Where do I even begin!

I am so lost. I can't even figure out how to phrase a question correctly to find the right tutorial; do I come at this from the "import" angle or the "export" angle...

I bought a 3DS model of an Imperial Star Destroyer on TurboSquid (so it's somewhat complex). The folder includes textures, bumpmaps, some sample jpegs, and a .max and .3DS file, as I'm assuming is common.

The Unity documentation tells me that I can quickly import either of these file types - or an .fbx - but nothing I do seems to bring in a complete asset. I'm left with an unshaded model and dozens of textures to apply to hundreds of objects. (To make things worse, everything with this model is in German!)

So if importing isn't automated in any sense, how to I prepare a model for exporting? I can't find anything on how to do this in 3DS Max or Blender, and have NO idea what's going on in either of those when I open the model.

Does anyone know of some good step-by-very-detailed-step tutorials or instructions on how to tackle this process?

Thanks so much!

 

I am more comfortable in maya, there are a couple of tools that allow you to import it in and do whatever tweaks you want for maya.
I can try to help if you send me a message.
Alan

 

You need to have 3ds max installed on your computer in order to drop a .max file into Unity. If you have blender installed I would import the 3ds into blender and re-export to a fbx with textures re-applied. Make sure your textures in blender are reading locations from within your unity project for easier mesh/texture import. There are plenty of tutorials on importing/exporting from blender online.

Else you could drop the 3ds file into unity. Select the model and navigate to the mesh render. Under materials you could add the number of materials required to for the model as I am assuming it is multi-textured. Then apply materials according. May require trial and error to find what texture goes to what material ID.

 

It sounds like your object isn't very optimized for games. You will probably want to bring it into blender to merge all those objects into one.

 

You can begin by reading this content:
http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/AssetPreparationandImport.html

This really provides good foundation on how to prepare models for export to Unity.

Assuming you will be using 3ds Max, this link shall help guide you on the proper export process of models into Unity:
http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/HOWTO-ImportObjectMax.html

Hope this helps

 

pm me and send me the model, I would be happy to convert it to .fbx for you if you like. Also Turbosquid does that as a service for its customers if I'm not mistaken