Sean Ahern's GDC talk was pretty good - although it's mostly aimed at UI design for tools. Then again, even as tech artist I think too many plugins and scripts have terrible UIs.
First post this year, been busy working on an AI in unreal (or tried to at least) and some other scripting. Also created the first enemy for my little prototype with some basic animation and stuff. Cheers!
Set your hard edges where you want to UV seams to be. Run a script that flattens based on those(LINK). Run unfold3d's unfold operation. Run unfold3d's packing. Cleanup as needed. Profit!
Thanks for the reply ... I guess I'll use your script as a base and dive in one day when I get a chance. Weird that they don't support that. Max handles duplicate names perfectly fine...
I have a script here that breaks all wire parameters on every objected selected. You can probably re-factor it it to reconnect to another object. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2904948/Tools/RemoveAllWireParametersFromSelection.ms
Game is starting to come along, got a (sorta) functioning alpha and some good concept pieces with a script almost complete. Still looking to add an animator and a modeler to the team. Email me at halogenstudios.indie@gmail.com
Hey dude, I am a noob in Maxscript, dont know the exact answer to your query.But i use Meshtools and it has a function called Select by Material ID Surface.You could look at that script.
im using version 5.0.1 i figure it would be best to show you what i mean with disjointed i create the mesh in max to use as leaves then export usig the script speedtree comes with,
also, it's usually worth thinking if there is a max way of doing what you want, and scripting that, usually is faster for max (noise modifier for instance sounds like what you are doing somewhat?) good luck!
i currently use this script which removes that crappy button and just makes you toggle isolate selection with the shortcut, no buttons included :) http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/macro-isosel-revised-again