I’m using COLLADA 1.4 Tools version 2.08 to export and import my models in max because ColladaMax 1.05 wouldn’t load in max 8 sp3 for some reason.
Anyways… I’m wondering if external references to effects are allowed or if it’s just this version of importer/exporter which doesn’t work properly.
This is what I did. I drew a box and textured it and saved as a .max and a .dae. I reset max and then xreferenced an object in the original max file. It comes in no problem. I then exported that as a second .dae with relative paths.
I then opened the second .dae in a text editor and noticed that although the mesh was external, the effects for the textures on it were not. So I copied the part of the url which mattered from the geometry and then pasted it in the material library portion:
<library_materials>
<material id="Tire" name="Tire">
<instance_effect url="./tire%20box.dae#Tire-fx"></instance_effect>
</material>
<material id="Tire2" name="Tire">
<instance_effect url="./tire%20box.dae#Tire2-fx"></instance_effect>
</material>
</library_materials>
I saved that and then tried importing it back into max and I got this error:
Error: Externally referenced effects are not supported. Material: Tire
Error: Externally referenced effects are not supported. Material: Tire2
Warning: Unable to retrieve ‘Geometry’ instance for scene node: Box01
Is that just the plugin not supporting it or did I do something wrong?