I�ll just stop whinging and learn maxscript :) 

fn export3DSFrames path name start end prefix =
(
counter = 1;
for i = start to end do
(
sliderTime = i;
ExportFile (path + prefix + "_" + name + counter + ".3ds") #noPrompt selectedonly:true;
counter += 1;
)
sleep 0.1;
)

here's the function I use to export a single sequence.

"path" string to specify output folder
"name" string for animation name
"start/end" these are frame numbers in max
"prefix" can be anything, i give it a number starting at 0 and increment for each additional sequence. it's to preserve the order of the sequences in windows so when I import them all in a batch, the order is still correct.

then I call it like this:
export3DSFrames workingDir "stand" 2 13 count;
count += 1;
export3DSFrames workingDir "walk" 539 552 count;
count += 1;
etc...

from a different script that is specifically for a monster. you can add in extra stuff like a switch to choose from different variations of a monster so that it automatically enables/disables layers or adds/removes bits from the mesh like for example removing shoulder armor or adding horns...

maxscript is annoying to learn but it is extremely useful. :) 

Here's a work-in-progress python script for importing that kind of fbx batch of frames into a mdl file.

http://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/work-in-progress-fbxtomdl-script/

Anyone who's good with python know what the easiest way to handle installing libraries your script depends on? The set-up needed for this script is a barrier to use... 

If the script in the last post was a bit too much, then give the standalone package a try:

http://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/standalone-fbxtomdl/

It's got command line switches and everything! 

Plasmagun ground and view model drop-in replacement for Quoth (put .mdl s into quoth/progs) and a ground shotgun model. Feel free to use in your maps/mods/w/e.

screenshot

download

more info and pictures 

This plasma gun model is really nice!!! 

It's a wonderful match for the ikbase textures - now I'm imagining a whole set of base themed replacements. The super nailgun and rocket launcher are quite arcane and abstract in design, and fit in less with the tech stuff. But yes, a really great bit of kit.

The shotgun it also a handy bit of kit to have - it opens the way a level where you only start with the axe - like the start of Zerst�rer taken further. Then you could get a "Bolt Gun" which fires nails at a shotgun rate (and gets replaced in its slot by the nailgun once you get one). After that, finding the shotgun would feel like a real reward. 

Your shotgun and triple barrel version look really good, any plans to release them like the plasma rifle? Do you plan to make the double barrel in between?

Would be really nice upgrade path, 1->2->3 barrels. 

Actually, on the topic of both weaker weapons and base style things, I reckon a player version of the enforcer blaster would be another good "low-powered" weapon to give to players in the early stages of a base map. If it used one cell to fire exactly what the enforcer puts out (a pair of shots at 15 damage each) it would be on par with the thunderbolt on damage per unit of ammo. Firing a two shot burst would differentiate it from other weapons, and it would let players use cells from enforcers early, without giving them the lightning gun. 

The weapon models are nice - but this looks absolutely incredible:

http://imgur.com/a/cMad2/#0

What is it? How did you make it? 

here what it is... 

q3map2 / Darkplaces surely? 

Single shotgun is in the zip, tripple uhmm still need to make a quake-quality skin and reloading anims, which is painfull with no proper preview (I spent 2 hrs repositioning the model and reloading quake just to get plasmagun look ok), next week mayhaps.

DBS you already have in the game and can find replacement models if you want a better looking one.

The tentacle mess is made with splines. Its a world of Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos. 

Quick tip for previewing and updating models. Run quake in a window, then use the flush command in the console to reload the models from disk. That way you can make a change, save it, and get it to appear in-game instantly. 

One of the better received models I made on my old site was the waterfall, but it never made it onto the new one. The reason was that I actually wanted to redo the whole thing, and version two is finally done.

http://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/waterfall/

I was actually hoping to release this in a pair with a related model, but that one still doesn't look right so it's being held back. Anyway, this one ought to be nice and handy on its own. 

So a little break from all these coding posts. A few days ago I took the skip/detail window trick which I posted here and wrote it up for my blog. No new content, just a extra diagram, and a hint that you needed some visual cues to make a window like that work.

Well, that was a precursor to the next few models I'm gonna post, which are all attempts to highlight a window in quake, in such a way that it doesn't require alpha support (although often the models will be enhanced by alpha support in engines). Today is an example of a progressive enhancement model:
http://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/glass-panes/

There's a couple of screenshots, one with and one without alpha. Hopefully the one without looks passable by winquake standards, and the nicer one from fitzquake sells the model. If you worry that the window still isn't yet well-defined enough, there will be more models to come very soon... 

I'm fairly sure that you can stop all waving effects in most engines these days, couple this with transparency and you could probably get a decent effect going with a nice texture (rather than use a solid colour to mask the fact that it's a water volume), quoth even allows you to run the correct cvar's on map load. 

It's interesting that you can now make glass without adding entities to the map.

I have some cool tricks in my new map that are kind of neat and made possible with skip (but nothing cool with detail yet...) 

Well, you can use the water trick, if you don't mind your glass having no pattern (you disguise the ripple effect by having a flat texture), and imposing the same wateralpha value on all your lava and slime. But that's kind of beside the point of the challenge, like saying you can make 100-brush maps bigger by just adding some more :-p

The models are still nice as a compliment to more conventional windows. If you add a translucent brush which removes itself from engines without the alpha checkextension value you get this effect:
http://tomeofpreach.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/panes3.jpg
Then in engines which support alpha but don't report it you get:
http://tomeofpreach.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/panes2.jpg
and in engines with no alpha you get:
http://tomeofpreach.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/panes.jpg
which is quite a nice progression from getting the most from fully-featured engines, while staying functional everywhere.

In keeping with this, today's models are some decals to apply to windows.
http://tomeofpreach.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/decals/
The models received some last minute tweaks so that they play well with a semi-transparent brush behind them. 

I'm sure there is a command variable to turn off the water ripple effect completely (animation and all)... Maybe I was mistaken? 

it's r_waterwarp 0 in fitz (most engines?)

Doesn't turn off the texture ripple effect though, if that's what you are talking about. The glass trick I used requires a plain texture in order to make sure that the ripple is not noticeable. The polygon distortion effect that is used by glquake and some other engines still affects maps using the glass trick unless the effect is disabled. 

At the risk of derailing- than, why did you not just use func_wall with .alpha values? 

see title.

Also, is that supported in all modern engines? 

If it doesn't support entity alpha, it's not a modern engine I would say. 

http://i.imgur.com/95OA964.jpg