How to Get 3DSMax R3.1 to Work in Vista

[Straxus]

Hopefully this is the right section to post it in.
Back in 2009 when I got my new laptop with Vista I was frustrated to learn it would not let me install my old 3D studio max onto my laptop. Going back to xp was not an option as there was not driver support for the laptop.
So for last two years I had to run my 3d software off the old computer. Really annoying.
Well few days ago I came across some information that changed that. Wanted to pass the info on to you guys who might still have old versions that do everything you need.
Now Vista will REFUSE to let you install it. So here is how we get arround that. If you have an older computer (XP or earlier) that has max installed. Copy the entire directory and copy it to CD,DVD,thumbdrive, etc...
You want to paste the max folder into the exact drive/directory that the previous computer had, otherwise this will not work. (So if old computer was setup in C:\3Dmax, on your Vista machine the setup must be the same.)
Next go into the stdplugs folder and remove iptex.dlt. This in incompatible with Vista and should not impair anything.
Now you should be able to run 3d studio max on Vista. Its been a few weeks now and it runs stable and have seen NO problems. I am running Vista 64 bit.

Now that my 3d is running on my main system I hope to be contributing more to the MSFC community.
Hope this helps somebody out there who was as frustrated as I was.
I don't know if this trick will work on Windows 7.

 

[Majestic]

I hope this helps some people, as I know only older versions of max support the sod exporter.

Thanks for letting the community know and I hope to see you are here more often.

 

[Starfox1701]

Now all I need is an older version of max

 

[Straxus]

Well in last couple months I started learning DarkBasic Pro (video game design software) and started work on my own space game. Was hoping once I get further into developement of sharing my progress here.
So I should be a lot more active.
Glad to see MSFC is still active!

Oh and for those that still run the old 3d studio max, I have many of the old armada sod plugins if they are not available anymore.

 

[karanua]

Can I suggest making a virtual machine with a lower operating system such as windows ME, while on the VM it will perform exactly as it would if on a machine using that old operating system. Or if you had 3.1 running under XP have that as your virtual operating system. You can get many free VM hosts, the one I use however you do have to pay for (or did when I got it) I use VMworkstation but from the same site you can download a server version.

http://www.vmware.com/products/

Hope that helps.

 

[Hellkite]

Karanua please next time ask for the staff's permission before posting a external link off the site before you post one .

 

[karanua]

Sorry, not exactly 100% atm, will engage brain before fingers next time.

 

[Hellkite]

Your intent was well meaning but please next time ask for the staff's permission before posting

 

[starblazerfan]

This is all good advise.
I can think of a couple of good things for doing this.
For one, the older software works for the plugins. Two, if using Vista or 7 you can use more Ram and have a more stable platform.
Now if only I can get Armada to play in 7?
Oops, wrong topic.