Programming Question Retaining Textures During 3DS to Mesh Conversion

[Columbia42]

I have a textured 3ds model that I want to import to Orbiter but when I open the model in a 3d editing program the program does not open the textures. Can I somehow tell the program where to look for textures for this model? (I know where the textures are and the texture names are defined in the model but I assume since it is a Celestia addon the addresses are in reference to the Celestia directory). I have Blender, Anim8or, and AC3D installed on my computer. I have also tried to use the 3ds2Msh converter but the model is too hires.

 

[Capt_hensley]

^ I have yet to convert any of my models out of 3DS, But I Import Orbiter meshes all the time. Most get the textures, some do not.

I end up reappling the textures to those that do not import. I figured this out finally.

Using 3ds2msh script inside the 3ds program, I have never run into a size of mesh issue. If you are refeering to the Heap Size increase. This can be solved by importing the mesh into the MeshViewer program, then exporting to 3DS or saving as a Mesh again(renamed). I have had a few models give me this problem, and the MeshViewer I/O shuffle resoved almost all the meshes. (original X-37 by Liber, new x-37b is OK)

I'm on an I-7 920, Gigabyte x-58a UD3R, with 12meg of Ram, a 256gb SSD, 3ea ATI 512 vid cards(not SLI together but driving 4 monitors)
Some models have taken up to 25 Min to convert, but they were intact, whole with textures. Most take less than 2 Min.

I find the fact that some models have more than a few meshes, and have to be assembled inside 3DS manualy out of 30+ pieces or so (ISS) models are the worst

I Use Autodesk 3DS Max 2011, and 2012
MeshViewer ver 10.1

Good luck! Darren

 

[Loru]

remember that .3ds uses old DOS filenames so if texture's name goes beyond 8 letter name +3 letters for extension program will fail to connect textures to meshes.

probably you'll have to make changes for textures and link them again in "material editor" or whatever it is called in blender.

 

[Capt_hensley]

remember that .3ds uses old DOS filenames so if texture's name goes beyond 8 letter name +3 letters for extension program will fail to connect textures to meshes.

probably you'll have to make changes for textures and link them again in "material editor" or whatever it is called in blender.

Interesting fact, I was not aware of this limitation. Eventhough my use of .3ds fils is limited to those I get from NASA, this is a very handy piece of information for future reference.