You could get the discontinued, crappy Gmax( a version of 3ds max where the developers aimed toward the modding community). It may not be entirely legal, but the valve developer community wiki has a link for the download. It was unpredictable when I tried to use it, but I have a shitty computer.
Download Gmax, a discontinued free version of 3ds max. Valve developer community wiki has a download link. it may not be legal, but it’s your best shot at converting .max to .3ds.
gmax is legal, it’s just not developped anymore.
But i remember having tried a few years ago on some free models that were in .max format, and gmax was not able to open any of them.
can’t find the habware obj exporter atom unless its right in front of me and i can’t see it. Do you have a direct link. Googled it but can’t find it 
I export my max files to obj format but it turns out that the 22mb size becomes 114mb. As a result, Blender lags all the way and crashes when rendered. Any solutions for this? Correct settings maybe? I just couldn’t find my way with the right settings.
I don’t use/know that “max” software, but, most probably, you can’t “export” an entire scene?!
You must export objects/meshes one at a time!
Bye
It is just a lone building I created in AutoDesk 3ds Max. Its size is 22mb as a max file. Once exported as an obj file, it just grows in size to 114mb. This is how it looks in Blender 2.5:
It’s just sad that I can’t create the virtual tour in Blender since I can’t put materials in this building because of lag. What more if I import the other buildings.
You need to understand a .max file contains no mesh data, it’s just a sequence of the internal commands used to create the file within max, so it’s size is nothing to do with a file exported from it. This is also the reason that no software other than max can use a .max file.
Your building is way too mesh heavy for use in a real-time environment. You need to learn low-poly techniques used for game engines.
there is a new fbx importer from cambell, it may help ya 
What does the wireframe look like? If you had a turbosmooth on there is a good chance the modifier was applied on export which would account for the complexity.
Please post the link, don’t force him to go google for it…
@organic: it is in the last meeting minutes
http://www.blendernation.com/2011/01/10/blender-developer-meeting-notes-jan-9-2011/#utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Blendernation+%28BlenderNation%29
what about textures ?when i import obj to blender there are no textures
whem i export 3ds from 3d max all mesa sehre messed up help
Open the .obj file in a text editor and see if there’s any mention of the texture files. If no mention of the texture files then your exporter has not exported the texture.
If it does mention the texture files make sure they’re in the same folder as the .obj file (or the path listed), and select the image search option in the importer dialogue.
If they’re correctly mentioned in the .obj file but still don’t import, you can load them manually in the UV/Image Editor window and re-associate them with the models UV co-ords.
thanks mate but texture will load in newer blenders they wont load in 2.49 and i need to use 2.49 because of a script. and i cant apply them in blender because im making the stadium and i joined all same colored seats to one object and when i want to change texture blender just stop responding and freezes whats newest version of blender based on 2.49 method of scripting and ecerything?
Thank you for this informationLife was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.
Yeh in 2.49 in edit mode you can go to mesh - scripts - poly reducer. Lower numbers mean fewer vertices… this help?