Maxwell Materials? How?

[nzjimmy2001]

How do you go about using Maxwell Materials in the 3dsMax material browser?

All I have to choose from is a "Maxwell MXM". I want a "Maxwell Diffuse". When I click "create new MXM material" it opens another window. How do I get the material I create back into 3dsmax's browser?

[Fran]

Greg, refresh the preview. That will show the sample in both mxed and the Max browser. You might want to look through the section on materials in the user doc.

[Devin Johnston]

Basically you are creating a Maxwell material in 3D studio when you pick "Maxwell MXM", once you have this then you can either create a new MXM material or choose one that you have already made. The thing that is different about MXM's is they are completely separate material files, totally different from a material in 3D studio. This file can be saved anywhere and when you create one you specify a location. Once this is done the Maxwell material editor will open an you can begin to create any material you need.

[siliconbauhaus]

so once you've created your material how can you map it when it doesn't seem to appear in the viewport ?

 

I'm really hoping I'm not going to have to use studio

[Devin Johnston]

Well Maxwell materials have never been able to show up in the viewport until V1.1, now they can but I still doesn’t work very well. The best work around I've found is to apply a material using standard Max materials so you can get your mapping correct, then apply the Maxwell material. I know it sucks but it's the best way to do it.

[Fran]

Well Maxwell materials have never been able to show up in the viewport until V1.1, now they can but I still doesn’t work very well. The best work around I've found is to apply a material using standard Max materials so you can get your mapping correct, then apply the Maxwell material. I know it sucks but it's the best way to do it.

 

Actually Devin, the best workaround if you can't get maxwell materials to show up in the viewport is to put the main bitmap in any of the slots of the mental ray connection rollout, which is just below the M~R options for your material. Then go into bitmap properties and enable the Show Map in Viewport button. Sometimes you have to toggle it when you close and reopen a scene. This saves you from having to make dummy materials. [ETA] Props to Casey at the M~R official forum for coming up with this tip.

 

Something I haven't looked into yet, because I just thought of it this very second, is M~R material visibility could have something to do with how you have your display configured in Max Preferences. Mine's OpenGL and I don't have any problem showing bitmaps directly from mxm's.

[Devin Johnston]

My display is set up the same way Fran. NL just hasn't made fixing all the bugs in 3D Studio's plugin a priority so until they do we're going to have to limp along.

[Fran]

My display is set up the same way Fran. NL just hasn't made fixing all the bugs in 3D Studio's plugin a priority so until they do we're going to have to limp along.

 

If I recall correctly, viewing M~R materials in the viewport and in the mat editor are new to V1.x. 3DS Max has always been touchy about display issues. I don't envy NL programmers the task of trying to deal with the Max interface on that level. Going back and forth between the Material Library and maximizing material samples will likely crash Max. Doesn't matter what renderer you're using.

[siliconbauhaus]

I never had probs seeing my maps in the viewport with beta because you could toggle the show bitmap on the actual bitmap but now that the material is a seperate entity I wasn't sure how to sort it out.

 

Cheers the Fran for the suggestion. It would be nice if NL actually did a how to guide for max users as I'm still having issues with creating the silly materials.