Ulukai on 7/11/2004 at 14:53
Just noticed that IonShader.dlt specifically asks for version 5100 of Max in order to work.
This wasn't a problem for me once I'd installed the 5.0 to 5.1 patch, but if people are using version 6 or 7 of 3dsmax, will the plugin still choke on the reported version number? And in theory would it even work with the newer versions if the version check by the plugin could be bypassed or disabled?
I'm just a-thinking that the number of people who specifically have version 5.1 of 3dsmax are going to be few and far between.
Gingerbread Man on 8/11/2004 at 05:46
ewww
Well. Actually.
I have 5.1
¬¬
You tried importing meshwork then, Ulu? That was going to be my mission today, but a house full of brothers and a couple bottles of Bushmill's soon put paid to that plan.
Ulukai on 8/11/2004 at 11:49
That's what I'm playing with some more today, hopefully I'll get as far as writing a nice picture aided tutorial.
What I have discovered so far is that as the supplied editor document suggests, the plugin paths need to be loaded in a specific order. Which is:
C:\Program Files\Thief - Deadly Shadows\Utility\Max\Plugins\HardwareShaders
C:\Program Files\Thief - Deadly Shadows\Utility\Max\Stdplugs
C:\Program Files\Thief - Deadly Shadows\Utility\Max\Plugins
(This is a different order to the document). If they're not in this order, matexport.dlu fails to initialise.
In order to use the Ion Shader, I also had to add the plugin path:
C:\Program Files\Thief - Deadly Shadows\CONTENT\T3\MatLib
Ulukai on 8/11/2004 at 14:00
Ok, I've successfully imported my mesh into T3ED, but despite successfully loading all the plugins into 3dsmax, I can't for the life of me find:
“Utilities”->”More”->”Mat Export” in 3dsmax (From the editor doc)
So at the moment, it's not textured in T3ED as I can't convert a .mat to a .mlb
I have the "Utilities" Option in the material editor, but all I have the options for are "Render Map..." and "Select Objects by Material..."
Any thoughts?
We missing some custom UI file maybe?
Harwin on 8/11/2004 at 21:40
A) I don't know about version 6 or version 7 or how it will interact with the plugins.
B) I wrote the install doc, and I've never really used 3DSMax before. As I recall, those are the steps I had an artist show me, and I had them double-checked. Doesn't mean there isn't an error, but I'd like to know if it's working for anyone else. (While talking with the artist, I got the impression that this was a standard way to export matlibs... even without our plugins... but that impression could be false. But if you know a standard way, you might try that)
--Alex
Ulukai on 8/11/2004 at 22:12
Well, I've managed to export a material library as a .mat file, but I was under the impression it needed some conversion to .mlb.
I'll try just renaming my exported library and seeing what happens.
Ulukai on 8/11/2004 at 23:12
Hmm, I don't think it's as simple as renaming the file.
a) T3Ed doesn't want to open a .mat file renamed to .mlb
b) 3ds max doesn't want to open a .mlb renamed to .mat
I would suggest then that this means I definitely need to use the Ion MatExporter.dlu, which max has loaded but I can't seem to access from the UI. I've tried hunting around the customize UI options to see if I can add it to the menus, but no joy there either.
Hay, Max guru GBM. Hewlp :D
Gingerbread Man on 8/11/2004 at 23:44
You're further ahead than I am... Max refuses to initialise MatExport.dlu for me.
Regardless, I would imagine you'll find it under Utilities... I think. That's where all the other plugins and such end up, yeah? ActorX and the like.
I shall continue to try to convince Max to like MatExport.dlu
Ulukai on 9/11/2004 at 00:29
Hurrah! You got me thinking.....It never occurred to me to look in the
Utilities Utilities. I was convinced it was going to be in the Materials editor somewhere. (Doh)
Tada! Thanks :D
Inline Image:
http://www.planetunreal.com/ulukai/temp/doh.jpgRegarding the initialisation problem, have you tried changing the plugin paths order as per my suggestion above? I was having the same problem until I changed them.
Ulukai on 9/11/2004 at 00:44
And....the whole process works. Here we have it in editor, with textures. Eww @ my quick lighting inserts but I can go to bed having actually accomplished something today:
Inline Image:
http://www.planetunreal.com/ulukai/temp/yay.jpgNow that I understand how material libraries work, think I'll rewrite the tutorial to try and encourage people to use existing material libraries, otherwise there will be duplication++ of texture resources/unnecessary libraries if I tell people to do it how I'm doing it at the moment. New material libraries only need to be created if you're using new textures. (This is more me thinking out loud, but humour me - I need to write it down before I sleep on it.)
