3ds max 2009 FX shader talk
polycounter lvl 7
Hi guys, Ive been trying to find a nice solution for taking screens of objects in the Max viewport. I'm using Max 2009 with SP1 on Vista 32 with an Nvidia 8600gt.
I would like to show models with several 'real-time' effects, basically, as an alternative or supplement to showing something in an engine, like UE3, for example.
What Im looking for, is a way to show real-time viewport shadows, with 8-bit alpha, using diffuse/spec/normal/self-illum and cubemap relfections. I have found some solutions (Imrod shader, other FX shaders) however, none support 8-bit alpha or viewport shadows (glass is either completely diffuse color, or invisible), and each seem to have their own quirky flaw, such as showing up black, inverting normals, etc.
To give an example, MetalBump9 has proven to be very good so far, almost what I would like to see, because of its great cubemap abilities, but again, it has the alpha problems. This 'ideal' Im looking for may not be possible, but I feel its worth a shot to try out some things, and see if anyone has found a solution to this.
So basically, Im asking, if anyone has found a great FX shader (or modified/created one) they are willing to point me to. Additionally, this might be a good thread to ask other shader questions, related to Max 2009.
FYI, the particular model Im having trouble with at the moment, is a car. The windows are either 100% diffuse color, or invisible, and I feel there arent enough specular parameters for it to get that nice metal-look.
Also, I've just gotten my hands on ShaderFX, so if anyone has a nice tutorial or scene file, or knows of a way to address these issues using it, that would also be appreciated.
I would like to show models with several 'real-time' effects, basically, as an alternative or supplement to showing something in an engine, like UE3, for example.
What Im looking for, is a way to show real-time viewport shadows, with 8-bit alpha, using diffuse/spec/normal/self-illum and cubemap relfections. I have found some solutions (Imrod shader, other FX shaders) however, none support 8-bit alpha or viewport shadows (glass is either completely diffuse color, or invisible), and each seem to have their own quirky flaw, such as showing up black, inverting normals, etc.
To give an example, MetalBump9 has proven to be very good so far, almost what I would like to see, because of its great cubemap abilities, but again, it has the alpha problems. This 'ideal' Im looking for may not be possible, but I feel its worth a shot to try out some things, and see if anyone has found a solution to this.
So basically, Im asking, if anyone has found a great FX shader (or modified/created one) they are willing to point me to. Additionally, this might be a good thread to ask other shader questions, related to Max 2009.
FYI, the particular model Im having trouble with at the moment, is a car. The windows are either 100% diffuse color, or invisible, and I feel there arent enough specular parameters for it to get that nice metal-look.
Also, I've just gotten my hands on ShaderFX, so if anyone has a nice tutorial or scene file, or knows of a way to address these issues using it, that would also be appreciated.
Replies
Thanks for the response guys. Looks like ShaderFX is the way to go. After some time experimenting, I was able to get much closer to the look I was going for:
And here is the node layout, just in case anyone is curious:
Looks like I will need to take your advice Neox, and detach/re-attach the window glass, because only the side windows are showing the alpha in a correct manner.
Can it get water working in our game?
To get that cubemap reflection working, I followed this tutorial: [ame]
And then I toned down the reflections (the car was like pure chrome after following that tutorial) via a multiply (which you can learn how to do via the intro tutorials that pop up when you first launch max with shaderfx installed)
Hey Ben, thanks for your response, and of course all your hard work on the program, its really great! I will be using it to spruce up my older portfolio pieces now that I know how to use the light manager and activate in-viewport shadows (Which was one thing I was having troubles with).
If I think of anything that would be nice to see in an update, I will definitely let you know!