3ds Max - Remove Duplicate materials from Multi-sub object

mawilbolou

Hi guys...

I am working on Max 2012 and am working on quite a big scene.

I have combined a number of models together and sampled the multi-sub material in the Material Editor.

Unfortunately, it seems that Max has generated about 300 different materials, even though I am only using about 20 textures. After looking at some of the materials, I have found that there are alot of duplicate materials that are using one texture.

Is there a script that detects by texture, then deletes the duplicates?

Any help would be massively appreciated..

PS I have tried using the "Clean MultiMaterial Utility"

Cheers

monster

Hey bro, I had this script laying around. If you are only using diffuse maps it might help you.

(
	prevMatCount = scenematerials.count
	diffuseMapList = #()
	materialList = #()
 
	scenemats = scenematerials
 
 
	for m = 1 to scenemats.count do
	(
		dmapFile = scenemats[m].diffuseMap.filename
		getMat = findItem diffuseMapList dmapFile
		
		if getMat == 0 then
		(
			--MATERIAL NOT FOUND, ADD IT TO THE MATERIAL LIST
			append diffuseMapList dmapFile
			append materialList m
		)
		else
		(
			--MATERIAL FOUND, APPLY TO ALL IT'S OBJECTS
			for obj in refs.dependents scenemats[m] do
			(
				try
				(
					obj.material = scenemats[getMat]
				)
				catch()
			)
			
		)
	)
	
	gc lite:true
	
	messageBox ("Materials condensed from " + prevMatCount as string + " material(s) to " + materialList.count as string + " material(s).") title:"Materials"
)

TorQue[MoD]

I tried to get Chat GPT to modify the script to not only remove duplicate sub-object ids, but also remove them from the mesh, but it wasn't able to sort it out. Maybe someone who knows MaxScript could fix this?

(
    -- Get the selected object
    obj = selection[1]
    
    -- Ensure the object is valid and has a Multi/Sub-Object material
    if obj != undefined and isKindOf obj.material MultiMaterial then
    (
        -- Get the Multi/Sub-Object material
        multiMat = obj.material
        matCount = multiMat.numsubs
        
        -- Arrays to store material names and the first instance mappings
        matNameList = #()  -- Stores unique material names
        replacementMap = #()  -- Maps duplicate slots to their first occurrence
        
        -- Step 1: Loop through all sub-materials and find duplicates
        for i = 1 to matCount do
        (
            mat = multiMat.materialList[i]
            if mat != undefined then
            (
                matName = mat.name
                getMat = findItem matNameList matName
                
                -- If it's the first occurrence of this material name, store it
                if getMat == 0 then
                (
                    append matNameList matName
                    replacementMap[i] = mat  -- Keep the first occurrence
                )
                else
                (
                    -- If duplicate, replace with the first occurrence
                    replacementMap[i] = replacementMap[getMat]
                )
            )
        )
 
        -- Step 2: Reassign cleaned materials to the Multi/Sub-Object material
        for i = 1 to matCount do
        (
            if replacementMap[i] != undefined then
                multiMat.materialList[i] = replacementMap[i]
        )
 
        -- Step 3: Remove empty slots in the material
        newMaterialList = #()
        for mat in replacementMap do
        (
            if findItem newMaterialList mat == 0 then append newMaterialList mat
        )
        multiMat.materialList = newMaterialList
        multiMat.numsubs = newMaterialList.count
        
        -- Step 4: Reassign Material IDs on the mesh to the first instance
        for face = 1 to obj.numfaces do
        (
            -- Use the correct function to get the material ID for each face
            matID = getFaceMatID obj face
            
            -- Check if the material ID is valid (not undefined)
            if matID != undefined and matID > 0 and matID <= matCount then
            (
                -- Find the original material that corresponds to the duplicate
                originalMat = replacementMap[matID]
                
                -- Ensure the original material is valid
                if originalMat != undefined do
                (
                    -- Find the new material ID in the cleaned list
                    newMatID = findItem newMaterialList originalMat
                    if newMatID != 0 do  -- Only reassign if newMatID is valid
                    (
                        -- Set the new Material ID for the face
                        setFaceMaterialID obj face newMatID
                    )
                )
            )
        )
        
        -- Garbage collection and message
        gc light:true
        messageBox ("Sub-materials reduced from " + matCount as string + " to " + newMaterialList.count as string) title:"Multi/Sub-Object Cleanup"
    )
    else
    (
        messageBox "Please select an object with a Multi/Sub-Object material." title:"Error"
    )
)