EricChadwick
12-11-2002, 01:10 AM
Check out this cool new plugin for Max 5.
http://www.mankua.com/texkiln.cfm
I've been testing it for awhile now, and it is quite good.
Basically, it lets you render objects into another object's texture. You can render maps from a highres set of meshes (Source) onto a low-res mesh (Target). UVs are only needed on the Target. Lots of flexibility in how the ray hits are generated.
The "Normal Map" bitmap plugin is also great... lets you use normal maps as bump maps with the scanline renderer, not just the viewport anymore.
Someone asked me how it's better than ATI's normal mapper...
http://www.ati.com/developer/tools.html
...here's a few reasons off the top of my head:
1) Works in Max, using all the features of Max's renderer. (ATI's is a standalone command-line tool)
2) Multiple passes: complete, diffuse only, normals, alpha, more planned. (ATI is only for normal maps)
3) Much more control about how the hits are generated. ATIs tool has many problems with complex surfaces.
4) Comes with the separate Normal Map map plugin, to use a normal map as a bump map for rendering in Max.
5) Open Beta... you can play with all features, and you can request features. ATI's tool is a one-off.
Give the developer some feedback, via his forum. He responds to suggestions.
A simple example...
http://www.cgchat.com/board/attachment.php?s=&postid=94014
http://www.mankua.com/texkiln.cfm
I've been testing it for awhile now, and it is quite good.
Basically, it lets you render objects into another object's texture. You can render maps from a highres set of meshes (Source) onto a low-res mesh (Target). UVs are only needed on the Target. Lots of flexibility in how the ray hits are generated.
The "Normal Map" bitmap plugin is also great... lets you use normal maps as bump maps with the scanline renderer, not just the viewport anymore.
Someone asked me how it's better than ATI's normal mapper...
http://www.ati.com/developer/tools.html
...here's a few reasons off the top of my head:
1) Works in Max, using all the features of Max's renderer. (ATI's is a standalone command-line tool)
2) Multiple passes: complete, diffuse only, normals, alpha, more planned. (ATI is only for normal maps)
3) Much more control about how the hits are generated. ATIs tool has many problems with complex surfaces.
4) Comes with the separate Normal Map map plugin, to use a normal map as a bump map for rendering in Max.
5) Open Beta... you can play with all features, and you can request features. ATI's tool is a one-off.
Give the developer some feedback, via his forum. He responds to suggestions.
A simple example...
http://www.cgchat.com/board/attachment.php?s=&postid=94014