MAX9: Xref object's materials aren't showing up properly

Chunkey

Hellos

I'm currently working on an art test and decided to set it up so I've got my tileset file and another scene that has the said tiles xreffed in so I'm not having to constantly mess about with manually replacing tiles that have been changed and original model's had it's stack collapsed.

For some weird reason the materials aren't updating properly, in some cases they're wrong in the viewport but are fine when rendering, in other cases, I've had to delete what is in the scene and bring them back in, and then they sometimes end up with screwed up materials, but are fine...


This is really doing my head in, any tips on how to best update the materials would be muchly appreciated

God I miss Neal/Guplik's max tools! :poly122:

Cheers

Chris

ps, sorry if I'm babbling, I'm buzzing from redbull as I'm behind my own personal deadline and determined not to sleep tonight lol

Mark Dygert

Yep, its ONE of the reasons I stopped using Xrefs. Just wait until it refuses to update the model and gives you a little X instead, and the only way to clear it is to restart 3dsmax. I'd rather cut my pinkies off then suffer working with Xrefs again... Autodesk spread a rumor around that they fixed and upgraded the Xref system in 2008-9 but I found all the same bugs, total disappointment.

Anywho... Check the Xref's material, it will let you know the status and I think it has a refresh button, or you can re-browse the path to get it to show up again.

On the flip side if you have a chance to use Maya there is a great set of tools called "level tools" they put the whole xref system (and a few level editors) to shame.
http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/downloads_plugins/plugins_list/

You can also try using some of the object paint scatter scripts to act as a library & paint/placement tool. Most of them can be set to use instances.

Advance Painter: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/advanced-painter
Neil Blevins scripts: http://www.neilblevins.com/soulburnscripts/soulburnscripts.htm

Go Chunkey!

Chunkey

Cheers Vig

I'm still trying to figure out why the fuck I used xref, I remember using it on GTA LCS and it was shite back then! I think in hindsight it was a case of wanting to show that the scene was all set up to be game ready.

Another thing that is pissing me off is that if you move a mesh within the tileset max file, even if you rest the Xforms, it gets moved in the final scene.... WTF?!

I might go back to doing it the old fashioned way of keeping the tileset but instead of xreffing stuff in, just select all the instances and use replace.

Cheers anyways fella

danr

psssst ... a "tileset" doesn't exist in max speak, i made it up as a nod to TUME.

Chunkey

hehe ok my mesh dumping ground then :P

Just wikipedia'd tUME- to me that sounds right though, tile set, the meshes are tiles in a sense...