3D Studio Max BAT Version 2 Released !!

[RalphaelNinja 244]

waiting patiently......

[CycleDogg 130]

It'll be ready tomorrow or Saturday . . .

[RalphaelNinja 244]

hmmmm......

 

package it up nicely (lotsa docs right?) and after testing, I'll post it up in the Modd Section for downloading.

 

Almost as exciting as getting the first BAT beta....

 

Ralphael

[Vlakhaas 13]

Would it be now possible to do Distributed Rendering with this ?

[g-funk 1]

can't wait, can't wait *hopping around all the time *

[CycleDogg 130]

OK, the wait is over.  There is a fairly lengthy text file inside with instructions for installation and use.  Hope it works for you!  The attached file is the first of two parts.  The next message has the remaining files.  Unzip this one to your 3dsmax root directory.  You will have to edit your 3dsmax.ini and the batformax.ini files as per the instructions, in order to get this to work.

[CycleDogg 130]

OK, I guess you can't attach a file when editing a message, so here is the first part.  The next message will have part two.

[CycleDogg 130]

Part two is attached.  Unzip to the CameraLightRigs directory created by unzipping the first .zip file.

Also, I have removed the night window textures to reduce filesize, so you will have to copy the night window textures from gmax/BAT into the appropriate directories

[CycleDogg 130]

To answer Vlakhaas' question: I dont know.  There is a lot of post-render processing done on the renderings, and it requires more information from the render than is stored in the pixels of the rendered image.  If there is a way to pass this info back to the computer that is running the maxscripts then maybe with some customizing of the scripts it would be possible.  If not, then no.  I have no idea how distributed rendering works though.

[rubik3 116]

Have you done any testing to see if the script will work with 3d studio viz as well?

[CycleDogg 130]

Nope.  The only thing I can test is whether it works in 3dsmax version 4.2.

 

As far as distributed rendering, I don't think it would be practical with these scripts, because the computer running the maxscripts would just be waiting for the other computer to finish rendering before it could move on to the next step in the maxscripts.  So unless I am not understanding distributed rendering, I would say, no, it is not possible.

[rubik3 116]

K, well I'll dl'd it and see if it'll work or not.

 

As far as render farms go, the way they normally work is that portions of the complete file either an animation or a still are sent to different computers, and then at the end they are all pieced together.  So what could be done in theory is that the east and west views are sent to one computer for rendering while north and south are sent to another.  When they are both done the exports from both computers are then welded together.  How it can be done is another story, but that's the theory.

[RalphaelNinja 244]

Much thanks to the effort that you put in CycleDogg.

This is very exciting as not only does it open the door to 3ds max, but to an array of special effects (since we now have control over the rendering steps).

In regards to distributed rendering, the main component that everyone is looking for is batching the rendering where a series of bats can be placed in a que to be rendered automatically. If it can be distributed where two or more computers can be used to render pieces (to speed up the process) that is also another plus.

For the batching process, it probably be nice to have a script that simply loops (waiting for a file to appear). Once a file appears (using a network connection), 3ds/Gmax loads up the file and begins exporting the image. On completion, the file is either deleted or moved from the Que to a completed folder.

Distributed processing can use the same batching process, but each PC will only render one side of the bat, with one of the PC waiting for all pieces to complete before putting the whole together.

Ralphael

[GouRou 2]

I'm working on a project to be able to use 3D studio Max to render better looking buildings.

I cant explain yet exactly how it will work, but I'm hoping to get some programming help to make it mostly seamless. all you'll have to do is export your scene from max into gmax then export through the bat, go back to max, run a maxscript I'm working on, then use the tool to insert the max renders into the bat generated dat. I have no idea yet of any shortcomings, and of any possible theoretical shortcomings, I dont yet know of any fixes. As time goes on I'll toss this to the community, but first I want to see if it's possible.

Keep your fingers crossed and I'll fill you in as time goes on

[rubik3 116]

Well it look like it won't work with Viz 3i.  I get an error on startup, probably a script function that Viz doesn't have.  Too bad too since I doubt that anyone will make a Viz script like this.

 

[Caliban 2]

Well I've tried it with 3dsMax 5 and it works great so far. Haven't tried nightlights yet but I'm about to.

As for distributed rendering I don't really see it as necessary. 3dsMax renders so much faster than BAT theres no real need to split off views to other computers.

[RalphaelNinja 244]

Works as advertised on 3dsMax 4.2...... Glad to hear that it works on 5 too!! that is great news!!

 

The following 1x1 box with nitelite works like a charm.... (seems sharper doesn't it? or is it my imagination)

 

 

Okay, two questions:

1. do we need a nitelite when rendering the LODS? (haven't test without)

2. can we add an automatic cr to answer the fshtool, or recompile the fshtool to have no prompts. I found myself re-executing the bat several times from holding down the enter key

 

Exceptional work CycleDogg.... thanks so much... After my father's day supper and movie tonight, I'll have more time to play with it.

 

edit: Already wrapped as is and has been posted in the Modd Section.

 

Ralphael

[CycleDogg 130]

Thank for testing Rubik.  Sorry to hear it didn't work.  I remember reading something somewhere about viz having a different (more limited maybe) set of maxscript functions available to it.

 

Very glad to hear it's working in 5!  I'm crossing my fingers for 6 as well.

 

Thanks Raphael. I didn't know about cr (not very DOS savvy).  If it works I'll add it to the scripts and upload a new version of the BuildingMill script.  That would definitely be an improvement.

As far as a need for the nitelite when rendering the LODs, I was wondering about that myself.  Never got around to testing it.  I just figured there might be something in one of the files that indicated whether or not there was night lighting with the building, so I was doing that just to be safe.  But there's a good chance it's not necessary.  I'll try to remember to test that tomorrow as well.

One thing I forgot to mention in the instructions is that you need the following setting to be as follows (if it isn't already):

 

Customize->Preferences-> Don't anitalias against background  (it needs to be checked)

Otherwise, in the game you will get a black ring around the building.

[RalphaelNinja 244]

cycledogg,

I was thinking of reinstalling my visual 6 compiler and recompiling the fshtool to remove press enter to continue but the following seems to work just as well.

1. create a text file called CR.txt with notepad and hit enter once to create a blank line and save
2. in the batch file when generating, add
I haven't had a chance to test any further on the process as my father day adventure didn't end until now... However this was just one of the items on the to-do list....

edit: made changes to the CPBuildingMill.ms and it works nicely...
edit: not too sure, but the model seems too bright? I am adding a niteliteomni and I'm not sure if this is contributing to the day light? however it does seem overly bright.... is it my imagination?

Ralphael

[RalphaelNinja 244]

hmmmm.... take a guess which is gmax and which is 3ds max.....

 

 

The one with the line in the center is 3dsmax.... and of course the other one is gmax bat...

 

customize pref is don't antialiase agasint background

 

Not as detailed as I had hoped.... (more testing tomorrow)

 

Ralphael

 

 

[Caliban 2]

Have you tried using a better AA filter than Area, like Catmull-Rom?

[RalphaelNinja 244]

Date:6/20/2004 11:11:27 AM
Author:Caliban

Have you tried using a better AA filter than Area, like Catmull-Rom?

quote>

Replacing the scanlinerender.antialiasfilter = cook_variable() with catmull_rom() did not have much effect.

I have now commented out the antialias setting from the script and trying various settings on the renderer panel; not quite sure if this is having any affect. Will be trying the worst settings to see if it is setting the antialias. Another test will be 3ds 5 to see if that might have a better algorithm.

CycleDogg, any thoughts?

Ralphael

[RalphaelNinja 244]

from left to right, 3dsMax4, 3dsMax5 and Bat gMax.

[CycleDogg 130]

I saw this earlier and thought I was going to come right back with a quick fix, but instead I spent about four (frustrating) hours trying to get catmull_rom (a nice AA filter by the way) to work in the maxscript render, but with no luck.  It looks like its Area or nothing in maxscript 4.2, as far as I can tell.  Neither the Render Scene dialogue panel or the scanlinerender.antialiasfilter property appear to deter maxscript from using the Area filter.  There's a parameter within the render() command itself that is also supposed to allow you to set the antialias filter, but it doesn't appear to work either.  I was able to change the filter size though, and that may improve it a little bit.  It seems to be sharper, but maybe too aliased.

[CycleDogg 130]

Also, I was looking at some version 5 documentation, and it looks like, in version 5, you can maybe fix it by setting the property:

Default_scanline_renderer.antialiasfilter

 

I got the impression from reading it that the render command would recognize this setting, (but who knows?)

[RalphaelNinja 244]

Thanks cycledogg....

I thought I was going a bit batty and you just confirmed it

Perhaps it is a bug somewhere. I'll keep playing with version 5 to see if anything makes a difference with the AA.

I'm not sure if you have coded preview, and if not, it shouldn't be too hard to implement? right (since it is a render at only one direction?)

Ralphael

[RalphaelNinja 244]

The attached file contains the modified scripts and a small readme doc; an update to cycledogg's files.

 

It seems after many hours of playing with the script between two versions of 3dsMax, the following has been achieved. I've made some slight adjustment to CycleDogg's filtersize (setting them to 1 which seems to match Maxis gMax quality a bit more closer). Confirming CycleDogg's finding on 3dsmax4, there seem to be a bug that prevents catmull-rom from being used and simply defaults to Area.

 

However, with 3dsmax5, I was able to use any render settings by setting the script antialiasing:true.  Good news for 3dsmax5 users

 

The other change is the keyboard indirection cr.txt appended to every line in the fshtool bat file allowing an auto reply.

 

Here is a pic of the rendering quality that we can now achieve....

 

From left to right, 3dsMax5 with catmull-rom AA and filtermap, 3dsMax4 with filtersize of 1, and Maxis Gmax.

 

Ralphael

[RalphaelNinja 244]

So now that we have resolved the quality of image, it seems that the world of 3ds max has been opened to us.

 

The first is the light exclude....

 

The blue and red color nitelites are actually in front of the first glass panel. The red light excludes panel 1 and 2. The blue light excludes panel 1 and 3. This extends the power of nitelites to light up a selected handful of windows from the front excluding the front walls. This also extends the power of nitelites to neon lights which excludes everything else except the neon tube.

 

Bump mapping test next

 

Ralphael

[RalphaelNinja 244]

Depending on the size of the bump map, it seems almost wasteful at first..... that is until you create shadows with nite lite

 

The left is 3dsmax5 with bump map at 150% and the right is gmax

 

 

Creates quite a bit of difference in terms of shadows and 3d...

 

That concludes our 3dsmax testing for tonight.... thanks for reading....

 

Ralphael

[frogface 352]

seeing its on a 1x1 box and a lot of details are lost how are the bump maps on a bigger object?

 

p.s i really wish i had 3dsmax now lol