Hi parsni,
currently im working in a game development company and my personal experience says that 3ds max is one of the most powerful tools in modelling especially in game development. Companies such as Epic games,Ubisoft..etc is using 3ds max as their 'weapon' of choice.
i must agree with
Need_Help comment too..you must be ready to try other modelling s/ware too; like zbrush,mudbox for making more detailed model..etc.
level design basically starts at the begining of development, where concept art & gameplay is projected. Scale metric and all other expect must be confirm at this stage before starting to model game assets. Hope this helps
Btw, try using
Polytrans to convert/import/export to other 3d format file.
Polytrans =
http://www.okino.com
3ds Max in games =
http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/file..._brochure0.pdf 