ok here are the steps:
TO IMPORT TDU 2 CAR TO 3DS MAX
1. Fire up max (script was made in 2010 but commands used should work on max 9 all higher versions)
2. Maxscript -> Listener Or F11 (So we can see what's going on)
3. Maxscript -> Open script... (select the script)
4. Tools -> Evaluate All. Or Ctrl+E (Compiles the script, we can see that in the listener window. as long as things are blue it's all good. hit Ctrl+E for 3-4 times, sometimes it needs this to work i guess it's a bug)
5. Customize -> Customize User Interface ->Toolbars tab -> Category -> select "myscripts"
you'll see TDU, drag and drop it anywhere on the UI, let's say next to the MOVE button, it will create a button called "TDU". Close this window we're ready to import! also close the script code window, but keep the listener window open.
6. Hit the TDU button, select your extracted car folder (eg. apollo_sport) (it's the one that has the maps folder inside, also 3dg 3dd and 2dm files.)
7. For first run we might want to convert 2db textures to dds so we click YES...
8. Wait until they're converted and the scene imported. If there are no errors, congrats you have your car
TO CLEAN UP THE CAR MESH (keep only hi-res mesh)
1. Select all helpers and delete them
2. There are some rectangular volume meshes used for headlights and other effects, delete those.
3. Select BODY_MR and BODY_LR and move them away to the right. through hierarchy they'll take away other objects that are their children. now select them from the top view and delete them.
4. Select also every mesh starting with the %. character and delete them. these are lights used for effects or low-poly versions of the car.
5. There might be a couple more low-version meshes around but these are the ones for most cars so we're done here.
TO CHOOSE MATERIALS AND LOAD TEXTURES
1. Open Material Editor, click on pick material tool button, click on a mesh you like. It will load the mesh materials as submaterials. you'll get used to the strange names, (e.g. PAINT is the body material)
2. Materials that use textures will have them in the "maps" list, and you can manually load the dds files. Many of them (like leather, grates and most interiors) are in the "common_car" bnk so you might want to convert all of them and keep them somewhere, unless you want to use your own textures.
3. Even if you don't load the textures in max you can still export your cars and they'll carry the material properties and UV mapping with them. For example, i exported to OBJ, and through octane render i got this nice little render....
front.jpg
OTHER TIPS
1. It's useful to keep the maxscript listener window open before we hit the script button so we can see if all went well through the import.
2. Evaluate the script every time you close and open max again (another maxscript strange thing?)
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