[Jammer]

Hello,
since noone contacted about trying the tool out and reporting bugs, I should release a "public beta" and hope to provoke some interest
The old thread was here: http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum...d.php?t=513160
I opened a new one since I couldn't change the title of the old one (you can delete the old one now).
Here's some info about the tool:

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3DS MATERIAL TOOLBOX
version: 1.1.0.0 BETA
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This is an application for scanning 3DS files for material info.
Written in Visual Studio 2008 / C# / .NET

I know, the installer is crappy, it is just the publish wizard
in VS

Requirements:
- Windows XP/Vista, X86/X64
- .NET framework 3.5

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1.1.0.0 BETA Changelog:
Date: 7th feb 2009
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+ ADDED: texture library
+ ADDED: material / texture name compare
+ ADDED: check library for texture availability
+ ADDED: material preview (using DevIL.NET)

A longer description of what the tool is about:

1. GENERAL
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Being frustrated with Autodesk 3ds Max's uncomfortable material
view, I've written a small tool that helps determining which
materials (with which diffuse texture) are used in a specific
3ds file.
The tool itself is pretty self-explanatory and simple to use.
Just browse for a 3ds file and then scan it for materials. Then
the materials that were found are merged with the global
material list, which resets when you close the application or by
clicking the "Clear" button. If a material is already in the
global material list, it will not be duplicated. This way you
can scan more than one 3ds file and observe the materials inside.
Once you found some materials they are shown in the "Found
materials" list. There you can sort them by name or texture-name,
ascending or descending and finally save the current view to a
txt file or to clipboard.

2. TEXTURE LIBRARY AND MATERIAL PREVIEW
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The texture library had to be implemented in order for the
material previewing to be possible inside the toolbox. This
functionality is not obligatory, you can use the tool as a simple
scanner, without having any textures on your drive. However, if
you want to use the material preview, you need to set the default
path to your /Textures/ folder.
All the subfolders are automatically included.
When the application is opened, it quickly peeks into your
default path and fills the library.

3. THE NEAT FUNCTION OF ACCORDANCE CHECKING
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The Gothic engine, called ZenGin, has an obligation, that the
materials assinged to an object need to be named the same as their
texture, without the extension.
For example, if the texture you want to use, is: NW_Wood_01.tga
Then it would be wrong to name the material as: LeetWoodTexture
So, a correct material name would be: NW_Wood_01
When this criteria is not met, a yellow warning icon is displayed.

4. CHECKING FOR TEXTURE PRESENCE
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If the texture, that is assigned to the materail that was found
in the 3DS file, is not present in the local library, the entry
text is displayed in red.

Here's a screenshot. In short, the yellow warning icon is showing that the material name is not appropriate to the texture name. The red text means, that the texture was not found in the local library.
[Bild: screenshot57.jpg]

Please let me know about any bugs or weirdness that you encounter, or any suggestions for improvements.

EDIT:
known bug #1: if you want to use the material preview, you need to set the default path to the textures, close the application and open it again for the setting to be read properly

[magier123]

Thanks for creating another nice tool

[mickeyzaurus]

can i animate textures with this tool ?

[Ken Suyoko]

no you simply are able to check which textures are beeing used in that .3ds...

its very helpfull for collecting everything together to make a whole mod-packaging on another computer...

sektenspinner made this tool for me long ago, but his checks out which texture, which is used by the .3ds, is not in the textures-ordner. or it copied the .3ds and all used (selfmaded!) texures out of my own textures-ordner.. so i simply pack it and can send it to another one, and he got all selfmaded textures for those .3ds

[Jammer]

sektenspinner made this tool for me long ago, but his checks out which texture, which is used by the .3ds, is not in the textures-ordner. or it copied the .3ds and all used (selfmaded!) texures out of my own textures-ordner.. so i simply pack it and can send it to another one, and he got all selfmaded textures for those .3ds

This is a very good idea for a feature, but I sadly had to drop this project since I haven't received any feedback for the improved 1.1 version, not even from SunStars - no one reported if the tool even works with the added texture library and texture sampling.