Wiley gmax Bible
Contents
1. 03 537571 ch01 qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 14 cb 14 Part Attacking gmax Hard and Fast Several complex materials have also been removed including most of the Shaders Reflection Mapping Raytrace Materials and Displacement Mapping These materi als are used to produce detailed looks that take a long time to render and would slow down your game You wouldn t want that would you Most of the material modifiers are absent but the mapping modifiers of UVW Map UVW Xform and UVW Unwrap are still available So gmax includes all that you need to work with and manipulate maps Effects limitations gmax can t do Atmospheric effects like fog or Environment Mapping Again the rea son is probably because these effects would take too long to render effectively gmax allows backgrounds but you can t animate them 3ds max also includes Particle Systems and Space Warps which sound like B grade science fiction movies but they let you create special effects by controlling the movement of thousands of tiny particles A Space Warp is a tool used to create forces within a scene such as wind torque gravity etc No rendering or compositing There are no rendering limitations in gmax because there are no rendering features at all Because the game engine is used to render the objects rendering objects in gmax isn t necessary gmax does include a flat shade renderer that is used within the viewport This renderer can render objects as wirefr2. gmax this chapter gives you a high altitude view of gmax and its games From this viewpoint you ll be able to see how gmax fits into the gaming industry and what options lie ahead of you as a gamer and a game developer CHAP E R In This Chapter Learning the history of gmax Understanding gmax s relationship to 3ds max gmax and the gaming community Pursuing a career in the gaming industry Introducing the gmax game packs Understanding the limitations of gmax 03 537571 ch01 qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 4 cb 4 Part Attacking gmax Hard and Fast Learning the History of gmax At the Game Developer s Conference GDC in 2001 Discreet dropped an announce ment on the gaming community that had generally had one of two different effects on the listeners Attendees were either rendered immobile from shock or set into a frenzy of giddy excitement Essentially the announcement was that Discreet was going to make an optimized version of 3ds max for gamers and they were going to give it away for free At the time this was an amazing bit of news because 3ds max sold for around 2 500 to 3 000 The excitement for gamers was significant because 3ds max is the software package that most game companies use to create their games and now game content cre ators can use the same tool that the game companies use Once gmax appeared as a free download on the Discreet site the number of down loads began t
3. 03 537571 ch01 qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 3 gmax The Possibilities D you remember the first time you played an arcade game How about the first time you played a computer game at home Do you remember the first adventure or sce nario based game that you finished How about the first one you finished without cheating Do you remember the first game that you completed with all settings on the most diffi cult level Do you remember the first time that you stopped playing a game because no more levels were available Do you remember your joy of finding some additional levels online Have you ever thought of creating your own mod or levels If you ve answered yes to most of these questions then you truly are a gamer at heart If you ve answered yes to the last question then you re about to embark on an interesting journey gmax is a complex piece of software that makes creating cus tom game content and levels possible Throughout the chap ters that follow you ll learn to use the exact tool that the game developers use to create their games Building game mods isn t for the faint at heart as the thickness of this book would indicate It takes patience and skill a little bit of study and a lot of practice but the end result can be very rewarding There is nothing like challenging other players to a death match on a level you designed and built yourself Talk about home field advantage Before we dive into the details on
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5. ames smooth or smooth with highlights For the work you ll be doing this is sufficient The Video Post interface is also missing In 3ds max this interface lets you combine different animation sequences and edit them in different ways Other limitations 3ds gmax includes a Sunlight system which can simulate the effect of sunlight at any time during the year in any part of the world This is missing in gmax The Camera Tracker and Camera Match utilities are missing in gmax These utilities let you match a camera to a section of video or to an image The Motion Capture controllers are also missing The Schematic View is also missing in gmax This view displays all objects as nodes small boxes and includes all the links groups and instances of an object in a sin gle view It s good for getting a macro look at your scene and can even be used to move and define relationships between objects 03 537571 chOl qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 15 cb Chapter 1 gmax The Possibilities Summary Understanding what gmax is and what it can and can t do is crucial as you begin to build game levels With this understanding you are ready to move to the next level This chapter covered the following topics The history of gmax gmax enabled games gmax limitations Hey this gmax thing sounds pretty cool so let s look at it The next chapter pre sents and more importantly explains the gmax user interface 15 03 5
6. ax support including the following Microsoft s Impossible Creatures Microid s Tennis Master Series Unreal Tournament 2003 11 03 537571 ch01 qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 12 cb 12 Part Attacking gmax Hard and Fast f Deltic55 gmax gmax trainsim game pack BEE File Edit Tools Group Views Create Modifiers Animation Graph Editors Customize Train Simulator Help Teapot Plane NameandColor Y Grid 10 0m ray Add Time Tag E tE Ra E Figure 1 6 The Train Simulator game pack is also very similar to the Flight Simulator game pack Animate Tip Discreet keeps a list on its Web site of games that users have voted to provide with gmax support If your favorite games aren t on the list you can make your voice 4 heard at the Discreet site Understanding the Limitations of gmax Nobody likes to hear that software has limitations and you may be screaming Hey don t tell me what I don t have But gmax may be just the starting point toa lifetime of work with 3ds max and knowing where one ends and the other begins can help you in the long run Also by knowing the limits of gmax you won t be spinning your wheels looking for a feature that isn t there Now that you re armed with a lame excuse I ll give you the real excuse Much of the features left out of gmax were excluded on purpose because games don t need them For example gmax doesn t include a way to render your scenes
7. because the game engine has an optimized renderer built into it The main purpose of gmax is to build and animate additional content for games and almost all the modeling and animation features remain See someone is watching out for you _ 03 537571 chOl qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 13 cb Chapter 1 gmax The Possibilities 13 Modeling limitations the stuff you don t need With all the various modeling features you probably won t even miss these few lim itations These few limitations can be addressed easily using the available modeling types gmax has no Pyramid primitive object Why is the pyramid missing It probably has something to do with the power of pyramids and such an object is just too danger ous in the hands of gamers All the Extended primitives are also missing including equally dangerous objects such as the Hedras and the Torus Knots But they left the teapot for you so what else do you need For 2D drawing tools the Section spline tool is missing NURBS modeling is also removed NURBS is an acronym that stands for Non Uniform Rational B Splines You can think of a NURBS object as a model that is made from a net and at each intersecting point is a handle that you can grab onto to push or pull the net Using these control points you can change the surface of the model In some ways working with NURBS is like modeling with clay NURBS are very useful for modeling organic objects like flowers and cloth I
8. guess Discreet assumes that we don t need any of these objects in our games NURBS objects usually don t work in real time games because they take longer to render 3ds gmax has many other objects that it groups together as compound objects These include Loft Boolean ShapeMerge Morph Connect Conform Scatter Terrain and Mesher objects gmax includes only the first five of these The latter four Conform Scatter Terrain and Mesher can yield very large objects that wouldn t work well in games Animation limitations Although 3ds gmax includes several different Inverse Kinematics solvers only the Interactive and Applied IK methods and the IK Limb Solver is included in gmax The HI IK Solver and the HD IK Solvers are missing These solvers enable Hierarchy Independent and Hierarchy Dependent IK solutions Also missing in gmax is the Dynamics module that enables users to animate using defined physical properties like gravity friction etc Material Editor limitations The Material Editor has been redesigned for gmax and it looks quite a bit different than the Material Editor found in 3ds max Of all the various material and map types only Standard and Multi Material materials are available in gmax For maps you ll have to make do with the Bitmap and Checker map types All other procedu ral materials and maps are gone but you can simulate any of these other types using a Bitmap map so Discreet left the one that counts _
9. n the CDROM book s CD ROM 03 537571 chOl qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 5 cb Chapter 1 gmax The Possibilities gmax and the Gaming Industry With gmax the gaming companies have a way to give their game legs The term legs is used to define the length of time that the game remains on the shelves For these companies the longer the game stays on the shelf the more money it makes Come to think of it book publishing works the same way Have you ever played a game and ripped through all the levels in a matter a days and then felt jipped because it held your interest for only two weekends Thank heavens for mod builders who enabled gamers to create new and devious levels many of which were much better than the levels shipped with the game gmax lets mod creators use the same tool that was used to create the game in the first place along with all the customization needed to output the content to the for mat that the game uses So the game companies get a game that stays around longer the game hobbyists get an advanced mod builder and the normal gamer gets more levels than he or she can shake a joystick at It s a win win win situation Pursuing a Career in the Gaming Industry fine If you speak of the gaming industry in Las Vegas they will immediately think of gambling games but because you re reading this book even if you live in Las Vegas I assume that you aren t interested in the odds of winning for a r
10. o take off and entire Web sites sprang up overnight devoted to gmax and custom game content Today the total number of downloads of gmax is over a half million That s a lot of game content creators Understanding the Relationship Between gmax and 3ds max To understand gmax you first need to understand where it came from gmax is based on 3ds max version 4 which just happens to be the best selling 3d modeling animation and rendering package available Combined with Character Studio it s the product of choice for most gaming companies 2 Even though 3ds max 5 is currently available most of the functions found in gmax i are the same as those found in 3ds max 4 Version 5 includes many high end enhancements that wouldn t be included in gmax anyway Over time some of these improvements will find their way to gmax gmax actually comes in two flavors regular and extra crunchy The normal gmax version is available for free from Discreet or you can get it off the CD ROM that came with this book Discreet also has a development version of gmax available affectionately called gmax dev This later version enables game companies to create game packs that ship with their games If you re looking to get your hands on gmax dev then be warned that it is very expensive unless you own a game company but for most users gmax is more than enough On th The latest version of gmax at the time of publishing version 1 2 is included o
11. ot Perspective Plane Name and Color 0 100 N S Grid 10 0 Add Time Tag ert r Animate iz B Figure 1 2 The Flight Simulator game pack offers minimal changes to the gmax interface Trainz As Flight Simulator was making its big splash in the gmax market another simula tion game with a dedicated group of users appeared with a fairly robust implemen tation that relied on gmax Trainz created by Auran is a simulator for trains With all the appropriate tools in place the learning curve was manageable Trainz users now boast one of the largest online repositories of gmax custom content available Figure 1 3 shows a sample engine created in gmax by Jean Luc Benard 4 03 537571 ch01 qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 9 cb Chapter 1 gmax The Possibilities 9 Cross For details on using the Flight Simulator game pack turn to Chapter 26 Creating Reference New Scenery for Trainz sncf231 gmax gmax Ri Z Grid 10 0m 2 M Animate 7 f Add Time Tag ert l ge es y Figure 1 3 The Trainz game pack changes the gmax interface slightly and adds some exporting features Dungeon Siege After Flight Simulator Microsoft released a game created by Gas Powered Games that relied heavily on gmax and allowed users to customize every aspect of the game to create their own adventures The game was Dungeon Siege and gmax has made possible the creation of Siegelets that number in the hundreds The D
12. ot fire up Quake to see your custom level but they will take time to look at your images You can always take screenshots of your game in progress using the Print Screen key on your keyboard Another avenue that leads to the game industry is to choose one of the many schools that offer degrees in game development You can find a good list of schools that will prepare you for the gaming industry at www gamedev net Every year there are several conferences and events that bring the gaming industry together Attending these conferences gives you some valuable exposure to the industry For games the big one to attend is the E3 Expo This conference takes place in the spring and is the place where all the new games are announced Another good conference that is more technical is the Game Developer s Conference GDC For computer graphics as a whole the place to be is Siggraph You can usually volunteer as a student to get into conferences free of charge You can find out about these conferences online E3 Expo is at www e3expo com GDC info can be found at www gdconf com and Siggraph info is at www Siggraph org gmax Enabled Games Just because gmax is out there and available doesn t mean you ll be able to use it with all the games that you want Discreet is making money on gmax by licensing its use to the game companies These game companies need to pay Discreet for the right to tie their game into gmax so the list of games that you can
13. oyal flush I frequently tempt my young son with a career in the gaming industry I ask him How would it be to play games for a living or even better to make games for a liv ing His answer is always the same Ooh yeah If you re anything like my son then you were probably one of the first to download gmax and probably know more tricks than anyone on your block for beating games If you re considering getting a job in the gaming industry then learning gmax and 3ds max is a good start Another good feather to have in your 3d cap is getting experience with the 3d pro gram called Maya Alias Wavefront has recently made a learning edition of Maya available for free You may want to check this tool out also You can find details on the Maya Personal Learning Edition at www al iaswavefront com Many positions are open to game developers You can become a modeler an anima tor or an effects specialist One of the nice things about using gmax is that you get experience in all these areas As you work with gmax to create a custom gaming level pay attention to which area of development you most look forward to 5 03 537571 ch01 qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 6 cb 6 Part Attacking gmax Hard and Fast When you begin interviewing with game companies you re going to need a port folio of your work so as you build levels be sure to save images of your best work to show off later Chances are the interviewer will n
14. t Flight Simulator This game s integration takes a step beyond its predecessor The Combat Flight Simulator 3 game pack can export to the CFS M3D file format Figure 1 5 shows a sample plane in the Combat Flight Simulator game pack Cross Combat Flight Simulator is similar to Flight Simulator which is covered in Chapter Reference 4 Creating Custom Content for Flight Simulator 2002 _ 03 537571 chO1l qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 11 cb Chapter 1 gmax The Possibilities Y p_47d_25 gmax gmax Combat Flight Simulator 3 game pack JOP x File Edit Tools Group Views Create Modifiers Animation Graph Editors Customize MAXScript Help Object Type Teapot Plane Name and Color Z Grid 10 0m Animate Click and drac om in and Add Time Tag D EY fw ef A o a Figure 1 5 The Combat Flight Simulator game pack is similar in most respects to the Flight Simulator game pack Train Simulator Answering the call of Trainz Microsoft released its Train Simulator game Train Simulator like Flight Simulator enables you to export gmax models into a format the game engine can use as shown in Figure 1 6 J Because of the extensive coverage of Trainz this book does not cover Train Simulator but the Train Simulator game pack is different from Trainz and is fairly similar to Flight Simulator And more to come In addition to these games several more games have been announced to appear during 2003 with gm
15. tent cre ators use other tools to create their nightmares but Tempest is still extremely use ful as a first look at gmax and provides a quick and easy way to get your feet wet Flight Simulator 2002 Professional Edition When Microsoft released Flight Simulator 2002 Professional it was heralded in the burgeoning gmax community as the first gmax compatible game Flight Simulator users were excited about the possibilities that gmax offered but many of them ran into a steep learning curve that sent them running back to their standby content creation tools In the Flight Simulator arsenal of tools gmax is just one of many unique SDKs that enable customization The integration with gmax consisted simply of an export fea ture that converted the gmax file into a format that Flight Simulator could use _ 03 537571 ch01 qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 8 cb 8 Part Attacking gmax Hard and Fast The Flight Simulator game pack didn t push gmax as far as Tempest did but it was a good important first step Over time Flight Simulator content creators have accepted and used gmax happily Figure 1 2 shows an aircraft being updated in gmax for Flight Simulator Cross Details on using the Flight Simulator game pack can be found in Chapter 24 Reference Creating Custom Content for Flight Simulator 2002 F F14 Tomcat gmax gmax JO x File Edit Tools Group Views Create Modifiers Animation Graph Editors Customize MAXScript Help Teap
16. ungeon Siege game pack is called Siege Max Alongside a separate Siege Editor it forms part of the Dungeon Siege Tool Kit With these tools you can create all the objects needed to populate the world of your adventure Figure 1 4 shows an image of a Sand Golem character created by Team Elemental a group assembled to create a unique Dungeon Siege adventure Cross The various tools included in the Dungeon Siege Tool Kit are discussed in Chapter Reference 25 Creating Adventures with Dungeon Siege _ 03 537571 ch01 qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 10 cb 10 Part Attacking gmax Hard and Fast 1 gmax gmax siegemax game pack Group Views Create Modliers Animation Graph Editors Customize MAXScript Help Figure 1 4 The Dungeon Siege game pack includes many interface enhancements that prepare objects and characters to interact with other characters within the game Command amp Conquer Renegade Westwood Studios decided to create a gmax game pack for their Command amp Conquer Renegade release This game takes the hugely popular Command amp Conquer game concept and adds a first person shooter element The resulting game pack named RenX overhauled many aspects of gmax and added lots of new functionality that made it easy to produce objects weapons vehicles and characters for the Renegade game Combat Flight Simulator 3 Following on the success of Flight Simulator Microsoft developed a gmax game pack for Comba
17. use gmax on is short but growing As part of licensing the right to use gmax the game companies can develop their own interface pieces that work within gmax these pieces are called game packs These game packs enable the stuff you create in gmax to be loaded and used within the game Quake Ill Arena When Quake was initially released by Id Software it shook up the gaming market and single handedly defined the first person shooter genre As Discreet was looking for a game to use to prototype gmax Quake which was up to version III by then was a natural fit The Discreet engineers created a Quake game pack for gmax by pushing and poking all the functionality of gmax The result was called Tempest shown in Figure 1 1 and it was released alongside gmax as a proof of concept _ 03 537571 ch01 qxd 3 3 03 1 57 PM Page 7 cb Chapter 1 gmax The Possibilities 7 Cross You can find all the excruciating details on the Tempest game pack in Chapter 23 Reference Making Worlds with Tempest for Quake III Arena Y gb_02 gmax gmax File Edit Create Tools Grids Group Views MAXScript Customize Help Top QuakeGam MOVE ROTATE SCALE z xy Figure 1 1 Tempest has its own toolbar full of commands that are unique to building Quake levels The Tempest game pack is still available for download at the Discreet site www discreet com products gmax If you look closely at Tempest you ll see the rough edges Many Quake con
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