How to RTT/bake a group?
polycounter lvl 3
I've made some models and put them together into a coolant block, from which I want to snag details into a simple cube, using texture baking. Here's the problem though.
This coolant is made of parts, some of which are instances. These parts are separate, and it would be quite advantageous to keep them that way. However when I try to RTT in Max, when I pick my projection target, I cannot select a group.
I've tried to export the group as xNormal's native SBM... and it worked! For AO, cavity, nmap... but not for diffuse. I just got an error-red map back. In my Highpoly Model settings in xNormal I can specify a diffuse map to bake, but this is only one map and the coolant uses numerous maps and materials; if I choose a metal texture, the whole thing turns out as metal in the output diffuse map. Furthermore, Max would be better suited nevertheless because of my ability to keep materials, some of which heavily rely on transparency and bump.
I have looked at RTTgroup and RTTassist, but one costs more than I can afford at the moment, and the other is outdated for my Max version; and from what I understand, neither will do quite what I am seeking here. I'm just looking how to make it so that when rays are shot from the cage in Max, any of the objects from the group would return a pixel, from whichever the object was hit by the ray first. Of course, while this is ideal, I will be interested in alternatives if it cant be done this way.
What do?
What are the best practices?
This coolant is made of parts, some of which are instances. These parts are separate, and it would be quite advantageous to keep them that way. However when I try to RTT in Max, when I pick my projection target, I cannot select a group.
I've tried to export the group as xNormal's native SBM... and it worked! For AO, cavity, nmap... but not for diffuse. I just got an error-red map back. In my Highpoly Model settings in xNormal I can specify a diffuse map to bake, but this is only one map and the coolant uses numerous maps and materials; if I choose a metal texture, the whole thing turns out as metal in the output diffuse map. Furthermore, Max would be better suited nevertheless because of my ability to keep materials, some of which heavily rely on transparency and bump.
I have looked at RTTgroup and RTTassist, but one costs more than I can afford at the moment, and the other is outdated for my Max version; and from what I understand, neither will do quite what I am seeking here. I'm just looking how to make it so that when rays are shot from the cage in Max, any of the objects from the group would return a pixel, from whichever the object was hit by the ray first. Of course, while this is ideal, I will be interested in alternatives if it cant be done this way.
What do?
What are the best practices?
Replies
Anyhow, in the Projection modifier you can load multiple objects, and these will all be "seen" by the lowpoly object you have selected when you run RTT. No need for fancy plugins.
It stuck in my mind long ago that you cannot select more than one hipoly for RTT, and the dialog does not let you know unless you specifically try.