IMPORTant things to know about 3dsmax

[moon]

Greetings all,

Some of you may encounter not nice problems when you try to export your files from 3ds max 2010 (or earlier?) as collada DAE files. The main thing you will encounter is that 1 meter in 3ds max is not 1 meter in the game. This is simply the cause of a wrong setup in the 3ds max unit types.
To solve this:

Open Customise/Units Setup , change your unit to meters AND click on the button that says System unit setup. There you choose 1 unit = 1,0 Meters.

After this the sizes should match up with the editor.
When you export a Collada file, you will have to alter some settings in the export window:

Go to advanced and open the Units menu, uncheck Automatic and set the units to the system you use to meters.

Go to axis conversion and set "Z-up" if your objects appear to be turned wrong in the game .

Its wise to save this as a Preset.

Dont forget to texture your objects in 3ds max with the textures you will use ingame.

[Neurological]

Just something to add, the collada exporter of 3dsmax 2009 is broken, search for the plugin OpenCOLLADA.

[Evil Ash]

Hahaha and here I was just exporting everything after scaling it down by 2.43.
All that math I did to figure out the size difference, ha.

Thanks for this. Life has become easier.

Also for people using 3D Studio Max, the editor uses the pivot point as the origin. So if your entities are being created halfway into the ground when creating on a surface, do this:

Under the Hierarchy tab, click on Adjust Pivot Only and move the pivot point to where you want the origin to be. Unlick Adjust Pivot Only and then select the model and go to Utilties > Reset XForm > Reset Selected.

And also yes as a user of 3DSM2009 the exported is wonk. I use OpenCollada as well.

Also when exporting your models, if you've used any boolean objects or 'cap hole' modifiers, be sure Triangulate is checked in the exporter.