Help needed in cubemap creation and use with Xoliul's shader...

Quack!

Hello all.

I can not for the life of me figure out how to generate a cubemap using various tools I have found through searching.

Currently I am using ATI's Cubemapgen to create the image and followed the link HERE

I follow the steps. Export a .dds. But when loaded into Xoliul's shader, it states that the .dds file is an invalid format. I also don't get a preview of the cubemap that I should see when trying to load the .dds file.

Screen of where I am at.


Just trying to load a generic cubemap at the moment to make sure it works...doesn't...yet.

Any help is appreciated.

Eric Chadwick

That's weird. Do you get the same error if you load your dds in ANY max shader? It might be that Cubemapgen doesn't save a valid dds.

Or it might be that Max is messed up and doesn't load valid DDS files. Can you load one of the DDS files in Max's \maps folder? They ship with a couple DDS cubemaps.

chronic

make sure you run the filter cubemap button to generate the mipmaps, make sure you choose an output format thats 8bit. if you want to use 16bit dds you have to load that plugin in maya's plugin manager.

I have used Cubemapgen to get cubemaps into hlsl shaders in maya, but it is a confusing program so im not surprised if people have problems with it.

Quack!

Thanks for the replies.

I updated all my drivers to be safe than did your suggestions.

Loading a cubemap into another directx shader doesn't work. I just can't seem to load ANY .dds. file for some reason.

So it most likely has nothing to do with my workflow, but something to do with my max? I have 64bit 2009 sp1 and an 8800gt, which I thought would support any modern day techniques.

If anyone has suggestions that would be great. Otherwise I will have to figure something else out. I would love to get some of my assets cubemap reflected though.

Eric Chadwick

If you can't load any dds file in any shader, then something is wrong with your install of Max. It supports dds files by default.

Andrew_Morris

I know immediately what is wrong because I have the same issue.

I take it you have Polyboost installed? It still kills the .dds format for no discernible reason, even though the latest version says that it fixes this bug.

Quack!

Actually I do not have polyboost. I believe I only have Render's UVtools as a plugin. Good suggestion though will see if I can clear my plugins to see if it fixes it.

Brice Vandemoortele

chronic wrote: »

make sure you run the filter cubemap button to generate the mipmaps, make sure you choose an output format thats 8bit. if you want to use 16bit dds you have to load that plugin in maya's plugin manager.

I have used Cubemapgen to get cubemaps into hlsl shaders in maya, but it is a confusing program so im not surprised if people have problems with it.

sorry for the hijack , but did you managed to load 128bits hdr maps with cgfx? or just hlsl?
I've never been able to load a linear 32bits per channel in a cgfx (openGl, maya's native) while it works with hlsl in maya (DX)

Andrew_Morris

chaosquack wrote: »

Actually I do not have polyboost. I believe I only have Render's UVtools as a plugin. Good suggestion though will see if I can clear my plugins to see if it fixes it.

Interesting, that error you get is the exact one I get when trying to load a .dds into Xoliul's shader.

Can you load a .dds into the material editor at all? Just as a bitmap in a Standard material?

When Polyboost broke mine the option to even load the extension is missing out of the material editor. Whatever Polyboost does to break it could be related to your issue.

Quack!

Can you load a .dds into the material editor at all? Just as a bitmap in a Standard material?

Nope I can't.

The thumbnail won't even display when I try to load a .dds. Max doesn't seem to recognize any .dds as a valid...... .dds.

I'm runing in DX9 mode btw, since max for whatever reason can't run in DX10 mode.

@Brice - I don't mind at all, hopefully you find the answer you need.

Eric Chadwick

Do you have the file \Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2010\stdplugs\dxplugins\dxDDS.bmi ? This file enables DDS parsing in Max.

Quack!

Do you have the file Program FilesAutodesk3ds Max 2010stdplugsdxpluginsdxDDS.bmi ? This file enables DDS parsing in Max.

Yep.

The funny thing is, as you guys are helping me I am scouring the internet to find some solutions and this thread pops up from googles search alot heh.

Andrew_Morris

I've tried to find answers on the internet as well for the issue, related to Polyboost, and nothing I tried seemed to work.

The closest I think I ever got to fixing it was copying the dxDDS.bmi into the stdplugs folder and then trying to manually load it through the plugins manager. Someone else suggested doing that as a fix that worked for them, but it just gave me a crap load of errors and I ultimately had to re-install Max.

Eric Chadwick

Can you render to DDS format? I barely remember this happening before, just shooting in the dark though.

BradMyers82

If I remember correctly I have heard of two programs that can cause this. Polyboost and shader fx. You said you don't have Polyboost, how about shader fx?
I feel for you having so many issues man. I know what its like.

Quack!

No shaderfx either, Brad.

Eric, not quite sure what you mean by render to dds? I can NOT render to texture as .dds, or just a generic render output to .dds.

I'm pretty close to just clean installing max to see if that fixes it.

Neox

do you use max64? try the 32bit version, same problem here, i can load dds in 32bit but not in 64bit, very strange but the needed plugin is loaded...

Quack!

So many issues with 64bit max. Bleh. Gonna have to install 32bit now.

Or I could just bite the bullet and get my assets into UE3 and set them up that way.

Eric Chadwick

I would just use TGAs then, let UE3 convert to DDS.

Xoliul

Cubemaps are a bigger pain to import in Unreal, you have to manually split and rotate all the faces, it's stupid work. Sorry to hear you can't get this working, it's for things like this I always have a 32bit version installed. You know last week even, when I opened a file created in some one else's Max 2010 64bit on my Max 2010 64, the skinning was co;pletely fucked up, turning the character into a disformed monster (I thought it looked funny though ). Opening it in 32 bit 2010 worked fine. I really fail to grasp how autodesk manages to have this sort of problem appear, identical OS'ses, identical applications, yet files are not consistent...

toren3d

Are you able to open the DDS generated from the ATI application into photoshop? If so, try saving it out as a new file (I believe you will need to have the Nvidia SDK stuff installed, not 100% sure on that though).