Gmax and 3ds Max

Being a new member to the Rome:Total War Modding scene, I have come across a bit of a road-block. All of the modelling tutorials say that I must have 3ds Max 5 or higher to be able to edit models. Well that's just fine and dandy for them, but this program costs upwards of $3,000! After the 30 day trial, it looks like my days of modding will be over.

On the other hand, Gmax is free and works basically the same. Is it possible to use Gmax instead of 3ds Max? What are the drawbacks if so? Does anyone successfully use Gmax for modelling or am I helplessly stuck getting others to model for me? Any help would be great, thanks for your time.

There isn't unfortunately an export format for Gmax that the game can use. In theory you could model in Gmax, and send it to someone with 3dsMax to convert. I think there might be some draw backs to that, I'm not sure if package is quite the same or if you can view textures on models properly in Gmax - and of course you still need access to someone who has 3dsMax!

Perhaps someone else could confirm if they have managed to do things successfully in Gmax for conversion by someone else?

EDIT: forgot to say, welcome to the forums !

Hi
if u need me i have 3ds max and could do the converstion for u ,

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There isn't unfortunately an export format for Gmax that the game can use. In theory you could model in Gmax, and send it to someone with 3dsMax to convert. I think there might be some draw backs to that, I'm not sure if package is quite the same or if you can view textures on models properly in Gmax - and of course you still need access to someone who has 3dsMax!

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i have gmax as well so if u just save the file as gmax then i could do all the rest if u want ( would only take a couple of minutes )

anyway like makanyane said with gmax u can import the models but not really export them.

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Perhaps someone else could confirm if they have managed to do things successfully in Gmax for conversion by someone else?

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i have managed to do quite a few units that were on gmax and then put them on to 3ds max .

Thanks for the quick response, and that's certainly good news for me. After searching the forums, I found that you two (Oscar and Makanyane) have been involved in more than one discussion on this topic (thanks for being patient with the newbie. :2thumbsup: )

So, if I am correct, I could (using the 30 day 3ds Max trial) import all of the models I needed into 3ds Max and save them all to .max files. I should then be able to open them up in gmax, edit them and then either send them to someone or load the 30 day trial on another computer and export them back to .cas format. Would this work?

@ Oscar Reeve
Thanks alot for the offer, I'll definetely take you up on that offer. Expect an e-mail soon when I finish my first model. :beam:

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i have gmax as well so if u just save the file as gmax then i could do all the rest if u want ( would only take a couple of minutes )
...
i have managed to do quite a few units that were on gmax and then put them on to 3ds max .

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Am I to assume then, that texture wrapping and animations (and whatever else R:TW models require) is imported porperly to gmax from a .max file and is editable without 3ds Max?

Thanks again for the help, this looks like such an amazing community and I can't wait to start modding.

Ok, email me when u need me at narniatotalwar@googlemail.com.