3ds Max - Troubleshooting & General Discussion

[Jasoncw 11,840]

It's absolutely possible and I know how to do it. I'd have to look up what the names of the properties are now. I'm assuming they are still accessible. But all I know about maxscript is what I know from poking around the BAT4max files, and googling around I haven't been able to find any reference for the names of the properties. If someone found this for me I'd be able to update the files so that BAT4Max could automatically set the rendering settings for newer versions of max.

[Girafe 1,729]

would be awesome, BAT4MAX for 3dsmax 2016

what are you looking for exactly for the properties? the new names? if so what are the old name?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

So in BAT4Max there are a few functions which set the settings depending on the situation, and they look like this:

Quote

fn SF_SetRender = (
    renderers.current = mental_ray_renderer()
    myRen = renderers.current
    myRen.MinimumSamples = 0
    myRen.MaximumSamples = 2
    myRen.filter =4
    myRen.RedSpatialContrast = 0.02
    myRen.GreenSpatialContrast = 0.02
    myRen.BlueSpatialContrast = 0.02
    myRen.AlphaSpatialContrast = 0.02
    myRen.FinalGatherEnable2 = true
    myRen.FinalGatherDensity =1.5
    myRen.FinalGatherAccuracy = 180
    myRen.FinalGatherBounces = 3
    myRen.FinalGatherUseRadiusInterpolation = true
)

And just looking at it you can easily tell it means. But idk where there is a list of all of the different settings. Either all of the settings have new names to differentiate between Unified or Classic sampling, or there's a new setting for changing the Sampling Mode, or there's some other way to access and change the settings. You can see that writing the code for this is pretty simple by itself.

[Girafe 1,729]

this discussion seems interesting

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-programming/changing-mental-ray-sampling-mode-though-maxscript-in-2014/td-p/4397157

 

and there as well

Renderer Tab > Sampling Quality Rollout > Samples per Pixel:

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Lighting And Rendering - Quick Navigation

   

<mental_ray_renderer>.UnifiedEnable     BooleanClass    default: true   --  boolean

NEW in 3ds Max 2014: Get/set partially the selection of the Sampling Mode drop-down list.

When set to True, the drop-down list will show "Unified / Raytraced (Recommended)".

When set to False, the drop-down list will show either "Classic / Raytraced" or "Rasterizer / Scanline" depending on the value of .ScanlineEnable property.

   

<mental_ray_renderer>.UnifiedQuality     Float    default: 0.25   --  float

NEW in 3ds Max 2014: Get/set the value of the Quality spinner available when the .UnifiedEnable property is set to True.

   

<mental_ray_renderer>.UnifiedMinSamples     Float    default: 1.0   --  integer

NEW in 3ds Max 2014: Get/set the value of the Minimum spinner available when the .UnifiedEnable property is set to True.

   

<mental_ray_renderer>.UnifiedMaxSamples     Integer    default: 128   --  integer

NEW in 3ds Max 2014: Get/set the value of the Maximum spinner available when the .UnifiedEnable property is set to True.

   

<mental_ray_renderer>.MinimumSamples Integer default: -1 -- integer 

Get/set the value of the Minimum spinner available when the .UnifiedEnable property is set to False.

The exposed value corresponds to the power of two value used to calculate the number of horizontal / vertical samples.

For example, when the value is 2, 2.0 to the power of 2 is 4, which means that mental ray will fire 4x4 rays to sample a single pixel. Thus, the User Interface displays 16 as the sample value which represents the minimum total number of rays to be fired.

Thus, the possible values are:

Property	User Interface	Calculated As
-3	1/64	(2.0 ^ (-3))^2 =0.125^2 =0.015625
-2	1/16	(2.0 ^ (-2))^2 =0.25^2 =0.0625
-1	1/4	(2.0 ^ (-1))^2 =0.5^2 = 0.25
0	1	(2.0 ^ 0)^2 = 1.0^2 = 1
1	4	(2.0 ^ 1)^2 = 2.0^2 = 4.0
2	16	(2.0 ^ 2)^2 =4.0^2 =16.0
3	64	(2.0 ^ 3)^2 =8.0^2 =64.0
4	256	(2.0 ^ 4)^2 =16.0 ^ 2 =256.0
5	1024	(2.0 ^ 5)^2 =32.0 ^ 2 =1024.0

   

[Cool_Z 1,547]

A question that might seem stupid, but...

 

What is the less troublesome version of 3DSmax to use ?? (and the most compatible with Bat4max at the moment).

2011 ? 2012 ??

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I had used 2012 and it worked perfectly for me.  

[Girafe 1,729]

I agree that 3dsmax 2012 seems to be the best version which fits with bat4max

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

I'm using 2014 and it works good. However I'd like to try 2012 version, but it's not available anymore :'(

[AlexandrosB13 184]

Hey,

I'm sorry if this has been answered before, but i couldn't find anything. Anyone knows why the render comes out so blurry and low quality? I'm using 3ds max design 2014 on windows 10. I tried installing the latest service pack but didn't help.

[MushyMushy 3,617]

I don't remember who originally posted how to fix it (Jasoncw I think), but here it is:

1. Before going through these steps, set up your lighting rig. You will have to repeat the steps below if you change the rig from day to night (or vice versa) or if you open a new file. Changing the cameras will not affect this and will not require you to repeat the steps.
2. Click the Rendering button at the top and then in the drop-down menu that comes from that click Render Setup
3. A window will pop up that has five tabs. It will open with the Common tab opened.
4. First, click on the Global Illumination tab. In the first section there will be two radio buttons, the one not currently selected will be called Skylight Illumination from Final Gather (FG). Change the selection to this one.
5. Go to the Renderer tab. In the drop-down menu in the first section (titled Sampling Mode), change the selection to Classic / Raytraced.

There you go, you should get significantly sharper results with these settings!

Example:

Now it doesn't look like I need a new pair of glasses!

[AlexandrosB13 184]

Oh, that actually did it. Thank you!

[LivingInThePast 364]

Back in February, I started "Secret BAT Project #1" with SimFox's "blueprint" tutorial with disappointing results. So after getting 3dsmax, I decided to do the same thing. But the Materials Editor was totally different...rather than selecting the material, having it wrapped around that little sphere, and getting well, a mess (as you can see in my linked thread), 3dsmax presented its own problems.

After figuring out the material editor, I was able to get my blueprint on the plane I applied, and I'm sure that it worked to some extent, the plane I drew went from cyan to an off-white color similar to my render, and actually rendering produced a blurred (but not mangled) version of my blueprint. But I was hoping how I can make this appear in the viewports so I can properly apply the UVW map and all that.

I'm sorry this question seems so dumb, but I want to actually make a cool building or two.

 

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

It's this icon in the material editor. From Autodesk website:

The main Material Editor control for shading materials in viewports, and toggling display of maps, is a flyout with four possible states:

• Show Shaded Material in Viewport [off]: Uses Phong shading and disables viewport display of all maps.
• Show Shaded Material in Viewport [on]: Uses Phong shading and enables viewport display of Diffuse Color and Opacity maps.

[Ceafus 88 1,794]

Has anyone else had their 3ds Max just stop working and crash when you try to start it up?

[rsc204 21,808]

3 hours ago, Ceafus 88 said:

Has anyone else had their 3ds Max just stop working and crash when you try to start it up?

Either a complete reinstall or switching to software rendering should resolve such issues.

[_Michael 2,681]

Ok, so I'm having a little issue. I have 3dsMax 2014 and imported a Sketchup8 Model. It imported fine with all of the textures and so on. I also have Bat4Max5. I created my LODs on levels 3-5 (I've tried both custom and automatic), and exported them fine. I've opened up BAT, imported the LODs, saved the scene and clicked export in the BAT export side pane. On all of the export quality settings I get a "Error Code 6" error. I try, nonetheless to select  the .sc4model file in 3dsMax Bat4Max export pane, with the select target model button. I click export, and after hanging at 17% it either freezes or gives a code 6 error. 

Any ideas? 

Thanks. 

[rsc204 21,808]

Unless the model is really large (how long does that 17% take?), I'd have to guess it's an error with the model.

It gets really technical, but the way your geometry is built may be behind the problem. So example if you have failed to weld some verts after removal of polys, verts etc from an object, that can in effect "break" the model.

Since you mention Sketchup, is this model one you've personally created? If you are creating, I'd ditch Sketchup and use 3DS Max for modelling. Adding more steps in the process only complicates things IMO, especially if you are starting out. However if it's a free model you found somewhere, this is one potential pitfall of using the models of others. You simply don't know how it's been built and therefore when a problem like this happens, resolving it may simply not be worth your time.

Other causes of Code 6 errors may include the scaling being wrong. Which makes the model much larger than intended. This creates a situation where your machine runs out of memory. Speaking of which, if that happens, you'll see a Code 6 error too. In both cases, you can expect the render to take a very long time, it's a good indicator of such problems.

[_Michael 2,681]

Well it is someone else's model, A Google Geo Model of a Bobsleigh track I need for a ski resort I'm working on. The model is here:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=a74d05a7b057fd43d17a8b408dd90eae

The 17% happens almost instantly, - and then I see a colour textured render with white dots flying around. This 17% does not progress, rather it gives the error. The model is large by nature, but in proportion to the grids in both 3ds and BAT, it doesn't look overly big. 

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

The model is too big as I could see, around 1x0,5km. I did a test once and I found that more than 175m in xy plan 3ds Max just won't work, that's why I had to separate the Maracanã in 6 pieces.
To make this model work you will also have to separate them in many pieces, export each one and then fit them with Lot Editor.

[_Michael 2,681]

Thanks @JP Schriefer . I'll have a go at that. Thing then is, how would I have more than one building on a lot, or do I make them into props?

If so, 1. How would I do that? and 2. because there is a height difference for model (It's on a slope), how would I get all of the parts to fit properly on the z axis?

[rsc204 21,808]

I'd cut down all the models into individual pieces for the sake of rendering. Making them all little props you can either place modularly, so you could terraform the height differences. Or, if you simply must have it as one lot, you can manually offset the height of some models later.

Bear in mind, given the overall size, you'll run into problems with the lot editors maximum lot size no doubt too. As such, the modular approach here is probably your best bet.

[_Michael 2,681]

Ok - So I made one piece, which was under 175mx175m. The LOT rendered fine, with no error in BAT, but after 0.029 minutes in 3ds when exporting, it fails. No other programs are running. I've tried restarting and so on with no avail. It renders even less than before - just a white line that move down on the render window.

[_Michael 2,681]

So as I say the LOT rendered fine. But I tried 3ds again and after 55 minutes the render was complete. Opened PIMX, created the Lot and open the game up. For some reason the textures haven't rendered. They were visible in 3ds. Also, in the render preview window the textures were there. I'll look into it a bit more, but just wanted to post it here. I've probably missed a really simple step, but hey - I'm a beginner in this field. Thank you all for your help.

The first part in game:

[rsc204 21,808]

It might sound wrong, but the textures have rendered. The white you see is the texture, because if it was missing, you'd get a bunch of coloured squares instead. So that means you may have to look at the texture/render settings in 3DS Max to find what's causing this.

As a test, just try rendering a small box with a texture applied and make sure the final result of that is OK. That will at least tell us if your setup is correctly configured or not.

[MushyMushy 3,617]

Maybe he needs the gamma fix from the STEX? Blindingly bright renders can be caused by bad gamma settings in the newer Max, which that fix corrects. Of course the brightness could be caused by a variety of other things, primarily textures like rsc said.

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

That's true, if it's ok in the preview but messed in game you probably haven't the gamma fix. If it doesn't fix the problem send a picture of your configurations and a preview here, it may help.

[_Michael 2,681]

Thanks all of you fantastic people. Me, being very new to this level of modding, had not installed the fix - I didn't even know. I installed it, and bam - it works. Now just for the other 4 parts. Thanks again for all of your help.

(Not the best angle) - But it was a test)

[Starglow 45]

So I made this using AutoCAD:

Spoiler

I wanted to test the dimensions and such in-game before continuing, but I'm not sure how to export it as a Lot Editor-ready BAT from AutoCAD.  Does anyone know how to do that?  Help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TekindusT 3,809]

Most of BATters use 3DS Max (also by Autodesk) to design for SC4, an it is almost "the standard" nowadays. You'll have to export the file from AutoCAD; universal formats like IGES or STEP formats would be the best idea, and then import the IGES/STEP file into 3DS Max to keep working with it.

I can't really tell about what to do afterwards, as I'm not a BATter; just someone familiar with mechanical design programs, not computer graphics design  .

[rsc204 21,808]

All SC4 models must at some point utilise the original SC4-BAT application, which is a plugin for gMax. Being a derrivite of 3DS Max, many modelers have been using 3DS Max to render their models to take advantage of it's superiour quality renders. In order to render the 2D textures SC4 needs, a script called BAT4Max is required. This will only work with compatible versions of 3DS Max, the latest versions of which I don't think work at all. But even that requires use of SC4BAT to create the LODs, whilst technically it's possible to create these another way, in all these years, no one ever did.

However, aside from SC4BAT, no application I know of can nativly render/export SC4 models in the correct format. Although you can in theory use any modelling application, everyone has to go through either 3DS Max or SC4BAT at some point to get them in game.