Hey all, I'm more of a programmer than an artist, but i'd like to know if 3DS Max supports exporting 3DS Triangle Strip coordinates vs. just a list of all the polygons? I'd rather not write a converter that would have to break every object down intro strips. Anyone have some advice? Steve

Well, every program/engine that i've seen that supports 3ds max requires an external program that does this. so its more than likely not possible with 3ds max.

I'm betting you're right about the whole strip and 3ds Max thing, I've seen lots of programs that have to write their own exporter. Too bad, though. I realy didn't want to go through the pain of that :)

and by trivial

well since i'm not a programmer i'm not sure what that means.... what does it mean?

its maxscript. while not triangle strips, its the basic foundation for writing an exporter in max, a some more logic and you have your very own triangle strip exporter, in whatever format you want.

i know the op didnt want to write one but usually its the fastest way, unless you are dealing with a common established format.

though... it sounds like an interesting challenge. I might be up to it. if there were some details on the format.

though check around http://www.maxplugins.de, they might have something there.

Hey Kryat,

Nice link on the triangle strips. I already knew the basics of exporting, but I didn't want to bother with strips. The only tutorials I'd seen involved vague references to hash tables. I'm going to have to look that over, but it looks like a great start. That said, i'm wondering if I should just use triangles for static models in the game and strips for animated models. Thoughts?

from what I've read on triangle strips (i am by no means an expert), i would probably implement them on static meshes, simply because they might see a larger benefit in terms of compressability.

It really depends on the construction of the mode how much that directly relates to a size/performance optimization you'll see converting over to tri-strips.