Summary Information

Version 0.7 Last Modified 29th July 2002

Summary Info

At this time ASE2PRM.exe, ASE2W.exe, ASE2TAZ.exe and ASE2VIS.exe (ASE Tools) have been tested with 3D Studio Max R2.5 and R3.X.

ASE2PRM and ASE2W enable custom Cars and/or Tracks to be converted from 3DS ASCII SCENE EXPORT v.2.00 files (.ASE) to formats that the Re-volt game engine can use (namely instance [.prm], world [.w], and collision [.ncp] files). ASE2TAZ and ASE2VIS enable creation of Track Zone and Vizibox files (.taz and .vis) from ASE (instead of creating them with the in-game editor). Details of .prm .w and .ncp files can be found by visiting Gibblers RV Extreme Site . (external)

The tools also allow attributes like Transparency, Glossiness, Surface Type, Double Sided, Invisible Polygons to be manipulated from within modelling applications like 3D Studio Max.

The ability of other 3D modellers to export to a compatible .ase format is unknown but may exist. (Please let us know).

No file converters with the complete ability to convert between popular 3D formats (such as .3ds) and .ase have been found. The closest canditates are "IVCON" [source code available] (which is able to convert between a number of 3D file formats and .ASE but discards some data such as materials, mapping coordinates, and vertex colours in the process); and "NEMAX " which promises to offer full or partial conversion from a number of file formats in the future.

If you do have experience with converting between popular 3D file formats and .ase or if you feel that you could contribute to extending one of the current 'converters' by lending your programming skills to the effort, please contact ali and/or post a message at the Re-volt Forum at Racerspoint .

If you are new to 3D Studio Max and or Extreme editing: The ASE tools are best understood by people who already have some familiarity with Re-volt extreme editing and 3DStudio Max, it is not within the scope of this document to teach you these techniques and many operations are explained at a level that a complete beginner will find very uncomfortable, you may however still be able to find useful tips within these pages. If you are having difficulties, questions are usually welcomed at any of the Re-volt community sites providing that you make reasonable efforts to understand your difficulties before requesting assistance.

If you are a veteran extreme editor with some 3D studio max experience: Read the documentation all the way through before proceeding to try the tools. The ASE tools offer many new ways to accomplish car and track design for Re-volt. Many operations already available with rvglue are accessible using an entirely different way using the ASE tools package. You need to be pretty familiar with 3DS Max as well, the more the better. Should you feel any section is wildly inaccurate or could use additional information that you can provide, please contact Antimorph so that we can implement any suggestions that you have.

If you are a experienced with 3D studio max but don't know a lot about extreme editing: You'll possibly have the easiest job of the lot (at least in terms of car/track visuals), if you've done cars before the process is very similar for the ASE tools (if you plan to make cars with this tool note that you cannot use multiple bitmaps, therefore you can choose just set up the first material in the when you get to the material editor section).

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