I haven't gotten to test this out yet but it does look very interesting and fun to use with but I'm still confused on the quality mode renders. I believe this has been explained by perna but im still confused

When you do a quality render, the shader will fix errors in the viewport on your normal so it looks sexy. Its not fixing your normal map errors on your actual map though, correct? It's just showing what your normal map could look like if you do it right.

Also r_fletch had said yes to Norman's question yes you can implement the quality mode into game engines. Hows this possible? Is this something an idiot like myself can do or is it pretty tech heavy?

Yeah! any detail on how to implement this in Unreal 3 for example would be awesome!

Originally Posted by tekmatic

I read on the 3point studio site about the 3point shader working on Max9 and above, but has anyone has it working on Max 2011?

Use the oldstyle material editor (compact mode), and create a "3Point Shader Lite" material with it.

per said it was possible here.
http://boards.polycount.net/showpost...5&postcount=40
dont mistake me for someone who knows about this stuff

Wow, This shader kicks some serious ass! Just tried it on my German Shepherd and I was able to replicate the same quality or better as I got with Xoliul! But the best thing about this, are all the options make using this shader easy, and most of all the perfected normal map preview. Great job guys this is so awesome!

As you will see, Everything is working properly, Shadows, Normals, Alpha, Alpha test etc.

***NOTE: One little bug I did notice is, if I brought in my normals with the green channel flipped (flipped from the way max outputs normals by default that is), and used the "Flip Normals Y" to flip the green channel. This DOES NOT fix my normals. I had to go into photoshop and manually flip my green channel on my normal map. So if anyone is having problems with normals try this first.

Here is my German Shepherd with the 3point shader, and Xoluil Scene Effects (Unsharp mask, colorcorrect, and post bloom Real-Time Scene Effect used).


Probably need to tweak this further, and down the unsharp mask, but you get the picture.

suh-weet.

Oh, to anyone having shadow problems make sure you have these things checked.
if you right click on "[Smooth + Highlights]" in the top left hand corner of the veiwport. Make sure under "lighting and shadows" you have "Illuminate with Scene Effect" / "Enable Hardware shading" & " Enable Shadows" All Checked.
Make sure your actual lights have Shadows: "On" Checked.

Also Try going to Views>Viewport Configuration>"Lighting and Shadows" Tab> And make sure under "Global Settings" you have "Best" Checked (SM3.0 Option).

Lastly, the shadows do not support "Soft Shadows", so under "Shadow Options: make sure (first you should have "Enable Shadows" Checked now) you have "Hard Shadows" Chosen.

I think that's everything you need to get the shadows working properly. Anything beyond that might be a graphic card issue. I know Nvidia cards play nice with 3ds max real-time so if you have Ati, you might run into trouble. Hope this helps!

Hey dudes, cool stuff. At first I thought it was a bit strange that you rolled everything into a shader, but I see there's a C++ coded modifier at work also.

few questions/remarks;

I'm not sure if adapting to max's tangent space is the best solution. I still think Max is sort of broken in the way it renders the normalmaps, but this modifier and shader patches it. However, expecting that all engines and companies apply this Max-specific patch to their engine seems a bit much? If Epic were to do this, they'd have to leave it as an option, since bakes from Maya or Xnormal use a different tangent basis. Seems confusing to have option for application specific bakes.
I'm just not really convinced if having everything adapt to the odd one out (Max baking) is a better solution than having the odd one out adapt to more regular practices.

I read the shadercode; the "Quality normals" implementation isn't very difficult. Would you mind if I add this as an option to my shader? That way the modifier will also work.

On your site, you mention anisotropic filtering as a feature. isn't that a Max-specific setting over which shaders have no control? Or do you have control over this through the C++ plugin?


Oh and, I love the entire plugin / GUI thing you have. That's what I always wanted to do with my shader, but lacked the time and understanding for. I'm wondering if all those options (like the planet, sun and procedural mask) fit into a single shader; you've got to be hitting some SM3.0 limits with that sort of functionality.
Wish I could've contributed a bit to this, too bad you 3 Point guys never got back on my application ;)

trying to install to max 2010 x64, tried dropping the zip file, the mzip.run file within the zip file, the various other files all into max like it says to on the page, but none of them do anything.

You drop the entire "mzp" file or as an alternative just "Maxscript -> Run Script" and select the .mzp file. You don't need to unzip nor mess with files manually, it's all automatic as mentioned on the website.

my point, is that there is no mzp file...

on my desktop, i have:
3psshaderlite_installer.zip

and inside that i have:

Originally Posted by Xoliul

Wish I could've contributed a bit to this, too bad you 3 Point guys never got back on my application ;)

Oh man don't even go there... the world isn't ready for a Xoliul/3Point collab.

The link points to: 3psshaderlite_installer.mzp
Maybe you've renamed the file or something else?

i'll rename the file on my end, but downloading from the link downloads a .zip file for me =[

could be explorer doing some crazy shit on it's own though.

Some browsers tend to have difficulty with downloading .mzp files directly, I remember a similar problem whilst using Opera a while ago. I'd suggest trying to download using another browser, as Joe says the link points directly to "3psshaderlite_installer.mzp" there should be no messing with .zip files

it's cool, i just renamed the file and it worked.

now the difficulty i'm having is that i don't get to use the GUI, if i make a material a 3 point shader material, i get all the options, but no GUI as seen on the website.

QQ =[

Xoliul: I'm not sure if adapting to max's tangent space is the best solution. I still think Max is sort of broken in the way it renders the normalmaps, but this modifier and shader patches it. However, expecting that all engines and companies apply this Max-specific patch to their engine seems a bit much? If Epic were to do this, they'd have to leave it as an option, since bakes from Maya or Xnormal use a different tangent basis. Seems confusing to have option for application specific bakes.
I'm just not really convinced if having everything adapt to the odd one out (Max baking) is a better solution than having the odd one out adapt to more regular practices.

Yeah man, I totally agree with you about fixing normals via max viewport shader. Because honestly, if it works well in 3ds max, but not in any game engine, there is a serious problem for production. However, it is great to have this option if your just working on personal art. It can save you a lot of headaches, and you can focus more on the art itself, and not on the technical garbage that comes when dealing with normal maps.

Personally, I still always use Marmoset tool bag to view my bakes. I have found that Marmoset is pretty well rounded in terms of how it handels the normals, and the results you see there carry over well to other game engines. Once I get more in depth with the texturing, and want to make a REALLY nice real-time render; its bake to 3ds max. I'll be using both 3 point Shader and Xoluil from now on.

One thing I didn't mention is, I actually detached the eyes and used the Xoluilshader on the eyes. So actually, you can mix and match these shaders to get some cool effects as well.

Yup, some browsers add or rename .mzp files into .zip files. I use chrome and it adds a .zip after the .mzp. All you need to is delete the .zip bit and/or rename it to.mzp.

I just tried playing around with it and the GUI is just the standard shader gui. Is this because I'm using max 2009 and you need 2010+ for the fancy GUI?

Seems i am having some issues as there are write permissions set on our damn pcs here at work.

-- Compile error: Unable to create copy/move destination directory:
CProgram Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2010\scripts\3PointShader\plugins

-- In line: copy *
-- In file: mzp.run in package
Cusers\jmoody\Downloads\3psshaderlite_installer. mzp


Gonna just try and creating everything manually and adding in the paths and files.

*** Fixed... Had to apply admin rights to folders.

Originally Posted by Yozora

Yup, some browsers add or rename .mzp files into .zip files. I use chrome and it adds a .zip after the .mzp. All you need to is delete the .zip bit and/or rename it to.mzp.

I just tried playing around with it and the GUI is just the standard shader gui. Is this because I'm using max 2009 and you need 2010+ for the fancy GUI?

can't be that cos i'm using 2010 and don't get the fancy GUI

could be x86 version only?

As stated before you should add the Modifier to get the fancy gui if i´m not mistaken

The lite version doesn't include the fancy GUI

ah ok, that's a shame...

Fixed my issue... It was admin rights for some reason were not applied.

Originally Posted by Xoliul

Hey dudes, cool stuff. At first I thought it was a bit strange that you rolled everything into a shader, but I see there's a C++ coded modifier at work also.

few questions/remarks;

I'm not sure if adapting to max's tangent space is the best solution. I still think Max is sort of broken in the way it renders the normalmaps, but this modifier and shader patches it. However, expecting that all engines and companies apply this Max-specific patch to their engine seems a bit much? If Epic were to do this, they'd have to leave it as an option, since bakes from Maya or Xnormal use a different tangent basis. Seems confusing to have option for application specific bakes.
I'm just not really convinced if having everything adapt to the odd one out (Max baking) is a better solution than having the odd one out adapt to more regular practices.

I read the shadercode; the "Quality normals" implementation isn't very difficult. Would you mind if I add this as an option to my shader? That way the modifier will also work.

On your site, you mention anisotropic filtering as a feature. isn't that a Max-specific setting over which shaders have no control? Or do you have control over this through the C++ plugin?


Oh and, I love the entire plugin / GUI thing you have. That's what I always wanted to do with my shader, but lacked the time and understanding for. I'm wondering if all those options (like the planet, sun and procedural mask) fit into a single shader; you've got to be hitting some SM3.0 limits with that sort of functionality.
Wish I could've contributed a bit to this, too bad you 3 Point guys never got back on my application ;)

Xoliul, all software that already supports 3ds Max normal map bakes will benefit greatly from the tangent space fix.