Introduction:

There have been a good few maps that have included custom made objects for use when people make their own. There are tutorials on this online such as Youtube but sometimes this can be hard to follow, especially if they do not use a mic or give clear instructions. In this post however I am going through the process, step by step showing you how to make a basic, custom object and use it in your map.

Programs needed for this tutorial:

A program such as paint.net which you can use for your images and a 3D Modelling program such as Blender or 3DS Max. For this tutorial we are going to be using 3DS Max.

To obtain 3DS Max, visit www.autodesk.com, Preview and download the free trial. A student version can be used for 3 years, which is what I am using for this.

You will also need a .X Exporter, which you can find here: http://www.cgdev.net/axe/download.php Download the top most option if you chose 3DS Max 2018, and put this in your plugins folder where you installed 3DS Max.

Please make sure you have the Spintires Mudrunner Editor downloaded and installed. You can find this on Steam > Library > Tools > Spintires Mudrunner Editor Beta.

Follow these simple steps:

Once you have signed up, and downloaded and installed the program you will be greeted with this screen with four different viewpoints:

On the right hand side, “Standard Primitives” should already be selected, and select “Box” for this tutorial. Once selected more options will appear on the right hand side. Now press ALT + W with the Perspective view selected (bottom right) to maximize the view port, this makes it easier to work on your objects:

Now, with the Box still selected click and hold the mouse cursor to draw a flat base for our Box, letting go will finalize the base size. After you have let go, moving the mouse up or down will increase or decrease the height of the Box, as you can see here:

At the top of the program there are several options, File, Edit and so on. Under “Animation” click the four way arrows to select and deselect your object.

Now with the Box selected press CTRL + V to open the Clone options. Select “Copy” and name it “cdt” without brackets and press OK. This simply creates a collision box around the object so you can collide with it in game.

And that is your object made in 3DS Max, well done!

Now go to File, Save As and name your object with the .max file type. Press CTRL + A to select all and go to File, Export, Export Selected.

Once you have exported it, find the location and place it in this folder shown:

Now we add the .xml. you may not have this so create a new text document, and copy what is shown and save it as .xml. Remove the “wall” section as that is my texture and you will be using your own.

Now go to this folder, copy the xml, paste it, and rename it to the same as your object name that you made in 3DS Max. I am using big rock a as an example.

Inside the “Media/textures/models” folder is where you will be putting your texture files, if you do not have any in there the object will remain blank as it is on 3DS Max.

If you decide to use a texture put the image in the above mentioned folder, go to “Meshes/models” open the XML.  On the “DiffuseMap=”models/ .png” put that texture name in before .png.

If your texture is named “cat.png” put “DiffuseMap=”models/cat.png” and so on.

And that is it! Have fun, and enjoy!