" folder.

3) Once doing this, boot up 3ds Max. If all goes well, it will crash out. Once it crashes, go to your Max installation's "plugcfg" file and open up the newly-created "PlasmaMAX2.ini" in a text editor like Notepad.

4) You need to replace the entire text with something that will actually work, like this:

[Menu]
Version=10
[SceneViewer]
Directory=PathToYourOutputDirectory
[Export]
X=411
Y=322
Dir=

Replace "PathToYourOutputDirectory" with a real folder. This is where Max will export your files, and where you need to place your files for Max to read them!

5) Start up Max again. If all goes well, you should launch up and a dropdown menu saying "Plasma" will exist on the top bar.

Congratulations! Plasma is now installed. Now go and make us some fancy content!

Where can I find the 3ds Max Plugin?

That's easy -

http://cho.cyan.com/bahrowings/MOULaPlugins871.zip

Where can I find help on the 3ds Max Plugin?

Mark (Chogon) from Cyan released basic documentation with the plugin. It's by no means perfect, but interested parties will gain at least something out of it:

http://cho.cyan.com/bahrowings/PlasmaPlugins.doc

The best individual source for help on the Plugin is Andy Legate's series of tutorials. Andy's placed them in several places over his time writing them, and two of those locations are below:

http://dusty.homeunix.net/wiki/Andy%27s_Max_Tutorials

http://guildofmaintainers.org/Forum/viewforum.php?f=154&sid=9a15c40d57a4e31c1481942d7b25ecb4

In addition, TheMagician created a series of video tutorials that every new developer should watch. You can find them collected together at this website:

http://www.agecreationtutorials.co.nr/

You can also drop into the Guild of Writers' 3ds Max sub-forum and ask questions there.

And finally...

A word from the wise. Max is the most used program out there for modelling, and therefore the amount of free tutorial content on how to do stuff is huge. Google is your friend in working with Max, and there are several excellent developer communities out there that use Max heavily, including http://www.polycount.com and http://www.cgsociety.com. Good luck, and have fun!