Atomic Systems

Hi there,

I'm a relative newbie to these forums and have been lurking in the Trainz forum.

Someone there has asked about swapping models with MSTS users... I've created tons of GWR models using Gmax and wondered if this was also used for MSTS for building models??

I'd be willing to swap models if there are any out there.... I dunno if the polycounts will be to your taste though from reading a few threads in here!

Cheers!

Jonny

Yes, GMax can export to MSTS .s file format.

Hi Jonny,

On the Microsoft Games page there is a plug in for Gmax which allows you to export to MSTS, this works in a similar manner to the Trainz plug in.

A few users have managed to produce models for both systems, but as you surmised, there are problems with polygons and textures.

mikesimpson wrote:there are problems with polygons and textures.

And what would those polygon and texture problems be? I've been using Gmax since release, and other than the inability to render, it works perfectly. FWIW, the current set of F and E-units on my site were created in Gmax, as well as the additional models I created for the 3DTS Cajon Pass addon.

3DTrains wrote:

mikesimpson wrote:there are problems with polygons and textures.

And what would those polygon and texture problems be? I've been using Gmax since release, and other than the inability to render, it works perfectly. FWIW, the current set of F and E-units on my site were created in Gmax, as well as the additional models I created for the 3DTS Cajon Pass addon.

Hi Marc,

It has been reported several times on here that if a model was designed for Trainz , imported into Gmax, then re-exported to MSTS that the polygon numbers were very high.

I think the original posting here was regarding the ability of Gmax to move models from Trainz to MSTS, hence my response.

I know Gmax works fine for building MSTS models from scratch.

Regards

Hi Mike,

Gmax only triangulates the polys during 3DS import and MSTS/Trainz export. This may be where some of the confusion occurs, as it doesn't add anything to the polycounts (which may be misinterpreted in other 3D software).

True, there really should be no difference in count between models exported to either sim.

However it seems trainz can handle larger counts than MSTS so the models tend to be slightly less efficient (because they can be), so they're probably not suitable for running in MSTS. MSTS also requires a certain hierarchy naming and material naming convention so there may be some effort required to convert them.

Ah maybe not as efficient but including beautiful curves and rounded edges where needed.

Well you can have beautiful curves and rounded edges if you like but your game may run a little slow