SlideNormalThief Issues

Zipfinator

I recently found the thread about Normal Thief for use on foliage and downloaded the SlideNormalThief script to give it a try. At first it was working fine it seemed, other than the normals being backwards but that was fixed by resetting xform. Now I think the script is causing some pretty major issues with Max though. After using it I've been having some pretty major issues with transforming and a few other things. Whenever I move or scale or rotate something it's just completely overdone like the settings have been scaled up. Also it won't let me undo anything now. I'm sure it's causing more problems that I haven't found yet.

If anyone knows what is causing this and how to fix it then please explain. If you need to see the problems then I can set up a livestream to show. I'm going to try uninstalling the script now to see if it fixes it.

EDIT: Well after spending a half hour looking for where the script installed to to delete it and not having any luck I just restarted Max and everything seems to be fixed...

Eric Chadwick

Bizarre. I never had any trouble with it, beyond needing a Reset Xform. Good to hear it's fixed itself though.

It's here for those who are curious
http://wiki.polycount.com/VertexNormal#Slide_Normal_Thief_MAXScript

Zipfinator

Well it's somewhat fixed itself... After being in any scene that's used SlideNormalThief for a bit the issues come back and I have to restart Max. Most of the time things get messed up in the scene that are unfixable too so I have to restart the process over again. I might try out standard NormalThief and see if it has any issues. I read in the other thread that it's slower but I'd gladly have it take longer than have to deal with all of these transform/undo issues popping up all the time.

Eric Chadwick

It is much much much much much slower. But it does work.

You should contact Slide and let them know.

Zipfinator

Do you have any comparison on the speed other than 4 much's? I'm pretty sure even if it takes 10 times as long I'd still prefer it over all of these problems.

I'll e-mail Slide later today about it.

seir

Hi there. I've noticed a problem with the SlideNormalThief, a bit different than Zipfinator's but still it's an issue Here it goes:

I prepared a tree mesh that is Editable Mesh with Edit Normals on active. I want to steal spehere's normals to that tree but this is what happens when stealing:



It says: Unable to convert: Undefined to Integer

I've tried exporting mesh to .3DS and re-export to .MAX (reset normals), re-uv, autosmooth smoothing groups, reset vertex color but with no luck

Any ideas?

Eric Chadwick

Did you try Reset Xform, collapse to Editable Poly, and add an Edit Normals modifier?

You could also try this. Make a box primitive, convert to Editable Poly, attach your tree, delete the box element.

seir

Yep, tried this already. The funny thing is that I've created a box, converted it to editable mesh, attached the tree model, and removed all the tree geometry so only the box was left. Same issue happend and that's more like object properties. I've checked that but there's nothing that could look wrong. When I create a new box and try the script on it, it works perfect. I have no idea what's wrong with that tree geo It looks like one of the verticles have null normal which is... weird.

Eric Chadwick

Sounds like old data in the mesh that isn't getting killed, even by using the 3DS format. I would try this. Export selected to OBJ. Close and restart Max. Import OBJ.

seir

Will try this at work on monday.

monster

I was having this exact issue as well. I just added a couple of undefined checks, and it seems to work tip top.

I'll probably take down this link soon since I did not get permission from slide to distribute.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2904948/MaxScript/SlideTools-SlideNormalThief.mcr

seir

Cool, thanks! So what's the problem actually with that undefined values?

monster

Looks like hitting Remove Isolated Vertices fixes the issue as well. I just attacked the script without thinking there was a problem with the mesh.

Makes sense I guess. A vertex without an edge/face doesn't have a normal.

seir

This is it I think! I've checked hidden faces but some verts could be isolated! Good to know, thanks a lot!

seir

I've used your script and it works flawless! Thanks a lot!

FAHDSAJER

Hello Guys ..
this is my frist comment in this great site , about slide normal thief its seem isn't working in my 3dmax 2015, before I had use run script and work with every script I just don't know were is the broblem ?! any idea !! https://www.dropbox.com/sc/8zn5tpudwry7s6y/ZWPwmZ2Vcz

Deathstick

Bump on the slide normal thief issue. I try "Run Script" on it and no windows or additional interface seems to popup on it.

Running 3D Studio Max 2014

[EDIT]: Problem solved in another post Thanks to Tobbo!

Tobbo on Today 10:26 AM
Alright I got Slide Normal Thief to work with Max 2014. Here's the link to Slide Normal Thief in case anyone else is interested in the script. http://slidelondon.com/_downloads/Sl...ormalThief.rar

1. Try putting the script in your Script directory folder

2. Go to Customize > Customize User Interface

3. Click on the Toolbars tab

4. Scroll until you find SlideNormalThief

5. Drag it from the list on to your toolbar

6. Run it from your toolbar

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1493x718.

This should work. Let me know if you still can't get it to work.

Kapoff

Deathstick wrote: »

Bump on the slide normal thief issue. I try "Run Script" on it and no windows or additional interface seems to popup on it.

Running 3D Studio Max 2014

[EDIT]: Problem solved in another post Thanks to Tobbo!

You sir solved a first world problem! Thank you!

almighty_gir

N N N N NECROOOO THREAD!

Hoping someone sees this. Not quite the same issue, but... in max 2017, the script stops working after creating ref object LUT, the completion bar for target object LUT never moves (is always empty), and clicking "steal" again just generates the generic "can't do that" sound from windows.

Wondering if there's a version of the script that's been updated for 2017?

Kapoff

almighty_gir said:

N N N N NECROOOO THREAD!

Hoping someone sees this. Not quite the same issue, but... in max 2017, the script stops working after creating ref object LUT, the completion bar for target object LUT never moves (is always empty), and clicking "steal" again just generates the generic "can't do that" sound from windows.

Wondering if there's a version of the script that's been updated for 2017?

Dunno about your specific problem, but i did just discover another  version of the script a few days ago.
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/noors-normal-thief

Try it, it might help.

Shirk

Im get the same issue with max 2017 and the script not running. Both Slides and Noors dont seem to work. 

Mark Dygert

Why does Max have such shitty normal editing tools? Why is anyone forced to use such ancient scripts? Are they ever going to get off their ass and give people the tools they need? For fucks sake Maya figured this out 5-6 years ago, it's the same damn company, get your shit together autodesk.

Noors

Both are working in 2017 here
No error thrown in the listener ?
Maybe somme issue with the mesh.
I don't think i've protected my script against dead verts for instance, see monster post above.
Did you try with 2 simple primitives for instance ?
You can PM me a scene with the source/target objects if you want.

Shirk

Noors said:

Both are working in 2017 here
No error thrown in the listener ?
Maybe somme issue with the mesh.
I don't think i've protected my script against dead verts for instance, see monster post above.
Did you try with 2 simple primitives for instance ?
You can PM me a scene with the source/target objects if you want.

Thanks for the reply! My issue is that the script just does not execute. I run the max script but no window or anything pops up. If I add a custom menu bar for your script it also does not run. 

monster

@Shirk Read To install a MacroScript from here: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/MAXScript-Help/files/GUID-C3F61DC1-D07C-4DCD-939C-CF30E4DCA29F-htm.html

Noors

Yeah it's macroscript, so it's meant to be set through customize UI, to a button, menu, hotkey....
which can't be done with a "normal" script. If you drag drop a "normal" script to the toolbar, Max creates a macroscript from it.
(If you drag drop a macroscript on a toolbar, i guess it creates a double macroscript wich means each time you execute it, it just recreate a macroscript, and never execute it.)
Anyway....

1st time you drag drop a macroscript in the viewport or execute it, Max copies the script in some of its folders.
So you won't see anything.
To really execute the script, you have to set it through UI.

If you open the script in a text editor, you'll see :
macroscript blabla
category:"myStuff"
Meaning you'll find the script under customize/customize user interface/category : myStuff, named "blabla"

You can remove all lines before the first bracket if you want to execute it directly or to assign  it directly to a button by dragging (it will recreate a macroscript internally)

It should atleast create the dialog window.

Shirk

Thank you! I had actually got it to work yesterday out of the blue trying that method. The script works great!

almighty_gir

Kapoff said:

almighty_gir said:

N N N N NECROOOO THREAD!

Hoping someone sees this. Not quite the same issue, but... in max 2017, the script stops working after creating ref object LUT, the completion bar for target object LUT never moves (is always empty), and clicking "steal" again just generates the generic "can't do that" sound from windows.

Wondering if there's a version of the script that's been updated for 2017?

Dunno about your specific problem, but i did just discover another  version of the script a few days ago.
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/noors-normal-thief

Try it, it might help.

N N N N N N N N N N NECROOOOO THREEEEAD!!!!!

This script is a lot faster BUT, the normal output is wrong, it seems like they're coming out swizzled or something. 


Top left to bottom right:
source object > source object normals
target object normals > target object after stealing from source object.

almighty_gir

and @Mark Dygert is 100% right, i shouldn't have to be wrestling with this shit, it should be a built in feature.

thomasp

correct, i can't understand why this hasn't been built in by now. surely max is still used for game development?

I was blown away by the data transfer modifier in blender which can do this while giving you a range of interpolation methods to choose from. it's extremely fast and robust in comparison and even live, meaning you can alter and move the normal source object while seeing the vertex normals update on the target mesh in real time.

perhaps worth it as an extra step in your exports, it's just that much better than the max scripts (or than that maya attribute transfer, while we're at it).

almighty_gir

But i don't wannaaaaaaa.

I don't understand how Autodesk can even call max feature complete at this point, it boggles my fucking mind. I swear, i need to shake off this severe case of stockholm syndrome i have with this garbage software.

thomasp

masochist!

these scripts bailed on me about 50% of the time. had to restart the app all the time to have the process finish. not to mention that even the faster one takes a good long while on that rather high res normal source you're showing.

even if it was not my choice of package for working i'd make the roundtrip to blender any day over this hassle.

Noors

@almighty_gir

Should work.

Are both object resetXformed ?

You can pm me your max if you want.

Yeah it should be built in. A script will always be way slower. And dealing with normals in Maxscript is extremly slow, not even considering the parsing of 2 point clouds. But I dont know max SDK and never will.

I didnt take a look to the "new" data channel modifier tho, dunno if it can do stuff with normals.

Blender is the future, for indie atleast, no doubt about it.

monster

Noors said:

I didnt take a look to the "new" data channel modifier tho, dunno if it can do stuff with normals.

Not yet.

rexus

Is this tool working for 2018