Gamasutra - Features - "MaxScript 3.0 for Game Development" [10.08.99]


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By Wyeth Ridgway
Gamasutra
October 8, 1999

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Features

MaxScript 3.0 for Game Development

Contents

Introduction

MaxScript 101

Writing MaxScripts

Writing a File Exporter

Scripting a Game Editor

3D Studio Max and its predecessor, 3D Studio, have been important tools in game development for as long as I have been in the industry. These applications share many features with more expensive packages, and while they might not be quite as powerful as some of the others, for the price they simply can’t be beat.

In 3D Studio Max's latest incarnation, Max 3.0, Discreet (formerly Kinetix) revamped the MaxScript scripting language, making it more useful to game programmers. The language is easy to learn, very powerful, and provides an excellent starting point for building custom geometry tools. One of the more impressive features that the new version of MaxScript offers is the ability to quickly build a game editor into Max itself. MaxScript can also be used to develop Max plug-ins. And while learning a scripting language might seem more time consuming than learning a C-based SDK, I found the opposite to be true. Development with MaxScript is fast and easy, and Max 3.0 allows you to do everything you need to write a game editor inside of Max, without writing a line of C code.

This article provides a brief overview of MaxScript from a game programmer’s perspective. I’ll discuss some effective methods for learning and using MaxScript, which I uncovered in the process of learning the product. These techniques can legitimately be used to develop custom geometry tools or to build a game editor into Max. I’ll explain what steps are involved in the scripting process, talk about what differentiates Max's scripts from the scripting languages of other products, point out where I experienced difficulties, and wrap up with an evaluation of the entire process.

One caveat: it is not the purpose of this article to teach the reader MaxScript (the documentation that Discreet provides with Max 3 is by far the best way to learn the language). Rather, I try to illustrate its usefulness and point out how non-programmers (such as artists and level designers) can use it to create custom 3D game development tools. I stay away from presenting actual script excerpts, but if you are interested in specifics, please download the file exporter from here. If nothing else, my script is well commented, and it should be easy to follow even if you haven’t seen the language before.

MaxScript 101