Hello, Im new in 3ds max. I download SimbiontMax plugin and wanna use it with mental ray, so I download mental ray version of Simbiont, but still doesnt work. Please, what I have to do ??
SimbiontMax... pls help
SkorpioN
#2
Simbiont materials do not render in mental ray as it does not recognize the shading algorithms.
You’ll have to “bake” your simbiont texture and use render to texture .
I advise you bake out only those details which you most necessarily want and leave out specularity etc.
Then apply the baked map to any slot in the mat editor. This way you’ll be able to use all the cool mentalfeatures too.
See if this does it.
Tim007
#3
But there is a mentalray version of SimbiontMax plugin so I think it will work with it. But I dont know, how to install and use it.
JeffPatton
#4
What a pain in the butt it is to get this thing up and running . I FINALLY was able to make it work…I think. I say I think because it renders the materials ok, but I still get warning messages in the MR warning dialog box.
At first, I kept getting a MR warning as 3dsmax would start (it referenced tiwdte_color_UV). I found that problem to be a typo in the TIWdtemental.mi file. They have the tiwdte_color_UV referenced under the tiwdte_elev_uv section. So you’ll need to change that (let me know if you don’t feel comfortable in doing that and I’ll post my adjusted version).
Then you need to add the environment variable (right click on my computer, click advanced tab, click environment variables button. Then follow the instructions in the .pdf that comes with the mental ay simbiont plugin. I added the variable to the user variable section (I guess that’s correct, because it doesn’t specify in the instructions where to add it)
It’s quite the headache to initially make this thing work…but now that it renders, the shaders seem like they will be useful.
Gunilla
#5
Excellent! I’ve been trying to get this to work for some time now. Thanks for figuring it out!
At first, I kept getting a MR warning as 3dsmax would start (it referenced tiwdte_color_UV). I found that problem to be a typo in the TIWdtemental.mi file. They have the tiwdte_color_UV referenced under the tiwdte_elev_uv section. So you’ll need to change that (let me know if you don’t feel comfortable in doing that and I’ll post my adjusted version).
Yes, please do - I’m not familiar with how to edit this.
Also, it would be great to know what and where are the “component libraries” the pdf is reffering to.
JeffPatton
#6
Here’s the adjusted .mi file (copy & paste into your TIWdtemental.mi file):
#*******************************************************************************
#Copyright 2003 by The Image Works, Winnipeg, Canada
#DarkTree and the DarkTree Engine are Copyright 2003 by Darkling Simulations,
#Los Alamos, USA. www.darksim.com
#Version 0.9b
#Nov 11, 2003
#
#These shaders provide an interface for the procedural texture trees
#by Darkling Simulations.
#
#Modified for use in 3dsmax6 by Aksel Karcher, www.akselkarcher.com
#August 12, 2003
#Modified for use in 3dsmax6 by Frances Gainer Davey, www.surrealstructures.com
#October 31, 2003
#3dsmax6 gui hints to the tiwdte_perc_uv, tiwdte_elevation, tiwdte_percent shader
# by Dietmar Kopp Nov. 1, 2003
#Modified "gui_tiwdte_elev_uv" because it referenced "gui_tiwdte_color_uv" thus creating an error on startup.
#by Jeff Patton Feb. 27, 2005
#*******************************************************************************
declare shader
color "tiwdte_color" (
color "colorscale",
integer "space", # 0 = internal space
# 1 = object space
# 2 = world space
# 3 = camera space
# 4 = screen space
scalar "time",
string "colortree"
)
version 1
gui "gui_tiwdte_color" {
control "Global" "Global" (
"uiName" "tiwdte_color"
)
control "colorscale" "color" (
"value" 1 1 1,
"uiName" "Colorscale"
)
control "space" "integer" (
"value" 2
)
control "time" "scalar" (
"uiName" "Frame"
)
control "colortree" "string" (
"uiName" "Darktree Path"
)
}
apply material, volume
end declare
declare shader
scalar "tiwdte_elevation" (
scalar "elevationscale",
integer "space", # 0 = internal space
# 1 = object space
# 2 = world space
# 3 = camera space
# 4 = screen space
scalar "time",
string "elevationtree"
)
version 1
gui "gui_tiwdte_elevation" {
control "Global" "Global" (
"uiName" "tiwdte_elevation"
)
control "elevationscale" "scalar" (
"value" 1,
"uiName" "Elevationscale"
)
control "space" "integer" (
"value" 2
)
control "time" "scalar" (
"uiName" "Frame"
)
control "elevationtree" "string" (
"uiName" "Darktree Path"
)
}
apply texture, displace
end declare
declare shader
color "tiwdte_percent" (
scalar "percentscale",
integer "space", # 0 = internal space
# 1 = object space
# 2 = world space
# 3 = camera space
# 4 = screen space
scalar "time",
string "percenttree"
)
version 1
gui "gui_tiwdte_percent" {
control "Global" "Global" (
"uiName" "tiwdte_percent"
)
control "percentscale" "scalar" (
"value" 1,
"uiName" "Percentscale"
)
control "space" "integer" (
"value" 2
)
control "time" "scalar" (
"uiName" "Frame"
)
control "percenttree" "string" (
"uiName" "Darktree Path"
)
}
apply material, displace
end declare
declare shader
color "tiwdte_color_uv" (
color "colorscale",
vector "coord",
scalar "uscale",
scalar "vscale",
scalar "time",
string "colortree"
)
version 1
gui "gui_tiwdte_color_uv" {
control "Global" "Global" (
"uiName" "tiwdte_color_uv"
)
control "colorscale" "color" (
"value" 1 1 1,
"uiName" "Colorscale"
)
control "coord" "vector" (
"uiName" "UV Generator"
)
control "uscale" "scalar" (
"value" 1,
"uiName" "U Tiling"
)
control "vscale" "scalar" (
"value" 1,
"uiName" "V Tiling"
)
control "time" "scalar" (
"uiName" "Frame"
)
control "colortree" "string" (
"uiName" "DarkTree Path"
)
}
apply material
end declare
declare shader
scalar "tiwdte_elev_uv" (
scalar "elevationscale",
vector "coord",
scalar "uscale",
scalar "vscale",
scalar "time",
string "elevationtree"
)
version 1
apply texture, displace
gui "gui_tiwdte_elev_uv" {
control "Global" "Global" (
"uiName" "tiwdte_color_uv"
)
control "elevationscale" "scalar" (
"value" 1,
"uiName" "Elevationscale"
)
control "coord" "vector" (
"uiName" "UV Generator"
)
control "uscale" "scalar" (
"value" 1,
"uiName" "U Tiling"
)
control "vscale" "scalar" (
"value" 1,
"uiName" "V Tiling"
)
control "time" "scalar" (
"uiName" "Frame"
)
control "elevationtree" "string" (
"uiName" "DarkTree Path"
)
}
end declare
declare shader
color "tiwdte_perc_uv" (
scalar "percentscale",
vector "coord",
scalar "uscale",
scalar "vscale",
scalar "time",
string "percenttree"
)
version 1
gui "gui_tiwdte_perc_uv" {
control "Global" "Global" (
"uiName" "tiwdte_perc_uv"
)
control "percentscale" "scalar" (
"value" 1 ,
"uiName" "Percentscale"
)
control "coord" "vector" (
"uiName" "UV Generator"
)
control "uscale" "scalar" (
"value" 1,
"uiName" "U Tiling"
)
control "vscale" "scalar" (
"value" 1,
"uiName" "V Tiling"
)
control "time" "scalar" (
"uiName" "Frame"
)
control "percenttree" "string" (
"uiName" "DarkTree Path"
)
}
apply material, displace
end declare
Gunilla
#7
Thanks a lot!
Well, it doesn’t crash MAX anymore but the materials still turn out black with MR. Perhaps I’ve overlooked something or it just doesn’t work with Max6. Are you using it with 7.0?
JeffPatton
#8
Yes, it works in both Max6 & 7. But, it sounds like you just need to make sure your using the right path in the materials. Here’s a screen grab of mine:
I’ve highlighted the section in red where you need to make sure your pointing to the right path for the .dsts files.
Should be like this:
X:\Darksim\DarkTree\Textures\Materials\absAlderon.dsts (to use the absalderon material)
X = the hard drive letter where you installed the Darksim files.
jabbermacy
#9
OK, I tried to get this blasted thing working but even if I follow the steps (ie. install the simbiont plug, install the MR stuff, set the env variable). On startup MR gives me this: LINK 0.0 error: TIWdtemental::no environment set. Any idea? I used your .mi file above. Only funny thing is my ‘mentalray’ folder has several subfolders - ‘shaders_autoload’ is where I put the .mi and .dll. Is that right?
When I set render to MR, got to the mat editor and choose an MR material, the second I try to use ‘tiwdte_color_uv’ max crashes HARD instantly!
(ps. where the heck are you supplosed to put all the shaders? I threw 'em under ‘C:\Program Files\DarkSim\Components’ where symbiont was installed…)
EDIT: I opened the sample max file and even just trying to render max crashes instantly!!!)
JeffPatton
#10
Jabbermacy - sounds like you just need to create the environment variable. Check my post#4 above for those steps.
Gunilla
#11
Yes!! Thank you!
My first tries was with bioFungus, which for some reasons doesn’t seem to work - but when testing the absAlderon.dsts it does.
Now to some playtime then - this might turn out quite useful.
jabbermacy
#12
Rebooted - max doesn’t crash anymore! I guess I’m still unimpressed with the SPEED with using these shaders - renders seem to ‘stall’ after some junk in the MR box appears…
JeffPatton
#14
If you create a new MR material. Then click on the surface map slot, what tiwdte shaders are listed?
jabbermacy
#15
I havent got tiwdte_color_uv shader in a shaders list
why ???
In MR rendering or what? Be specific! If you f-ed up the install then you wouldn’t see it either…
Tim007
#16
I instal Simbiont and it works well. So I wanna run MR version of it. So I download it, copy dll and mi files and run 3ds max 7. Make a sphere, open material editor and wanna change standard material to tiwdte_color_uv. So I change standard material to mental ray (as someone wrote) and wanna change surface to tiwdte_color_uv. But tiwdte_color_uv is not in list. 
jabbermacy
#17
Did you EXACTLY follow the installation instructions on the PDF file or just drag the two files you mention into the MR folder? Please READ the PDF’s… and go back and read ALL the post in the thread.
Frances
#18
I think max 7 has different rules for using custom mr shaders. You will have to consult the Max 7 documentation to find out where to place custom shader dll and mi files. Instructions for setting the environment variable are outlined in the TIWdte_mental.pdf document.
I’ll tell you right now that the bump shader doesn’t work properly in Max, though it does in the Maya and standalone versions of mr. The developer didn’t feel motivated to create a special shader for max because he felt it was a limitation of the max/mr implementation that caused the shader to not function properly. He passed away last year, so don’t ask him about it.
Sorry for the elev/color typo in the mi file. :shrug:
JeffPatton
#20
Paul,
Here’s a Mental Ray render with your shader. I certainly can’t speak for everyone here, but I’d certainly be interested in seeing additional simbiont shaders.
(nice shader btw… 
)
Jeff