Discreet Gmax

---

During active promotion of 3ds max as the main package for creating computer games, the developers of Discreet released the Gmax package. Gmax integrates all of the tools necessary for creating models and animations for 3D games (Fig. 19.7). This is a full-value 3D-graphics package, but without rendering. The package loads objects in 3ds and DXF formats, but it saves only in its own format. This format is incompatible with 3ds max. (Beginning with version 1.2, Gmax supports export in the Plasma format, p3d.) So, why the new package? By releasing this package, Discreet meant to integrate with game developers. Apart from games, some developers produce so-called "game packs" that use Gmax as the level editor, creating models for a given game through "modifications" (mod). This seems to enjoy some success; a couple of dozen games already support "mod" (e.g., Flight Simulator 2002 Pro from Microsoft and C&C:Renegade from Westwood) and contain sets of plug-ins for Gmax as expansion software. This trend seems to be developing quickly, especially because Gmax is free for this category of users.

Figure 19.7: Discreet Gmax interface

Gmax also may be of interest to game developers using the MAXScript language that is part of Gmax. Skilled programmers can easily write their own software to convert Gmax models into their own format.

Finally, Gmax is excellent educational software. (Don't forget that it is free!)

You can find details on all of these packages in the corresponding sections of the http://www.discreet.com website. You can also download demo-versions, updates, and the latest full-scale version of Gmax from this site.

---