Grabviewport 2.5 New Release

leslievdb

hey guys, first of all happy newyear
i'm glad to say i have a holiday present for you

Grabviewport is a FREE MaxScript that enables you to take High Resolution Screenshots of your 3ds Max Viewport.
It also offers you the options to capture animations as well as multiple passes that can later be used for compositing your final presentation image.

Nysuatro

Sexy stuff mate, will try it out soon.

leslievdb

tnx Nysuatro ^^

For the people who already downloaded the script

Did a very minor tweak to the script so it doesn't show the gizmo anymore when in zdepth mode. This seemed to be a problem in some max versions.

Updated Script available here

mLichy

Works good . Awesome work

However, shouldn't the zdepth be greyscale? At least, thats how I've always seen it/used it.

leslievdb

tnx
This should be the result of the zdepth, but i think i already know why your result is different. Do you have a scene with objects that don't have any materials applied to them?



already updated the script so also objects without materials showup properly

cptSwing

will post some feedback here once i've used it again. thanks for the new release!

mLichy

Awesome. Yeah, had no materials

Computron

How do I uninstall my old version? Couldn't find anything regarding this or any auto-update feature on the site.

leslievdb

tnx guys

Computron: delete the old macro in the following folder

\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsmax\MAXVERSION\enu\UI\usermacros

TonyClifton

Thanks for sharing, Ravenslayer!

leslievdb

glad it's useful tony

Kovac

Hey Raven,
This is an awesome tool, thanks a bunch for the work put in! Have you happened to have any luck with saving out batch images instead of an AVI sequence? Quite a few projects I'm working on involve getting an alpha'd object image sequence (30 frame rotation,etc) and require bringing them into After Effects afterwards. Using this in the past I'd have to render this out frame by frame.

Excellent work!

leslievdb

hey Kovac,

You can save the animations as image sequences PNG TGA and BMP
i just updated the script so it includes the alpha inside the basecapture if you save your animation as PNG's .

Kovac

Awesome Ravenslayer, thanks a bunch!

Kovac

I've tested the latest download on the site and cannot seem to get the PNG to export out that information.

Additionally, since anti aliasing options are no longer available once Animation is selected, the quality is drastically lower than that of the original.

Any ideas?

leslievdb

hmm that's really odd, so you selected png and enabled the alpha checkbox while setting the mode to animation.

also i'm not getting such lowres results over here, why is the extension on your image jpg btw?

Kovac

Sorry that was just for quick uploading purposes. I found that the default resolution was creating the artifacts and setting it to square fixed it just fine.

I tested the alpha again and correct, while using Animation the alpha is not stored directly in the PNG file. It does work, however, when I save it out as an individual frame. I'll see if I notice any obvious differences taking place during the saving process between the two.

leslievdb

oh oke i'm going to check that quality loss problem.

could you for all safety please redownload the script and install it?

Kovac

I don't see how it's bypassing the check you have for PNG alpha when running an animation vs an image :X.

I've deleted my previous files and have tested it again; still no luck, unfortunately.

General process:
Load max file
Open GrabViewport
Select frame range x to y
Check Alpha
Choose Animation
Change format to PNG

Thanks again for the assistance!

leslievdb

lol damn sorry. i feel stupid, for some reason it didn't overwrite the script properly so it was still the old version.

please download it again, should work now

Kovac

WinMerge is saying the latest version on your server and my previous versions are all identical; is there anyway you could try a new file name for testing this?

Thanks

leslievdb

i'm sure it's the right one on the server right now, try to open the script and look for "AlphaToAnim" if that's in there it's the right one.

there's a direct link to the mcr on scriptspot too http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/grabviewport-0

Kovac

The latest version works like a charm, Ravenslayer! Thanks a bunch for taking the time to look into this, it's a huge help on my end!

leslievdb

np , i'm glad it works.

jeremiah_bigley

Holy crap! I love you man! You just made my year! lol

Anti-Aliasing = Win!
Element Pass = Win!
AO = You have outdone yourself sir!

You made my life SOO much easier.

Haven't tested it yet, but it came just in time for a character I just started texturing.

garriola83

love the script, but i do have a question: does it always constrain its proportions to a square when i change it? im trying to get it to render out at 1440x900 and its always 1440^2 or 900^2...or did i just miss something? thanks man!

leslievdb

i'm going to look into this problem since some max setups seem to do this, could you perhaps tell me what max version you are running and if you have any special UI setup like the ribbon docket to the side of your screen or something?

leslievdb

i found the problem (float to integer convertion always outputted one as ratio)
You can download the adjusted script on the site or scriptspot

tnx for reporting btw

SideEffect

I'm loving the script man! Thanks so much

I ran into an error trying to render out my image sequences with alphas.
It renders the first pass fine but it stops at the very first frame on the alpha pass and gives this error:

garriola83

thanks a lot for addressing the issue! sorry i couldnt be more informative sooner

leslievdb

np garriola83.

SideEffect: looks like the filenameparsing isn't working for some reason, could you try to uncomment that messagebox line ,run the script again with the same settings and tell me what the messagebox outputs? Also could you tell me the full path+name of your baseimage that he saved

tnx

SideEffect

The path is:

"C:\Users\SideEffect\Desktop\bluefor"

named it "bluefor" like in the above pic
first file in the sequence comes out as "bluefor0000.PNG"

messagebox:

"C:\Users\SideEffect\Desktop\bluefor\bluefor0000.PNG"

hit ok

messagebox:

"C:\Users\SideEffect\Desktop\bluefor\bluefor0160.PNG"

hit ok

get the same boxes as in the above pic

SideEffect

On another note if I tick
"From To" in the Animation Range
and go from 0-100

run it again it gives me a message box for every frame in the sequence (0001-0100) everytime I hit ok.

leslievdb

messagebox:
"C: \Users\SideEffect\Desktop\bluefor\bluefor0160.P NG"

is the second frame he wants to add the alpha to or the 160th?
also is that space in the .P NG there in the messagebox?

SideEffect

No the space wasn't there thats just the messageboard glitching it
I edited my post after

Yes for

"C:\Users\SideEffect\Desktop\bluefor\bluefor0160.PNG"

That happens on frame 1
(sequence starts at frame 0)

leslievdb

found the problem, when using "Active Range" he was getting 1f instead of just 1 so it resulted in a integer convertion of 116

anyway i updated the script so this shouldn't be a problem any more
tnx again for taking the time

SideEffect

no, thank you man!

works perfect now

also the new crop feature is amazing

Xoliul

Hey man, been using this script for my dozer captures, should be on a DVD cover soon Thanks for preventing me from having to resort to renders, with the soft shadows it's just perfect!

One thing I noticed: at huge grabs, it tends to crash Max on the second attempt, highlighting the "ForceRedraw()" line. Im probably really pushing it with my resolutions (I got It to render pure black for a grab that was 13megapixels...), but I do notice you are always saving to 16bit PNG's. I don't think there's any benefit from that, as I'm pretty sure what you get from the viewport is just going to be output in 8bit before you grab it. So best to save some memory by just saving out 8bit images, as 16bit is quite a bit heavier to work with...

leslievdb

tnx guys ^^

xoliul: good point ,i'm going to look into that and see what else can be optimized in the process

S_ource

Seames like a good script....when it works got this error. And no image.:)

leslievdb

hey S_ource what version of max are you using? i'm guessing something before 2010?
could you also give me the number of the line of code it goes to when that error pops up
tnx

S_ource

Im using 2009 64
It goes to 1035

MAXScript Rollout Handler Exception

---

-- Unknown property: "getViewportShadingSettings" in <Interface:maxOps>

Hope it helps.

leslievdb

tnx, i updated the script you shouldn't get that error any longer

cptSwing

worked flawlessly (if a little slow) just the other day

I did get the impression that there might be a memory leak, at least i had to restart my computer after a dozen or so screengrabs - but that might be due to a hundred different factors!

Firebert

I get this noise after installing and trying to use. (setting hotkey or toolbar button)
Max 2011 64 (tried running as admin and not as admin)
win7
computer made of sauerkraut sandwiches




Thanks sexy

leslievdb

cptswing: tnx i'm going to look into that and make sure i'm cleaning everything up after each capture

firebert:
strange i use the exact same setup for testing the script.

could you go into the listener and type this line

getdir #Scene

and tell me what directory it outputs?
tnx

Firebert

It lists whatever dir I have set as my project folder. I work on secondary drives and my primary drive is my OS.

in this case it lists F:\3D\project_name\project

leslievdb

aha yeah i didn't take that into account. I tried to find a unified directory so people running multiple versions of max would get the last saved settings in all versions. But since i never really setup a different project folder inside max itself it's always the standard one

i fixed it by saving the ini file in the max scripts folder if it returns an undefined.
you can download the updated script

tnx for pointing this out

Firebert

U make me all warm and fuzzy

leslievdb

that's my job :P , just like santa only less bearded

cptSwing

:thumbup: