importing large terrain meshes

[sgt pepper]

is there a way i can import this terrain mesh (and texture) into maxED some how, if so what extension do i need to export to with milk shape and how exactly do i import it into the map editor. If someone could point me to a tutorial it would save the trouble

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/dkrules2/terrain2.jpg

[Aztec]

I'm not sure whether milkshape can export to an .asi (required for triangle meshes) format. You'll need to import this into 3dmax and export using that.

[Froz]

Yes, possible via 3d Studio Max with .asi export plugin (from the remedy tools).

A word of advice though: Large terrain meshes cause the gis lighting to take ages to render, and even then if you have the patience to wait, the render server will most propably crash/jam and can't save the new level file.

[Enragiated]

Maybe we can just light all the level stuff first and then add the terrain mesh after the lighting is complete, it could possibly make some pretty good results if the lightings set up properly. Does any of you guys know how I might be able to light an outdoor map by the way? I tried adding a light source to the skybox texture but no lights eminating after I GIS it.

[biXen]

Doesn't it look awfully stupid when Max runs on that area?

[Aztec]

As it is it would be. If you're planning to use that as just a landscape, then depending on what you obviously want to do in the map, you would need to flatten some area's, or have the landscape a massive trimesh.

As Froz says, It will take an absolute age to render a large trimesh of this nature. If you do decide to render it, make sure you've got enough RAM and free space on your hdd. My Akuma's cave (the cave is a trimesh) took 25 minutes to render and ate a lot of memory up as it was rendering.

Also if you render the area without the trimesh, when you place it in the map, the trimesh wouldn't be affected by the GIS so it'll basically be unrendered and look out of place.

[Joonas]

Aztec said:
My Akuma's cave (the cave is a trimesh) took 25 minutes to render and ate a lot of memory up as it was rendering.



Erm... that's not long.

[Aztec]

with the cave made in maxed, it took 8 minutes. I think there is a bit of a difference http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Joonas]

Ah...