Tutorial for outsiders
From Ryzom Forge Wiki
After you imported your model succesfully inside 3ds max (i recommend fbx for imports) you have to do:
FOR THE OBJECT
- preparing well edges for ingame usage
- select your object (you can always press (Z) to move the camera directly to your selected object)
- go to 'Modify' > open dropdown list > select Nel Convert (this will add 'Rykol Patchmesh Convert')
- check for material ID
- add 'Edit Poly' (not 'Editable Poly') from dropdown list, press (5) to enter the element mode, select all of your object (strg + a) and in the Meterial ID box the ID has to be between 1 and 100 in generell or it will not be supported well later, so change it to 1 when no mat ID is necessary
- auto smooth your object
- (still in element mode and with everything selected) scroll down to 'Polygon: Smoothing Groups' and select 'Auto Smooth' with a generell value of 45,0 - if this won't work fine enough for your model, use the numbers of poly groups
- resetting XForm (this is important to export your model as a .shape later)
- go to 'Utilities' (hammer icon) > Reset XForm > Reset Selected
- go back to 'Modify' (second icon) > Right click on XForm > Collapse All (this should now end in 'Editable Poly')
FOR THE MATERIAL
(press (M) to open the material editor)
- right click in the view and add:
- Materials > Nel Material
- Bitmap > Your texture file
- combine your bitmap with the Nel Materials 'fTexture_1'
- Bitmap > Your specular file
- combine your bitmap with the Nel Materials 'fTexture_2'
- preparing Nel Material for ingame usage
- in Nel Basic Parameters:
- changing Ambient and Diffuse color to 'white' and Opacity to '100'
- changing Specular color to 'white', Level: '2', Glossiness: '9'
- in Nel Material
- change Shaders Type to 'Specular'
- unmark (disable!) 'Enable water splash' - Please don't ask me why it is autmatically enabled. Maybe they were just water junkies :-)
- in Nel Textures
- recheck that all texture files are fine
- check (enable) 'SpecularMap'
- in Nel Basic Parameters:
- make your texture/shader shown in 3ds Max
- right click on your texture or shader in the VIEW-Screen and select 'Show Shaded Material in Viewport'
EXPORT
- go to 'Utilities'
- select 'More...' > 'Nel Export' (a new list appeared called 'Parameters')
- make sure you have your model selected and choose 'Export model'
- give your file a good name and save it as a NeL shape file (*.shape)