Hey man, ☺ here we are again, discussing workflow enhancements. I have actually been pondering this myself. Although decal machine looks great it looks to be more suited to staying in Blender. It uses baked mesh decals and POM. Also, Blender has a native PBR viewport. As in a lot of cases with Max we have to hack it sometimes.
It can be simulated somewhat in Max with a few scripts and tools. I prefer to use Neil Blevins script SAL (scene asset loader) over Adesk asset loader. I also use the projector script(with one of the inset chamfer scripts and a vert cleaner script) for panel lines or the shape merge compound object. You could create your decal meshes with full PBR materials applied and save each one to a SAL library, along with a base ART renderer setup (PBR shader and active shade) And also save a library of custom materials. Then just add decals from SAL and use the placement tool from the quad menu (in newer versions of Max) on instances.
But honestly, for game assets I would much rather paint these details nondestructively on a layer in Substance Painter.
Thanks! I was thinking more like a library for floater geometry and texture decals geometry for HP. Not exactly like Decal Machine. Any reason why you prefer Neil Blevins script over the new Autodesk asset Library. The newest version works quite well. And then there is also the Connector asset manager for 3ds max that works well. When you have some time could you maybe also answer my previous PM :-)
I tried the first version of Asset Library and was disappointed so I stuck with SAL but I just installed the latest version of AL as it looks much improved. Going to try it out tonight. Yes SAL works well as an asset library and is a floating dialogue rather than a stand alone app like AL.
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It can be simulated somewhat in Max with a few scripts and tools. I prefer to use Neil Blevins script SAL (scene asset loader) over Adesk asset loader. I also use the projector script(with one of the inset chamfer scripts and a vert cleaner script) for panel lines or the shape merge compound object. You could create your decal meshes with full PBR materials applied and save each one to a SAL library, along with a base ART renderer setup (PBR shader and active shade) And also save a library of custom materials. Then just add decals from SAL and use the placement tool from the quad menu (in newer versions of Max) on instances.
But honestly, for game assets I would much rather paint these details nondestructively on a layer in Substance Painter.
Just answered your PM. Sorry for the delay.
Also, there's nothing more nondestructive than the decal workflow, IMO.