PowerPreview: High Quality Nitrous Previews (3ds Max)

spacefrog · May 2013

I just wanted to inform that i put a new PowerPreview version online over at Scriptspot. That version is fully Max 2014 compatible and contains various bugfixes and improvements.
For people who never heard of PowerPreview:
Essentially it's a tool which allows you to tweak the Nitrous viewport to achieve the best possbile display quality. This includes options that are not available otherwise. And finally it allows you to create viewport captures at resolutions not being possible by other means ( up to 6.4K x 6.4K ).
This is true for simple snapshots as for animated previews

I would be more than happy if people would test PowerPreview using their game art ( environment, characters .. whatever), and post their results here in the thread. I think to SOME degree Nitrous quality is able to compete with dedicated preview tools, but lacks accessability to it's features. This is exactly where PowerPreview shines, giving you all options on an centralized interface.

Just head over to scriptspot and give it a try
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/powerpreview-high-quality-nitrous-previews

Here's a preview image that shows some of the quality that is achievable using PowerPreview

monster · May 2013

I've been using PowerPreview for a while. It's such an awesome tool. The only feature I wish it had was to batch render a directory of files. I made my own batch preview tool, but createpreview is very buggy.

Wish I could post my animations, but they are NDA still.

sonfan · May 2013

I would love to see how far you can push this.

Bruno Afonseca · May 2013

I second what Monster said. I've tried PP in the past looking for this, a quicker way to render animation previews without the tedious clicking. But looks pretty cool so I'll probably give this newer version a shot

Eric Chadwick · Feb 17 2025

Hey @spacefrog can you re-upload this script? The d/l link is dead.

I was just testing out some of the fancy viewport features like bloom, SSAO, etc. and it'd be nice to be able to save out some animations with it.

The vanilla Make Preview tool ignores custom viewport settings, unfortunately. Also would be great to save each frame after it's been refined.

Quick example

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/tv/lgxbd5px7cpj.jpg

spacefrog · Feb 18 2025

High Eric

For me the DL scriptspot link is still working ? Scriptspot download

Here's another , direkt link Powerpreview direct download

But anyways, i'm not completely sure how well the script works with current 3ds Max versions, i know there were some compatibility issues introduced over time and i did'nt work on the script for a long time
Let me know if there's some problem and i can take a look for a quick fix

Noren · Feb 18 2025

Works with right click.
Edit: And I needed to allow the download in Chrome.

Eric Chadwick · Feb 18 2025

Ah, just needed to right-click Save As!

I'll try it with Max 2025, and report back.

Eric Chadwick · Feb 18 2025

One button seems to be broken, when I disable "Use Safe Frame":

-- Error occurred in anonymous codeblock; filename: C:\Users\His\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2025 - 64bit\ENU\scripts\SF_PowerPreview.mse; position: 109934; line: 3572
-- MAXScript Rollout Handler Exception:
-- Unknown property: "updateUI" in undefined
-- MAXScript callstack:
--	thread data: threadID:6612
--	------------------------------------------------------
--	[stack level: 0]
--	In cbUseCameraAspect.changed(); filename: C:\Users\His\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2025 - 64bit\ENU\scripts\SF_PowerPreview.mse; position: 109935; line: 3572
--	member of: Rollout:roOutputOptions
--		Defined in encrypted script
--	------------------------------------------------------
--	[stack level: 1]
--	called from top-level
--	[stack level: 1]
--	called from top-level
'PowerPreview V0.71a Beta 9 - PRERELEASE' launched...

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/sy/xv0ndtj7ga57.jpg

Eric Chadwick · Feb 19 2025

A small feature request, would it be possible to hide viewport overlays from the captures? The axis tripod at lower left, and the Viewport Clipping slider on the right.

spacefrog · Feb 19 2025

Hey Eric,
thanks for your interest and for poking into powerpreview . As far i remember all those things should toggle of as soon as you press "Go" or "snapshot", but possibly some incompatibility prevents that.
Here is the last version i actually worked on exactly 10yrs ago , after that i stopped development for one reason or another ( dont remember why).
It should fix some of the most pressing incompatibilities ( there still will be more !)
https://www.frogsinspace.at/?sdm_downloads=powerpreview-high-quality-viewport-capture-3ds-max

Anyways, i'll take a look on the state of the code and maybe i'll raise the tool from the ashes ( no promises though )

PowerPreview: High Quality Nitrous Previews (3ds Max)

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