Max and OpenGL: Exporting Blender Models

Here are some tips from us and Andro that may help you when exporting from Blender into Max.

If you don't do a UV unwrap on a model in Blender, you can't export the textures with the model.
If you didn’t use the triangulate modifier (at the end of the modifier chain) your results can vary on export. In addition, Jitter is happiest with tri’s rather than quads.
Go into edit mode with the object, select everything with "a", then select remove doubles. This removes any vertices that are in the same location.
Also, try setting the optimize attribute to 0 to keep the jit.gl.model object from removing any vertices that are doubles (i.e., in the same location). This means that the vertex order will be exactly the same as when the model was exported.
Other options which can help are /include normals and /Keep vertex order.
If you load a model into Max and its facing is incorrect, then select the model, go into edit mode (tab) press "a" to select everything, and then rotate the model to the correct facing. Exit edit mode.
If your object is not exactly at the world co-ordinates of 0 0 0 in Blender, any offset you have will be included when you import the model into Max.
If the origin of your model is incorrect, then Shift+ctrl+alc+c. This gives you the option to change the origin of the model - it cannot be done in Edit Mode.
Use Collada. On export, use selection only + export with modifiers for non-destructive exporting. You can also export the model with textures and UV wrapping data.

To render a simple animation without using the Collada format, the "export as .obj" setting can be used.

Select your first and last frame in Blender for the animation.
When you export, select /selection only and /Animation.
This will export one obj object per frame. In max you can then use a jit.gl.model object and send the read command with the file name appended by the obj number. As long as your model isn't too complex with the number of faces, Max will load the models so quickly that you'll have a smooth animation. This is a great way to animate mesh transformations in Blender without having to use skeletal rigging.

Collada is the best format to use if you want to use easily include UV mapping and texture files. On export, select the following:

When this model is loaded into Max, the UV data and texture is loaded automatically.

For clear examples on how to simulate the following modifiers in Blender within Max.

Here is some more information and a patch from Rob Ramirez and Mmarko, including a great way for beginners to cycle through jit.bfg settings (which is the same as doing Mesh displacement in Blender with procedural textures with the displace modifier). (Download Rob's patch now.)
Learn how to export groups and "draw groups" from Blender so that materials and Uv textures can be exported with multiple models. If you can't see your model in Max, you may have to send the message draw_primitives triangles to jit.gl.render.

by Cycling '74 on February 3, 2015