3ds Max - Think Tank

[SimFox 802]

Did university explain why not to go for 2008?? It has huge improvements in many key areas. for instance bug with unit setup and MR GI/FG calculation has been ironed out. MrPhotographicExposure and SkyPortal are giant improvements as well. Viewport optimization let you rotate 6-7 million polygons without much slowing down and without practically any degradation. Add to that total compatibility with all Max9 plug-ins! I really can't see any reason for such an advise...
Of course unless university simply thinks that being new is reason good enough to "not advise"
The only thing I can think of is that Autodesk routinely makes each new installment of MAX backward incompatible. That is you can’t open current MAX files in any of preceding version...

In some circumstances this could be deterrent significant enough..

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

Its because the university uses 9 or something. Portsmouth University has very strong relations with Autodesk (The University and some of my lecturers are actually acredited on the web site) They told me to use 9 because it functions better at the moment and has better student support aswell as guarenteed compatabilty with the university system.

[SimFox 802]

well that must be it - compatibility... You can not open in Max9 file from MAX2008. but rest of the reasons is totally bogus. Max2008 is in every count better then MAX9 and I don't simply mean feature list. Many of the bugs of version 9 were finally ironed out only in 2008. But that wouldn't matter much if you need to bring your files to university and wouldn't be able to open then on their systems...

[autoVino 26]

Originally posted by: autoVino Anti aliasing is possible in simcity... just very tedious to achieve...

(model courtesy of patriots_1228)

Although the pictures weren't taken at the same place, it is quite clear that the results are different.  It's especially visible in the palm tree against the background.

Naturally, when you render from 3ds max an image has a set of data in it, the exporter uses the image file and its alpha file.

If the image is anti aliased, then the alpha file also has anti aliasing in it.  An alpha file is basically transparency and if the white is anti aliased against the black then theoreticly it should work every time in the game.  Unfortunatly, transparency is turned off by default in the s3d files, and they have to be turned on in order to achieve anti aliasing in the game.

(I won't get into how to turn on transparency here... I'm no expert at that)quote>

 

remember this?

I did some more testing on it the other day and it didn't quite turn out as expected.  I got it to work against the background of textures, but for some reason the lod structure would cut off all props and other objects, but would keep base textures and overlaying textures... that is it would show through the ground texture and give beautiful anti aliasing, but for some reason (and this may be because I made a mistake somwhere or because I was viewing it in lot editor) the transparency only worked for base textures and would cut off the props and other objects along the border of the s3d files...

tell me if that made any sense.

I'm going to do some more testing now and hope that I can get it to work... if it does work I'll make a tutorial.

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

I KILLED IT!!

Arghhh, Autobackup for 3ds 9 is awfull, It crashed my scene one time to many, thats it, i killed it, its now swtiched off!

Anger......

[autoVino 26]

huh?  My scene used to crash once in a while but then I got the service pack 1 and two and it seems to run smoother than ever now...

maybe you don't have that?

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

Nah this was at Uni, with both service packs on, dont worry, i killed it. its all good now

[patriots_1228 51]

I've tried everything I could think of, but it still looks like A drunk mr. potato head. Any ideas on how I would model curious georges head, or at least make somthing that looks like it?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

lol, well, you can try the tutorials here.  The second one is good in particular.  It will take time to learn it, but it's also useful for BATing.

[patriots_1228 51]

So, i reinstalled my 3ds directly on C: so I could use BAT4MAX. It sorta works. I can see the tabs about nightlights and "Exit SImtropolis Tools 1.04"...only problem is, the export tab isnt there! any idea whats going on?

edit: nvm, got it on the 50th try

[SimRabbit 48]

patriots_1228: how did you do it?

Im having the exact same problem.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

If you want to, you can keep it at Program Files.  However, you'll need to recreate the folder structure of the C drive location.  After you render something, you'll copy the output files from the Program Files folder to your "fake" C output folder.  Then you'll open the BAT's .bat file (with notepad), and you can go edit>replace, and you can change the path to the C path.  Then when you run the .bat, it will make your .FSH files and it should all work just fine.  This is how mine is set up, because I couldn't get the BAT4Max stuff to work in the C drive location.

[patriots_1228 51]

thats the problem...I've tried so many things im not sure what did it.

But, what I would do is go over the BAT4MAX.ini, and check everything over. If theres even the slightest thing you think may make a difference, try changing it and see what happens. Hey, its stupid and wastes alot of time, but it worked for me

or you could wait for someone smarter to come along and help you

[autoVino 26]

Originally posted by: patriots_1228 So, i reinstalled my 3ds directly on C: so I could use BAT4MAX. It sorta works. I can see the tabs about nightlights and "Exit SImtropolis Tools 1.04"...only problem is, the export tab isnt there! any idea whats going on?

edit: nvm, got it on the 50th try quote>

 

the reason that happens is most likely that you installed it wrong or paointed something wrong in the 3dsmax.ini file.  I've had that problem and it was because the 3dsmax.ini plugcfg line was incorrectly done.  that or you don't have the cptb2startup file in the correct location (should be in 3dsmax/scripts/stratup) or you didn't install babt4max correctly.

edit: bat4max.ini is very important, but I don't think it's the source of the problem in this case.  I'm pretty sure its the 3dsmax.ini.

[JakeMD 107]

I just thought I might post in here, because I just recently got 3ds max 8. No, I did not get the trial version, it is the real, registered version. I am currently modeling a building right now, and I will show it soon!

[patriots_1228 51]

swell....

[ianpaschal 77]

every year I'm given a new license to 3ds max from Autodesk, but often they are only for 1 year. I think I'll keep my lifetime license for 8 they gave me, since I don't want to upgrade all my scenes then not use them later on 8.

IMO that's one of the biggest problems. MS Word 2007 has a save to 2003 compatibility, and I wish you could save a 3dsmax 9 scene in 3dsmax 8 compatibility mode.

[JakeMD 107]

You cant save one scene from 8, and open it in 9?

[SimFox 802]

there is always forward compatibility - meaning scene from MAX8 will be openable in Max 9, MAX2008 etc, but not backward (max9 scene wouldn't open in Max8 etc) Many people cry over this issue but if you think of it it's a bit silly. New versions ALWAYS can do all the same stuff old one could.

[ianpaschal 77]

Originally posted by: SimFox there is always forward compatibility - meaning scene from MAX8 will be openable in Max 9, MAX2008 etc, but not backward (max9 scene wouldn't open in Max8 etc) Many people cry over this issue but if you think of it it's a bit silly. New versions ALWAYS can do all the same stuff old one could.quote>

Of course, I don't doubt that, but I can't get a copy of 9 or 2008 that will last more than a year.  I would upgrade in a snap from lifetime 8 to lifetime 9 or 2008, but since they will stop working in a year, I am upset about backward compatibilty, not forward.

[faka 11]

hello I have a question:

How can I render buildings for simcity with 3ds max?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

First you need 3ds Max, which is a separate program from Gmax.  Then you need "BAT4Max" which can be found in the Modds & Downloads section of this site.  Included in the download are instructions for setting it up and rendering with it.

[faka 11]

Thank you for help. if have 3ds max 9

[autoVino 26]

anyone know how to get rid of the night alpha render in the rendering script?  right now it's completely useless for me and it would be nice if I could get rid of it and just replace the alpha files (automatically) with the day ones.  this would be more practicle.

[SimFox 802]

Well KD was boosting he can do it, but ...

Just do two day renders (one with actual night settings and move files manually

[patriots_1228 51]

Anyone care to educate me on the boolean tool?

from what I've heard, aren't you able to add things into already made objects, like say add a hole into a box?

just curious, ever since I started fooling around with the loft tool i've been trying to figure out what all the compound objects do... (or at least the two that i hear about alot on the forums, loft and boolean)

[Jasoncw 11,840]

They can be used to add or subtract. So you have two objects that overlap somehow, and you can either subtract or add one to the other. And it's not just like "attach" it will actually change the geometry.

[autoVino 26]

Originally posted by: Simfox Well KD was boosting he can do it, but ...

Just do two day renders (one with actual night settings and move files manually.quote>

 

okay, I was able to kill the un-needed night alpha render (along with the perspective render and the dangerous turning on and off of the xref file) which made most of my test renders twice as fast...

I also *attempted* to add a small script into there to copy the day alpha files to the night alpha files.  which did not really copy anything.  Does anyone know how to copy bitmap files from one directory to another in maxscript?  Let's say I have two variables that represent the day directory and the night directory (this is in one zoom, rotation render).  How would I go about copying the file named 0000-a.bmp from the first directory into the second night directory, also calling it 0000-a.bmp?

This isn't mandatory yet, but it would be nice if the whole process was in one step and didn't requier any tedious work (that is manually copying the alpha files)

[Jasoncw 11,840]

You could probably make another batch file to copy the files. I have no clue how to do that though.

[autoVino 26]

the problem is that you need these files when the computer is dicing up therender image into 246x256px squares (it seems to work when your render image is smaller than 256 by 256)

hmm... it worked... but it wasn't supposed to which makes me worried .  I got rid of completely of a huge alpha editing section.  The output files came out right, and that batch command didn't get angry at me either.  Now I just need to make sure that it won't crash the game.

seems okay to me with the script, only problem is that it requiers a little bit of post production in the reader with id's.  This maybe because I got a bit messy with my models though.  Anyone willing to test it out and post a picture of it (preferably from photobucket because imageshack is blocked for me) day and night and report any nusual problems.

http://www.mediafire.com/?dzymwm0hbjx

A word of warning, this is only the model file first off, and do not, I repeat DO NOT place this building in an existing city or region for that fact (not the fact that it's a model but the fact that it's alpha files were created in a different way than usual).  It seems to run fine in reader for me but I have no clue what it can do in the game, especially the night alpha files since they are made in a completely different (and more efficient) way than they are normally.  Use at your own risk.

here's a preview so that oyu'd know what to expect (I was too lazy to put the pictures together so I just picked one of the output files)