3d studio max importing

I need a straight forward approach to get my 3d studio max images into my open gl program. I’ve tried converters but I don’t know what everything is for and what I need, do I need faces, meterails, ect? Can anyone shine some lite on this subject?

I’ts really hard to write an import for MAX files, better export in ASE or 3DS.
I suggest ASE as it is plain text and really easy to understand.
There should be lot of samples around the net, if I remember also Nate Miller have some ASE loading demos.

Try nate.scuzzy.net

really hard? I would say close to impossible! the data is saved by plugins, so wo write a complete MAX file reader you would have to disassemble(which is forbidden by most lisences) all max plugins to see what format they use(or lisence the source).

-Lev

There’s a good demo version of a program called 3D Exploration I’ve used at http://www.xdsoft.com/explorer/
It reads tons of formats including 3ds, and you can export to OpenGL C++ code. It even writes it in a file that is pretty much usable as-is. It takes a little playing around and it’s not perfect (Texture mapping coords give me trouble), but it definitely is a good start.

-Ray