Joshua, 10x for the feedback ! the idea about the custom cages is good...we'll see what we can do.
About the re-explosion , the auto backup saves cause it. The thing is that objects will implode on save and will be exploded back once the save operation is complete. This is because we didn't want to store the objects in their exploded state (if you hit accidentally save when they are exploded)...because it can ruin your file. I'll look into this problem too, maybe a checkbox in the settings panel to enable/disable this feature is a good idea.
The double HP target is a new thing for me, please if you have time do a test render and see if there is a problem.
Did a bake and it looks like the duplicate assignment doesn't affect the output at all Just a bit disconcerting seeing the two things there. At least there's no output errors.
That's great news about the autobak thing - don't think the checkbox is necessary, just knowing what caused it is good. Is that info in the documentation? Might toss others off as well.
For the custom cages, I found a workaround for now. I just apply the projection before I explode, then manually assign the custom cages. After that, the cage meshes don't really matter, so there's no need to explode them. However, it would be damn swanky (and time saving) if there was a way to have the cages auto-import to their respective LP_ mesh modifier.
I also can't find a reason for it yet, but some objects aren't exploding properly. The current object I'm working on now has some floating panels on it and the lop poly object explodes fine, but the hipoly only moves a fraction of the distance. The pivots are identical on them, as they came from the same midlevel object. I'll keep messing with that to see if I can find a reproducible cause.
Joshua, 10x for the feedback ! the idea about the custom cages is good...we'll see what we can do.
About the re-explosion , the auto backup saves cause it. The thing is that objects will implode on save and will be exploded back once the save operation is complete. This is because we didn't want to store the objects in their exploded state (if you hit accidentally save when they are exploded)...because it can ruin your file. I'll look into this problem too, maybe a checkbox in the settings panel to enable/disable this feature is a good idea.
The double HP target is a new thing for me, please if you have time do a test render and see if there is a problem.
why not transform the objects with an xform modifier. that way its simply a case of deleting the mod.
I also can't find a reason for it yet, but some objects aren't exploding properly. The current object I'm working on now has some floating panels on it and the lop poly object explodes fine, but the hipoly only moves a fraction of the distance. The pivots are identical on them, as they came from the same midlevel object. I'll keep messing with that to see if I can find a reproducible cause.
The HP objects that don't move are too far from the main HP object. Sory for my english, but I will try to explain how the explode works:
1. Get the LP object
2. Find its HP buddy - must have the same name, but with prefix for HP objects - for example LP_Body have HP_Body as main HP objects
3. Try to find sub HP objects - must have the main HP name, folowed by separaton sign and a some letters - for example HP_Body_Floaters is the sub HP for main HP (HP_Body), but the bounding box of the sub HP object must intersect with bounding box of main HP. With this intersection I avoid the problem that will occure when there is more than one objects with name HP_Body_Floaters. There is some other check but if the bbox sub HP does not intersect with bbox of the main HP the explode function will not recognise it as a subHP objects and it will not move.
Miauu, I'll export it as OBJ and FBX, see if the results are the same for you.
**edit**
Alrighty, before uploading them I tested the exports locally and they seemed to work okay. But once I imported those into my main scene, they did the same thing again, failing to work as expected.
This has the body & panels. You can see when you explode, the low poly barely moves, then the hp panels move with the body, instead of going off on their own.
Okay, this looks like a bug then.
In your video, there is an underscore "_" in the "selected" dialog box, under the HP_ name input. Mine did not. Without that underscore, everything goes wonky - please try that!
Once I put the underscore in that box, everything seemed to work fine, all parts moving where they needed to.
The custom cage linking is something I'd really still love to see though. Once I assign all of the cages, if I by chance close the RTTAssist window, I have to do it all over, since it doesn't like existing projection modifiers on the meshes
I tried using the exact same settings for a MR AO bake that I did using the standard RTT interface, but I get whack results. This is 200 samples, 1+16 sampling, 1.5 spread and 7 distance.
RTTAssist
MaxRTT
It looks like RTTAssist is using like 16 samples or something, which I don't get. Any help would be great, thanks!
*edit*
Actually, it looks like RTTAssist isn't hiding the faces of the lowpoly when mental ray is used? I get similar results with the max RTT render if I don't hide the geo of the lowpoly.
I just did some tests right now with the custom cages, too. Turns out, at least mental ray freaks out if the cages aren't moved WITH the LP/HP objects. I assumed it would be okay if you already imported them into the modifier but it doesn't look like that works - you get raycast errors.
If you guys add the cage support I'd be cool if:
- the CG_ cage gets automatically imported into the respective modifier cage slot
- the cage gets moved with the other objects during explodes
- the cage properties gets "renderable" unchecked, as to not cast shadows during MR bakes (hiding the cage mesh also works if that's easier, so long as it was moved with the LP/HP during explode).
All in all though, this script is a huge time saver. Looking forward to any updates!
@ACE - Yeah I saw they added the feature, but the MR AO bakes just aren't working. It's possible that it's due to the problem I just listed above though, where the custom cages are not being moved in the explode. When my current bake is done I'll give it another shot by exploding then manually moving the custom cage mesh to fit it - see if that resolves the issue.
@Joshua, I will have time to work on RTTAssist on wednesday. A friend of mine promissed me to give me his notebook, so I can install max2012 and make some test.
About CG_ and moving it with the LP objects I have some questions. I don't have too much expirience with different workflows for baking textures., so - is that CG_ a valid mesh object? If it is, you can try to named it as a sub-HP. To be more specific: If the name of one of yours LP objects is LP_Door:
main LP - LP_Door
main HP - HP_Door
sub_Hp - HP_Door_widow (I'm using "_" for special separation sign)
cage - HP_Door_CG
If the objects are named in that way there will be no problems with moving the cage with the LP object, and the cage will be in the projection reference list of the LP object.
Try this workflow and if it works or not - let me know.
The hidding of LP objects work fine in max 9 to 2011. I don't know why the code don't work in max2012.
I'm slightly confused on the proper work flow using this with max, I'm new to max so that may be half the problem.
So I import labeled separated HP and LP models that pretty much match, I got exploding and baking all to work fine, but is there a quick way to push the lp to get it to bake right? or do I have to do each piece one by one and undo it at the end? is there a quick way to combine the normal maps from each part?
@ZacD - the rollout underneath the Project button is the cage push modifier. That will push it out globally on all objects.
under the preset manager (lower right) there's a check box for combining maps - this will automatically make a single composite image from the output files.
since i updated from 1.4 to 1.5 i'm now getting artifacted bakes like joshua stubbles, it looks like it was using mental ray for the normal bake as well since the bake looked similarly artifacted....
how do we uninstall and revert back to a previous version...can you post up the previous revisions on you site.
since i updated from 1.4 to 1.5 i'm now getting artifacted bakes like joshua stubbles, it looks like it was using mental ray for the normal bake as well since the bake looked similarly artifacted....
how do we uninstall and revert back to a previous version...can you post up the previous revisions on you site.
since i updated from 1.4 to 1.5 i'm now getting artifacted bakes like joshua stubbles, it looks like it was using mental ray for the normal bake as well since the bake looked similarly artifacted....
how do we uninstall and revert back to a previous version...can you post up the previous revisions on you site.
With v.14 you don't have problems when you are using MR to bake textures, but with v.15. you have a problems?
I tried to give this a go last night. When I drop the .mzp(RTTAssist_v15.mzp) into the viewport it gives me the install dialog window, seemingly installs, but then nothing happens- and I can not find any reference to it. Upon doing it again, it detect a previous install.
I reset, also restarted ....checked to make sure max was not hanging in the task manager after I closed it. Still nothing. I am not sure if it is even copying anything over to my directories. I am the admin account on my comp. If you need any other info on my setup, I will post it
HI!
I think that I know where is the problem- the macro script thats run the RTTAssist is not copyed to maxroot/ui/scripts folder. I Will make new installer tonight and will sedn it to you.
Little tip for the MentalRay bake guys, you might wanna disable 'jitter' under options in MR. It's enabled after the first bake for some reason.
The problem is even in Max 2011 the settings reset after EACH bake, meaning I have to adjust them after each bake. It also changes back to scanline for some reason.
The solution for me was just making 2 settings "Low" and "High", also, you need to increase the bucket size if you want to want to get rid of the speckled look.
miauu and CodeFather, could you guys maybe create a default 'setting' for RTAssist? Both for scanline and MR? It could be because my labs PC's are locked or something, at home, it works fine.
The link in the first post is updated so you can download it from there. Here is the changelog: * Import/Export of projection cage meshes(Use Ctrl + MMB on the Project button). 10x to Joshua Stubbles for the idea. * New BuildPairs feature that uses the name you can enter in the new BuildPairs Name Field. Check the help file ! * Users can now create a default preset for mray in case they use the built in automatic switch between scanline and mray.For additional information check the help documentation. * New HideFaces(MR) checkbox is added that allows you to hide the faces of all low-poly objects when rendering.
Note:
the version for max9 is still 1.4. We're going to update that as well soon.
The new build pairs explained
RMB + Click = on the BuildPairs button will rename the selected objects by using the text entered in the build pairs text field (located right next to the Build Pairs button). Thisway you have more control over the names of the objects. Check out the help documentation for more in depth information.
Hey Codefather, I wanna feature this script in my Dozer part 2 DVD, to do some of the baking and exploding. The build pair thing looks bad ass, does it automatically decide what is LP and HP by checking for a TS modifier ?
Hi!
Yes, Build Pair automatically decide what is LP and HP by checking for a TS modifier.
You can check the source code - the Build Pair part starts from line 11111.
But, Build Pair can't handle all situations, so when it can't do the job a message will appear to inform you that you have to rename objects manualy.
Xoliul, feel free to use it in your dvd. Being featured in a quality tutorial like yours is always appreciated ! And as miauu already said, BuildPairs checks for Turbo Smooth and Mesh Smooth modifiers. Also I'm pretty sure it checks the polycount of the objects too( but what I'm not sure is if the results of this verification depends entirely on the "Max.LP faces" value, located in the Settings drop down menu. Miauu can answer this with certainty).This way you can import high-polies from zbrush or mudbox and the BuildPairs will still recognise them as HP objects.
...( but what I'm not sure is if the results of this verification depends entirely on the "Max.LP faces" value, located in the Settings drop down menu.
The value of the "Max.LP faces" spinner is not involved in the separation proces. The Build Pair compare only the face count of the selected objects. The object with lower face count become main LP object. Then Build Pair will try to find the main HP object, and if it can't find it the LiveLog will display a message that inform the user that he must rename objects manualy.
I'm sorry for bugging you guys about this, but after going through the thread and the help files, I'm still having trouble exploding stuff in 2012 with v1.5.
My stuff is in this config:
LP_ChestBottom
HP_ChestBottom
HP_ChestBottom_bolt1
HP_ChestBottom_bolt2
HP_ChestBottom_bolt3
HP_ChestBottom_trim1
...etc (another two accessories)
There is another set of LP & HP objects doing this as well.
The HP pieces aren't in groups. I even collapsed the symmetry modifier on one of the bolts thinking that might help, but no cigar. Not even building pairs works (in fact, when I go into the names dialog, those built pairs are listed as wrong..). I used the Project button on all of pieces, and the funny the is that HP_ChestBottom_bolt1, *_bolt2, etc are all in the projection list of LP_ChestBottom.
Great script otherwise. Would have taken me ages to do the separate bakes for all of the pieces and combine the maps.
I'm sorry for bugging you guys about this, but after going through the thread and the help files, I'm still having trouble exploding stuff in 2012 with v1.5.
My stuff is in this config:
LP_ChestBottom
HP_ChestBottom
HP_ChestBottom_bolt1
HP_ChestBottom_bolt2
HP_ChestBottom_bolt3
HP_ChestBottom_trim1
...etc (another two accessories)
There is another set of LP & HP objects doing this as well.
The HP pieces aren't in groups. I even collapsed the symmetry modifier on one of the bolts thinking that might help, but no cigar. Not even building pairs works (in fact, when I go into the names dialog, those built pairs are listed as wrong..). I used the Project button on all of pieces, and the funny the is that HP_ChestBottom_bolt1, *_bolt2, etc are all in the projection list of LP_ChestBottom.
Great script otherwise. Would have taken me ages to do the separate bakes for all of the pieces and combine the maps.
As I said(in one of my previous post) explode, add projection and build pairs work properly only if the boundingboxes of the HP buddys of the LPobject intersect with boundingbox of LP objects. I will use your LP-HP group as example:
When script take the LP_ChestBottom, the main HP - wich will be
HP_ChestBottom. Then the script will try to find sub-hp objects if they exist.In your case
HP_ChestBottom_bolt1
HP_ChestBottom_bolt2
HP_ChestBottom_bolt3
HP_ChestBottom_trim1
...etc (another two accessories)
are the sub-hp objects of HP_ChestBottom. But, the bouncingbox of every one of this sub-hps must intersect with the boundingbox of the HP_ChestBottom.If this intersection does not exist the sub-hp object will not be added to LP_ChestBottom group. So, may be your sub-hps are too far from HP_ChestBottom or may be not.
But,this:
I used the Project button on all of pieces, and the funny the is that HP_ChestBottom_bolt1, *_bolt2, etc are all in the projection list of LP_ChestBottom.
is verry strange. Can you send me the two problematic groups - miau_u@yahoo.com. Note that I'm using max2009
Firstly thanks for the tool! I'm having a small problem with explode - (I've had a quick read through the thread but couldn't see my issue exactly) The meshes travel off to a far off location in the viewport making it near impossible to navigate or find anything except the main mesh. Any idea why this might happen?
Cheers!
Oh I'm using max 2011 with service packs and v1.6 of RTTassist
Replies
About the re-explosion , the auto backup saves cause it. The thing is that objects will implode on save and will be exploded back once the save operation is complete. This is because we didn't want to store the objects in their exploded state (if you hit accidentally save when they are exploded)...because it can ruin your file. I'll look into this problem too, maybe a checkbox in the settings panel to enable/disable this feature is a good idea.
The double HP target is a new thing for me, please if you have time do a test render and see if there is a problem.
That's great news about the autobak thing - don't think the checkbox is necessary, just knowing what caused it is good. Is that info in the documentation? Might toss others off as well.
For the custom cages, I found a workaround for now. I just apply the projection before I explode, then manually assign the custom cages. After that, the cage meshes don't really matter, so there's no need to explode them. However, it would be damn swanky (and time saving) if there was a way to have the cages auto-import to their respective LP_ mesh modifier.
I also can't find a reason for it yet, but some objects aren't exploding properly. The current object I'm working on now has some floating panels on it and the lop poly object explodes fine, but the hipoly only moves a fraction of the distance. The pivots are identical on them, as they came from the same midlevel object. I'll keep messing with that to see if I can find a reproducible cause.
why not transform the objects with an xform modifier. that way its simply a case of deleting the mod.
1. Get the LP object
2. Find its HP buddy - must have the same name, but with prefix for HP objects - for example LP_Body have HP_Body as main HP objects
3. Try to find sub HP objects - must have the main HP name, folowed by separaton sign and a some letters - for example HP_Body_Floaters is the sub HP for main HP (HP_Body), but the bounding box of the sub HP object must intersect with bounding box of main HP. With this intersection I avoid the problem that will occure when there is more than one objects with name HP_Body_Floaters. There is some other check but if the bbox sub HP does not intersect with bbox of the main HP the explode function will not recognise it as a subHP objects and it will not move.
I hope you understand me.
The objects aren't far apart and most other objects work fine (there's like 3 objects that don't).
A very big thank you for this amazing script, I'll play around with it some more before making up my mind but I am pretty set on donating to this ^^
**edit**
Alrighty, before uploading them I tested the exports locally and they seemed to work okay. But once I imported those into my main scene, they did the same thing again, failing to work as expected.
This has the body & panels. You can see when you explode, the low poly barely moves, then the hp panels move with the body, instead of going off on their own.
[ame]
In your video, there is an underscore "_" in the "selected" dialog box, under the HP_ name input. Mine did not. Without that underscore, everything goes wonky - please try that!
Once I put the underscore in that box, everything seemed to work fine, all parts moving where they needed to.
The custom cage linking is something I'd really still love to see though. Once I assign all of the cages, if I by chance close the RTTAssist window, I have to do it all over, since it doesn't like existing projection modifiers on the meshes
I tried using the exact same settings for a MR AO bake that I did using the standard RTT interface, but I get whack results. This is 200 samples, 1+16 sampling, 1.5 spread and 7 distance.
RTTAssist
MaxRTT
It looks like RTTAssist is using like 16 samples or something, which I don't get. Any help would be great, thanks!
*edit*
Actually, it looks like RTTAssist isn't hiding the faces of the lowpoly when mental ray is used? I get similar results with the max RTT render if I don't hide the geo of the lowpoly.
If you guys add the cage support I'd be cool if:
- the CG_ cage gets automatically imported into the respective modifier cage slot
- the cage gets moved with the other objects during explodes
- the cage properties gets "renderable" unchecked, as to not cast shadows during MR bakes (hiding the cage mesh also works if that's easier, so long as it was moved with the LP/HP during explode).
All in all though, this script is a huge time saver. Looking forward to any updates!
Anything to speed things up.
About CG_ and moving it with the LP objects I have some questions. I don't have too much expirience with different workflows for baking textures., so - is that CG_ a valid mesh object? If it is, you can try to named it as a sub-HP. To be more specific: If the name of one of yours LP objects is LP_Door:
main LP - LP_Door
main HP - HP_Door
sub_Hp - HP_Door_widow (I'm using "_" for special separation sign)
cage - HP_Door_CG
If the objects are named in that way there will be no problems with moving the cage with the LP object, and the cage will be in the projection reference list of the LP object.
Try this workflow and if it works or not - let me know.
The hidding of LP objects work fine in max 9 to 2011. I don't know why the code don't work in max2012.
So I import labeled separated HP and LP models that pretty much match, I got exploding and baking all to work fine, but is there a quick way to push the lp to get it to bake right? or do I have to do each piece one by one and undo it at the end? is there a quick way to combine the normal maps from each part?
[ame]
under the preset manager (lower right) there's a check box for combining maps - this will automatically make a single composite image from the output files.
Also, in the first page of this toplic there is a quick tips, maded by CodeFather - one of them - you can use Ctrl+Alt+Shift+LMB over almost evry button, spinner or textfield to open the help file on the exact page. For example if you do Ctrl+Alt+Shift+LMB over the "Render"button the help file will be opened at the page, that show the information of the "Render" button. This way you don't need to read the whole help file and can quickly find the information of the tool that you want.
how do we uninstall and revert back to a previous version...can you post up the previous revisions on you site.
Here is the link to the privious 1.4 version (for max 2008 and up):
http://www.vertexbee.com/download/file.php?id=9
Will see what we can do with the baking artifacts...
win7
max 2011 sp2
here's a capture of what happens...maybe I am missing something
edot: will try that
I think that I know where is the problem- the macro script thats run the RTTAssist is not copyed to maxroot/ui/scripts folder. I Will make new installer tonight and will sedn it to you.
Let me know if there are problems.
The vesion 1.6 is almost ready, so the new installer will be included in the next version.
The problem is even in Max 2011 the settings reset after EACH bake, meaning I have to adjust them after each bake. It also changes back to scanline for some reason.
The solution for me was just making 2 settings "Low" and "High", also, you need to increase the bucket size if you want to want to get rid of the speckled look.
miauu and CodeFather, could you guys maybe create a default 'setting' for RTAssist? Both for scanline and MR? It could be because my labs PC's are locked or something, at home, it works fine.
Also, when I move the polygons manually of the LP model, they work fine. Is this a Max issue? 2011 btw...
RTTassist version 1.6 is out!
The link in the first post is updated so you can download it from there. Here is the changelog:
* Import/Export of projection cage meshes(Use Ctrl + MMB on the Project button). 10x to Joshua Stubbles for the idea.
* New BuildPairs feature that uses the name you can enter in the new BuildPairs Name Field. Check the help file !
* Users can now create a default preset for mray in case they use the built in automatic switch between scanline and mray.For additional information check the help documentation.
* New HideFaces(MR) checkbox is added that allows you to hide the faces of all low-poly objects when rendering.
Note:
the version for max9 is still 1.4. We're going to update that as well soon.
The new build pairs explained
RMB + Click = on the BuildPairs button will rename the selected objects by using the text entered in the build pairs text field (located right next to the Build Pairs button). Thisway you have more control over the names of the objects. Check out the help documentation for more in depth information.
Cheers!
-runtime error: dotNet runtime exception. The remote server returned an error (404) Not Found.
Yes, Build Pair automatically decide what is LP and HP by checking for a TS modifier.
You can check the source code - the Build Pair part starts from line 11111.
But, Build Pair can't handle all situations, so when it can't do the job a message will appear to inform you that you have to rename objects manualy.
My stuff is in this config:
LP_ChestBottom
HP_ChestBottom
HP_ChestBottom_bolt1
HP_ChestBottom_bolt2
HP_ChestBottom_bolt3
HP_ChestBottom_trim1
...etc (another two accessories)
There is another set of LP & HP objects doing this as well.
The HP pieces aren't in groups. I even collapsed the symmetry modifier on one of the bolts thinking that might help, but no cigar. Not even building pairs works (in fact, when I go into the names dialog, those built pairs are listed as wrong..). I used the Project button on all of pieces, and the funny the is that HP_ChestBottom_bolt1, *_bolt2, etc are all in the projection list of LP_ChestBottom.
Great script otherwise. Would have taken me ages to do the separate bakes for all of the pieces and combine the maps.
When script take the LP_ChestBottom, the main HP - wich will be
HP_ChestBottom. Then the script will try to find sub-hp objects if they exist.In your case
HP_ChestBottom_bolt1
HP_ChestBottom_bolt2
HP_ChestBottom_bolt3
HP_ChestBottom_trim1
...etc (another two accessories)
are the sub-hp objects of HP_ChestBottom. But, the bouncingbox of every one of this sub-hps must intersect with the boundingbox of the HP_ChestBottom.If this intersection does not exist the sub-hp object will not be added to LP_ChestBottom group. So, may be your sub-hps are too far from HP_ChestBottom or may be not.
But,this: is verry strange. Can you send me the two problematic groups - miau_u@yahoo.com. Note that I'm using max2009
Cheers!
Oh I'm using max 2011 with service packs and v1.6 of RTTassist