making a billboard in 3dsmax?

NAIMA

Hello , I wanted to make the most far lod for an object in 3dsmax and I wanted it to be a kind of cross double plane billboard ... do you have any idea how can I do pick the shape and texture from 3dsmax and project it onto the planes ortogonally ? In order to use in game engine as lateest lods ?

thanks for any tips or tutorial ...

Fwap

Render to texture?

NAIMA

sorry I don't know this technique.

Obscura

Whaat. You know it dude. Its the baker. You simply need to place a plane to bake to, and then bake some maps.

Fwap

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-76F1E8AE-9E8F-40A7-A948-471D17E09DA9-htm.html

Basically, you can put your cross sections through your tree, press 0 to go into render to texture, and project your tree's textures, ao/normal/alpha/diffuse what ever you like, onto those planes.

NAIMA

You mean this?
http://download.autodesk.com/us/3dsmax/2012tutorials/index.html?url=files/GUID-708E3CF3-33ED-4C83-BBD4-7DCB9109DDA0.htm,topicNumber=d29e29149
I know that , but I do not know how to make it so that it retains the same colors of my textures and not alter them due to the default renderer in 3dsmax

Obscura

No, the RTT is different. But actually now I remembering, there are serious issues with alpha in the baker(discussed a few times here in the technical talk), so probably what you are linking works a lot better. Here is how I would do:

I would place a camera where I want, and then simply render out passes with different material setups. For getting alpha, you don't need more than changing the material of your stuff to use white diffuse color, and 100% self illumination (unlit). For getting diffuse, you still only need to use 100% self illumination. For getting spec gloss etc, you only need to put them into the diffuse slot, so it will be displayed as it is.