3DS2MAP - 3Dstudio to Quake Map converter  Ver .03

Syntax: 3DS2MAP [infile].3ds [outfile]

This program should convert just about all 3dstudio files to the Quake Map
format.  Currently, it outputs two files - a .map file and an .ent file.
The map file contains all brush information, and the .ent file contains
all entities.  You'll have to stick them together yourself - I myself
like them separate for my own editing reasons.  It will NOT convert
all 3dstudio meshes correctly - I think this is a face limitation in
Quake, and I haven't worked on a solution yet.  After a certain number
of faces, a brush becomes invalid.  I've successfully gotten some spheres and
cylinders to work correctly.  If you get an invalid brush, you can just
edit your map file and remove it - it doesn't corrupt the rest of the file.

Textures are fully supported - just create textures with names that
correspond to those in quake ex: bricka2_4 They will be placed correctly
in the .map output - you can texture any one face, or the entire object.
For best results, use a six sided brush, and rotate and deform it to your
tastes.  This is a quick program, so I'm sure there are bugs.

As for entities, use omni lights as your standard quake lights.  They will
be converted completely, and you won't have to mess with them in the
text file.  To create objects, use a spotlight, and name it something
close to what it should be in the output - ex: light_torch_small_walltorch
- you might name your spotlight light_tor01 and then fix it in the .ent file
afterward.  The angle of the spot doesn't matter.

This currently doesn't support anything like doors - I haven't thought of
a way to do it yet - so you'll just have to edit the text file yourself.
I've had success manually doing it.

In all, it's a handy little utility and works well for me - 3DS has an editing
environment I like.

Note: You may get wierd error messages if you convert files with animations -
they aren't supported, but I've been experimenting with some things.  My advice
is to make sure that there are no animations in your keyframer.
There's a lot of residual code in here for unsupported functions, so
odd messages may show up.

If you're interested in making a utility like this, I suggest checking
avalon.viewpoint.com -- as there is lots of useful source code there
to explain the 3DS file format to you.  That's where I learned what I
needed to know.

If you don't have 3dStudio, I believe the Breeze Designer (which you can
find at the POV-Ray site) supports 3DS output.  Also, if you happen
to have another editor, there is a converter called WC2POV26 on
ftp://avalon.viewpoint.com in the pub/utils/converters directory
which converts between most popular formats.

NOTE: I take NO reponsibility for what this might do to your files.

Bug reports can be sent to me at twb@wsu.edu

I'm going to try to fix this up a little more, so there may be another
version later on - but it really won't be of much use if one of
the editors-in-progress is released.  (c'mon THRED!)

It'd be really great if somebody converted all of the textures from Quake
into GIFS so that you could preview your level with textures in 3dstudio...
(hint hint hint - is anybody bored?)  If you actually do this, I'd love
to get a zip of those GIFS.... ;)

Travis
(Lemur)
