Proof of concept: Maxtor

#161

Just a note, if you want the checkers to appear properly on the plane, give it a geometry modifier, and check “Export texture coords”.

I’m investigating the rest.

Edit: Oh, of course. (I lost my frikkin post. Argh!)

Basically, you can’t use Base to pivot for RiSphere, as it is an implicit primitive. It places it wherever your pivot is, and uses that as the centre. There are no polygons that describe it so it can’t do anything but that. The base to pivot option only shows up in the create panel, due to a maxscript limitation. If you go to the modify panel, it won’t be there.

You can fix it on existing RiSpheres by going Affect Pivot only, Center to object.

The polygon sphere should work though.

#162

Ok, I completely rewrote my material plugin, it is now far more useful than before:

  • The code is way more elegant and simple than before
  • It supports all parameter types
  • Each parameter can now be animated (my old hack did not allow this)
  • It doesn’t have all those annoying little quirks that the old version did.

I strongly recommend you use the new version.

Let me know if I missed any bugs.

EDIT: Little bug fix is up, the animated values weren’t being used when exporting the scene. This is now fixed.

#163

New release:

  • Revised UI, you no longer have to scroll to find the Render button.
  • Preliminary support for saving render settings per-scene.
#164

Hi there scorpion, I was just looking here at ShaderMan and I was thinking… is it possible for you to create a command-line similar to what that program uses? For 3delight messages? And maybe have an option to turn it on/off and then supressing the DOS command box… Just a thought :slight_smile: Gonna try your new release, cya!

#165

It’s a good idea, but won’t be a trivial change. Perhaps some time in the future.
For now I added some buttons to open the render log, and last rendered rib to make things somewhat more convenient, but I’ll refrain from releasing until I do something more significant.

Just testing out a simple occlusion shader…

#166

New version released:

  • some bug fixes
  • New RIBBox helper node. Allows you to insert custom ribcode pre-world and pre-frame, with string substitution. You can have as many of these as you want per scene.
  • Some convenience buttons to open last RIB, log, etc.
#167

Some bug fixes are up:

  • Array types are gracefully handled in the material
  • some misc bug fixes with shadow map generation.
#168

umm, is this still in progress? Managed to try it for 2 days before the license expired…been anxiously waiting for update ever since :).

Mostly I was totally blown away by renderman’s lightning fast displacement. Would be interesting to experiment further.

#169

Sorry to bump this old thread, but I was curious as to what happend to this plugin. As it was the only alternative to a renderman interface for max.

Anyone?

-theo

#170

Is there any news on MaxtoRenderman ?
I’d love to have a play with this.

cheers

#171

Yes, could you open a new beta period?

#172

I’m interested in new developments aswell.

#173

Was following this very intently as it seems to be the only alternative to MAXman, which is discontinued. If this ran into problems could I have at least the contents of the license.dat in order to use the plugin and also is there any chance that I could develop this further? I just impleented Renderman and am looking to either write, or implement something to get it to work tightly with my Max pipeline. Thanks.

  • Evan
#174

bump…

#175

Well considering there hasn’t been a reply in 12 months… I doubt your bump every 6 hours is going to be too successful. :smiley:

#176

Well, you could be right…

bump :thumbsup:

#177

Well its a bit fishy that he just stopped working on it, I know he still posts in other sections of cgtalk. Its just weird that he dont respond in this thread anymore.

#178

I wonder if it could be legal stuff with Autodesk or Pixar? Animal Logic and everyone else discontinued there plugins as well. It seems the only thing you cant find for Max is something to connect it to Renderman.

This is pretty crucial for me though, I just plugged Renderman Studio into my pipeline which only uses Maya at a minimal level. I haent the time right now to write something and honestly if the wheel is already working quite well I see no need to redesign it. I have a version of the MAXtor plugin that was made for Max 8 but it doesnt seem to work right. If our man doesnt reply I will rehost it and perhaps we can all dig in and develop it further. I also have the enrypted MAXscripts that were developed but they are inaccessible without a DAT file that contains the license info.

Does anyoe have a license file from the BETA? I am assuning the plugin is fair game at this point since the author kind of abandoned it.

  • Evan
#179

bump…
:shrug:

#180

It isn’t abandoned until the developer says you can have it.

I’m sure it isn’t a licensing problem. The Renderman Spec is open.