Is there a smart edge loop / edge ring script, that doesnt crash?
(Select Start loop edge, select end loop edge, push button, the script selects the edges in between the selected edges)
I think LSD (Loop Select/Deselect) does this as well, can't remember. It does a great job of highlighting/selecting edgeloops/rings though. http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/lsd
Hey guys, I was wondering if there is a plugin or a hidden setting to display grid spacing along the major lines on the grid itself? Here is an example of what I want:
If anyone can help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it!
I didn't find anything in a quick search of the Help file, nor http://scriptspot.com, nor http://maxplugins.de. You might be able to script your own custom grid object though.
Is there a tool or super secret option that displays the material in the material editor based on what I have selected?
I hate going into a scene, seeing a blank material editor and then have to eye drop every damn thing. I just want to change the ID names on things quickly(or maybe there is a tool that just does that, which is fine too)
It's a little backward but you could use the material browser (get material, little arrow pointing at a sphere, left side) and set it to "scene" and then use "select by material" on the right side.
It would select the objects in the scene based on the material instead of the other way around but it might work for ya.
What I want to do is select a peice of geo and then have the material show up in the material editor without any additional steps.
Ex: I have 100 objects with 100 different materials on them and I need to change the material ID name each material; so I need an easy way to do this rather then eye dropping 100 peices of geo just to see the material id name.
We get it, we're suggesting using the existing tools the way they are intended. Because thats what everyone else does, and the chance that someone else came up with a script to work backwards is highly unlikely, but you never know...
To use GET MATERIAL, DOUBLE CLICK on a material in the list, it will load it into the material editor.
If you set it to scene, it shows you the materials in your scene.
You can load each material into one slot one after another (it won't be deleted from your scene or over written)
Then change the mat ID's as needed.
If you need to find out what piece of geometry that material is linked to, use the the select by material.
PS If that didn't drive the point home, my next post will be a video tutorial. Then I'll need your credit card info so I can fly where ever you're at, show you, and then bludgeon you with something painful.
I hate going into a scene, seeing a blank material editor and then have to eye drop every damn thing. I just want to change the ID names on things quickly(or maybe there is a tool that just does that, which is fine too)
Yeah that wasn't working for me vig, but thanks for laying it out because it is what I am trying to do; it's just not working on this.
Anyway, I'm a little snappy today so I'll head off the boards and do a reinstall because other oddities have been occuring(corrupting the scene every time I save)
Thanks for letting me know how it was supposed to be working
MatKill v1
A little script I wrote to control materials and wire colors. I got the idea after reading one of Ricks posts (can't find it now).
I'm sure I'm not the first jr script writer to think of this...
Heres a break down of each button. Reset Editor: Resets the material editor slots (does not remove materials from your scene) Reset Scene: Removes all materials from the objects in the scene. (All objects will be the wire color. Its as if you never applied materials) Wire Color: Sets the wire of all objects in the scene to the custom color Color Swatch: Launches the color picker, all custom wire colors come from this picker (defaults to black). Mat1 + Wire Color: Applies the material in slot 1 and the custom wire color. Random Wire Color: Left click applies random wire colors to all objects. Right click applies random wire colors to only selected objects.
To install: Main Toolbar > MAXScript > Open Script > High light all the text and drag it into the toolbar to make a button <<NEWER VERSION HERE>>
Hey guys, I was wondering if there is a plugin or a hidden setting to display grid spacing along the major lines on the grid itself? Here is an example of what I want:
Actually, I'm looking for a script that someone posted a while ago, can't remember who though. It allowed you to select multiple objects, then pick another object to be instanced from. This is partiularly handy when placing stinkin' glow objs. Anyone seen this around ?
I have one that was originally done by swami back on the old max forums.. i dont have the original link though..
This lil script sets the pivot to the lowest center point on the mesh, then moves the object to the world zero point. Thanks to Prof getting things started
macroScript ToWorldZero
category:"VigTools"
toolTip:"To World Zero"
buttonText:"Zero"
--Sets the pivot to the lowest point in a mesh, then center the object to world zero
(
if $ != undefined then
(
ResetPivot $
CenterPivot $
for i in selection do
(
i.pivot = [i.pivot.x, i.pivot.y, i.min.z]
)
$.pos = [0,0,0]
)
else
(
messageBox "Select an object then run this script again." title:"Selection Error" beep:true
)
)
If you want to use the script as a button, save this script and run it once from the
MaxScript Main Menu, it can now be found in:
Customize > Customize User Interface > Toolbar Tab > Category > VigTools
Click New
Give it a name
Dock the new toolbar some place
Drag "To World Zero" to an empty spot on any toolbar.
Hey all, went through the list. Im sure I missed it with all the followups since this thread has started.
(Max 9)
A: Looking for a UVW layout previewer that would work with non-square layouts. 2x4 dimensions. I know I can guesstimate 2 squares, and squish the final layout, but getting to work with this realtime would so help. I work with the built in shaders (like the checkerboard which I love to uv testing), and I have a tendency to make further revisions after thinking I am done which means I would have to restretch the layout as well. Not to mention exporting the layout normally is 2X2, which means I have to stretch it in photoshop, so finding the edge of these streched pixels isnt fun.
B: I had it before, and been through so many system reinstalls. It was a tool that allowed.
-Selecting a edge or polygon and having those vertices being selected in vertice mode.
-Allowed choosing a polygon or poly loop and automatically splitting the polygon in the middle.
-Could take a edge loop and copy it along the surface formation between it and the next edge (NOT chamfer).
I don't think it was the orion one, I tried that last night, and though its similar, this one was more direct versus a separate interface.
Edit: Actually now that I think of it, I was working with patches versus polygons. So ok, a tool that would give some of the patch tools above to the polygon tool.
Oxynary: For point A, Max already has this capability (and has for years) - just go into the options in the Unwrap UVW window and change the "render width" and "render height" to a non-square value (say 512 x 256), and the UV window will become non-square, and all your UVs will be compressed appropriately. No excessive manual scaling, or external plugins needed.
Yeah, and about the poly stuff...
- select an edge then Ctrl-click the vertex button.
- Select two or more adjacent edges and hit Connect.
- To slide that new edge, use the Connect dialog instead of just the button, and use the Slide spinner. Or, use the Constraints, set to Edge.
Yeah, and about the poly stuff...
- select an edge then Ctrl-click the vertex button.
- Select two or more adjacent edges and hit Connect.
- To slide that new edge, use the Connect dialog instead of just the button, and use the Slide spinner. Or, use the Constraints, set to Edge.
Oxynary: For point A, Max already has this capability (and has for years) - just go into the options in the Unwrap UVW window and change the "render width" and "render height" to a non-square value (say 512 x 256), and the UV window will become non-square, and all your UVs will be compressed appropriately. No excessive manual scaling, or external plugins needed.
ive seen a script a while ago which only shows the wireframe on the selected object instead of the whole scene, cant find it anymore - so any of you guys heard about it?
hope this will speed up my scene a little, as drawing wireframes reaaaally kills the performance.
I used to have that on all the time, as I like to be able to see the verts & edges and such. But I ended up turning it off, and just using F4 to toggle wireframe all when I wanted.
anyone know where i can get a plugin for the realtime shaders in max?
i've been asked to do some mod work for Unreal Tournament 3, and it would make my life a lot easier if i could see in max, how it will look in-game, without having to export/import/wait a year for any textures over 1024* to get into UnrealEd....
first you have to do a shader clone for 3dsmax (if its just a normalmap shader then no problem, there are quite a few out there which are quite similar to the ut stuff) - you can change the material to a dx material, which will be run by the fx shader.
problem is there is no way to get a fx file out of UT - at least thats what i heard.. even if its possible, it probably wont run in 3dsmax without modification of some variables. easiest way to solve this problem is to redo the whole shader in shaderFx which is very much the same as the unreal ed material editor, just guessing that you dont have a shader coder nearby...
Yeah, I second that on shader fx. Not free but worth it really. The interface is easy to use, and like ut3 material editor. I wanted a real time glow, and they have a really great solution for it. by the way, if I could learn it, anyone can.
Hey guys, I was watching the Ian Joyner Gnomon DVD today and I saw him using a plugin called QuickDirt.
I have seen this before on the web, but never actually in use.
It looks really cool, because its kind of like an AO but you add it as a modifier and can see it real time and change its values to your liking. When your happy with the results you can export it into a texture map.
I know how to create AO with several different programs including Max.
So, I got a hold of the latest version of quickdirt, but its really outdated now, only for max 6.
It won't run on my version of max (max2009) and I can't even run max 6 on my vista 64 bit machine.
IIRC QuickDirt was vertex-based, but I might be wrong. You could simply render AO into the vertex colors using the Vertex Paint modifier, then use the contrast adjustments in the same modifier. Should get you what you want.
Eric: I am always impressed by how quickly you answer on these questions. Thanks a lot man! Anyways, I think I got the results you were talking about, and its pretty sweet really. I think its the solution I was looking for.
After some playing around (I have never used vertex colors modifier in max) I found that I can go to utilities and "assign vertex colors" if i click the more button. This automatically gets my mesh reacting with the light based on its vertices.
This automatically adds a "Vertex Paint" modifier on the stack, and I can simply adjust the contrast and amout of darkness lightness in the rollout that pops up.
Then to output this in the form of a texture map, I open the render to texture dialgue, and bake a complete map with the specs I need.
[Edit]
Actually I was wrong. It didn't save out the changes I made with vertex shading, it simply did the normal output a complete map would. Rendering to texture doesn't seem to have any effect with this vertexPaint modifier on the stack, when it comes to attempting to save the effects. So I think in the viewport it shows the same kind of results QuickDirt would, only problem now is that I don't know how to export it into a map.
Sounds right, I haven't used vertex color much, the engine where I worked last didn't export it at all. Bobo has a tut on his site about baking vertex color as a base for painting the diffuse.
Edit... actually, there are more light-baking options within the Vertex Paint modifier itself, that utility is older and has less controls. Still might be fine though.
Replies
Modeling, skeleton, and animation tools.
Thanks to bitmap for pointing this one out!
(Select Start loop edge, select end loop edge, push button, the script selects the edges in between the selected edges)
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/orionflame
I think LSD (Loop Select/Deselect) does this as well, can't remember. It does a great job of highlighting/selecting edgeloops/rings though.
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/lsd
If anyone can help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it!
I hate going into a scene, seeing a blank material editor and then have to eye drop every damn thing. I just want to change the ID names on things quickly(or maybe there is a tool that just does that, which is fine too)
Open the Material/Map Browser, and change the "Browse" setting to scene.
It would select the objects in the scene based on the material instead of the other way around but it might work for ya.
What I want to do is select a peice of geo and then have the material show up in the material editor without any additional steps.
Ex: I have 100 objects with 100 different materials on them and I need to change the material ID name each material; so I need an easy way to do this rather then eye dropping 100 peices of geo just to see the material id name.
To use GET MATERIAL, DOUBLE CLICK on a material in the list, it will load it into the material editor.
If you set it to scene, it shows you the materials in your scene.
You can load each material into one slot one after another (it won't be deleted from your scene or over written)
Then change the mat ID's as needed.
If you need to find out what piece of geometry that material is linked to, use the the select by material.
PS If that didn't drive the point home, my next post will be a video tutorial. Then I'll need your credit card info so I can fly where ever you're at, show you, and then bludgeon you with something painful.
I'm totally willing to do a work around as long as the work around gives me the results I needed, so I tried my best to better explain it.
Maybe I was doing your work around wrong, but the results with it were not at all what I was trying to do.
So you want to change the Material ID name... quickly?
Watch this: http://www.vigville.com/GetMaterialForDummies.gif
If you are trying to do something else I apologize...
Anyway, I'm a little snappy today so I'll head off the boards and do a reinstall because other oddities have been occuring(corrupting the scene every time I save)
Thanks for letting me know how it was supposed to be working
A little script I wrote to control materials and wire colors. I got the idea after reading one of Ricks posts (can't find it now).
I'm sure I'm not the first jr script writer to think of this...
Heres a break down of each button.
Reset Editor: Resets the material editor slots (does not remove materials from your scene)
Reset Scene: Removes all materials from the objects in the scene. (All objects will be the wire color. Its as if you never applied materials)
Wire Color: Sets the wire of all objects in the scene to the custom color
Color Swatch: Launches the color picker, all custom wire colors come from this picker (defaults to black).
Mat1 + Wire Color: Applies the material in slot 1 and the custom wire color.
Random Wire Color: Left click applies random wire colors to all objects. Right click applies random wire colors to only selected objects.
To install:
Main Toolbar > MAXScript > Open Script > High light all the text and drag it into the toolbar to make a button
<<NEWER VERSION HERE>>
I don't know where I got this from but it was just sitting in a misc script of mine. Should get you in the right direction.
LCSM Unwrapper
/e Just noticed this is by CrazyButcher. ;[
/e2 Does anyone know a way to change the UVW modifier in Max 8+ back to Max 7's?
I have one that was originally done by swami back on the old max forums.. i dont have the original link though..
make instance script
and HI
I'll check out that script though, thanks!
macroScript ToWorldZero category:"VigTools" toolTip:"To World Zero" buttonText:"Zero" --Sets the pivot to the lowest point in a mesh, then center the object to world zero ( if $ != undefined then ( ResetPivot $ CenterPivot $ for i in selection do ( i.pivot = [i.pivot.x, i.pivot.y, i.min.z] ) $.pos = [0,0,0] ) else ( messageBox "Select an object then run this script again." title:"Selection Error" beep:true ) )If you want to use the script as a button, save this script and run it once from theMaxScript Main Menu, it can now be found in:
Customize > Customize User Interface > Toolbar Tab > Category > VigTools
Click New
Give it a name
Dock the new toolbar some place
Drag "To World Zero" to an empty spot on any toolbar.
(Max 9)
A: Looking for a UVW layout previewer that would work with non-square layouts. 2x4 dimensions. I know I can guesstimate 2 squares, and squish the final layout, but getting to work with this realtime would so help. I work with the built in shaders (like the checkerboard which I love to uv testing), and I have a tendency to make further revisions after thinking I am done which means I would have to restretch the layout as well. Not to mention exporting the layout normally is 2X2, which means I have to stretch it in photoshop, so finding the edge of these streched pixels isnt fun.
B: I had it before, and been through so many system reinstalls. It was a tool that allowed.
-Selecting a edge or polygon and having those vertices being selected in vertice mode.
-Allowed choosing a polygon or poly loop and automatically splitting the polygon in the middle.
-Could take a edge loop and copy it along the surface formation between it and the next edge (NOT chamfer).
I don't think it was the orion one, I tried that last night, and though its similar, this one was more direct versus a separate interface.
Edit: Actually now that I think of it, I was working with patches versus polygons. So ok, a tool that would give some of the patch tools above to the polygon tool.
Thanks!
- select an edge then Ctrl-click the vertex button.
- Select two or more adjacent edges and hit Connect.
- To slide that new edge, use the Connect dialog instead of just the button, and use the Slide spinner. Or, use the Constraints, set to Edge.
Render Region Tool:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=6&t=480393
Hi! My name is Mud!
*goes and hides in corner
In all seriousness though thanks.
hope this will speed up my scene a little, as drawing wireframes reaaaally kills the performance.
-> "display selected with edged faces"
i've been asked to do some mod work for Unreal Tournament 3, and it would make my life a lot easier if i could see in max, how it will look in-game, without having to export/import/wait a year for any textures over 1024* to get into UnrealEd....
so yeah... anyone?
problem is there is no way to get a fx file out of UT - at least thats what i heard.. even if its possible, it probably wont run in 3dsmax without modification of some variables. easiest way to solve this problem is to redo the whole shader in shaderFx which is very much the same as the unreal ed material editor, just guessing that you dont have a shader coder nearby...
i had heard that some Dev studios already do this though, so i was hoping someone would have the tools ready.
oh well, back to google >_>
with mouth...
I have seen this before on the web, but never actually in use.
It looks really cool, because its kind of like an AO but you add it as a modifier and can see it real time and change its values to your liking. When your happy with the results you can export it into a texture map.
I know how to create AO with several different programs including Max.
So, I got a hold of the latest version of quickdirt, but its really outdated now, only for max 6.
It won't run on my version of max (max2009) and I can't even run max 6 on my vista 64 bit machine.
Anyone know of a similar application out there???
After some playing around (I have never used vertex colors modifier in max) I found that I can go to utilities and "assign vertex colors" if i click the more button. This automatically gets my mesh reacting with the light based on its vertices.
This automatically adds a "Vertex Paint" modifier on the stack, and I can simply adjust the contrast and amout of darkness lightness in the rollout that pops up.
Then to output this in the form of a texture map, I open the render to texture dialgue, and bake a complete map with the specs I need.
[Edit]
Actually I was wrong. It didn't save out the changes I made with vertex shading, it simply did the normal output a complete map would. Rendering to texture doesn't seem to have any effect with this vertexPaint modifier on the stack, when it comes to attempting to save the effects. So I think in the viewport it shows the same kind of results QuickDirt would, only problem now is that I don't know how to export it into a map.
Is this what you meant?
Edit... actually, there are more light-baking options within the Vertex Paint modifier itself, that utility is older and has less controls. Still might be fine though.