Using the 3DS Max exporter

OGRE 3D Studio Max Exporter
http://www.ogre3d.org
How to use the 3DS exporter
Please read 'install.txt' for information on how to install the exporter.
Features of the exporter:

- exports meshes
- exports bones, vertex assignements and bones animation, using the skin modifier
- exports .material files, however you are better to use an OGRE .material script to define them, since you can then use the full OGRE material properties.
- exports everything to XML, which allows you to review or alter the exported details if you wish. The XML must be converted to OGRE binary format using XMLConverter before runtime use.

How to use it

1. In the 'Ogre Tools' toolbar, click the 'Export to OGRE' button
2. Click the 'Select A Mesh' button and pick the mesh you wish to export
3. Tick the'Export Mesh' checkbox if you want to export the geometry of the object
4. Tick the 'Export Skeleton' box if you want to export the skeleton and animations. Specify the name you want to give the animation, the range and duration.
5. Specify an output file name which will be used as a base for all exported files
6. Click 'Export'

This will create XML files called <outputfile>.mesh.xml and <outputfile>.skeleton.xml. The former contains the geometry, material links and bone assignments, the latter contains the definition of the skeleton and the animation which was exported. Note that it is possible to have more than one animation for the skeleton in the same skeleton file, all you have to do is export the animations to separate files, and combine the extra animations in one XML file by adding the <animation> node and all it's children to the one <animations> node on the combined file, with a text editor.
Converting XML to binary files
Once you're happy with the files, you need to convert them to OGRE's binary formats to use them at runtime (XML is too inefficient to use for large data structures like meshes at runtime).
To do this, you need to use the XMLConverter tool, provided in the Ogre source tree under ogrenew/Tools/XMLConverter, or available as a precompiled binary if required. Simply run:

    XMLConverter <xml filename>

.. on both the .mesh.xml and .skeleton.xml files, and XMLConverter will produce .mesh and .skeleton binary files out of the XML. These can then be placed into your OGRE resource locations for runtime use.
More information and tutorials
In samples directory, you can found 4 max files which show exporter features. Even if standard Ogre maps have been chosen, you may have to specify where are the bitmaps in the material editor.
But before using these examples, please read the 2 tutorials you can found here.
The OGRE team would like to thank Etienne 'earthquakeProof' Mallard for developing this exporter.