Project Bluestreak is a suite of import and export scripts for 3ds Max v5+ and Gmax v1.2. It consists of:
- GBXModel Importer for bringing rigged models into Max.
- JMS (Model) Exporter, for exporting level and object JMS files.
- Animation Importer, which can also export animations.
Bluestreak supports more capabilities than both Chimp and Blitzkrieg and still works with modern versions of 3ds Max since it is MaxScript-based.
While Blender has become the de-facto standard 3D tool for Halo, those who prefer Max can also use H1A Tool's FBX to JMS/JMA pipeline as a modern officially-supported alternative to using Bluestreak. You may need Bluestreak to work with Max scenes from the HEK era, which predate the FBX pipeline.
If you plan on using the Bluestreak JMS exporter, download the recommended v1-0-4.
Usage
From Max's menu, use MAXScript > Run Script to select a downloaded .ms file. Further usage instructions can be found embedded as comments within the MaxScript files themselves.
JMS exporter history
Bluestreak was widely used in Custom Edition modding, and modders created many unofficial variants of it after the original's release in 2006. These spinoffs added capabilities like multiple region support and fixed bugs.
However, as there was no centralized effort to maintain Bluestreak, later variants are sometimes divergent or even regressive in terms of features. Here are the known unique variants of the exporter:
| Version/variant | Date | Created/modified by | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| JMS_ | 2006 | TheGhost | First public release. |
| JMS_ | 2006 | TheGhost | Fixed a section of code that was incompatible with gmax, causing export errors for rigged models. Available for download here. |
| JMS_ | 2008 | CtrlAltDestroy | Spinoff of v1-0-1. Supports regions and sets marker radius to 2.0. Source thread here. |
| JMS_ | 2008 | ChokingVictim | Spinoff of v1-0-2. Supports regions and sets marker radius from Max file. Source thread here. |
| JMS_ | 2009 | bobbysoon | Spinoff of v1-0-3. Replaced new-line characters with tabs to considerably speed up exporting. Also adds a configurable checksum export option (not fully functional). Source thread here. |
| JMS_ | ? | DeadHamster | This version can be identified by a <3 DeadHamster comment in the header. It is based on v1-0-3, so lacks the configurable checksums and tab character optimization of v1-0-3b. The only difference is that it doubles the radius of all markers exported (it is not clear why). |
JMS_ | ? | ? | This version includes the tab character speed increase of v1-0-3b, but lacks its configurable checksums (likely because it didn't work). Unlike the DeadHamster variant this "1-0-4" does not double the marker radius. It includes some attempts to make the code more readable and can be identified by an This script is our recommendation. |
| H1_ | Sometime before 2014 | ? | This was used to build TSC:E originally. While it contains the speed upgrades that bobbysoon introduced, do not use this script. Since then has been confirmed to skip "benign" BSP errors (this is very bad) that led to at least one TSC:E BSP having unfixable portal errors. General_ |
| JMS_ | 2017 | rododo93 | Spinoff of v1-0-2. Sets marker radius from Max file. This is functionally the same as v1-0-3, but sets checksum to 3251 rather than 0. It does not include bobbysoon's tab character speedup. Originally released here. |
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the following individuals for their research or contributions to this topic:
- Conscars (Comparing some additional versions for functional differences)
- gbMichelle (Providing variants to compare)
- Siliconmaster (Documenting the script's history of versions and spinoffs)
- Spiral (Providing variants to compare)