Yeah seriously complaining about something like this plug in that costs merely 30 bucks that will literally save you hundreds of hours a year. Think about that for just a minute.
Doesn't it seem silly?
I would easily buy this again if I had to. Great plug in and has already saved me loads of time.
so i guess the next big thing to improve the workflow would be the abaility to select the hardedges in between smoothinggroups to apply edgeweights. This way you could do the blockout with smoothingroups and then go in and define different weights.
and yeah, that sounds like a good workflow.. i've also noticed while using the smoothing group function that it'd be great to have a way to visualize smoothing groups.. seems there aren't any stable scripts to accomplish that, though.
so i guess the next big thing to improve the workflow would be the abaility to select the hardedges in between smoothinggroups to apply edgeweights. This way you could do the blockout with smoothingroups and then go in and define different weights.
I made a small script for selecting hard edges. I will add other stuff to it for managing edge weights later.
Quad Chamfer modifier 1.05 released
- Adds a Quad Ends option to remove n-gons and the end of some chamfered edges
- Adds ability to assign a material id to the faces created by the chamfer
- Adds a Invert Open chamfer option to keep only the faces created by the chamfer
I wish the quad intersection feature would also respect the curvature of the mesh. Right now it seems like it just collapse the verts, moving them in the process and quadrifies the intersection. they end up making the edges inconsistent.
r_fletch_r Because of the algorithm I use if I make the corners round they will not look nice if you increase the iterations. That's why there are straight lines on chamfers where 4 edges meet.
Computron I haven't found a way to calculate the optimal positon of the collapsed vert so that it will not distort any edges. Sometimes when I move the vert to a point were it doen't distort an edge it will distort others and vice versa. The quad intersection feature works better on flat surfaces.
that's a shame, its means that in 50% of cases I'd have to bevel manually to avoid the error.
Use Chamfer by edge selection or chamfer by smoothing groups, only chamfer by edge weights has the problem of this straight lines.
I will look to see why chamfer by edge weights has this problem.
By the way Obliviboy, in passing : your demonstration videos could use a bit of editing. Nothing crazy, maybe a 2x speedup and some cuts to remove the unnecessary idle times. They are okay in raw "over the shoulder" format at the moment but they could be way faster and dynamic.
Also don't forget animated GIFs, they are a fantastic way to really efficiently show features - before/after.
A small annoying thing for me is that the chamfers generated do not "split evenly" between assigned vertex colors if they are sitting on a border between two colors. I like to bake out masks with vert colors to work with in PS, and it's a tiny bit tedious currently
Then again I might be the only person with this problem and I'm pretty sure you have a long list of feature requests to consider..
Is there anyway you can make this a tool as well? Like so that I can make quick quad chamfers without having to add to my stack and 'collapse to' and so that I can have an undo?
Changes for v1.06 are:
- Adds ability to select between Min, Average and Max interpolation in Chamfer by Edge Weights mode
- Fixes some bugs in Chamfer by Edge Weights mode
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ivz38h_BOY"]Quad Chamfer modifier 1.06 - New features - YouTube[/ame]
@cptSwing In the images you showed it doesn't seem you used vertex colors, it looks like you used Polygon Colors. I will look and see if I can solve this bug.
@Computron I will put together a script so you can use the modifier on editable poly fast.
Yes of course, you are right. I was under the impression that the end data gets stored in the same place, but of course it's different (and much faster) than assigning them via VertexPaint modifier, I should have mentioned that..
Just wanted to pop in and say I bought this a couple days ago and it's been really useful so far. I don't bang on hard surfaces as much as I used to so I probably wont be as useful for feedback. Keep it up though!
Changes for v1.08 are:
- Adds ability to push outwards or inwards the edges of the chamfer at iteration 1 or higher
- Fixes some Chamfering by Edge Weights bugs
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ9xM-oNJ4M"]Quad Chamfer modifier 1.08 - New Features - YouTube[/ame]
Here's a feature that would be cool to have for low poly modeling, and would make this the ultimate one-click chamfer tool.
I would love it if I could have this modifier chamfer and edit vertex normals automatically.
This can help immensly for normal mapping as well as making interesting curvature/chamfers without spending a boat-load of polies:
On the left we have the edited vertex normals smoothing out JUST the corners of the box.
It looks awesome and uses only one iteration of polies :thumbup:
on the right we have the default max chamfer workflow. Its starting to reflect closer to the way I want, but it's not really accurate/blobby. :thumbdown:
So the original face's vertexes would keep their normals after the chamfer, or it could be like a slider where you could dial in how much of the original vertex normal direction you want versus how much of the averaged direction you want.
I'm sorry, what I meant to imply was I saw the RappaTools script had a quad chamfer tool like this coauthored by you, I was curious about it's usefulness compared to your sole tool
Computron interesting feature, thank you. I will look into it as see what I can do.
Moosey_G I asked Remus(the author of RappaTools) for the source code for a function that I could use to make the script work for lower versions of max, in return he could have credit in the script and it's source code. The he took it and added some other stuff to, but the base of it is still the same like my quad chamfer script(I think).
The script version(at least mine) is slow, has a destructible workflow, the chamfers are too flat, it fails to chamfer some combination of edges, can't do variable chamfers etc.
The script has many shortcomings in comparison to the plugin/modifier version.
The modifier is more usefull as you can do many things with it.
I concur about the limitation of script version, it was working ok but in many case it completely failed, something I've not encountered yet on the modifier version. Also the added benefit of being able to work non destructively with the modifier on top of editable poly justify the price entirely.
Changes for v1.09 are:
- Adds ability to inset the polygons created by the chamfer allowing for stylistic effects in combination with the push option
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAsfq2CbVrs"]Quad Chamfer modifier 1.09 - New features - YouTube[/ame]
Dude, this is going to put you on the map for sure. If you aren't getting alot of sales already.
Those new features would be very very useful when doing panel lines. Right now I tend to float alot of stuff, using EditablePoly or EditableSplines with Sweep, but it's not as clean obviously. With this modifier, I could actually have it modeled in more often, and not destroy my geo underneath
It would be nice if the quad intersections would be straight when possible. Right now they end up tapered down to the corners at the intersection. Really, just the outside edges are. The interior vert spacing seems right.
Also, if there was a smoothing group option. Similar to the Material ID option.
I found a bug it seems... When selecting every other edge on a cylinder side, with Quad Ends Checked, instead of merging 2 ends together, it moves/merges 1 end.
mLichy try 1.10, I solved the issues you were having
Changes for v1.10 are:
- Adds a "Push 2", a "Pinch" and a "Slide" option for controlling the the edges created by the inset function
- Improves the results of "Quad Intersections" and "Quad Ends" options
- Adds option to select the smoothing group of the faces created by the chamfer
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiFOX2B08aM"]Quad Chamfer modifier 1.10 - New features - YouTube[/ame]
found a bug, if I set a crease value on the selected edges with the modifier stack preview on I get an error that I cannot get out of and max eventually crashes.
I actually just narrowed it down to creasing those edges and setting iteration on the quad chamfer modifer to 2 instead of 1.
Replies
BTW, if you got windows 7 and you want awesome bug reports, try this:
Probably the best hidden feature/app in windows 7 for developers. Give it a try and look at the result, you'll be pleasantly surprised.
I don't have a portfolio site. I focus more on programming than on modeling.
Thank you for the tip on bug reporting, I will check it out.
Here is the video on youtube.
[ame="
Doesn't it seem silly?
I would easily buy this again if I had to. Great plug in and has already saved me loads of time.
and yeah, that sounds like a good workflow.. i've also noticed while using the smoothing group function that it'd be great to have a way to visualize smoothing groups.. seems there aren't any stable scripts to accomplish that, though.
http://www.mariussilaghi.com/QChamfer_Bonus_Tools.rar
Just drag and drop the .mse file into max and it's interface will appear.
- Adds a Quad Ends option to remove n-gons and the end of some chamfered edges
- Adds ability to assign a material id to the faces created by the chamfer
- Adds a Invert Open chamfer option to keep only the faces created by the chamfer
[ame="
I have an issue with the shape of some of the bevels at the moment.
more examples of the flat corner:
Computron I haven't found a way to calculate the optimal positon of the collapsed vert so that it will not distort any edges. Sometimes when I move the vert to a point were it doen't distort an edge it will distort others and vice versa. The quad intersection feature works better on flat surfaces.
Use Chamfer by edge selection or chamfer by smoothing groups, only chamfer by edge weights has the problem of this straight lines.
I will look to see why chamfer by edge weights has this problem.
Also don't forget animated GIFs, they are a fantastic way to really efficiently show features - before/after.
Watching this thread closely!
Then again I might be the only person with this problem and I'm pretty sure you have a long list of feature requests to consider..
here's an image to illustrate what I mean:
- Adds ability to select between Min, Average and Max interpolation in Chamfer by Edge Weights mode
- Fixes some bugs in Chamfer by Edge Weights mode
[ame="
@Pior thank you, I will consider it.
@cptSwing In the images you showed it doesn't seem you used vertex colors, it looks like you used Polygon Colors. I will look and see if I can solve this bug.
@Computron I will put together a script so you can use the modifier on editable poly fast.
Moosey_G No, I don't use it.
Changes for v1.08 are:
- Adds ability to push outwards or inwards the edges of the chamfer at iteration 1 or higher
- Fixes some Chamfering by Edge Weights bugs
[ame="
I would love it if I could have this modifier chamfer and edit vertex normals automatically.
This can help immensly for normal mapping as well as making interesting curvature/chamfers without spending a boat-load of polies:
It looks awesome and uses only one iteration of polies :thumbup:
on the right we have the default max chamfer workflow. Its starting to reflect closer to the way I want, but it's not really accurate/blobby. :thumbdown:
So the original face's vertexes would keep their normals after the chamfer, or it could be like a slider where you could dial in how much of the original vertex normal direction you want versus how much of the averaged direction you want.
I'm sorry, what I meant to imply was I saw the RappaTools script had a quad chamfer tool like this coauthored by you, I was curious about it's usefulness compared to your sole tool
Moosey_G I asked Remus(the author of RappaTools) for the source code for a function that I could use to make the script work for lower versions of max, in return he could have credit in the script and it's source code. The he took it and added some other stuff to, but the base of it is still the same like my quad chamfer script(I think).
The script version(at least mine) is slow, has a destructible workflow, the chamfers are too flat, it fails to chamfer some combination of edges, can't do variable chamfers etc.
The script has many shortcomings in comparison to the plugin/modifier version.
The modifier is more usefull as you can do many things with it.
- Adds ability to inset the polygons created by the chamfer allowing for stylistic effects in combination with the push option
[ame="
The new push and inset features can make for some easy panel modeling
Those new features would be very very useful when doing panel lines. Right now I tend to float alot of stuff, using EditablePoly or EditableSplines with Sweep, but it's not as clean obviously. With this modifier, I could actually have it modeled in more often, and not destroy my geo underneath
Also, if there was a smoothing group option. Similar to the Material ID option.
Thanks!
Take a look at this script by SyncView if you need some insight.
With this feature added to the non-destructive modifier stack workflow,
you could get some really awesome low-poly environment detail modeling.
mLichy try 1.10, I solved the issues you were having
Changes for v1.10 are:
- Adds a "Push 2", a "Pinch" and a "Slide" option for controlling the the edges created by the inset function
- Improves the results of "Quad Intersections" and "Quad Ends" options
- Adds option to select the smoothing group of the faces created by the chamfer
[ame="
Get this tool some exposure. :poly136:
I actually just narrowed it down to creasing those edges and setting iteration on the quad chamfer modifer to 2 instead of 1.
edges that cause the error:
model(max2012):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2332694/Polycount/quad_chamfer/error_model.max