is there a way to open really old 3ds max files?

[stayinwonderland]

Was going through ancient dusty files from literally half a life time ago. Suffice to say they don't open in 2012. I don't think they even merge.

 

Would have been made in like R2 or something like that.

 

Any ideas how I could open those?

[Josef Wienerroither]

I have files from Max R1 which open pretty much without any troubles. Overall the capability of Max to open ancient files is pretty great. The only occasion when this is problematic is with obsolete, nonexistent plugins which possibly got used in the ancient file. Whats the exact problem with the file in question ?

 

If you post a link ( PM if desired) i would do my best to convert you file to a current Max version. I have done that often, so i know some tricks...

[John Dollus]

sometimes, there are just one or two offending objects so try merging in a few entities at a time.

[stayinwonderland]

Thanks a lot Josef, I'll PM you!

 

Yeah I actually managed to open old files of a similar time period but this one scene just crashes me out no matter how carefully I try to extract anything from it.

[Josef Wienerroither]

I was able to convert them, but this required a two step process, re-saving using an ancient Max version. After that Max 2014 was able to open them without crash. All the scenes use a Digimation plugin ( Maxmatter ) for brick textures, i vaguely remember that one. I bet this one is the bad guy in the scene. Most probably because the plugin data got stored in the old , pre-Parameterblock2 format, what would require an intermediate load/resave step using an old Max version...

Anyways - Max 2014 was able to load them then, and i used it to save back to Max 2011 format

Check your PM

[stayinwonderland]

Ah that does make sense. I wonder if there's any way to get that brick plug-in to work as that texture takes up a lot of the scene.

 

Still, such fun to revisit the past. Thanks again

[Josef Wienerroither]

Ah that does make sense. I wonder if there's any way to get that brick plug-in to work as that texture takes up a lot of the scene.

 

Still, such fun to revisit the past. Thanks again

I doubt it. I know that Digimation released most of their Plugins for free some years ago, but that did'nt include MaxMatter. The plugins were only compatible up to Max 9/2008 and only 32 bit anyways. So i guess the best thing would be stripping the scenes free from that ancient dependency and find a quick substitute for the brick textures ....