3D Studio Max BAT Version 2 Released !!

[thianz 62]

What is "export failed code=6"? why?

[SimFox 801]

Thinaz: that could be caused by number of things from running out of memory to the invalide operation like if you have say some lights which script doesn't recognise... so if you could give more specifics it could be more clear.

Do you use standard Scanline render?

What version of MAx you're using?

How large/small your model is?

What soet of night lighting you use?

Do you use standard lighting rig?

[thianz 62]

my computer,pentium4, CPU 2.8GHz, RAM 736MB.

Do you use standard Scanline render?quote>

i use BATforMAXv2.0 step by step from a Chinese tutorial about batformax.v2.

two problem, one is ,sometimes it export failed code=6,but sometimes it export successful.

the second is , nightlights do not work. (i have tried prefix nite_,nitelite_,night_.etc)

 

the pic:my successful case, the blueroof building is successfully export (but nightwindows does not work, i think 80% is my problem.) 

What version of MAx you're using?quote>

 

3dsMAX8

How large/small your model is?quote>

i have tried my model,more than 20X20(tiles) model it export failed code=6,

but sometimes small model export failed code=6 similarly.  

What soet of night lighting you use?quote>

Do you use standard lighting rig?quote>

 

when export , it automatically produces light , export failed code=6 somecases. 

(PS.privately, Could u speak chinese in another website?like HongKong BAT web?)

anyway,Orz,thanks you,SimFox .

[cowkilla 12]

did you save your file at any time with the XXXXX.SC4model in the export slot?

that messed me up for a while

also try to export a simple 10 meter by 10 meter box and see if that works... if it does merge in your building and see if your merged building will work. after that i have no idea

[thianz 62]

i am happy i've almost solved the nightlight problem yesterday.

my version:3dsMAX 8.0

1.nitelite- prefix, it's available

2.nite- prefix, it's unavailable

3.Night Material Library, it's available.(bcz the nite-prefix don't work, the method is the alternative.)

i use point 1 and 3 to light night lights and windows.

[franky_83 8]

Wow, that's so cool that the BAT now works with Max 8. Finally I can render my own buildings.

[Mickebear 2]

I am getting code 24 (not in the listed codes by Cycledogg), which seems to have something to do with memory buffering/gathering the render views to a file. Now, after deleting some nitelites (had originally 15 omnis, have now 2 - polycount goes into heavens though with this having LODs 160m X 96m x 145m), I attacked the biggest objects having high polycount, and after 4 render trials, it still stops, now at 96% with error 24: Insufficient memory, Main shadow 1 (or something very similar). I have 3 GB RAM, which is not at all used in totality during the rendering process, but as the total files' size used (as in CPU Usage files) grows to 1.45 GB, this memory error appears. So, first it appeared at 36% -> deleted 13 nitelites; then appeared at 52% -> deleted first poly-rich objects; then appeared at 80% -> deleted 2nd set of poly-rich objects -> finally got to 96% before the error came again. That is why I suspect that there is a limit in BAT for 3ds MAX as far as memory buffer is concerned

Question: where and what else to change to allocate some more memory? I tried to check the .ms scripts, but couldn't see a line which talks about memory allocations.

[toxicpiano 125]

Mickebear: would raising the paging file sizes work do you think?

[bixel 1,223]

Mickebear: Never use omnis I rendered Kd4rax's Taipei and there was not a single omni there...omnis take up waaaaaay too much memory and processing instead use normal target and set the Spotlight Parameters > Falloff Field very wide like 120 or maybe 150 Hotspot/beam should be half that or less. Make those light cones very fat and render a couple tests.

Also polycount; my friends and I learned polycount is not a big issue...object number is..so if you got 38,000 separate objects you might want to collapse mesh on like-objects and attach them together. Generally 5000 object is not too bad.

[ssc4k 1]

this is probably a stupid question. where do i download bat?

[SimFox 801]

Mickebear: another thing to keep in mind is shadows. by default all lights in 3ds Max have shadow map shadows, which are less CPU intensive, but could very quickly take all your memory if used in numbers and with unlimited range. Switch to raytraced shadows - you'll save on memory.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I'm sorry if this has been covered before, but this is a really big and confusing thread, lol.

That's the error that I get.  Also, it doesn't seem like I have all of the rollouts on the right.

I thought I followed the instructions right, but maybe not.  I hope this is an easy problem to fix!

Thanks for the help.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

ggygyayyayaaaahhhh!! 

I know it's wrong to bump, but I can't resist!  I waited 24 hours! lol

I wasn't getting any errors before doing the BAT for Max stuff.

I notice that I'm missing the preview stuff, and "TB2" pops up in a lot of that camera rig stuff.  Maybe I edited the path wrong and it can't find it?  I guess I'll check it again, although I thought I got it all right...

edit:  From what I can tell I got it right.  Unless I'm wrong.

[Mickebear 2]

Jason: what is the installation source for 3ds Max 8 (is it c:\program files\3ds Max ? Just because the paths need to be configured as such also in the scripts for BAT for MAX...

and something from Mika as well... not so good news in fact. Thanks to everybody for the suggestions so far

I have been busy running render tests with this -> scraped off the campanile from the model (it was anyway to be rendered as separate model), changed some objects instead of having geometry to having a texture with bump map; changed lights from omnis to directional spot (only one light source) and making sure that the shadow map parameter was changed to 256...

There aren't so many polygons actually, only around 927.000 and only 576 objects; diminished the size of textures by 50% thinking that it might reduce the payload...

this all with result that render went to 99% and when last zoom 1 nitelite frame is being rendered (you know, the one which only shows the lightmask) and boooommmmm... same error with mainshadow1.

Getting out of wits now.

Btw, render time with my 3GB RAM is around 30 min until the error message, the dimensions are around 160 m length and 96 m width. I think that the sheer size of this is the source for the problems.

[toxicpiano 125]

I have no idea why but I simply can't get 3dsmax to run the md3 import plugin, I've put it into the correct folder (max8/plugins) but theres a folder called sourcecode and I don't know where it goes, I can't look at the readme because the text is all messed up, what should I do? It just refuses to run, and displays an error message at start up. Can anyone help please?

error code reads:

DLL <3dsmax8\plugins\md3imp.dli> failed to intialize

Error Code: 127 - The specific precedure could not be found

this has happened on 3dsmax 7 as well, what should I do?

how did you guys install it (including the sourcecode folder?)

[Mickebear 2]

toxicpiano, this will not work. You'd better use RightHemisphere's Deep Exploration first to import md3 files and save them as 3ds, which 3ds Max (any version) can read.

[toxicpiano 125]

ok, thanksyou!

edit: is there a free version or trial or something?

wait, then how does everyone else import/export stuff (suggestions)?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

It's default was C:\program files\autodesk\3dsmax8 or something like that, and I changed it to C:\3dsmax8  I also installed the backburner directly to C

in BATFORMAX.ini none of the paths point to any program files directories.

Here is what it is (the file is placed at C:\3dsMax8\gamepacks\BAT):

[Configuration]

TB2InitScript=CPTB2Main.ms

TempPath=C:\3dsMax8\gamepacks\BAT\temp

DestPath=C:\3dsmax8\gamepacks\BAT\OutputFiles\

;ExportExt=

AALevel=1

CamerasandLights=gamepacks\BAT\scenes\CamLightRigs\TB2_CameraLightRig.max

CamerasandLightsFolder=gamepacks\BAT\scenes\CamLightRigs\

TB2Scripts=gamepacks\BAT\scripts\

AlphaSeedFile=gamepacks\BAT\AlphaSeed Do Not Delete.bmp

GroupID=cddd1522

InstanceID=00030000

NightMats=gamepacks\BAT\Maps\NightWindows\

SC4PluginPath=C:\Documents and Settings\Jason\My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins

Is there any other information I can provide?

[toxicpiano 125]

we're both stuck jason

[Jasoncw 11,840]

[Mickebear 2]

as I don't have ver 8 myself, need to think (maybe someone for who it is working in ver 8 should give a look)... I'd suggest that you re-install ver 8 to its default path and modify then the BAT script paths accordingly...

[SimFox 801]

Guys!!!! MAX8 is fully compatible with BatForMax ver2!

only thing that should be minded is the installation directory of MAX8. the reason is FSHTool.exe. It can not trace paths with spaces in it, e.g. default MAX8 path which is C:/Program Files/Autodesk/... will not be compatible with FSHTool.

If you edit all files that has to be edited according to your personal location of MAX8 it will work.

Toxicpiano: that plugin may not work cause original was written with SDK for earlier versions of MAX, after Ver.6 SDK was changed and older plugins are not compatible with new versions of MAX.

Mickebear: try to switch to raytraced shadows and see if this will resolve the problem.

unfortunatelly I can not check any settings at the moment since i don't have access to MAX till I get back from holidays

[dmscopio 225]

Hi there,

I got the new BuildingMill script and when i export, it give me an code 126 error which is the "Failed to set up render viewport" error. Anyone know how to solve this? I use 3dsMax 7.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

ok, good news!

Yeah, all I did was reinstall 3dsmax to it's default loaction, and then I redirected all of the paths to where it is now.  At first I did the opposite, trying to install 3dsmax to where the other paths pointed.

Victory!

Thanks for the help!

[SimFox 801]

Jason, if you'll install NAX8 to its default location, you export will fail.

[Mickebear 2]

for the time being, my problem wasn't really solved -> script cannot handle the size of nitelites. Partial solving was to insert niteviews and masks to successfully rendered day model. Job was done by BarbyW -> success.

I got to know from Swi21 how to solve this problem (not 100% guarantee but...): shadows off; all objects must be as editable mesh (and nothing else); all objects must be loose, ie. they may not be grouped.

[SimFox 801]

Mickebear: there is something very off with your case. Don't tell me Max cannot handle 15 omnies. It can handle more! I looked through the script and as much as I've understood it doesn't do much more then give commands to MAX, meaning not being any part of render process on itself. PNG images gotten in rendering are then simply cut in pieces.

Memory problem could come from the fact that windows is limiting memory allocation to any one individual program /process. I know that something could be added to Registry in order to expand this limit. Search the web or 3D modeling forums, it is quite commonly discussed topic.

What sort of shadows do your lights use?? Not using any shadows is absolutely absurd!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

For now I'll keep working with 3dsmax in the wrong place, and if I can't fix it by the time I'm done with a building, I might just send it to someone else to render.

But I still don't know why it wasn't working before.

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

I have a problem here.

Im using MAX7 if this helps.

Im following the procedure as normal, but im getting an error message telling me that the model file cannot be found in my plugins.

Yet as you can see, it is.

I have no clue what is going on, i have tried a full reinstall of 3ds max,  rendered the lods again to see if thats the problem, but nothing.

Is there any way to remedy this?

[dmscopio 225]

My building render looks like this:

I saw someone also had this problem before, but not sure how they solve it.I know it has to do with the SFH files. Can anyone give me a more detail step by step solution to this?