Part1:    Exporting the needed files for MAX

                                                Programmed by Phillip Martin 

See That Sucker up there?. Ok QUAKE2 MODEL EDITOR v0.90 is all you will need to Export your files to Max. This is a pretty cool little program but its not fully coded yet and has some bugs which hampers the exporting process. Its a really small one but its easy to fix, will get to that later. It should not take more then a couple of minutes to get your files to a format that max can understand, even with the little bug. 

Ok start up MDL.exe after you extract it from the zipfile. Then go to open file and choose your quake2 model that you wanne 
port over. I am using the Infantry model from Quake2 as my example through this entire tutorial. Always liked the little bugger :) 

Ok after you open your file you will wanne find a good frame that can be used by the biped or skeleton in MAX afterwards. 
I am taking walk frame 20, Because its arms and everything is nice in a default position. Ok now you wanne export you model so go to file and go down to export. Then choose "export frame to 3DS format", like depicted in the picture below 
 

 

Ok now that you have exported your model to 3DS format you will want to export the Skin mesh and picture as well. 
Ok go to view and choose skins... or press F2 to use the shortcut. You should now see new window showing the mapping of the model. Go to file in this new window and choose "export Skin mesh to ASC" format like depicted in the picture below   (this is where the bug is). And also don't forget to convert your models skin to bmp format. Half-life models use BMP files and compress em into the file when it compiles. So if you are like me and make your skins in 24 bit format ,you can take you 24 bit version of your skin and give it its own unique 256 pallet. Not quake2's boring brown pallet :) 

 

Ok now we get to the "BUG" I was talking about (I wish Phillip would actualy finish the program and take out that bug). 
Ok what the problem is is that when MDL exports your skin mesh it makes a error in the ASC file which is easily fixed. 
What it does is it write one line in the file wrong. So start word pad or normal notepad and scroll down the file until you get to 
the part where it starts with the face values, see picture below. 

 

Ok see where Face list:Face0: is written change it to show like this 

 

See its really easy:). But its a bug that should be fixed!  All you do is move until after the Face List: and press enter so 
its becomes like the picture. There your problem is solved and all your files should be ready now. 

PS send the Phillip Martin the programmer a e-mail asking to fix the ASC export problem THX 

Lets check again: 

1. Export 3d model to 3ds format 
2. Export model skin mesh to ASC format (and fix error GRRR!) 
3. Export skin of model to 256 BMP image file or take original 24 bit version and use unique 256 pallet 

( TIP, Keep the files in the same directory named after the actual model ) 

OK 3D STUDIO MAX 2 here we come!  on to part2