Hi All.

I have once again arrived at Wit's End. Any of you kind folk know how to get Max files into our beloved Blender? It is about the only format that does not seem to be importable into Blender, and I do have some rather nice Max goodies I am dying to use. Thanks in advance!

Vincent

Only way is to convert the max to 3ds file (remembering to reset xforms, check that image files are 8.3 format on the way). I f you don't have max, then try using the demo 30 days to convert all those models? or GMax or hunt for a free converter (I think there may be some on the net)

Thanks, Cog. I don't have Max. I will see about the demo... if nothing else works. I will also investigate GMax. I have not been able to find a suitable converter, free or commercial. Can the programmers (peace be upon them) among us not "just" quickly write up a script or sometin'? If I do find a way I shall post it here.

Vincent

.obj! the blender .obj importer is one of it's best, i am pretty sure i got an indigo material scene into blender that was made in max using .obj

Thanks, sir! I am going to try that (as soon as my Blender is finished rendering a rather onerous render.

The .obj importer imports........  obj files. It does not import max files. Since the max format is proprietary, I don't know how legal it would be to write an importer for it. I did some searching, and I could not even find a specification for it. I did find a couple of apps that convert .max to other formats(Deep Exploration) but they require you to have max installed on your system.

Yeah, .max is proprietary, so you may be out of luck getting an import.  Your best bet would be using Max to convert and export as something else.  Make sure the demo version lets you export before you try installing it, many don't.  You might also be able to talk the original creator into exporting it as something else, if all else fails.

By the way, many things are exported as .max files, despite the fact that it's proprietary, because it's the only way to share stuff like rigged characters.  As soon as you turn the file into .obj or .3ds you lose rigging and maybe lighting and material information.

ANother reason is high poly models, 3ds the other native export from max has a limit per mesh of 64k polys, so a high poly mesh has to be broken down into sub-meshes and groups. Habware do a good obj exporter for max that works well.

Thank you, everyone. I am only able to use Macintosh programs. (No Windows, just the way it is.) I see that GMax is  available for all computers- as long as they are Windows. Doh!! It is an intrinsic part of the computer industry that the big companies do not have to bother with the little people, the minorities, those on the outskirts. This is a good time to punt open source software. Go GNU! I will keep trying to convert Max files, however, because it will be helpful and will benefit all of [cg] humanity.