Stripping down 3ds max

Snowfly

So after stripping down my Maya 4.5 install to 80MB, I decided to install 3ds max 5 and try to strip it down. The problem is, when I take out the plug-ins for components I don't use (and only the ones that are "deferred" on startup), restart max and let it run for a minute without me doing anything, it always crashes on its own.

Anyways since its kindof a special interest topic, I've started a page for discussion on this site.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Small_3DS_Max

Daz

What is it with you and file size Snowfly heh!? Ever considered buying a bigger HD? ;-)
Anyway If wasn't chock full of years of dodgy legacy code then it wouldn't be such a hog! ;-)

/ducks as he tries to get at least one lame Max dig in there in response to all the Maya ones

Weiser_Cain

Hate to agree with Daz but I do...

Eric Chadwick

Not gonna bite, Daz.

If you just want game stuff, maybe Gmax is your bag. I dunno, never bothered to open it up, might suck big-time. Getting in and out apparently is a pain.

I reinstalled max 5.1 a couple months ago, re-organized the way plugins load, so I can easily turn on/off all the extra freebie ones I've found. Works great. Used to load dog-slow, and take and a ton of RAM, with all the junk I had added. Now all my extras are in separare folders, so I can easily find them to turn them on/off.

The "plugin manager" doesn't do squat. Can't unload plugins with it, even though the help says yes. Maybe they fixed that in v6 or 7, dunno.

Good luck with this, sounds like it might really help some people out.



Oh, and I found this in my library, might help you.

.DLM files are Material plugins.
They will be found in the Material Editor as new material types (where it says Standard, Raytrace, Multi/Sub-object, etc., there will be more)

.DLT files are Texture plugins.
They will be found in the Material Editor as well, but will be as Maps, such as Brick, Speckle, Noise, etc. (usually the maps are the same name as the plugin)

.DLO files are Object plugins.
They create new objects. For example, if you install a "antmodel.dlo" file, it will allow you to create ants. Found on the Create Panel, in the dropdown list that says "Standard Primitives". There it will show a new section that contains the object type that the plugin provides.

.DLU files are Utility plugins.
They are basic utilities such as the Polygon Counter, advanced utilities such as Reactor, and even legacy utilities such as Dynamics...

.DLR files are Render plugins.
They're pretty rare compared to the other types, but they're still a valid plugin. They will be found in the Render Scene window (F10) under the "Current Renderers" rollout. Click on the "Assign..." button and it will open a new window for you to choose the renderer you want to use. (by default there will only be one renderer showing, the "VUE File Renderer", since the Default Scanline is already in use)

Cubik

Thanks Eric! I've always wondered what the different extentions meant. This will be useful next time I load a plugin without a proper readme.

Eric Chadwick

You're welcome. This comes from the SDK docs...

Standard File Name Extensions
There are certain file name extensions that plug-in DLLs must use. 3ds max uses these standard extensions as part of its search algorithm to determine which files it will attempt to load. Below is a list of the extensions and the plug-in types associated with each one:

BMI - Bitmap Manager IO DLLs.
BMF - Bitmap Manager Filter Plug-Ins.
BMS - Bitmap Manager Storage DLLs.
DLB - Shader Plug-Ins.
DLC - Controllers.
DLE - Scene Export Plug-Ins.
DLF - Font Loaders.
DLH - Sampler Plug-Ins
DLI - Scene Import Plug-Ins.
DLK - Filter Kernels (Anti-aliasing filters)
DLM - Modifiers.
DLO - Procedural Objects.
DLR - Renderers.
DLS - Object Snap Plug-Ins.
DLT - Materials and Textures.
DLU - Utility Plug-Ins.
DLV - Rendering Effects
FLT - Image Filter Plug-Ins.
GUP - Global Utility Plug-Ins.

Note that it is acceptable to have several different plug-in types present in a single DLL. As long as the DLL uses one of the file name extensions listed above, 3ds max will load ALL the plug-ins present. For example, if a developer created a system plug-in using both a procedural object and a controller, he or she could place them both in the same DLL. 3ds max would load them all (provided the file name extension matched one of those above).

Delaney King

heh Daz, you mean that legacy code we call 'tools' and you guys call the space where you have to hire someone to write them for you.

Eric Chadwick

Aw man, Dave. I thought you were old enough to know better.

Snowfly

okay haven't posted back in a while. so far, max is really a pain to strip down. for a modular program, there seems to be a lot of co-dependence going on with the plugins. of course, it may have to do with the fact that i'm trying to strip out rendering and physical lighting right now, heh. nothing significant to report...

ericchadwick, thanks for the definitions. i was working on getting those, but it was all guesswork.

Delaney King

All I can say is your braaaave.

Snowfly

It isn't my main software anyways... Maya is. Besides I don't delete anything I just move them off into another folder.

Ryno

You know, most everything is in there for a reason. Sure, you might not use it right now, but if you end up having to do some heavy production at some point, you will be in trouble. I'm not sure what the whole issue is. Max loads in a few seconds for me. It takes up 500 megs of space in an age when you can by a 400 gig drive for a few hundred bucks. Just tinkering with this stuff risks corruption, and making the $3500 program useless. You can only re-instal and re-authorize a couple of times before Discreet will assume you're doing something fishy, and will deny you a new authorizaiton number.

It just seems like a silly risk with little reward to me.

KDR_11k

You can only re-instal and re-authorize a couple of times before Discreet will assume you're doing something fishy, and will deny you a new authorizaiton number.

MS tries to do the same. From what I've heard some yelling at those customer support guys will net you a code anyway.

BTW, can you boot out Edit Mesh and/or Physique or are there functions that rely on even that?

Ryno

Lots of Exporters and many scripts rely on Edit Mesh, so I wouldn't try it. Sure we could live without Physique, but why bother? Is it worth risking corruption, just so you don't have to see that one line of text in the modifiers list?

KDR_11k

He's doing it out of sheer geekdom. Kinda like 64kb games or Linux on the Gameboy.

That Edit Mesh dependency just goes to show the layers of legacy code MAX is stuffed with. Nothing should depend on Edit Mesh and the modifier should have been removed long ago.