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Category: Mini Tutorial

DCM mini tutorial #2 – Transform Element

changsooeun

Nowadays “proceduralism” is a very hot trend. Yet many 3dsMax users don’t realize that 3dsMax has had a wide range of procedural features for decades. One of the not-so-well-known procedural features is Data Channel modifier which was introduced in 2017!.

A few days ago. I saw a question about how to make this animation on the tyFlow Facebook group. It was a perfect example of what DCM can easily do with a simple setup. Now with Array modifier, it took 5 min for me to put it together.

1. Let’s start with a box. I guess I don’t need to explain more. 🙂

2. Then, 15×15 Grid Array.

3. Then, Wave modifier. I rotated the gizmo 45 drgree.

4. Then, I applied Vol.Select. Rotate the Gizmo 45 degree again and moved out of mesh.

5. Then, animate the gizmo to select all vertex on the verts. This is frame 36.

Frame 72.

As you can expect, Ill drive the scale animation of each element with animated soft selection using Data Channel modifier. Apply Data Channel modifier.

6. Apply Data Channel modifier.

7. Click “Add Operator” button.

8. Add “Transform Elements” and “Vertex Output”

9. Transform Element modifer allow you to transform(move, rotate, scale) each element using a selected channel. For this setup, we will use soft selection channel as a driver. Set “Input Channel” as Soft Selection.

10. Set Transfrom as “Scale %(Uniform)”. Leave everything as is. It should look like the following image.

This setup means, DCM will scale each element from 0 to 100% using soft selection value 0-1. So, if the average of soft selection value of an element is 0. The element will be scale to 0. If the average is 0.5, it will be half size(50&), of the average is 1.0, it will be full size(100&).

11. Select “Vertex Output” and set Position/Replace. The Transform Element generates transformed vertex position data for each vertex and store in a vertex channel and pass down. We need to replace vertex position channel with the new vector channel to see the animation. “Vertex Output” operator is doing that,

12. If you want to make it more interesting, you can add one more Transform Elements for rotation. Make sure to right click the second Transform Element and change to “Replace” since you are adding a new separate channel. If you choose “Add”, the value will be added to the vector channel coming from the above “Transform Element”.

13. Set “Transform” to “Rotation” and set all “Max” value to 360. So, you can do a complete turn.

That’s it! So easy right?

There are a lot more you can do DCM. If you want to learn more about DCM. I collected some tutorials here.
https://3dsmaxtutorial.com/category/modeling/datachannelmodifier

And.. here is the scene file.

Download

 

 

 

How to manage tools part 2 – Plugins (featuring new 3dsMax 2022.3 pipeline integration)

changsooeun

This is the second part of how to manage tools series, Plugins. I’m sure most 3dsMax users know about the plugin,ini file. When 3dsMax starts, it looks for the following 2 plugin,ini files.

  1. C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2022\en-US\plugin.ini
  2. C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2022 – 64bit\ENU\Plugin.UserSettings.ini

This is a usual ini file with sections and keys and values like this.

[Directories]
Additional MAX plug-ins=C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2022\PlugIns\
[Help]

You can edit one of the above files with a text editor to add your own plugins folder or use Customize menu > Customize Users and System Paths dialog > 3rd Party Plug-Ins tab.

Usually a commercial plugin would have an installer to take care this for users. Then, users would make a plugins folder and throw all free plugin there and add the path to plugin.ini. Or, some still just throw everything in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2022\Plugins folder. If your studio has TDs or IT department, they probably already have their own way to do it. Also you can specify a plugin,ini to use via command line option -p while launching 3dsMax

But, there are also 2 not-so-well-known ways of managing plugins to know.

  1. [Include] section in plugin.ini
    This allows to nest plugin ini like this image.
    https://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/2022/ENU/3DSMax-Customizing/images/GUID-0E41A3C7-B6B5-4CA3-9A36-6208D8F2799C.png
    This is great for central management and exactly the same principle as my “seed startup script”. You just deploy a caller and do the real job in another file. This is what I have been using.
  2. Autodesk Application Plug-in Package
    This is the new official way to distribute any plugins and a great way to de-couple plugin files from 3dsMax installations. VRay already has moved to this method and hopefully more commercial plugins adapt to this format. But, you can also utilize this for your own plugin management. It is a little bit involved. So, it might not be great for individual users or small studios. But, if you have TDs or IT department, it is worth checking.

ADSK_3DSMAX_PLUGINS_ADDON_DIR

The new pipeline integration also supports custom plugin and application package folder. You can use these two following env vars to control plugin loading location. Again this means I don’t need the seed .ini anymore!

  • ADSK_3DSMAX_PLUGINS_ADDON_DIR
  • ADSK_APPLICATION_PLUGINS

But, one thing you need to understand is that the current pipeline integration in 3dsMax 2022.3 is mainly aimed for using a batch file or Python script. Because of that, it doesn’t have a way to specify the 3dsMax version. That means all 3dsMax versions will pick up the exact same folder when you have multiple versions installed. This can cause problems if any folder you set has version specific data likek plugins folder. As you know, often plugins are not compatible between versions, if you set “ADSK_3DSMAX_PLUGINS_ADDON_DIR” as system env var, all the 3dsMax versions will try to to pick up plugins from the same folder. That wouldn’t work.

With 3dsMax 2023 updates, the above issue has been addressed. Please check the new post here.

Therefore, you need to set env var only for a session instead of the whole system. You can do this by using a batch file or Python script to run 3dsMax. If you have a Python launcher, you probably wouldn’t need a tutorial from me. Here is a sample batch file for “artists”. A good thing about this sample is that it doesn’t leave the command shell after 3dsMax started.

SET ADSK_3DSMAX_PLUGINS_ADDON_DIR=D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\plugin_free_2022
c:
cd "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2022\"
start "" "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2022\3dsmax.exe"

“SET” command is the command to set env var in a batch file.

As you can see, this allows you to define the combination of plugins dynamically while launching 3dsMax easily. Imagine you need different versions of VRay, ThinkingParticles per project. Before the pipeline integration, you would need to build a plugin.ini per project and load. Now, you can just add directories directly in the launcher script.

This is it for plugins! But, the potential of the pipeline integration doesn’t end here. WIth new env var controls and token support in various ini. You can actually install each PUs side by side now like 3dsMax 2022.1, 2022.2, 2022,3. You can even install 3dsMax in a network folder and load from there. Sure, you need to figure out how exactly execute this for your studio. But, the technical foundation is there. So, try it!

Do you want to improve your pipeline? renderStacks could be the start.

 

How to manage tools part 1 – Scripts (featuring new 3dsMax 2022.3 pipeline integration)

changsooeun

We, 3dsMax users, love 3rd party scripts and plugins. But, we don’t necessarily like the process of installing and managing those. Sometimes this is one of the reasons why we don’t even upgrade 3dsMax. In this post, I’ll show you how to decouple the installation of 3rd party scripts from 3dsMax for easier management. I will also show how the new pipeline integration feature in 3dsMax 2022.3 will make this task simpler. We will use the famous Soulburn script as an example.

First, we need to know how scripts are loaded when 3dsMax launches. Fortunately there is already very good documentation here. In a nutshell, 3dsMax executes startup scripts and macros scripts from certain locations while being launched. Users need to install scripts in those locations so they can be loaded properly.

Startup scripts

There are a few reasons why users would want to execute scripts automatically when 3dsMax starts. For example, If you use any scripted plugins such as the famous Paul’s PEN_Attribute_Holder, you probably want it to be loaded and ready to use just like C++ plugins. Another important use of startup script is setting working environments, defaults and system directories which we will utilize in this post. I also have a separate post about this subject here. Please check it out.

As you see in the above document, 3dsMax reads the startup script from the various places. But, the most commonly used folders are these two folders.

  • system startup scripts folder – C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2022\scripts\Startup
  • user startup scripts folder – C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2022 – 64bit\ENU\scripts\startup

One of the important rules of 3dsMax tool management is you never touch the 3dsMax root folder. If you need to add/modify anything, you should add/modify files in the appdata folder which is usually called the “ENU” folder. C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2022 – 64bit\ENU\

But, as you can see, using a user data folder brings a lot of challenges, especially for a team. So, I have been managing startup scripts using a seed startup script, [3dsMax root]/scripts/startup.ms. This script basically calls the real script like this.

FileIn @ "D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\startup\mystartup.ms"

By using this seed script, I can update the startup script centrally without re-depolying again to all workstations. this is one of two files I allow an exception personally.

BUT! I don’t need this seed script anymore because of the new pipeline integration feature. This feature allows users to set various paths used by 3dsMax with Environment variables which means you can set paths from the outside of 3dsMax before it launches. Even though 3dsMax provides a great amount of control over every aspect of 3dsMax with Maxscript. The fundamental limitation of the script based approach is that everything happens after 3dsMax launched. The new pipeline integration removes this limitation. Also it allows you to control folders that never have been allowed to control before such as the appdata folder itself.

So, how can we use this feature? There are 2 ways to set environment variables in Windows.

  • The first one is setting in System Properties or using a group policy. As you can already see, IT dept. would love this central management.
  • The second way is using a batch file or Python to set env var only for the session. If your studio is using a launcher, they are already using this way.

For startup script, we can use the first method since scripts are usually compatible between 3dsMax versions and you can put a condition if there are any version specific things in it.

After I added “ADSK_3DSMAX_STARTUPSCRIPTS_ADDON_DIR” env var, my 3dsMax runs any scripts in this folder. I don’t need to add anything to 3dsMax root folder. I don’t need to worry about re-coying again this file after wiping out ENU folder to solve my 3dsMax issues. I don’t even need to do anything for any future version of 3dsMax. It is truly set it and forget it!

Setting custom system directories with startup script

Even though the new pipeline integration allows you to add “scripts” folders with “ADSK_3DSMAX_SCRIPTS_ADDON_DIR”. This folder actually doesn’t matter much because we never execute all scripts in these folders automatically. Also setting env var doesn’t actually change 3dsMax system directories, and most scripts are usually called other scripts or macroscript(We will discuss it later) using #scripts or #userScripts system directories to allow more flexible installation instead of hard-coded path. For example, this is a macroscript from the Soulburn script.

MacroScript blendedBoxMapMaker category:"SoulburnScripts" tooltip:"blendedBoxMapMaker" Icon:#("SoulburnScripts_blendedBoxMapMaker",1)
(
Include "$scripts/SoulburnScripts/scripts/blendedBoxMapMaker.ms"
on execute do blendedBoxMapMakerDefaults()
on Altexecute type do blendedBoxMapMakerUI()
)

As you can see, this action will try to find “/SoulburnScripts/scripts/blendedBoxMapMaker.ms” file under #scripts folder($scripts is a symbolic pathname for #scripts).

By default #scripts is set to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2022\scripts and  #userScripts is set to C:\Users\ChangsooEun\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2022 – 64bit\ENU\scripts. 3rd party scripts are suppose to use #userScripts. This means that we have to install the Soulburn script files under C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2022\scripts unless we change the location.

The good news is that we can change any system directories using the “setdir” Maxscript command! This is the first two lines of my startup script. This allows me to install any 3rd party script under D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\scripts\ instead of 3dsMax root or my user folder.

setdir #scripts @"D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\scripts\"
setdir #userscripts @"D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\scripts\"

TIP! As you can see from the 3dsMax system directories document, you can also set any project folders using “setdir” command. By default, they are set as a relative path to the current project folder. But, you can change those using “setdir“ command. For example, you can change autoback folder to “D:\3dsMax_Autoback” instead of in your Document folder.

setdir #autoback @"D:\3dsMax_Autoback"

Macroscripts

Macroscript is a script that defines “ActionItems” in 3dsMax. ActionItem is “that represents the action that can be assigned to Toolbars, Menus, QuadMenus and Keyboard Shortcuts using the Customize User Interface dialog”. Basically if you want to make an UI like a button or shortcut, you need a macroscript for the script. It also allows the script to show up in Global Search(X menu).

3dsMax executes the macroscripts in #userMacros and #macroScripts system directories by default when it starts. Now you may think we could change these folder to own custom folder like #scripts and #userscripts. BUT! We can’t do that for macroscript because 3dsMax and many 3rd parties actually use these folders. BTW, there is the new Autodesk Application Plug-in Package format which 3rd parties can completely separate their files from 3dsMax factory installation. If your favorite plugin doesn’t support this. Ask them!

Another problem of #userMacros folder is that it is used when user create macroscript by drag and drop. For example, if I type print “Hello, World” and drag and drop this line to a toolbar. 3dsMax makes “DragAndDrop-Macro1.mcr” under #userscripts folder. If you share this folder across many users, you will get macroscript from all your teammates.

Therefore, it is better to load the commonly shared macroscripts from an added folder using “ADSK_3DSMAX_MACROS_ADDON_DIR” env var.

If you are using 3dsMax without the pipeline integration, you have a few ways to do this.

  • Copy all .mcr files to #userMacros folder.
  • Just run all .mcr files with the “FileIn” function.
  • You can copy to the 3dsMax root folder. But, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Honestly none of the above options are good. This just shows how beneficial the new pipeline integration is.

Icons

This is the last piece of puzzle for 3rd party script management. Sometimes 3rd party scripts include icon files. We can use both startup script or env var for this. It doesn’t matter much. I choose to use “ADSK_3DSMAX_ICONS_ADDON_DIR”  env var.

If you are using older version of 3dsMax, I will just set #usericons folder in a startup script.

Let’s put together all the pieces for Soulburn script

I have set 3 environment variables.

  • ADSK_3DSMAX_STARTUPSCRIPTS_ADDON_DIR = D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\startup
  • ADSK_3DSMAX_MACROS_ADDON_DIR = D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\usermacros
  • ADSK_3DSMAX_ICONS_ADDON_DIR = D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\usericons

I have set 2 system directories in a startup script in D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\startup

folder(ADSK_3DSMAX_STARTUPSCRIPTS_ADDON_DIR).

  • setdir #scripts @”D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\scripts\”
  • setdir #userscripts @”D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\scripts\”

If you download the SoulburnScriptsPack_3dsMax_v112_R2013toR2022.zip file, it has 3 folders.

  • Copy all files in “MacroScripts” folder to D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\usermacros (ADSK_3DSMAX_MACROS_ADDON_DIR)
  • Copy “SoulburnScripts” folder in “scripts” folder to D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\scripts\ (#scripts)
  • Copy all files in “\UI_ln\IconsDark” or “\UI_ln\Icons” folder to D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\usericons (ADSK_3DSMAX_ICONS_ADDON_DIR).
    You can’t use “Icons” or “IconsDark” folder in #usericons folder. .bmp icons are only supported for backward compatibility since 3dsMax 2017. If you want to have a different set of icons per theme, you need to use the new .png icon naming convention and “iconname:” argument. The details are here.

Now I have the Soulburn script in my 3dsMax 2021, 2022 and will have them in the whatever future version of 3dsMax without any more steps. I can nuke the ENU folder anytime without worrying about re-installing these scripts.

This also works with any 3rd party scripts.

  • If they are .mcr files, put in the ADSK_3DSMAX_MACROS_ADDON_DIR folder.
  • If they are .ms files, put in the #scripts folder.
  • If they have icons, put in the ADSK_3DSMAX_ICONS_ADDON_DIR folder.

To help your understanding, I’ll give one more example, another famous script, DebrisMaker2.

In this case, the downloaded file is .mzp file. This is a self-installation zip file. You can actually unzip with any zip uncompressor such as 7-zip.

If you unzip, it has 3 folders under “DebrisMaker2.0” folder. Guess where would you need to copy the files?

  • MacroScripts -> D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\usermacros
  • Scripts -> D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\scripts\
  • UI_ln\Icons -> D:\PROJECT\_maxDefault\usericons

Again, now you will have DebrisMaker2 in any 3dsMax 2021 and above!

Before I finish this post. Someone might wonders why I said “3dsMax 2021 and above”. Isn’t it a new feature of 3dsMax 2022.3? Yes, right. It is officially added to 3dsMax 2022.3 with more complete support. But, 3dsMax 2021.3 actually have had some env var support for Autodesk internal use. At least, the 3 env var we have utilized work for 2021.3, too. I let you know because setting env var as system env var will affect 2021.3. I don’t want you to be confused or surprised.

If you want to use the pipeline integration for only certain version of 3dsMax, you have to use batch file of Python script which I will cover in the next post.

Happy rendering with renderStacks 2!

DCM mini tutorial #1 – Smooth Push

changsooeun

I made this DCM(DataChannel Modifier) while ago to help my friend’s shot. I thought that it might be worth as my first DCM mini tutorial. So, here we go!

Let’s see the following picture. This is the famous Stanford Bunny model. Left is the original shape. The right is 3dsMax Push modifier. As you can see, when you push a lot the faces start to overlap. The middle is the result of “Smooth Push” which is a simple DCM setup. As you can see It pushed it, but it pushes more gently(?).

How Push modifier works is really really simple. It moves each verts along the its normal by the given amount. As you can see, Push modifier only has one parameter which is the distance the verts are moved along normals.

Becase the verts move along the normal, verts will meet each other if you have concave shape. To prevent that, I simple smooth or blurred or relaxed the normals and used that. Let’s see how that translate to DCM setup.

First, we need to get vertex normal for each verts.

  1. Click “Add Operator”
  2. Add “Vertex Input”.
  3. Choose “Average Normals”.

As an Input operator, Vertex Input allow you to grab various data from each verts. The 3 dot icon in front of operator name indicates, you are processing vertex data.

Next, Add “Smooth” operator from Process operators. It has 2 values, Iteration and Amount just like Relax modifier. The bigger Iteration and Amount is, the the smoother result you will get. This operator will make more gentle normals by averaging normals with neighboring normals just like blurring an image.

Now we need to have a way to control amount of Push. This is simple. Let’s add “Scale” operator from Process operators. This operator multiplies the given value to float or vector. If the value is 1.0. The size of normal doesn’t change. If the value is 1.0, you ar making normal bigger. If the value is less than 1.0, you are making normal smaller. This is exactly what “Push value” in Push modifier does.

What we have now in the current Data Channel is the offset vector of the each vertex. So, you need to add these vectors to the original vertex position.

  1. Add Vertex Output operator from Output operators.
  2. Choose “Position” as output channel.
  3. Change “Selection Method” from “Replace” to “Add”, which means you will add the current channel data to the existing vertex position data.

Dadah! You have a Smooth Push! Easy, right?

You know what’s also easy? renderStacks! Try it, your rendering life will become 1000% easier!

3dsMax 2021.3 Retopology Modifier Quick Start – Part.2

changsooeun

OK. Part.2! In this post, we will focus on object with hard edges like booleaned model or CAD data.

Booleand Model

Booleaned model is usually pretty easy. Applying Retopology modifier, set the target number and pressing Compute is enough.  But, again it might fail sometime, and you simply want to get better result. So, here is some tips for booleaned model.

Tips

  • Utilize Boolean Seams for very low angle sharp edges
  • Regularize option can help to get more even quad distribution and prevent spiral loops.
  • Adding Subdivide modifier can help a lot to solve and get better result.
  • Having some support edges helps to get better edge flow. Especially for flat circular shapes.

Example

Here is an example. I just apply Retopology modifier, set target to 3000 and just pressed Compute. Auto Edge was on with Smoothing group by default. We got something . But, the topology doesn’t look that great, especially the center circle.

So, I went back to the center boolean operand and give some Cap segments. You can see it makes better edge flow on the big one circular ngon.

Or, you can just add Subdivide modifier. I usually use “Adaptive” option with default. You can see the edge flow is a lot better for both center circular area and front flat face.

Let6’s see one more example. For this kinds of source object, you must Subdivide.

The Retopology result looks good. But, it has an issue. It created the infamous spirals.  I fixed with by increasing Regularize to 1.0. Again this option doesn’t guarantee to remove all spirals. But, certainly worth to try.

CAD Data

Source Preparation

I guess I don’t need to explain how bad models from CAD can be. You all already know. The new algorithms in Subdivide modifier certainly does great jobs for making more Reform friendly faces. But, the mesh has split edges and inverted normal and overlapped double faces what not. Reform nor Subdivide will fail. Until we have T-1000 to retopo, you still gotta do what you gotta do. Here are some notes on mesh preparation.

  • Weld split edges and unwelded vertex. Reform would now know if that’s real edge boundary you want to keep or just bad meshed. The easiest way to check this is applying Relax or TurboSmooth. You will be able to see split edge easily. Then, you could apply Vertex Weld modifier with Threshold 0.001 to fix it.
  • 3dsMax 2021.3 provide Mesh Cleaner modifier. Try that. It also fix some issues.
  • Check if normal is flipped between neighboring faces. Unify option in Normal modifier could help.
  • Delete very small random elements with only few polygons especially for scanned data.
  • Sometimes Quadrify modifier fixes bad topology since it rebuilds meshes. You can also try TurboSmooth with iteration 0.

Tips

  • If it is small part, you can just treat like booleaned model, But, if it has complicated shape, evaluate how much minimum target is needed with Auto Edge OFF.
    If the target is too low, Reform often cause “IPOPT maximum iterations exceeded” error” which means basically Reform saying “I can’t solve this.”. By turning off Auto Edge, you can quickly check how much target is needed.
  • When you Auto Edge, you need enough information within the auto edge boundaries. If you don’t have enough information, again you will meet “IPOPT maximum iterations exceeded” error”. To increase the information, there are 2 options.  1) Subdivide more 2) Remove auto edge condition. For example, if you use UV seams, you could stitch unnecessary seams. If you use Smoothing group, you can smooth some minor edges.
  • Check if your hard edge is coming from the smoothing group or explicit normal. If you only have explicit normals for hard edges and turning on only smoothing group means you don’t get any hard edges. If you are lazy like me,. you can just use Angle option instead of Smoothing Group or Specified Nornal option.
  • Sometimes model could have bad smoothing group and that prevent Subdivide modifier to work properly. Use Smooth modifier to clean up smoothing group.
  • Since Retopology doesn’t preserve mesh data yet. It will look all smooth after it solves. Apply Smooth or Weighted Normal to check hard edges.
  • Often CAD data has nice UV seams, utilize it.

Example

This is a part from Fusion 360 sample scene. It had a unique problem. So, I thought that it was good example to show how I processed the model. You don’t have to go through like this for every model!

This is the source model.
The First attempt with Specified Normal. I got solve. but, I don’t like the edge flow.
I applied Subdivide modifier and set to Adaptive. OK.. something is wrong. I still see a lot of thin edges. This is because there are many smoothing groups there.
I cleaned smoothing group. Subdivide look better.
Retopoed again. Better edge flow. But, I want to improve.
Subdivided more and set Regularize to 1.0.

Then, I was thinking how about go lower res model and TurboSmooth?

This is 2000 target.
Chamfer and TurboSmooth!

OK, I shared all things I have learned during beta testing. If you think it is helpful. Please visit renderStacks!

Also don’t forget to check Autodesk Learning Channel Retopology Tutorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKEu2Gs3G_U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhUMdy-0kSI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUikqN_lVPc

 

3dsMax 2021.3 Retopology Modifier Quick Start – Part.1

changsooeun

The new Reform algorithm in the new Retopology modifier in 3dsMax 2021.3 is a definitely one of the best automatic retopology tech on the market. But, this is not driven by crazy AI nor a silver bullet to solve everything with a click. You need a different approach for a different case to get the best result in short amount of time. This is a collected notes from my beta testing period. I hope you find it useful.

Scanned Data

OK. This is easy one. For any organic models, just 2 things.

  • Turn off Auto Edge. This is for preserving sharp edges for hard surface model.
  • Decimate with ProOptimizer A LOT. I mean really a lot. Usually the rule of thumb is matching ProOptimizer verts count to Target count gives you best result in the shortest amount of time.So, if you want to get 40,000 poly mesh, ProOptimized to 40,000 verts first the Compute. Think this way. if your target is 30,000 poly from 2 million poly source. You will not get all the details of 2 million in anyway. There is no reason to feed all those noise data to Reform.
  • If you want to retopologize to really high poly count to reserve all scanned details and Retopology doesn’t solve with that mesh, try InstantMesh mode as a pre-process instead of ProOptimizer. You can’t decimate as much as ProOptimizer with it. But, it generates more Reform friendly mesh. Therefore, it will give you a higher chance to get result.

Tips

  • If you want to process even faster? Then, apply Relax modifier before ProOptimize. You could get faster result in exchange of the loss of details.
  • After ProOptimize if you have very big flat polygon. Remove it or subdivide a little. This kinds of big single polygon can make Deform fail. I’ll show you in the following example.

Example

This is scanned model from Konrad O?óg, www.aunar3d.com. Thanks for the model. It has 1.95 million verts and 3.9 million tris. Look at that beautiful wireframe on right. If you just apply Retopology on this and press Compute. It will takes days.

I applied ProOptimizer and went down to 2%, 39012 verts. As you can see from the shaded view. ProOptimizer does great job for reducing poly count while keeping shape intact.

Then, I had a hiccup. This big lowres place at the bottom was throwing a wrench. I could subdivide this. But, I simply delete it. You don’t see anyway. Also I can recap later.

I turn off Auto Edge and set Target Face Count to 40,000. After 100 second. I got this with 43,000 poly.

The following images are high resolution retopology example using InstantMesh as a pre-process. I pre-processed to 500,000 poly with Instant Mesh and Reformed it to 150,000. It took 20 min on Ryzen 2700X.

Original scan – 1.95 million verts / 3.9 million tri
InstantMesh – 475k verts / 494k quad
Reform – 163k verts(1/11 of original) / 162k quad

Do you want to make your render life 1000% easier! Click here!

Also don’t forget to check Autodesk Learning Channel Retopology Tutorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKEu2Gs3G_U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhUMdy-0kSI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUikqN_lVPc

OSL mini tutorial #3 – utilizing scene data and some Math

changsooeun

Welcome to my 3rd OSL tutorial! In this tutorial, we well learn how to query scene/object data and utilize it with MATH! Yes, you heard it right. MATH! I know you always have been regretted that you didn’t pay attention to the math class when you were in middle school. But, never late than never. Re-learning some simple math will make your life easier. WE CAN DO IT TOGETHER!

Like always, we will not write a single line of code in this tutorial. We will use SlateME as our OSL editor. Let me say it again, YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW HOW TO CODE TO USE OSL IN 3dsMax.

I’ll use MeetMat2 for this tutorial. You can download from Substance website.

First, let’s see how we can query the position of pixel in the scene and utilize. For example, we can make a transition of 2 maps between certain heights from the ground.

You can use “Named Coord Space” map to get a position of a coordinate space.Let’s make one and s some basic setup for the tutorial.

  • Make “Named Coord Space” map and a Standard material.
  • Make Self-Illumination 100.
  • Connect UVW of “Named Coord Space” to the Diffuse Color of Standard material.
  • Make sure to turn on Show Realistic Material in Viewport.
  • Select “High Quality” mode in the viewport.
  • Apply the Standard material to Mat.

3dsMax OSL has an amazing OSL > HLSL auto conversion features as I posted before. You can see OSL map exactly same as render in viewport for most cases. All OSL map has a indicator at the bottom to show if this map could be displayed in viewport. To utilize this feature, your material must set to Show Realistic Material in Viewport, and your viewport must set to Advanced Rendering mode which High Quality preset has.

Your viewport should like this if you follow me correctly. What you are seeing is the World coordinate position as color. If you know what is World coordinate and Object coordinate, you can jump to the next section.

World position is the position from the world origin. Since we plug X, Y, Z, into R, G, B. You can see more Red color along X. Green along Y, Blue along Z. Color can only display from 0-1, that’s why you can only see a little gradient around an axis. Mat’s size is 8.2×1.0x9.4. If value is less than 0, it will be all black. If you rotate the model, you can see the color is not moving with object. Because the coordinate is fixed in world.

Another coordinate you might use is “Object” which is based on each object’s local coordinate. The origin will be at object’s pivot point. The axis will use object’s local axis. This means when the object is moving or rotating, the value will move with objects. If you need to make a map that is stick to the object, this is coordinate you need to use.

Now you know what World/Object position is and how to get the value with “Named Coord Space” map. Let’s utilize the value we got. We will try to blend 2 check map along the height(Z-axis)

  • Make a Maps > OSL > Math Vector > Component (Vector ).
  • Connect UVW of Named Coord Space to Input of Component (Vector)
  • Make a Maps > OSL > Math Float> Range/Remapper.
  • Connect Z of Named Coord Space to Input Value of Range/Remapper
  • Connect Out of Range/Remapper to Diffuse Color of the Standard material.

This should be what it looks like. BTW, I turned off AO. What’s happening here. We took only Z axis value with Component (Vector) map. This map is you can separate each channel from a vector or assemble a vector from 3 floats. Then, we fed the Z value to Range/Remapper which doesn’t do anything with default values. You can see the gradient goes from 0 to height 1. Again, as a color we can only visualize 0-1. I put 1 unit height box as reference.

Now we need to manipulate this value so the value can go from 0.0 – 1.0 between height 1.5 – 3.5. That’s what Range/Remapper  does. Click the map and set Input Range Start to 1.5, Input Range End to 3.5. Now this map takes World Z position as Input Value. You can see “M” button shows that the value is coming from the connection, Then, map the input value 1.5 – 3.5 as 0.0 – 1.0 as output.  You can visually see the gradient is moved up and 2x wider.

We can utilize this value as the Mix value for Mix map.Mix map is a map that Mix 2 color. Surprise! I could use Composite Map, too. But, this map is simpler. Also this is a tutorial. You gotta something new.

  • Make a Maps > OSL > Math Color > Mix(Color) map.
  • Make 2 OSL checker map with different colors and Size 0.05.
  • Connect each Checker map as A and B of Mix(Color) map.
  • Connect Out of Range/Remapper to Mix of Mix(Color) map.

Now let’s make it a little bit more complicated. What if I want to have blue check only top of Mat’s head like snow on his head. We can utilize normal for that.

You can get the normal data with Normal map. Duh. It is under Scene Attribute. It has one option, Coordspace. It should be “World”. Normal is “normal is an object such as a line, ray, or vector that is perpendicular to a given object.” according to Wiki. You can thin think as an arrow that coming out of a face. OK, that’s cool. But, so what? How can it help me?

Usually you need two sidekicks to utilize the Normal data, “Dot product” and another vector. Wha… WTH is “Dot poduct”? My head is already hurting!!! If you really want to know what it is. You can suffer from reading this. Butm I have a good news for ya. You don’t actually need to know what it is. We just need to know how to use this.

  • Make a Maps > OSL > Math Vector > Dot product (vector).
  • Make a Maps > OSL > Values > Vector Value.
    Put 1.0 as Z value. Make sure X, Y are 0.0
  • Make a Maps > OSL > Scene Attribute > Normal.
  • Connect Out of Normal to A of Dot product (vector).
  • Connect Out of Vector Value to B of Dot product (vector).
  • Connect Out of  Dot product (vector) to the Diffuse Color of Standard material.

What did we just do? It looks like face becomes whiter if it face more to the top. When you dot product 3 vectors, Normal and [0, 0, 1] for us. The more 2 vectors look the same direction, The result becomes closer to 1.0. If two vectors are aligned exactly and toward same( direction. the dot product becomes 1.0. If two vectors are at right angle(90 degree), the dot product becomes 0.0. If two vectors are looking at the exact opposite direction. the dot product becomes -1.0. That’s all you need to know. This is how Falloff map works under the hood.

just for the test’s sake, change the vector Z value to -1.0. As you expected, it gets whiter as the point more face down.

How about X = 1.0 and Y, X =0.0?

Got it? Then, Let’s set back to [0, 0, 1].

Now we need some house cleaning. When you dealing with normals and dot product. It is always a good idea to normalize the incoming vectors like this. this makes the incoming vector as a unit vector. If you don’t want to know what/why. just memorize and do it. It is good for you. Normal map is at Maps > OSL > Math Vector > Normalize (vector).

Another item for house cleaning is Clamp. As I mentioned above, dot product generates value from -1.0 to 1.0. You can not see the negative value in render or viewport since both only shows between 0.0 – 1.0. But, if you use negative value for other operation, it could cause issues, therefore. it is always a good idea to cut negative values with Clamp map. Clamp map limits any value outside of Min and Max value as Min and Max value. The default is 0.0 and 1.0. So, any value less than 0.0 will become 0.0. Any value bigger than 1.0 will become 1.0. The map is in Maps > OSL > Math Float > Clamp.

OK. Now we have 2 map trees. One for blending by height. Another one for the direction. We want to combine both so we can have blue check only at the top of Mat’s head. For this kinds of case, we can simply multiply two masks.

  • Select Range/Remapper. Set Input Range Start to 3.0, Input Range End to 4.0.
    This should move mas above Mat’s head.
  • Make a Maps > OSL > Math Float > Multiply map
  • Connect Out of Range/Remapper to A of Multiply.
  • Connect Out of Clamp to B of Multiply.

I know… after all those node, what you got is not that cool. But, this is how you learn.

In this tutorial…

  • we learned how to get position and normal information from the scene
  • how to utilize normal with dot product
  • many of frequently used important math maps such as Range/Remapper, Clamp, Normalize, Multiply. Component.

BUT! Yes, there is always BUT!

The portion that we used to make a mask by face normal exist as one map, Falloff map. This map is basically same as the map tree we set up with a bunch of maps. It take cares Normalize and Clamp, it also have option to map ti the different range. It also allow to define each end as color which is same as Remapping the result with Gradient.

In Falloff map, you have coordinate to choose just like Normal map. You have Face and Away color for each end. Face means the color when dot product is 1.o. Away is the color when dot product is 0 because Type is Perpendicular/Parallel. If you switch to Toward/Away. The Color will map between dot product 1.0 to -1.0.

Thanks!

Do you like my OSL mini tutorial series? Then click here and check out renderStacks, too!

OSL mini tutorial #2 Random map per tile for SimpleTiles map

changsooeun
Using only 1 map.

Welcome to my second OSL tutorial. Again, we will not write a single line of code in this tutorial. We will use SlateME as our OSL editor. Let me say it again, YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW HOW TO CODE TO USE OSL IN 3dsMax.

I don’t want to spoil the ending. But, you should read til the end. 🙂

One of the advantage(or could be disadvantage for some users) of using OSL in 3dsMax is that it brings more granular and lower level of control which provide a greater flexibility. But, it also means that user need to learn and understand a new way of thinking(or workflow). Again it doesn’t mean you need to learn to code. But, you need to understand how and what kinds of data is flowing between lower level maps and how to control them. So, please try pay more attention to the explanation of “why” I’m connect port A to port B instead of memorizing map tree. 🙂

Today’s goal is randomizing textures in the tiles of Simple Tiles OSL shader so we can get infinite random tile texture from a few texture files.

    1. Open SlateME.
    2. Make a Simple Tiles map. Maps > OSL > Textures > Simple Tiles.
      This is an equivalent of Tiles legacy map. You can make a various tile or brick patterns.
    3. Double click the thumbnail so we can have a bugger thumbnail.
    4. Change Tiling Mode to Twist Box.

As you can see, OSL can output not only color information but also various data information. For this tutorial, we will mainly utilize Index data which is a integer index number for individual tiles. Let’s see that it means visually.

    1. Make 2 OSL > Math Float > Random by Index.
    2. Connect Index port of Simple Tiles to Idx of both Random by Index map.

So, what’s happening here?

Random by Index map generates a random float number between Min and Max and drives the randomization with the Idx and Seed parameters.

Since Idx of Random by Index is provided by the Index value of Simple Tiles, all pixels in the same tile will get the same random value.You can see that well from the thumbnail, each tile has a different shade of gray.

But, you can see both map has exactly same pattern and color. That’s because both map has same Seed number by default. What is the Seed number? This is from the Wikipedia. “A random seed (or seed state, or just seed) is a number (or vector) used to initialize a pseudorandom number generator.”, which brings another important concept, pseudorandom.

In CG, we can not use true random number, if a number is truly random. That means every time when you render or even open file again. You will have a different number and different pattern! Therefore, all random number in CG is pseudorandom driven by Seed number. If Seed number is same you get the same ransom number just like the above image.

  1. Select the bottom Random by Index map
  2. Set Seed to “77”, You should get this.

OK. let’s make a bunch more maps and actually do something with these 2 random maps.

  1. Make the following maps
    OSL > Math Vector > Component (Vector)
    OSL > UVWCoordinates > UVW Transform
    OSL > BitmapLookUp
  2. Choose “C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2021\maps\uvwunwrap\uv_checker.png” for BitmapLookUp
    This is a new 4k UV template which is added in 2021.
  3. Connect Out of the top Random by Index > X of Component (Vector)
  4. Connect Out of the bottom Random by Index > Y of Component (Vector)
  5. Connect Out of the Component (Vector) > Offset of UVW Transform
    Do not connect anything to BitmapLookUp yet.

The 2 Random by Index we made were for the random Offset value of UVW, and it is a vector value. How do I know? If you see in UI, you can ses that it is made out of 3 values. The, it is a vector value.

So, we can not directly plug 2 float values into the Offset port. We need to assemble a vector data and plug into Offset. Component (Vector) map allow to compose or decompose a vector from/to 3 floats. Since we need to use only X and Y value. you don’t have to plug anything into Z. If no map is connected to the property, OSL map will use the value in the UI which was 0.

What we got so far? As you see in the thumbnail of UVW Transform, we randomly offset UV per tile. If you see more red, that means the pixel is offset more along U. If you see more green, that means the pixel is offset more along V. Remember Slate can only show any value range from 0-1 because it is made for color. Fortunately this case out data range is also 0-1. So, we could see what’s going on as image. But, it would be be the case all the time.

  1. Now Connect UVW of the UVW Transform > UV Coordinates of BitmapLookUp
    Tada! you can see your texture randomly offset by Tile ID.

Cool. Now how can I control the scale of texture? Yes, you change the Scale value of UVW Transform.

How can I control the size of tiles? Scale in Simple Tiles.

Let’s see what it looks like with a real texture. Remember this technique only works with seamless tileable texture. This is with the TexturesCom_RockSmooth0172_1_seamless_S.jpg from here. https://www.textures.com/. I use scale to 5.0 for UV.

How about some mid tone variation? We can use Tweak/Levels OSL map for this. We will also need another Random by Index map driven by Index.

  1. Select one of Random by Index map and SHIFT+drag to make a copy.
  2. Set Min as 0.75, Max as 1.25. Seed as 131.
  3. Add a OSL > Tweak/Levels map.
  4. Connect Out of the new Random by Index map to MidTones of Tweak/Levels.
  5. Connect Out(RGB) of BitmapLookUp map to the Input of Tweak/Levels.

OK, I hope you get the hang of how to wrangle data to drive values at this point. Next, let’s put the gaps in. There are unlimited ways to how to handle gaps. But, I’ll just go easiest way since the main purpose of this post is tutorial. The Bump output of Simple Tiles map already give you a black gaps and white tiles. I’ll use that output to composite with Multiply mode.

  1. Make OSL > Compositing > Composite map.
  2. Connect Out of the Tweak/Levels > Bottom layer RGB of Composite
  3. Connect Bump of the Simple Tiles  > Top layer RGB of Composite
  4. Set Top layer Alpha as 0.7, BlendMode as Multiply.

OK, it is getting there. Let’s add one more randomization, the rotation. By now, you should already know what to do.Yes, you need to have another Random by Index (Float) with range 0.1 – 360 and feed into Rotate of UVW Transform. BUT, since it is a tutorial, let’s make things more complicate to learn. What if we want to rotate only at right angle like 90, 180, 270 degree?

Our goal is get only one of the 0, 90, 180. 270 per tile. How we do that? Right, we can get a random value between 0 – 3 and multiply 90.0. But, Random by Index (Float) generates float number, and we don’t have Random by Index (Integer) map. Well, don’t worry. Here comes Float-to-Int map to the rescue!

  1. Copy one of Random by Index (Float).
  2. Set Min as 0.0, Max as 3.99. Seed as 666.
  3. Make OSL > Math Float > Float-to-Int map
  4. Set Mode as floor.
  5. Make OSL > Math Float > Multiply map
  6. Set B as 90.0
  7. Connect Out of the new Random by Index map to Input of Float-to-Int.
  8. Connect Out of the Float-to-Int map to A of Multiply
  9. Connect Out of the Multiply map to Rotate of UVW Transform.
    You may wonder why 3.99 instead of 3.00, and what the heck is “floor”? Floor is a way to convert a float value to integer value by returning the largest whole number (integer) that is less than or equal to the number. if you had 1.24, you would get 1.o. So, it is a floor of the range 1.0-2.0. There is also “ceil” which is kinda opposite. The ceil of 1.24 would be 2.0. By setting range as 0.0-3.99 and mode as floor, we are trying to make sure all 4 numbers are getting even chance. 0.0-1;0 > 0.0. 1.0-1.99 > 1, 2.0-2.99 > 2.0. 3.0-3.99 > 3.0.
    Left is without the rotation randomization. Right is with the rotation randomization.

As you can see, you can randomize any parameters you want. You just need to know when to stop. Should we stop now then? No, not yet. So far, we have used only one map file and looks like getting a good result. But, what if we can use multiple map files and randomly use per file?

Here is a great news. One of the new feature of 3dsMax 2021.2 is 1-of-N(Filename) map. If we don’t have this map, we have to setup a small tree with multiple BitmapLookup , 1-of-N Switcher and Random by Index map. Now we just need 2 maps.

  1. Add a OSL > Switchers > 1-of-N(Filename) map.
  2. Choose all 5 maps.
  3. Add a OSL > Switchers > Random Index by Number/Color map. BTW, such a great map, I wonder who made this? 🙂
  4. Connect Index of the Simple Tiles map to Input Number of Random Index by Number/Color.
  5. Connect Out of the Random Index by Number/Color to Filename of BitmapLookUp.

OK… This is the full tree. I guess we end up with not-so-mini-tutorial.

BUT! Yes, there is always. “BUT”.

We went through all these to learn how to work with OSL maps to build own randomization. Now I have to tell you this. Sorry, we didn’t need to go through all these if you wanted to just use it. Why? Because Zap made the awesome Bitmap Random Tiling for 3dsMax 2021.2.

This is what it looks like if you use Bitmap Random Tiling. Youjust need to plug Index into Seed. Make sure to turn off Randomize by UV position.

You can even randomize color, too.

If you want to use multiple map file? Then, re-use the 1-of-N(Filename). Another 2021.2 feature.

I guess it is worth to upgrade??? 🙂

If you are really lazy, here is the max file. It has the full setup and simple 2021.2 setup. I can not include texture file. So, you probably need to download some seamless tileable maps. Here is another good news. Because ,max file actually embed the source OSL code in the scene file, you can even open this file in 2019. You will see the new 2021.2 OSL shader there. Save the OSL map in a material library. Then, you can even use the new map in 2019 or 2020.  Another nice thing about 3dsMax OSL implementation!

Click to download .max file of this tutorial (2019 version)

Since you follow me all the way down here, you need to check renderStacks. Click here!

A teaser for the future article! What is the difference between the following 4 images?

The answer is… they all rendered in a different renderer. From the left, Corona, VRay, VRayGPU, Arnold. Yes, all different renderer. You can have exactly same map tree across different renderer even CPU/GPU. I can say this is the first time I ever see this is possible in CG history. I’ll have a blog post with more examples in the future.

Mini OSL tutorial #1 – Random map rotation per tile

changsooeun

Let me just borrow text from 3dsMax help. You guys should read manual all the time’ Three are many good in formation! I highlighted important aspect of 3dsMax OSL map for you!

Open shading language (OSL) is an open source shading language that is fairly simple to understand. It can be used in several different ways. You can use the OSL Map, which is an execution environment for OSL shaders inside of 3ds Max, and it works like any regular built-in 3ds Max map. There is also a category of pre-loaded OSL maps that you can easily use. In addition, you can use any OSL maps you download from the internet. Finally, you can creating a shader or map in OSL using our development tools. This is a much simpler method to create custom maps than developing the equivalent functionality as a 3ds Max C++ map.

OSL works in any renderer supporting the regular 3ds Max shading API (Scanline, vRay, Corona, etc.). It also works outside of renderers, anywhere in 3ds Max where a regular map is requested, such as in the Displacement modifier. It also works with renderers that support OSL natively, such as Arnold. In those cases, the execution environment inside the OSL map is not sued, instead, the OSL source code, the parameter values and shader bindings are sent to the renderer, which executes the OSL code. More renderers supporting OSL natively are appearing daily.

OSL uses “just-in-time” compilation and optimization of entire shade trees at once, as long as all the shaders in the shade tree are OSL shaders. You can mix OSL shaders and regular shaders, but the optimizations will suffer.

First of all, I really really want to make sure about this.

As I posted before, You don’t have to code to use OSL maps in 3dsMax.

3dsMax OSL is seamlessly integrated just like all other C++ maps. There is ZERO difference in terms of how to use and where you can use. Also if you chain OSL map together, 3dsMax combine them the entire OSL chain and make a single shader under the hood. Essentially Slate ME is acting as an OSL node editor for you. Even better 3dsMax 2021 ships with 123 build-in shaders to start with. At these point, almost all 3dsMax legacy map could be replace with OSL. This mini tutorial is a very good example of using Slate ME as an OSL node editor.

At a Stack post, we god a question.

In this tutorial, the blender guru is using a custom tool in order to randomize the uv’s rotation so we can’t see anymore the repetitive pattern on a large scale tiling texture. He says that, as far as he knows, this kind of tool doesn’t exist in any other 3d software because it involves maths tricks and vectors and nobody wants to deal with this.

Good news! you don’t need custom node for this. Master Zap let me know how to do this with built-in OSL node. I’m posting the master;s answer with my explanation so you can go further.

First, this is the graph. 4 nodes!

 

Let’s see one by one.

UVTransform : Tiling

This OSL map is like Coordinate rollout in other maps. It allows you to move, rotate and scale uv coordinate. I tiled uv coordinate here. So, I tilted here with Tiling parameters.

Tip! You can connect one UVTransform to many OSL maps whicn means you can control the coordinate of all those map at once.

Noise : Give random value per tile

This map generates a random 0-1 value per tile which will be used as rotation value later.

As the name says, it is an OSL version of Noise map. It has 6 types of noise in a map. We will use Cell type which makes random pixel bitmap patter.

Then, set Scale to 1.0 and Octave to 1. This makes the noise function generates one value per tile. If you increase Scale or Octave, it will essentially divide each tile.

Then, turn off Step Function to prevent blending.

Multiply : convert to degree

Multiply 360 so we can get rotation value between 0-360. As you can see, you don’t have to make a map for value B. You can just type in B parameters of the map.

UVTransform : randomize uv rot

This map rotates UV per tile. You don;t need to set any value here. Just connect UVTransform : Tiling to Input(UVW) which inherit tiling from UVTransform : Tiling map. Then, connect Multiply : convert to degree to Rotate.

Now you can connect this map to any maps UVW port.

Download random rotation per tile OSL setup max file

Do you like to work smart? Just like this map? Then, you will like renderStacks. Click here and check it out!

UIAccessor mini tutorial – How to control Make Preview dialog

changsooeun

I have been using jpg sequence for my Make Preview output. It is allways easier and more flexible to deal with image sequence than avi, mov or mp4.

The problem is Make Preview windows is the one of the old window which doesn’t have full exposure to Mmaxscript.  3dsMax dev added more argument for createPreview method in 3dsMax 2020. But, unfortunately some of option in the Make Preview dialog is still not available for Maxscript.

But, that doesn’t mean you can not set Make Preview automatically. 3dsMax has the ultimate hack(?) for controlling any UI component. UIAccessor and DialogMonitorOPS.

This allow you to emulate user interaction with UI like clicking button, choosing dropdown items and pressing Enter with Maxscript.

If you don’t want all these, Download the final template.

Skeleton code of DialogMonitorOPS  

Let’s start with very simple script.

fn setMakePreview = (
	local WindowHandle = DialogMonitorOPS.GetWindowHandle()
	local WindowTitle =  (UIAccessor.GetWindowText WindowHandle)

	if WindowTitle == "Make Preview" then (
		print "Hello"
	)
	True
)

DialogMonitorOPS.enabled = true
DialogMonitorOPS.RegisterNotification setMakePreview id:#setMakePreview  

max preview
	
DialogMonitorOPS.unRegisterNotification id:#setMakePreview 
DialogMonitorOPS.enabled = false

DialogMonitorOPS.enabled = true

First, you need to turn on DialogMonitorOPS.so 3dsMax can monitor any UI. Of course, you don’t want to turn on this all the time. So, after our job is done, we will turn off.

DialogMonitorOPS.RegisterNotification setMakePreview id:#setMakePreview

Then, resister your function to run(setMakePreview) and give id. Again, after our job is done, make sure to unresister.

max preview

This runs Make Preview

DialogMonitorOPS.enabled = true
DialogMonitorOPS.RegisterNotification setMakePreview id:#setMakePreview

Unresister setMakePreview and turn off DialogMonitorOPS

Now let’s see the setMakePreview fucntion. This function will run all the time while DialogMonitorOPS is running.

The most important thing to know is that this function need to return true at the end. I forgot why. But, you MUST do it. So, just do it.

local WindowHandle = DialogMonitorOPS.GetWindowHandle()

How would you let Maxscript know which UI you want to control? We will use window handle or hwnd which is a unique id of each UI element. The above line will give is the handle of window which DialogMonitorOPS detected.

local WindowTitle = (UIAccessor.GetWindowText WindowHandle)

Then, this above line will give us the title of dialog.

if WindowTitle == “Make Preview” then (
print “Hello”
)
True

DialogMonitorOPS will check if the dialog is “Make Preview” dialog. If so, it will print Hello.

Let’s set custom output path

From now on I’ll only show setMakePreview function.

fn setMakePreview = (
	local WindowHandle = DialogMonitorOPS.GetWindowHandle()
	local WIndowTitle =  (UIAccessor.GetWindowText WindowHandle)

	if WindowTitle == "Make Preview" then (
		for i in (windows.getChildrenHWND WindowHandle) do (format "%\n" i)
		UIAccessor.PressButtonByName WindowHandle "File..."
	)
	True
)

I removed print “Hello” and added UIAccessor.PressButtonByName WindowHandle “File…”. As you can read, this will find a button named “File…” and press it for you.

for i in (windows.getChildrenHWND WindowHandle) do (format “%\n” i)

What does this do? It just printed a bunch of things in Maxscript listener. This is how we sees what kinds of UI element is in the current dialog and fid a way to access each UI element. As I said in the begining, we use windows handle to specify UI element. This line will print out the information of all children of the dialog with given handle, Make Preview dialog. it gives us an array for each UI element. The important ones are first(hwnd of child), forth(UI type) and fifth( displayed text).

fn setMakePreview = (
	local WindowHandle = DialogMonitorOPS.GetWindowHandle()
	local WindowTitle =  (UIAccessor.GetWindowText WindowHandle)

	if WindowTitle == "Make Preview" then (
		UIAccessor.PressButtonByName WindowHandle "File..."
	)
	if WindowTitle == "Create Animated Sequence File..." then (
		-- Set cusom output path
		local edits = for i in (windows.getChildrenHWND WindowHandle) where i[4] == "Edit" collect i[1]
		uiaccessor.setwindowtext edits[1] @"c:\temp\test_.jpg"	
		UIAccessor.PressButtonByName WindowHandle "&Save"
	)		
	True
)

Because we pressed “File…” button. A new dialog pops up, “Create Animated Sequence File…”. In this dialog, we need to these.

  1. Set custom output path
  2. Set Save as Type to jpg
  3. Press Save button

To set custom output path, we need to know hwnd of path input UI. But, if you check fifth item of array. Text input doesn’t have name! What should I do? Other information we have is type of control on fourth item. The type UI you can input text is “Edit”. So, I collected hwnd of “Edit”s. Fortunately 3dsMax seems collecting UI info in the same order from top to bottom. So, let’s try on the first one. You can use uiaccessor.setwindowtext to set value on Spinner of Edit. If you want to use own naming convention. Replace @”c:\temp\test_.jpg” with own function or variable.

uiaccessor.setwindowtext edits[1] @”c:\temp\test_.jpg”

The, press “Save” button.

UIAccessor.PressButtonByName WindowHandle “&Save”

Wait? why the name iis “&Save”. How do I know I need &? I also don’t know where & come from. But, I know “Save” did not work. So, I printed out all child UI elem data and checked the names.

Did it work? Maybe or Maybe not. Because 3dsmax remembers the format you used last time, if it was not jpg, Make Preview window will automatically switch to the format. So, we need to choose jpg from format dropdown. Now this is real fun!

fn setMakePreview = (
	local WindowHandle = DialogMonitorOPS.GetWindowHandle()
	local WindowTitle =  (UIAccessor.GetWindowText WindowHandle)

	if WindowTitle == "Make Preview" then (
		UIAccessor.PressButtonByName WindowHandle "File..."
	)
	if WindowTitle == "Create Animated Sequence File..." then (

		local edits = for i in (windows.getChildrenHWND WindowHandle) where i[4] == "Edit" collect i[1]
		uiaccessor.setwindowtext edits[1] @"c:\temp\reallyanothertest_.jpg"	

		local comboboxes = for i in (windows.getChildrenHWND WindowHandle) where i[4] == "ComboBox" collect i[1]
		local filetypeHwnd = comboboxes[3] 
		
		local CB_SHOWDROPDOWN = 0x014F
		local CB_SETCURSEL = 0x014E 
		local WM_LBUTTONDOWN = 0x0201
		local WM_LBUTTONUP = 0x0202
		windows.sendMessage filetypeHwnd CB_SHOWDROPDOWN 1 0 -- Open combobox dropdown
		windows.sendMessage filetypeHwnd CB_SETCURSEL 7 0 -- Select 7th item
		windows.sendMessage filetypeHwnd WM_LBUTTONDOWN 0 -1  -- Press left mouse button	
		windows.sendMessage filetypeHwnd WM_LBUTTONUP 0 -1  -- Raise left mouse button
		windows.sendMessage filetypeHwnd CB_SHOWDROPDOWN 0 0    -- Close dropdown
		
		UIAccessor.PressButtonByName WindowHandle "&Save"
	)		
	True
)

I guess you already have figured out what this does. Yes, it collect hwnd of all comboboxes.Them 3rd one was the Save As Type dropdown.

local comboboxes = for i in (windows.getChildrenHWND WindowHandle) where i[4] == “ComboBox” collect i[1]
local filetypeHwnd = comboboxes[3]

All cool. Butn thet the heck is the next lines?

windows.sendMessage Sends a Win32 message to the HWND specified in the first argument. This is how you emulate UI interaction programmatically.

I commented on the code what each lines does. But, you may think how am I suppose to know all the secret code?

CGTalk maxscript forum has a lot of answers for common operations. You can also google windows message reference like this.

Now since you set jpg as a new format, JPEG Image Control windows pops up. This one is easy. We can just press OK button like this.

if WIndowTitle == “JPEG Image Control” then ( UIAccessor.PressButtonByName WindowHandle “OK” )

How about other controls like checkbox?

Since checkbox text usually doesn’t change, we can search the string pattern of fifth item to find hwnd. This is function to get hwnd using UI name. Then you can BM_SETCHECK window message to check the checkbox. if the first argument is 1, the chebox will be checked. If it is 0, the checkbox will be unchecked.

 

fn getChildHwndByName parent_hwnd childUIname = (
    local child_hwnd = 0
    for i in (windows.getChildrenHWND parent_hwnd) where matchPattern i[5] pattern:childUIname do (child_hwnd = i[1])
    child_hwnd
)
local frameNumHwnd = (getChildHwndByName WindowHandle  "Frame Numbers" )
windows.sendMessage frameNumHwnd BM_SETCHECK 1 0

Runscript after Make Preview is done

If you want to automatically run image sequence player like PDPlayer or RAMPlayer or resister to Shotgun, simple add the code after max preview.

Final template code

Here is the cleaned final template code. If you don’t want to read all this, start from this.

Download the final template.

This is made in 3dsMax 2019. Other version might not work with this if there is UI difference.

3dsMax 2020 Preview Enhancement

3dsMax 2020 has some nice improvement for Make Preview.

  • Much faster. 1.5 – 3x faster creation on local drives
  • Capture size greater than viewport dimensions supported
  • “Quality” setting accessible from Preview UI (Nitrous only)
  • Default preview filename based on current scene filename
  • 100% output resolution on by default
  • MXS snippet can be executed per frame for custom strings
  • Filename and MXS snippet values can be specified from MXS command line of CreatePreview()
  • After executing the preview, the time slider is returned to the original starting frame
  • “Play when done” accessible from Preview UI
  • If running from MXS command line, avoid dialog boxes, output to listener instead

3dsMax 2020 also has the bug fix for “User defined” Per-view preset missing issue. This issue is related to the permission. If you are still on older version. Make sure to open the permission for folders under 3dsMax root to be able to choose “User Defined” Per-view preset in Make Preview. Or, upgrade to 2020.

renderStacks – Render Pass Manager for 3dsMax.