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Pulling my hair out over Defiant: Mesh Formats, MAX, and normals, oh my...

andar_bandar_b0 Posts: 0Member
edited April 2011 in Technical Questions and Answers #1
Well, I'm new here as I'm sure you can tell. I tend to jump around from one passion to the next, and I'm on a Defiant kick right now. Trying to make something that resembles the opening credits of the later Trek shows, primarily DS9.

I guess I'm asking if anyone has a link for, or could kindly help with, a conversion of a high-detail Defiant mesh. I don't want to take credit for anything, only to have a mesh to work with. I'd even started one from scratch once, but I didn't have the skills mastered to do the WHOLE ship myself. (Besides, I wanted to make it as faithful to the studio model as possible, and I couldn't seem to get everything to work at the same time. :p),
I've tried all the meshes for Defiant I can find, on Trekmeshes and a few other places, and looked here, et cetera, but since there are such beautiful meshes out there, it irks me to think of spending hours re-modeling her because I can't get MAX to work.

Most of the models just won't work for the kind of shots I'm hoping to do. I'm willing (and able) to retexture and add detail, I just don't have the skill to make an attractive hull for her. Skye Dodds' Defiant and Star_Creation's Quad(e)rant look perfect for the plan I have in mind, but... NOW I CAN'T OPEN THEM!

Since I'm a student, after trying a while to convert .max files to Blender or something, I downloaded the 3ds Max trial. Neither 2010 nor 2011 will work on my 2010 iMac, whether I'm using Parallels or Bootcamp. They won't work on my 'real' PC either, crash on startup. It looks like a problem with .NET, something that hasn't bothered any OTHER software. :mad: Used a .NET cleaner, reinstalled, still no. New video drivers, no. Reinstalled Max, still no. I refuse to reinstall my OS for this nonsense.

One of the meshes I've got is a LWO, which I converted to Blender ok, but the normals were inverted on about half the ship. Another crashes both Blender and 3DExploration. I managed to convert one of the older meshes with 3DE, but it can't open the two models I really want to try. -.-

Thanks, and I hope I'll be able to offer at least a little something to show for any suggestions.
Post edited by andar_b on

Posts

  • andar_bandar_b0 Posts: 0Member
    #2
    I thought I finally found a conversion I could work with...but it was one I already had, the one that crashes Blender when importing the LWO. T.T
  • PagrinPagrin171 Posts: 0Member
    #3
    I have Lightwave, if you want me to try exporting the file out in a different format. Lightwave will export to 3DS, DXF, OBJ, Collanda, FBX or Lightwave 5 formats. That might help.
    You can always PM me if you want. and we can arrange the transfer.
  • MelakMelak332 Posts: 0Member
    #4
    You know autodesk gives way 3 ( or is it 1 now?) licenses ofr all their apps to students...just in case it's a problem with the demo version, but that's unlikely.
    I don't know exactly how to fix your .NET problem, but I could convert a max file :)
  • andar_bandar_b0 Posts: 0Member
    #5
    I did the licensing and activation twice, but it didn't seem to make any difference. I found a thread with a similar issue, but Autodesk Support didn't appear to have fixed the issue. IIRC, Vista and 7 come with .Net 3.5 built in, but he kept telling the guy to uninstall it. :p

    I find it hard to believe that such expensive (when actually purchased) software doesn't even throw an error to give you an idea what is wrong. Quark was the same way.

    OK, if one of you is kind enough to convert it, what format would you suggest for getting the most accurate conversion? I guess I'm going to be working with Blender for now. I've had some troubles getting it to import as Lightwave, but perhaps that's because I'm a noob. I learn most software packages quickly, and I *have* modeled some in Blender. (Incidentally, I started modelling in Video Toaster when I was in elementary school in the 90s. :) )

    Thanks again for the responses. Oh, and I love the avatar Melak, looks like my cat. :p
  • homerpalooza67homerpalooza67228 Posts: 1,891Member
    #6
    andar_b wrote: »
    (Incidentally, I started modelling in Video Toaster when I was in elementary school in the 90s. :) )
    i remember playing around with animation master when i was in high school. trying to figure out what NURBS, splines and polygons were. good times ;). That was back when my addiction to photoshop started to become a problem :p
  • andar_bandar_b0 Posts: 0Member
    #7
    Since we're off topic a little, I remember going through a long tutorial in the manual on how to make an asteroid. I animated in a little prefab ship from the library, but we didn't have the frame by frame recorder, so I could only watch it render each frame to see the animation. XD

    EDIT

    I figured it out, at least mostly. The newest beta of Blender imported the LWO of Dodds' Defiant with only a 30 second hang, so I think we're gold. The textures didn't all come through, but I don't care XD

    http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?77554-Refit-of-Skye-Dodds-Defiant

    My wip thread.
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