Mark's 3d studio max to VRML97/X3D Export Plug-In

Thanks again for a great product. Much of the work we are doing and will be doing in future would be much more time consuming without your improved exporter. Brian Hay, VIRTUAL REALMS Pty Ltd.

I love your vrml-exporter! Eckhard Jäger (Bart), NeeNeeNee

 


Revision 010 now available. View changes.


Price and Ordering Information


Download free 40-export trial

This plug-in replaces the original discreet 3d studio max VRML Exporter. We have made vast improvements, adding new features and fixing key bugs. Finally your VRML output will look like your max model with no hand tweaking*. The objects will even be the same size in VRML space as they are in 3ds max. Best of all this plug-in does not crash 3ds max. It even has useful context sensitive help for all controls.

Our latest edition, revision 10, is focused on lighting and presents the opportunity to create interesting lighting effects. All controls in the General Lighting Parameters roll-out (except for "Affect Specular") are now obeyed. Spotlight parameters are set correctly. Export of Attenuation settings has been fixed and Near Attenuation is supported. Decay settings are now exported. max's environment settings of global light-level and tint are now applied to all exported lights.

We are indebted to Robert Mueller of Lightspeed Design for drawing our attention to the problems with attenuation and providing the solution to the complex problem of matching max's attenuation and decay curves as closely as mathematically possible with the 3-constant equation provided by VRML97.

Revision 10 also fixes a large number of other problems. Please see the Release Notes for complete details.

Use this exporter to share your work in all its 3-dimensional glory with colleagues who do not have access to 3d studio max. Once you have exported your work in VRML97 format, they can view it using one of the excellent free VRML97 players that are available on the web.

You can, for example, download (Windows & Mac), (Windows), FreeWRL (GNU/Linux) or OpenWorlds Horizon (Windows & SGI Irix) now.

*Limitations apply. Not all 3ds max features are supported by ISO VRML97.

New features

  • Supports Global Light-level and Tint
  • Supports General Lighting Parameters
  • Supports Environment background
  • Scales to VRML units
  • DEFs/USEs Appearance nodes (3ds max materials)
  • Improved NavInfo helper
  • CreaseAngle support
  • Context sensitive help for all Export Dialog controls

Bug Fixes

  • Lighting Attenuation correct
  • Spot Light Fall-off and Hot-spot correct
  • Normals correctly generated
  • Material Editor's Coordinates Roll-up Settings Correctly Output as TextureTransforms
  • Mirrored objects correctly output
  • TextureCoordinates DEFed and USEd greatly reducing output file size in most cases
  • Output as Quads, Ngons and Visible Edges now works correctly without missing or incorrect triangles or crashing max. Take advantage of these alternate output forms to reduce the size of your output file
  • No More Empty IndexedFaceSets
  • No More Duplicate DEF named IndexedFaceSets
  • Hidden Bindable Nodes No Longer Exported (unless Export Hidden is selected
  • Renderable Property = false Nodes No Longer Exported

Comparisons

discreet's VRML Exporter


Oops!
Mark's VRML Exporter


Attenuated Lights - Not!
Attenuated Lights - Really

 

  • 171 warnings
  • 4996 Polygons
  • 357kb Filesize
  • 76kb Gzip-Filesize

 

  • 81 Warnings
  • 4996 Polygons
  • 139KB Filesize
  • 33kb Gzip-Filesize

Above demo and Edgewise 3-d Logo made by VRMLsuck http://www.neeneenee.de/vrml/. Thanks Bart! Data from Chisel. Click left mouse over logo and drag to spin the logo.

Latest Version

The latest version currently available for download is version 1, revision 10, also known as v1.00.010. You can review the changes from the previous version.

Download Free Trial

Download the plug-in and receive a free trial during which you can make 8 exports.

Please review the release notes before downloading.

Download Mark's VRML97/X3D Exporter for 3ds max 3.1 now.

Download Mark's VRML97/X3D Exporter for 3ds max 4 now.

Purchase Mark's VRML97 Exporter

  1. Download and install the correct version of Mark's VRML97 Exporter using the above links
  2. Mark's VRML97 Exporter costs $40.

©2002 Mark Callow dba Edgewise Consulting. Last Updated: Wed 7 August, 2002