3D Studio Max BAT Version 2 Released !!

[SimFox 802]

Try switching to Mental Ray in stead of Scan Line... That may help... I know a while back people were unable to render big scenes with Scanline but V-ray cracked then with no problem. Doing some tests with GMAX I've noticed that memory consumptions continues to grow as render process continues even when you go down to the small zooms. May be it is something in Scanline that it hit some limit it can process. Although I would expect then to see error message from MAX itself, instead of Script. But sort of this i run out of ideas. It seems like sort of accumulation issue.

Switch to MR should be very easy - it is almost completely compatible with Scanline so you wouldn't really need to do anything different, or alter your model or materials. Only think to set would be (if you don't do Indirect illumination) Mental Rays own AA filters. It doesn't have Catmul-Rom, but has very similar (perhaps even sharper - if that what you want) alternative - Lanczos

BTW EVERMOTION has published absolutely great tutorial about using SUN/SKY combo withing DAYLIGHT SYSTEM. It is very well illustrated and will be easy to follow. Only drawback is that it only compatible with MAX9 as it uses new Mental Ray Sun and Mental Ray Sky which were introduced in that version. So I would urge anyone with MAX9 to take a look at it - will definitely worth your while.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO OPEN TUTORIAL.

[paulvmontfort 616]

when i edit the 3dsmax.ini in max9 some of the features of lighting aren't available anymore. I can't use logarithmic exposure control and i can't set the quality of the fg :S

[SimFox 802]

Paul:

this is result of BAT taking over the PlugCFG line in max.ini

The solution could be either to rewrite the scripts in the parts where they refer to that location, or to (quick but more "dirty" solution) simply copy entire content of PlugCFG to the BAT folder...

[paulvmontfort 616]

ok, that fixed one problem but now i have another. I rendered a scene and no fsh files were created to be imported in the sc4model file...

[SimFox 802]

That's odd... if everything set up correctly this shouldn't happened... Check again and see if you made some mistakes in *.ini editing, I mean paths...

[ILL Tonkso 1,237]

this is annoying, and happens with all camera rigs.

[toxicpiano 125]

lol Tonks, that shadow makes it look a little, er , rude...

[SimFox 802]

You'll have to edit the lighting rig, or just build a new one. One way to edit is to make the light area greater, but if you use the original rig or any of it direct direvitives remember that you have to edit this way ALL the lights in the rig, not just "sun" ones...

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Double check your units.  If your units are wrong, the building might be too big for the rig.  People only have that problem when they're making huge towers, and yours there doesn't seem too big.

It's looking good btw.

[ILL Tonkso 1,237]

Hmm good plan. The building is 77 stories, and over 300 meters. I still dont get why im getting these stupid errors though. When i first started with BAT4MAX i never had any trouble.

[ILL Tonkso 1,237]

Sorry for the double post (it has been 15 days lol i sure thats long enough ) BUT i just got ANOTHER error code 30. Im at the end of my teather here, im this close to hurling the PC out of the window. We have tried everything seriously :S

[SimFox 802]

I think those error codes are related to the scripts, not max itself. Try fresh install, I mean uninstall MAX , then delete all the folders it had created including those where the BAT scripts are. and reinstall everything anew.

Or it may be the issue with your model as well...

When you say that you try to make nightlights as one object what exactly do you mean?? Night LIGHTS or night windows? Since I do not believe you can combine actual lights in one object then it must mean night windows.. how exactly do you make then? with Night libraries or as classic night windows from BAT scripts?

Another idea - make simple 300+m tall box of approximately same dimentions as your tower and try exporting it make on it same type of night lighting you use. see if that will get exproted fine, if it does - then, logically issue is with your model, if it fails as well there must be some screw-up between MAX and scripts...

[thianz 63]

sorry...Code 2...

means? How to solve the problem?

[SimFox 802]

thianz - the picture in your post doesn't show up in either Firefox or IE7 or Safari for that matter...

you should place it to the OPEN resource like imageshak.us and not place like simcity.cn - to get to it there one have to be logged on!!

[HabLeUrG 32]

I have this problem: can't export my model due this problem, I followed the insteructions but doesnt work, except for the file deltree.exe that cant find one and it doesnt explain me what to do with that file...

hope get any help soon! thanks!

[onlyplace4 603]

Hmmmmmmmm .... the most obvious thing there that I can see is that the name you have entered as the SC4Model Name does not have the extension .SC4Model ... the entire filename including all the hex digits must be inserted here. Silly question next ... I assume you have output your LODs via BAT, haven't you?

[SimFox 802]

well it is not simply the most obvious, Only, butit is absolutelly correct one as well!

There is NO WAY in hell that there could be file simply named pruebas!! ALL files have "extension" - a 3 or more character part after the LAST "."

HabLeUrG: reed the instructions and follow them precisely!

Also disable option named something like "hide extensions for know file type" (that is English name for it) in Control Panel -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View

[fabfab 4]

OK, here we are with another tricky one (I guess)...

After I tested the BAT4Max successfully a few first times, I came to a point when i wanted to test-render my current project.

LOD-Export to gmax and exporting them was successful, but when I come to render the main model, I experience a Code 38 at about 85-90%

I tried the usual fixes like merging with a new scene, new LODs, etc.

---

"E:\3dsmax6\gamepacks\BAT\OutputFiles\i_am_teh_testor-0x5ad0e817_0xb3074fa9_0xb0000\0.BMP"

"7ab50e44_b3074fa9_90320"

"E:\3dsmax6\gamepacks\BAT\OutputFiles\i_am_teh_testor-0x5ad0e817_0xb3074fa9_0xb0000\1.BMP"

"7ab50e44_b3074fa9_90321"

"E:\3dsmax6\gamepacks\BAT\OutputFiles\i_am_teh_testor-0x5ad0e817_0xb3074fa9_0xb0000\2.BMP"

"7ab50e44_b3074fa9_90322"

"E:\3dsmax6\gamepacks\BAT\OutputFiles\i_am_teh_testor-0x5ad0e817_0xb3074fa9_0xb0000\0.BMP"

"7ab50e44_b3074fa9_90330"

"E:\3dsmax6\gamepacks\BAT\OutputFiles\i_am_teh_testor-0x5ad0e817_0xb3074fa9_0xb0000\1.BMP"

"7ab50e44_b3074fa9_90331"

"E:\3dsmax6\gamepacks\BAT\OutputFiles\i_am_teh_testor-0x5ad0e817_0xb3074fa9_0xb0000\2.BMP"

"7ab50e44_b3074fa9_90332"

"Error Occurred Somewhere"

Processing time was : 10.5083 minutes

---

Now what I am going to try is:

- Install another 512megs of RAM, although my model isnt too big

- If this doesnt help, reinstall MAX and setting anything else up again

I noticed, that the renderer does several Files from the Perspective view, although I imported (and tried all) CamLight Rigs via XRef.

And the renderer doesn't seem to switch views, it looks like it always does the South view over and over again (but this may just seem to me).

MentalRay-Render lead to a Code 6 right at the first Viewport and relations of the model were messed up so I switched back to scanline (which should work fine on my model, due to its size).

Apart from Raytrace and a global Environment there aren't any special FX, so i guess it shouldn't be any memory-related issue.

If I can come up with a solution for this, I will post it here, but for now I dont have a clue. My first test-render in MAX ever worked pretty well.

I also thought about the nightlights (several set to random-off and random density) being the problem. Apart from them there are no custom lights in the scene... :/

If anyone has a hint - give it to me. *drools*

[fabfab 4]

OK, so here's an update.

After i found out that my MoBoard only supports 2 slots to be used on 2-sided-dimms i just could add 256megs, but better than nothing

Now these are the steps that I came up with:

1) I isolated 1 Building (4 in total on that scene)

2) Deleted all materials from Scene and Objects (via Script, i'm using max6)

3) refitted LODs, exported to gmax and rendered

4) rendered my model in max

==> success!

(hooray so far)

5) ran the cmds, built my prop and here i am

The result now was

Which is a lot better than getting an error-code

Somewhere above in this thread I read, that this error could be fixed with reinstalling MAX.

But before, I will have another try on one of the other buildings of the scene, with slightly bigger LODs (i usually extend them to 100,5% before rendering).

Still, i'd really appreciate help on this

[fabfab 4]

Sorry for my frequent posting, but as this may maybe help anyone else i thought i'd update on the way to a solution for that.

I did the same as above, but i resized the created LODs to 100,5%

and voila, it worked.

Now it's time to find out what leads to the errors.

# 1) Materials

All buildings of the project were modeled and textured in each a separate max-file using the same materials (but no library!). i guess this worked fine for a normal max-render, but the BAT got confused (im not an expert on this).

So what may be a solution is to reset all materials on each project and do the texturing later in the final scene.

# 2) Meshes

The building i failed on rendering contains a Nurbs-Surface, which could lead to an error. I will have another try on it but before convert it to a mesh.

# 3) camera rigs

This scene now which obviously worked well had no rigs and no xreferences to any cameras, maybe this is another issue, but i guess rather not, because gmax uses xref rigs in every project and leads to no errors on that.

Testing goes on

[SimFox 802]

There is something very odd going on there.

First of all test the situation concerning the fact that you always render just one side - this is possible and have had happened before - and this is wrong.

Also these 1.BMP, 2.BMP files look a bit out of place... I don't remember anything in the script that may produce those. They might be something temporary but still the naming is out of place, I think...l check your output dirrectory and see what you actually have there.

[SimFox 802]

The problem you've described and illustrated in your two last posts has nothing to do with the size of your LODs. Sorry to say but your analysis (I'm really happy to see some people trying to do it as opposed to just clicking and cursing like blind kittens) in this part is wrong. The issue you've had is due to the fact that wrong IDs were assign to the resulting slabs.

When you have created new LODs and consequently new set of ID this problem was solved!

As to your 3 point statement:

1. absolutely irrelevant. Material library is just a local database and not actual storage of material parameters. All those are in the material itself and it assigned to the object.

2. This is harder one... script reffers often to the mesh, but the nature of reference implies IMHO that it is the mesh of LOD that is mentioned, not of actual model. I haven't trid to use NURBS in BAT so I can not and shouldn't go much farther with this one.

3. Well, there is a major inconstancy here. If you say that in case of successful export there were rigs (I assume you imply cameras in rig) no xreferences to such present ten through what was your model rendered? Whenever you hit export button TB2CameraLightingRig.max is X Reffed into your scen and all the lighting and cameras are coming from it.

[fabfab 4]

Thanks for your constant replies so far, i'm really glad someone leads me into any direction at all

Yea, it would have been too simple to just blame it on the LODs, hehe. Thanks for making that clear.

I converted the Nurbs right after my post and it didn't have any relevant effect, as far as i can see.

Which brings me to my last suspect: the cameras.

I have to thank you again, for letting me know, that the cameras are xreffed automatically whenever i try to export. so it shouldn't have anything to do with that, right?

After some further testing, all i received were Code 6 errors right after Zoom 5, Rotation 1.

I deinstalled 3dsmax after that, backed up my scripts and will reinstall it this evening.

If I can't come to a result after that, I assume that my problem is a model specific problem.

SimFox, you mentioned that it is a common problem, that no rotation takes place - how does this come? Are there known fixes for that?

The BMPs mentioned in the Listener were each a render-output image with a relating alpha-channel-bitmap, stored in a common folder, along with a FSH file.

I began to BAT just a few weeks ago (as you might have read in my bat-thread) and therefor not an expert concerning the whole structures, all this depends on.

I try to learn fast, but i'm thankful for the pros out there to help me a bit (like you do)

[fabfab 4]

I promise, this is my last post-in-a-row about this...

because i got it to work - hoooray!

So I thought I'd share what I finally found out - maybe it helps a bit in improving the whole script (which would be great).

My scene consisted of 4 different models, each modeled in a separate file (i mentioned that). I reinstalled max and upgraded to v8 (which seems to run a lot faster than v6) and reassembled the scene in all possible constellations (A/B/C/D - A/B/C ... A/D and so on) and found the error in one of the groups that i assembled the buildings in.

It were the nightlights, as this is the only thing that differed from the other 3, they were assigned in the pre-modeled file and merging it into another scene didn't seem to work.

The last test I will do for today is to go back to the original file for that building, un-assign all nightlights there and re-merge.

I hope this did make any sense at all.

Again, SimFox, thanks for your answers on my problem

[SimFox 802]

are you using some night windows on your model? one that fails to export?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

The good news:  I'm done with another building!

The bad news:  Error 6!!

Here's how I made my nitelites.  There are 4 directional lights, that have the panes of glass that should be lit up included.  However, I named those pieces of glass "nitelite" so that on the directional lights I'd just type that in in the include and I'd get everything.  I used nitelite so it would be easier to remember and out of habit.

Reading from earlier in this thread (fastburst's problem, page 18), it seems like 3ds max thinks I'm trying to make nitewindows, and is crashing because 3ds max 8 doesn't do that.

So, is this the problem, and if so, is there an easy way to rename all of those windows?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Well, I went ahead and renamed all of the non-light objects to something without "nitelite" in it, but it didn't fix the problem.

So I'll describe what's happening.

First, the progress bar goes up to 24% within a few seconds, and then 3ds max "thinks" for about 15 minutes, and then it renders the first view day, and then it freezes right after that.  Looking in my output files, there are two folders, one has a day bitmap and an alpha, while the second (presumably the nitelites) is empty.

None of the filenames have spaces in them.

So it sounds like FabFab's problem, but mine wasn't reassembled, and I also ungrouped everything in the scene (just in case).

I also just checked out my .S3D in the Reader, and it looks like a mess, so I'm rerendering the LODs and I'll try again and I'll come back with what happens.

Edit:  Nope, that didn't seem to make a difference, although it's good that I noticed it.  I'll keep on looking through this thread.  If anyone has any suggestions though, I'd love to hear them since I'd like to have this building rendered soon.

Edit Again:

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6683/3dsmaxproblemvr9.jpg

The inside of the ground floor has a lot of lights in it.  For each light you see there, there are actually two there (one for night and one for day).  You can also see a bunch of directional lights, 4 for the windows, and 4 for the sign (2 for each sign, because the sign has two colors).

The base's glass material is a mix material.  There is also a material which uses reflection.  I don't know if either of those have any quirks with nitelites.  I'm using Mental Ray in 3ds Max 8.  Those are the only special things about the scene that I can think of.

[SimFox 802]

I must say that I'm no expert on night windows since Ive never used them myself, not successfully that is. i know they do not work since version 8 or may be even 7.5

I'm not entirely sure why might be due to the UVW mapping changes. I guess since those versions all the object created in MAX applied UVW mapping implicitly and since there Night Windows are not applied as texture but like a background but into the aphas of the windows this conflict may cause script to abort. Farther study of script should answer it.

One thins though in case of Paul's Lippo I've noticed that only deleting night windows did remedy situation. Switching them off and I think renaming didn't help. But in that case night windows were applied in file I've received.

I would suggest to say good by and good riddance to that anachronism and urge anyone using any version of Max to switch to night library.

Jason what sort of shadows your lights are using?

generally I would say that your use of lights is over the top and inefficient. Why do you need so many???

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Everything is area shadows.

On the North Side, those are cubicles.  Using one big spot light would make weird looking shadows from the different angles, and using one big directional pointing down would also probably look strange.

On the South Side, I had originally used a big rectangular directional light with an aspect ratio that made it fit the lobby area, but there are columns in there, which were creating odd shadows.  I figured I'd just copy the other side's lights since I already knew they looked fine (although I still ended up tweaking them.  I suppose I could delete the columns, since they're not visible anyway, and then use one big light.

But my preview renders still went pretty fast.

Should I replace the lights with a simpler set up?  What kind of a set up do you recommend?

Thanks for all of your help.

Edit:  So I just did a quick test render after deleting all of the lights on the first floor, and it got past the night render without any problems.  I guess that means I have to redo the lights down there.

[SimFox 802]

yeah... I think basic common sense is important... Am I correct in understanding that that parade of lights on a building perimeter made of Spots?