I was wondering if there are any ways to get weighted vertices in 3d-Studio MAX (for animating characters). I''m using the Character Studio plug-in to animate within MAX, but I have no way of exporting the weights for uses out of MAX. Somebody I know has done exporters for MAX, but doesn''t know how to get the information out of the plug-in. What is the best way to get the info? Write an exporter? Use another program? Write your own weighting editor? Time/money is definitely an issue. Thx Thrump

K, forget about MAX and exporters and that stuff...

How do you get weighted vertices into your engine?

I make a model in Max, then detach meshes according to what vertices belong to each bone and then adjust each pivot point to go where I think the joint should be. Then I use a MaxScript that I wrote to export the mesh in my own file format and it automatically calculates the weights based on the distance from the joint (pivot point).
Automatic calculation is the best and easiest way to go, in my opinion. It doesn''t take much experimenting to find a good algorithm for calculating weights based on the distance from the joint that looks good.

I make a model in Max, then detach meshes according to what vertices belong to each bone and then adjust each pivot point to go where I think the joint should be. Then I use a MaxScript that I wrote to export the mesh in my own file format and it automatically calculates the weights based on the distance from the joint (pivot point).
Automatic calculation is the best and easiest way to go, in my opinion. It doesn''t take much experimenting to find a good algorithm for calculating weights based on the distance from the joint that looks good.

Are you scripting or coding the plugin? If it''s coding you use

float GetWeight(int i)

if scripting, I have no idea. CS has it''s own little SDK located in the C_STUDIO\SDK subfolder of your Max install. Take a look there. You''ll need to get additional info as well, like how many and which nodes each vertex is linked to.

Good luck

Thx for replies! I will definitely look into both methods. Thanks again!