How do I use .3ds props is DS

SteveM17

I've seen quite a few freebies in .3ds format tjhat I'd like to use in DS 4.0, how would I go about that?

nitehawk_ltd

Use poseray https://sites.google.com/site/poseray/ to convert it into .obj, then import it.
There should a few tutorials showing how to do this.

SteveM17

nitehawk_ltd said:

Use poseray https://sites.google.com/site/poseray/ to convert it into .obj, then import it.
There should a few tutorials showing how to do this.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I've downloaded Poserayas you suggested,and managed to convert .3ds to obj and put models into DS. However, when coverted the materials are saved seperatly as a ..mtl file, which DS doesn't seem to recognise. How do I get the materials onto the converted model?

Richard Haseltine

The mtl file is just settings - if, as is often the case, it doesn't work you will need to reapply maps and adjust settings in the Surfaces pane, always assuming the item is uv mapped.

SteveM17

Richard Haseltine said:

The mtl file is just settings - if, as is often the case, it doesn't work you will need to reapply maps and adjust settings in the Surfaces pane, always assuming the item is uv mapped.

How can I tell if an obj is UV mapped? I've downloaded a couple of models from artist-3d.com and they appear in DS as just grey/colourless. That would be fine if I could just add textures but they only seem to have one or two material fields (if that's the right term). Is there a way of altering that?

Chohole

I find the easiest way of telling if something has UV coordinates is to take it into UV mapper (the free version is fine for this). If it is not UV mapped then UV mapper will tell you.

Medzin

SteveM17 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

The mtl file is just settings - if, as is often the case, it doesn't work you will need to reapply maps and adjust settings in the Surfaces pane, always assuming the item is uv mapped.

How can I tell if an obj is UV mapped? I've downloaded a couple of models from artist-3d.com and they appear in DS as just grey/colourless. That would be fine if I could just add textures but they only seem to have one or two material fields (if that's the right term). Is there a way of altering that?

3ds files do not support UV mapping, only MAX texture coordinates.
If you convert them to something else, they will not be UV mapped but might have the material group names.
If you are using only procedural shaders, UV's are not necessary. Anything that needs a texture map requires UV

SteveM17

Two models I've downloaded had mtl files but no textures (jpegs). The other had no mtl file but several textures in jpeg form that I could apply manually. I guess it's just pot luck, as I couldn't see anything in the descriptions regarding mtl files.