HaloMods "Classic" Read-only Archive

Whenever I try and export a JMS, I get an error in 3DS Max 6, it says some stuff and forces me close it, 3DS Max 6 just closes after this, can someone help? Thanks

do you have the plugin installed ?? the blitzgreig plugin

Actually a lot of people are having problems exporting JMS - myself included. I successfully got a few maps to export, but sometimes I get the same error as you. When I do, I resort to rebuilding the offending objects from scratch

I believe its something to do with the geometry or the materials applied to exportable objects, although Im not sure what.

Does anybody know what causes the JMS exporter to crash 3DS? If you post here with an answer a lot of wannabe mappers would be very grateful & we'd be able to get on with fixing our dodgy models!!!!

only things i could think of are not installing the plugin properly or (this is the most likely one) NOT CREATING A FRAME AND LINKING THE LEVEL TO IT!!!. if neither of those are your problem, then i dont know. maybe your comp cant handle it?

no i had the problem too on a amd 3000+ with a radeon 9800pro and 512 mb ram. Im pretty sure thats good enough to run 3ds haha.

run an STL check (its one of the modifiers). Im pretty sure the error is caused by not having a closed world or something like that

open level doesnt matter, it can still export to JMS, just wont compile later in tool.

aight whatever but i think that there is another really simple but huge problem with the map that all of us that had the error did

guys i would definitely try the STL check if you cant think of anything else

there may be a big problem, (like the top of the level is missing) or maybe something has no bitmap, check that

Thanks guys but i found the prob, it was a badly placed multi sub object.

Yea, your right, many new maps are just grass and trees


you applied you materials wrong, happened to me but i fixed it

So far, there are two known problems that cause an error when you actually try to export and 3ds max closes.

1. Materials
If every single object on your map does not have an object applied, or some objects have materials applied that do not exist (i.e. a face has material id 7, when theer are only 3 id's for that material), then you will get this error.

2. Bad Geometry
If you have bad geometry in your level(i.e. degenerate triangles or faceless vertices) this error can happen.

To fix number one, you must check every face and make sure all material id's are applied correctly. To fix two, highlight every single polygon and run a STL Check. There might be problems with smoothing groups that cause this, but I'm not positively sure.

Ok folks, firstly I do have the correct plugin installed, and my comp can handle it as I have successfully completed the tutorial map from start to finish a-la kirk4 videos.

The JMS export seems to be a tricky one. When your comp crashes, the HEK Tutorial tells you that it is to do with (^^) bad geometry and poorly applied materials (nothing to do with reference frame, if you dont have a frame, it simply says 'no actors to export'), but honestly this is a load of BS.

I have since fixed my JMS export crash problem and this is how I did it:

1.) I unlinked everything from the frame

2.) I linked the skybox to the frame, saved and exported.

3.) that worked, so I unlinked the skybox and moved to the next object.

4.) moving through all objects, I found the one that caused the crash. It was part of my base geometry.

5.) I checked that base for material errors. There were none. In order to clarify this, I made a copy of the base for backup, and applied a common material (just plain grey, no textures, nothing) to ALL faces (made sure ignore backfacing was off) and tried to export again. It crashed.

6.) Next I ran STL check - this is in the modifier list. What you do is select your object and go modifiers->stl check. I hit the check button at the bottom and BAM -> 196 errors.

7.) There were 194 open edges (apparently), 1 spike and 1 double face. The base appeared to be closed, but what had happened is at some point I managed to duplicate most of the vertices (HOW???) so most vertices were doubled up.

8.) I went to editable mesh mode, and selected all the vertices (again ignore back facing off). I went to weld, set a target threshold of 0.1 and welded all vertices. That basically stuck all the doubled up vertices together.

9.) Back to STL check. Now there were only 26 errors (thats better). I deleted the spike (its like an edge inside an edge) and the double face. 24 errors. Finally the last errors that were there I just deleted the faces and re-created them. Now zero errors.

10.) Reapplied the material, saved and exported. It crashed. At this point I was considering throwing my monitor out the window.

11.) So, now I knew that the geometry appeared to be correct, the materials were correct yet it still crashed. I made another backup of this fixed base (remember to keep only the one you are working on linked to frame!!) and went to edit mesh (face select) mode.

12.) I saved the 3ds file, and deleted a whole section of faces and isolated verticles. I exported. if it crashed, I loaded up the last 3ds. If it didnt, I knew the faces I deleted were causing the problem and hit 'undo'. After a few iterations of this, I found the faces that were causing it to crash on export. These faces were COMPLETELY FINE. no errors, no double faces, no inverted normals, no dodgy points, no intersecting geometry. In fact, it was really simple and I just reckon JMS is ger-hay.

13.) Finally, I deleted those faces and re-created them. I reattached all sections of my base and level, and reexported. It worked. I dont know how, it just did....


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Bottom line when creating geometry for a map. Keep several files like map01, map02, map03 etc... and cyclicly save them so you can always go back to an earlier version if you screw up. Remember 3ds doesnt have many 'undo' levels...

Also, after almost everything you create, save in one of your files and then try to export. If you get an export crash, then you know you wont have to re-do much work.

Lastly, good luck and try to solve those problems logically. The whole 3DS-Tool-Sapiens process is quite fragmented, but it works, sometimes. YOu just gotta get a feel for it I gues :S

Thats gonna help a lot of people. Nice one


i had the same problem, i just found the offending object, it was fairly primitive so i just removed it and started that object again from scratch. I just reckon blitzkreig is randomized lol. Oh and everytime i ever save i just add to the filename. after about 30mins i have like 20 max files. Seems a bit over the top, but hell, its helped me more than you could believe.

rec0 wrote:Thats gonna help a lot of people. Nice one


i had the same problem, i just found the offending object, it was fairly primitive so i just removed it and started that object again from scratch. I just reckon blitzkreig is randomized lol. Oh and everytime i ever save i just add to the filename. after about 30mins i have like 20 max files. Seems a bit over the top, but hell, its helped me more than you could believe.

well thats what i do too

Also i think if you screw up the bit map in the material editor. Like after you click the blank box next to the diffuse color and you select your bitmap it pops up the bitmap editor or w/e. Do not change what's in the box (should be like map #4)or sumthing. Go to parent, back to we're, then enter the name of the .tif

did you guys think of using autosave?

Autosave = God. Even though I've only had to use it once, I did NOT want to have to fix all of the verticies when I put my ladder in again.