Troubles with Rob's B3D exporter for 3D Studio Max

Hi there,

I wanted to know if this is normal:

In 3D Studio max, I created a simple sphere.
To that sphere, I attached a BMP-file as the texture.
When I render the sphere in 3D Studio Max, the sphere contains the texture (as normal).

Then I used the exporter and created the Sphere.b3d file and saved it in C:\Test.
The BMP-file (the texture of the sphere) is also saved in this directory.
Then I load the sphere into Blitz3D, using:

SphereObject = LoadMesh("Sphere.b3d")

And also some other commands, like adding a camera and stuff.

I see my sphere, but it is totally white.
Then when I add the exact same texture in Blitz3D to the sphere-object (using LoadTexture and EntityTexture),
only then my texture is visible.

So I have to apply the texture in 3D Studio Max AND
in Blitz3D.

Then I tried to create the sphere in 3DS max without a texture, and exported it to an .b3d file.
Then applying the texture in Blitz3D, the texture is not visible.

So if I forget to apply the same texture in one of the two programs, the textures are not visible and the object is plain white.

For a sphere, it isn't that much of a problem, but when I will soon create a car-model with different textures applied to it, it will be a BIG problem.

Am I something doing wrong, or does this exporter not include the applied texture?

Are you assigning a "Blitz Material" to your sphere or just a normal "Bitmap"?

In 3DS Max I just created a new material and loaded a bitmap onto that material.

Maybe a stupid question, but what is a Blitz Material?
Is that supported in 3DS Max?

Note: I'm a newbie in 3DS Max and Blitz3D, but I'm not a newbie in programming/rendering.
I used to render great scenes in the Amiga-version (V4) of Cinema4D (but I cannot find a converter to convert these scenes into a .b3d file format or something that Blitz3D supports.

Also when I create a new material and set the Ambient and Diffuse colors to blue (0, 0, 255), the sphere does actually not contain bitmaps.
The sphere appears blue in 3DS Max, but not in Blitz3D (= white).

When I do this:

EntityColor SphereObject, 0, 0, 255

then the sphere is blue, as requested, but it appears flat.

Screenshot:
http://users.pandora.be/vge/blitz3d/Sphere1.zip

This is my code:

*******************************************************
; Import the start.bb file
Include "start.bb"

; Use Backbuffer
SetBuffer BackBuffer()

; Load .b3d-object (sphere, size=20)
sph_obj=LoadMesh( "BlueSphere.b3d" )

; Set the entity-color (because the color applied in 3DS Max isn't shown)
EntityColor sph_obj,0,0,255

; Set the object to be visible, even without a lightsource
EntityFX sph_obj,1

; Add camera
camera=CreateCamera()
PositionEntity camera,0,0,-100

; Until user presses ESC, rotate the sphere
While Not KeyHit(1)
TurnEntity sph_obj,.5,.7,1.1
UpdateWorld
RenderWorld
Flip
Wend

; End program
End

A 'Blitz Material' is part of the blitz exporter plugin.

This is the Material you MUST use in Max for it to work.

Let's get one thing straight. There is NO Blitz Material with Rob's plugin. That's the B3d Pipeline ( which you could try instead if you want materials. )

I found textures disappeared sometimes with Rob's plugin, but I think it's preferable to load it seperately and apply it in Blitz anyway, so I didn't fiddle with it any more. I know Rob said you should apply the texture as the diffuse channel.

I also tried to export a sphere to .3DS format with a bitmap attached to it.

Then 3DS Max gave me an error: the filename of the texture must have the 8.3 filename format.
So I renamed my texture (SphereBlue.bmp) to Sphere.bmp and now it works.

Yes, that's because the .3ds format was created in the days before windows and long pathnames.

You might want to try the B3d pipeline ( link elsewhere in this same forum ) as it is a little more advanced than the version of Rob's exporter which is currently available. It now supports hierarchical animation.

Doesn't the .3DS file format export transparency parameters?
I can apply a texture, using a BMP, and I can give the sphere a color.

But reflectivity, shininess, transparency don't work.