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[BloodFighter]

Hey,

This maybe sound kind of stupid but I do not quite get how exporting a model as a .VMF file works. What do I have to set and tag in order to sucessfully export my map as .vmf so that it can be properly displayed in Hammer and Garrys Mod. I have already tried to follow videos and some documentations but they did not quite help me. All I want to know is the exact step it takes to sucessfully export my 3D Model from 3dsMax as a .vmf model so that it is exactly displayed in hammer and garrys mod.  Last but not least, I have already selected all the parts of the 3d model that I want to export as a .vmf and tagged is as world geometry. The exporting worked well but I got an error in hammer which told me that 1808 were not loaded due to errors in the file. Additionally, I would also like to know how I am supposed to add a skybox, so that it fits well to the map.
I hope that somebody can help me and that I haven`t humiliated myself too much.

[wallworm]

In my experience, 99% of the problems people have with the WW Level Design pipeline is not understanding the difference between World Geometry and Models. Even though you tag an object inside Max as world geometry, that geometry must be valid as a brush. If it's not already valid (geometrically speaking) it will never export as valid world geometry.

I suggest that you download, print and read Hammered to the Max: A Hammer User's Guide to 3ds Max.

After you understand what is valid geometry for a VMF, you should be able to get along just fine. Most of what you need to know is in that guide.

[BloodFighter]

So as far as I have understood now, tagging everything as world geometry is wrong, what has to be done is to assign each part of the model something different.. But how do I know how to assign which part of the model to what? Do some objects on the 3d Model have to be a prop`?

[wallworm]

That's essentially what was stated above. You have to understand what objects can export as valid brush geometry and which you need to set as models. I would start with reading the guide above and creating a very simple scene with a couple simple models and simple brush geometry before you try to dive into more complex things. This will give you a groundwork for understanding what is what.

[BloodFighter]

I think that it would be nice if the tool would be made easier to understand and easier to use. Having to think whether objects are brush geometry or whatever for a total of 1849 objects in one map is too time consuming for one, and is too demanding. It should be much easier to export a 3D model as a vmf file. A good example is the vmf exporter for Sketchup, where there are much less than many things to think about.

[wallworm]

There is simply nothing I can do about this. I understand that your feelings are sincere and shared between yourself and many others. At the same time, your suggestion (shared to me many times by others) belies an ignorance about some technical things in Source. A world brush has specific requirements that a model does not have. There is no way (simply no way at all) for me to programmatically know what a user intends to do with a piece of geometry (because something can be a model that is also geometrically valid for brushes).  This is why you must tag something as a brush or mark it as a model with WWMT and WWMT Proxies. At some point I may build a function for you to Check an object for being valid, but that isn't currently in WW.

If you do not want to take the time to learn these simple things, then you are better off not using Max as your level editor. Of course, I think that Max is the best editor for Source levels: but it is simply your responsibility to learn and adapt. I've been working at this for several years and very confident that there is no simpler method for this in Max (that doesn't put the onus on the artist to learn and integrate an understanding of brush vs. model).

Very often, this same topic comes to me when someone has downloaded a model from some website or decompiled it from another game and wants to convert it into a level for Source. That is almost never a possibility because the models were not designed with Source Engine world geometry in mind. Plain and simple--there is nothing I can do to change the fact that this approach is almost certainly doomed to fail.

Your best results for designing levels in Max are to design it from the ground up with and understanding of what you are setting as world geometry and what you are using as models. Generally, you build the world geometry first as your block out, then fill it up with models. With that method, there is very little to be confused about in determining model or brush.

[Joris Ceoen]

I think that it would be nice if the tool would be made easier to understand and easier to use. Having to think whether objects are brush geometry or whatever for a total of 1849 objects in one map is too time consuming for one, and is too demanding. It should be much easier to export a 3D model as a vmf file. A good example is the vmf exporter for Sketchup, where there are much less than many things to think about.

Well, I agree that on first sight it might not be easy to exactly see what is what. If you don't use grouping or colors, there's hardly a way to see at glance what is func_detail and what is world geometry. Personally, the way I make this very easy to distinguish is to go to Wall Worm Anvil, go to the 'Tags' tab, and then hit the 'Select World Geometry' function (Make sure that when you hit this button, NOTHING is selected!).

Once that is done, isolate this selection (or hide the unselected items), and hit the 'Select Details' button. Now, assign a single color to ALL of these brush objects, for details I usually select green. Once that is done, and with the detail brushes still selected, hit 'CTRL+I' to select all the World Geometry brushes. Now, assign another single color to all those brushes, preferably a color that is in contrast or shows the difference clearly between world and detail brushes. There, you now have 2 different colors, one for details and one for world geometry. Models/Props are automatically being assigned a yellow color if you tag them as such (throught the entity list). However, because you may or may not be using proxies, it's better to tag all original models to this same yellow color as well to keep consistency.

This same method can be applied through grouping if you prefer that  :)

However, there is absolutely no way, no way at all that you can just import a model and export that as a 'vmf'. Source is very rigid and requires many different things to work properly, something which will never come from a single file. Wall Worm, or anything in 3DS Max in that regard, is incapable of recognizing magically what should be what. In that regard, you'd be better off rebuilding it from scratch.