Notes - Avatarus-one/MaxBMD GitHub Wiki

Notes

  • I'm using the old (slightly modifed) version of BmdView.exe to extract the textures so not all textures are automatically extracted.
    Use BmdView2 to extract any missing tga files, delete the files in the textures folder with a *.ERROR extension and rerun the script to continue.

  • The importer creates a folder matching the bmd filename in the same directory and automatically saves the files.
    e.g. import "C:\Zelda\bmdr\link.bmd" creates
    "C:\Zelda\bmdr\link\link.max"
    "C:\Zelda\bmdr\link\Textures\test.tga"
    "C:\Zelda\bmdr\link\Animations\test.anm" -- these animations are loaded from "C:\Zelda\bck\link*.bck"

  • Character bones are setup as a character group. To open the character for editing select the character and from the main menu select Group/Assembly/Open.

  • The animations can be merged in using the "Insert Animation" button from the "character Assembly" panel.

  • You might also want to tick the "Adjust Current Time Range" checkbox to match the animation length.

  • You can view the bones by selecting the "All Objects" in the "Display" section of the character assembly tab.

  • Note that the model is frozen by default (1.1 and earlier). Right click in a viewport and select "unfrezze all" to edit the mesh / skinning.

Bone notes

  • Extra dummy objects have been added inbetween each bone that use scaling animations. When the parent bone is scaled a controller will remove the scaling from the child bones.
    This could cause problems exporting to other 3D programs and also issues with the IK.
    The bck files store scaling as absolute values that have no effect on the children e.g. arm = 200% then hand still = 100%.
    I haven't been able to get scaling working properly in 3DS max, whenever the parent bone is scaled the child bones become skewed.
  • Should hide the dummy helpers when animating the bones but be sure to unhide them for .x exporting.
  • The bck files also animate positions which squish the parent bone, this normally happens in face animations. To fix this any bone with position animations is flaged as not being turned on (Animation/bone tools.../Object Properties/Bone On)