Ever wanted to create your own monsters in Neverwinter Nights? Or maybe you wanted to change the look of a particular weapon to suit your own tastes? The team at DragonLance Adventures has been creating vast amounts of content for their upcoming module (which we'll look at another time), but first they had to create the tools to make those new models and tilesets. DLA's Joco has created an application to allow you to create professional 3D models for NWN using discreet's free gmax software. While NWmax won't model for you, it does remove the barriers to community creation of 3d content. From the interested amateur to the advanced builder - this is an exceptional tool at the very best price - FREE.
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We caught up with the creators of NWMax and got their thoughts on this application, some of the other tools they have created and what other community software they see on the horizon.
So where can I get NWmax?
For more information about gmax, visit discreet's gmax information page.
For more information about DragonLance Adventures, visit their web site.
How did NWmax start and who worked on it?
Robert: The first modeling package for NWN available to the community was Scott Barklow's NWN MDL Suite. MDL Suite was timely and instrumental in giving groups like CODI and DLA their first steps towards making new models for the game. Many people in the community still use MDL Suite, and without it, the NWN custom content community would be nowhere near as large as it is today. Without MDL Suite, additions to the game like the CEP probably would never have happened. DLA worked closely with Scott on the development of the software and DLA's lead programmer, roboius, continued to maintain the software after Scott left the community. We continue to tip our hat to Scott.
The problem with MDL Suite is that it is designed to work only with discreet's 3dsmax, which is professional 3d modeling software available at a very significant price. 3dsmax costs several thousand dollars. That's a huge barrier to the vast majority of gamers.
So, to broaden the base for 3d modeling in the community, a bunch of us at DLA thought that what we really needed was a true community 3d tool. i.e. something that would work with gmax.
 Joco: Exactly. My background is in IT and project management, but I am not a professional 3d modeller by any means. I wanted to create a modeling package that was accessible and free. That meant something that worked with discreet's gmax.
Originally, there was a community developer named Wayland who released a set of scripts for gmax that tried to implement NWN modeling for that package. There are still references to his scripts in some older tutorials. While these scripts were a significant step forward, the problem was that they were never completed and did not fully implement all of the features available to NWN modeling. Worse, they required the user to laboriously cut and paste ASCII text into the listener window of gmax to load and export a file. Not a very fun way to use gmax.
What is gmax?
Joco: Gmax is a free 3d modeling package made available by discreet, the makers of 3dsmax. Gmax is basically a slightly reduced version of 3dsmax 4. It was designed to be a tool for game publishers to market in conjunction with an SDK to provide product specific tools/plug-ins for a particular game. gmax has a reduced file input/output capability for importing, saving and exporting model files. However, "reduced" does not mean "no" capability and there are features in gmax that I thought, with some clever software tricks, I could use to make a full-featured modeling package for NWN without an SDK or touching the internal workings of gmax at all.
Looks good. So how does NWmax make this all work?
Joco: It's pretty straightforward. I created a program called "Snoop" that runs in the background alongside gmax. It's designed to use the listener feature of gmax, which is the one file Input/Output feature that discreet preserved in the software, as the way to load and export the models created with gmax.
The listener is basically a balcony door on the second floor of the gmax house. Ideally, you'd want to walk into the house by using the front door, but if you have a ladder - which is all "Snoop" is - the balcony door works just fine. After all, once you are inside, it's the same house.
Can you summarize what NWmax can do for the non-technical fans?
Joco: NWmax is a maxscript application that runs within the 3D modeling programs gmax and 3dsmax. It provides tools that support the creation of custom models for NWN using these two applications. Such things as monsters, tilesets, placeables, visual effects, robes, and armour can and have been created using NWmax. We have also bundled with NWmax a number of utilities, including DLA Lead Programmer roboius' amazing tile slicer. With the tile slicer, any large model - or even an entire area map - can be constructed in NWmax and then, by using the tile slicer, it is instantly converted into tiles for use in NWN. Very large feature groups, such as the Inn of the Last Home and the Coliseum of Istar that we are doing for our module DLA1, are upwards of 70 or 80 tiles in size. The tile slicer makes work like this possible.
Robert: Recently, we've created a thread on the DLA forums for members of the community to show how they've been using NWmax. There is no better way to summarize what NWmax can do than to show your readers some screen shots of creatures and placeables and tiles created by members of the community with the software. Here's a selection of some of the more interesting creations people have posted links to in the past week:
The rest of the screen shots are available for viewing on our forums and we are going to set up a permanent NWmax gallery at DLA for members of the community to use to post and show off their works in progress.
How does NWmax compare with BioWare's scripts for 3dsmax or MDL suite? What features does the beginner miss out on?
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Robert: The beginner misses out on nothing. NWmax is fully featured, supports all of the advanced features that are present in BioWare's own scripts as well as MDL Suite's, and adds a lot of tools and utilities that neither of those packages have. Most of the members of DLA have moved away from the BioWare scripts and MDL Suite in favour of NWmax, especially now that NWmax .60 operates under 3dsmax 5 and 6 as well. It runs on multiple platforms, shares a common code base and is based on the original Aura scripts. Overall, NWmax is a 3rd generation package for NWN modeling and, in my opinion, it's a significant improvement over both MDL Suite and the original Bioware export scripts.
Joco: I am the author so I am a little biased, but I have to agree. The only features gmax users of NWmax lack are 2 small disadvantages that are inherent to gmax itself, not NWmax. The basic UV mapping tools in gmax are not as powerful as 3dsmax's UV mapping tools, so mapping creature models is a little trickier and more time consuming. We've bundled Chilliskinner, a free 3rd party texture-mapping tool, with NWmax to help ease that problem and it helps a lot. The only other deficiency is that the rendering engine in 3dsmax 4 was left out of gmax by discreet. So, rendering screen captures with sophisticated lighting set-ups inside of gmax is not possible. That does not affect the use of the model in game at all; that's just an issue for showing off work-in-progress screenshots for the most part. roboius and I have a cunning plan to fix the lack of a rendering engine using a new version of NWN Explorer though, so we hope to get around that remaining quibble anyway.
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What's this cunning plan of yours?
Joco: roboius has rewritten the engine for NWN Explorer from the ground up and all that remains is to add some additional hooks and features into both NWN Explorer and NWmax. When we finish those and add some screen capture features, we'll be all set. When released, as you are modeling in NWmax, with a keystroke you should be able to export the model and NWN Explorer's view window will pop up inside gmax or 3dsmax to provide you with a look of how your model will appear in game with all the lighting, environment mapping and alpha effects available in the NWN engine. What you see there is what you will get in game. That's the Cadillac implementation. Hopefully, we'll get there. "We'll see".
If I were interested in starting to learn how to create 3D models for NWN what would you suggest?
 Joco: Best thing to do is get the 3dsmax video tutorials from 3dBuzz. These are just brilliant. They are informative and really help you learn the interface. While they are designed for 3dsmax, they are 80-90% applicable to gmax. After that there are a number of available tutorials for gmax and 3dsmax in general. Just do searches via Google. Your local bookstore probably has a large selection of 3d modeling books too. The NWN Custom Content forum and NWmax forum are good places to get advice and support from community members.
Robert: I have to agree with Joco. The 3dBuzz tutorials are absolutely brilliant. The first chapter in the 3dBuzz tutorials on the interface and basic tools in 3dsmax are directly relevant to all facets of using gmax. Remember - gmax is just a slightly stripped down version of 3dsmax and the interface and shortcuts are almost exactly the same. Spending an afternoon with a pot of coffee and watching those Video Training Movies is the equivalent to reading several books aimed at beginners on 3d modelling, with a greater retention value. I cannot recommend these movies highly enough. They are simply outstanding.
Those same 3dBuzz tutorials were the inspiration for community member Danmar to make similar movies directly for NWN modeling. They are available on NWVault. The movies are a little old now, and assume Wayland's cut and paste gmax scripts are being used. But just ignore that part and the rest of Danmar's tutorials are still highly relevant and show you the basics. Between 3dBuzz and Danmar's tutorials, anyone should be able to create a basic placeable model, texture it, and get it in game the same day.
You are releasing NWmax .60 today. What does this new version offer for the more advanced modeler?
With the introduction of NWmax .60 we now have direct 3dsmax support for max 5.x and max 6.1 as well as gmax. (3dsmax users don't need to run Snoop to get them to work). For the advanced modeller the main thing will be the tools and utilities available under NWmax, especially when paired with utilities like Vel' s Tools (available under 3dsmax only) by DLA member Velmar. Taken together, you have a vast array of utilities that make the NWN modeller's life easier.
Some specific tools within NWmax include:
- Armour and Robe Maker
- Smart reset xform
- Scale Wizard - great for beginners as an easy "out of the box" function
- Mass load and exporting
- Tile Group loading
- Shadow checker
- Animation key reduction
- Cryomesh for saving/loading mesh hierarchy and pivot state information to and from file
- Link copy/paster
What are the future plans for this program? Updates?
Joco: Functionality and support for NWN model features is at the stage where all systems are pretty complete now. The next few versions will continue adjusting for any hidden bugs and will start to provide more polish on the user interface, especially in the area of remembering UI state between sessions.
 Some new things coming as I drive towards v1.0 include:
- Armour Cutter - for creating armour pieces from an NPC model
- Skin Dumper - for saving skin weight information to a file then being able to load it back as needed
- Key Baker - a tightly integrated animation key baking system for use with IK based animation rigs
- Extension of Snoop to support setting data in .ini files
- Improvements to the skin mesh and flex systems
Oh, and a bit more tinkering with the NWmaya prototype.
Maya? You are working on a version of NWmax for Maya too?
Robert: Stop. Stop. For the love of God! Joco, don't say any more!!
Joco: Yeah. We have a number of animators at DLA who were trained originally in Maya and find that environment more comfortable in terms of workflow. If it was just modeling 3d geometry in Maya that was at issue, I probably could never justify the time it takes to recreate NWmax for Maya, but animations are time consuming and we have a lot of animation work to complete at DLA. When dozens of hours can be shaved off the time it takes to complete some complex animation sequences, making NWN 3d tools for Maya starts to sound more reasonable. The project remains in the opening stages though.
Robert: *Ahem*. "We'll see."
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