max5.1 vertex alpha map

CrazyButcher

Hello,
is it possible to use the Vertex's Alpha value as a material map in max5.1 ? The Vertex Color map only supports rgb, wondering if there is such thing for the alpha value as well...
trying to make some preview materials for a gameengine.
Also looked into compiling my own plugin (modified vertex color map) but cant get it to work correctly, wondering if any of you have seen this feature.
sparks forum seems rather dead ...

Eric Chadwick

Sparks is very slow.

Did some searches, might help you...
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=119995
http://www.scriptspot.com/Main_Scripts.a...=vertex%20alpha

CrazyButcher

thx for your time, though I have been there before, already had vertex alphas working for the export before.
however now I want max to render them correctly. like the gameengine would blend different textures based on vertex alpha, and I wanted to create a max material simulating this in max. non maxscript but c++ dont think maxscript is mighty enough to generate custom materials

Eric Chadwick

Did a quickie search on the Discreet board, maybe this'll help some...
http://support.discreet.com/webboard/wbpx.dll/read?165755,20


Topic: How to render Vertex Alpha (1 of 5), Read 43 times
Conf: Rendering, materials and lighting
From: Rom Impas
Date: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 02:45 PM

i changed the vertex alpha and color of the edge vertices of an object. i assigned a vertex color map to the diffuse channel and assigned the same map to the opacity channel as well.

when i render with the native scanline, i can see the vertex color BUT i don't see the vertex alpha.

is there a way to render the vertex alpha? pls let me know. i really hope there's a way to do this.
=================
Topic: RE: How to render Vertex Alpha (2 of 5), Read 45 times
Conf: Rendering, materials and lighting
From: Mark Gerhard
Date: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 03:01 PM

In the Vertex Paint floating paintbox there is a display channel setting.
Make sure that is set to Vertex Alpha. You probably have to unlock it.
Make sure that's turned on, and then try it. It works for me here on max 6.
============
Topic: RE: How to render Vertex Alpha (3 of 5), Read 48 times
Conf: Rendering, materials and lighting
From: Mark Gerhard
Date: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 03:07 PM

Also when I tried it I used 2 Vertex Paint modifiers in the stack. One for
the Vertex Color and the second for Vertex Alpha. I turned the Display
Channel on the second to Vertex Alpha and it renders with the transparency
(not in the viewport, but in the rendering).
=============
Topic: RE: How to render Vertex Alpha (4 of 5), Read 48 times
Conf: Rendering, materials and lighting
From: Rom Impas
Date: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 04:05 PM

thanks Mark for your help.

i'm using Max 5 at work. what you suggested kinda works but i'd like to be able to just use the Edit Vertex Colors Properties in EditPoly. and that does NOT work. even though i can see clearly the changes i'm making in the viewports. but it doesn't render properly. hmm, what's going on?
==================
Topic: RE: How to render Vertex Alpha (5 of 5), Read 50 times
Conf: Rendering, materials and lighting
From: Mark Gerhard
Date: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 07:09 PM

The information I gave you was for max 6. They totally redid Vertex Color
for max 6. You can have layers in Vertex Paint there.

Not sure what to tell you with max 5.

CrazyButcher

been there too but thx, seems max5 just doesnt like it