Texture Blending in 3DSMAX - FX Shaders

Moist

Hey guys, I'm looking to blend a rock texture with a dirt texture within 3DSMAX and I'm having trouble finding the right FX shader that will work. (blending diffuse, spec, normal)


Alot of what I've found dictates that I use UDK or Cryengine and I'm just wanting to do this all within max.

That being said is there any good FX shaders out there that can do this easily and can be rendered out properly? Much thanks if any of you can help out!

DeadlyFreeze

aurelm posted one not too long ago

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100187

Moist

Thanks DeadlyFreeze - I gave this shader a shot and there unfortunately things that limit you a lot. You can no longer render out shots with the textures showing up, you can only use one light to light a scene (for it to show up in your viewport at all).

There has to be a way without limiting what you can do in Max to just blend two textures... what do people do in the movie industry?

Mark Dygert

You can use a blend material.

A lot of people put "vertex color" in the mask channel and then apply vertex paint modifer to the object and paint the blend. It won't show up in the viewport but it will show up when you render.

Moist

Obviously I can use the Blend in Max - but I have the reverse problem of Manea's shader - it renders out but doesn't show up in the viewport (even if I click on "Show realistic texture in viewport" I just get a checkerboard that never loads.

This seems like such a simple thing to have a solution to - why can't max do texture blends without issues? Hah.

Moist

I guess I'll just use Blend unless someone knows of something better that functions well within the confines of the viewport and renderer. Thanks for the help so far.

Blubberblase

in case you want to have an angle based shader you can use the fallof material, not really what you are asking for but rock/dirt sounds like that could be useful :P

Moist

Falloff only uses diffuse, eliminates spec and normal. (but worth a shot) I guess this is why people don't normally render stuff out in max and just pop it in UDK or Crytek.

DeadlyFreeze

I think your confused as to what your doing moist. You don't render realtime shaders, they are already 'rendering' in the viewport.

Moist

Yah I know what I want to do- I'm wanting a shader that renders out in the viewport and can be rendered out. There are obviously tons of options, but they all have one thing missing that I'm wanting (no normal or spec), renders out in viewport and not in renders, and vice versa.

I'm just going to blend the textures in UDK, it obviously can't be done the way I want it. (I want to have my cake and eat it too)

MoP

What DeadlyFreeze was trying to say is, basically you're trying to mix and match hardware and software shaders and/or materials.
They're different things handled in different ways, written in different languages.

3dsmax procedural/parametric materials like Blend will only show up in the viewport with a rough approximation as far as Autodesk have been bothered to implement them - so, for example, some materials will not ever show up correctly in the viewport because they have only been implemented in the software renderer.

Similarly, FX shaders for real-time display (like those you'd get in UDK or other game engines) are written specifically for that purpose. They are not supported in Max's software renderer because Autodesk have never implemented a feature that could convert those shaders to be renderable.

In the long run, this sort of tech will converge and cross over, but for now it's very much a case of "one or the other" except in specific circumstances where necessity or user pressure has required Autodesk implement real-time viewport functionality (which are, importantly, approximations, rarely ever exactly the same result!) for their "offline renderer" materials.

Hope that helps clarify the situation since you seem to be getting your wires crossed slightly about what will work in different rendering methods, and why.

DeadlyFreeze

haha alright well I don't get what your going for.

This does work in a way since, DX mats have a software render mat for rendering (when you hit render). So you can have the real time shader in the viewport and the other mat when you render.

Moist

Ahhh thanks for clarifying that MoP.

Moist

I guess the reason I've sort of wanted this to work with both is because the viewport in max has gotten so much better in the past couple of years that its really great for pre-vis your work.