Composite Material 3dmax

brandoom · Feb 2011

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some insight/help on how to make a composite material in 3dmax 2010.

I've got a diffuse map for UV channel 1, and a light map for UV channel 2. Now I just need to somehow get them together into one material.

Anything I've tried so far hasn't worked, so any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

r_fletch_r · Feb 2011

you dont want a composite material. you want a composite map

put the composite map in the diffuse slot of a standard material
Click on the left hand swatch of layer 1 and add your diffuse map.
create a new layer and set it to multiply
Add the lightmap to the left hand slot. setting its channel to 2
Set the RGB level of the lightmap (in the bitmap) to 2+

make an instance of the composite map in the materials self illumination slot.

create a light in the scene and set its intensity to 0. this'll remove the default lighting.

brandoom · Feb 2011

Your the man with the plan Fletch,

thanks for your help, becuase of you, I may have a job. lol

r_fletch_r · Feb 2011

GREAT SUCCESS

brandoom · Feb 2011

Mr. Fletch,

it appears that the blending options don't work... at all.

I set the light map to multiply and it doesn't do anything. The only way I can see the under lying layer is if i drop the opacity, or create an opacity map.

Any ideas?

CompanionCube · Feb 2011

do you have all hotfixes installed for max 2010?

it works fine in 2011

brandoom · Feb 2011

Umm.

I'm not sure. Probably not though. Was there an update I missed?

Mark Dygert · Feb 2011

I think a composite map will only blend properly at render time? I don't think its a realtime viewport effect? There might be some other viewport shaders that blend in realtime, like the 3point shader, XOXOXodolo's shader (however you spell his name) or ShaderFX.

brandoom · Feb 2011

Ah,

I think your right Mark. I was expecting it to be realtime.

I guess that solves my problem lol.

Thanks!

brandoom · Feb 2011

Hiya,

so everything has been going well with this project I'm doing. But I've run into something strange.

That weird looking white area is there for no apparent reason. Its not on the diffuse nor the lightmap.

Any ideas?

I've tried, re mapping and lightmap baking, duplicating the model, moving verts..

Its random.

brandoom · Feb 2011

Nevermind, again..

the .tga had an alpha -_-;

jeremiah_bigley · Feb 2011

lol. yeah... saving 32 bit targas for the loss...

Composite Material 3dmax

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