mdviz

The fgm file can render on each machine differently depending on the start frame camera position etc, so you need to lock the file. Try rendering the fgm file in totality from one machine (possibly slaving all PCs in a distributed bucket render) and then make it available but locked for rendering. Are you opening the files seperately/manually on each pc or through a manager as render slaves/nodes? I would render the fgm file and then use the other machines as render slaves then they all use the same files and settings. As one render finishes that freed up slave will help the next render in the queue, this is a much more efficient render method which will save you many hours. Important - Remember to switch off distributed bucket rendering before you submit to the render manager or you might get even more confused! Though, if you were really clever... (that's enough for now .

Sounds like a RAMerror. to me If you created the maps at 3508x2480 and just reduced the render size without rerendering the maps at the smaller size you might still get crashes. I have experienced this before myself. Did you re render the maps at the lower sizes? How much RAM do you have? Try rendering with GI off. Using FG you might find it an ecceptable render without GI anyway. Using both often gives very little value for the cost in render/setup time.

As an 'end user' the complexities of the algorithm you show is interesting to see though as an artist I must say that I wish to stay away from those heavy calcs and be more productive by just 'dumbly' using the software. Especially when there have been scripts created such as I have linked to previously. Your tutorial shows how to apply the shader and how to use the Material Override within Max which is useful. From an artistic point of view, your tutorial could show some detail of the effects of tweakin the settings of the Ambient/Reflective Occlusion shader with examples. Starting say, with the 'Samples' setting which by default is very low. Then 'Spread' and 'Max Distance'. These are settings that are tweaked most often. An explanation of these settings with examples might be more useful. One of the problems with AO is that it is not always right for all objects in the scene 'artistically'. Your finished pic shows a single pass of AO where the walls might look OK but the joins in the floor boards seem too dark. A different AO pass might be required for some objects to fix this. You could explain how to render different AO passes with different settings and along with the use of masks in Photoshop and applying different transparancey levels to get the artistic look that might be required. The same techniques can also be applied to animation using After Effects.

Make sure you lock the fgm map file or it will be updated by each machine and overwritten. Hence the different look to each stripe. I would render the fg seperately on one PC (with DBR on) and then put a cloned version onto each machine to save the constant network hit you get from what can be a large file (often over 150Mbs) and can cause crashes if a network bottleneck occurs. Once again, ensure you lock the FG before submitting to render. This is what I do for animations when the render needs a 'multi frame' FGmap file. It might sound complicated but renders faster. You can also submit to network render and let one node pick the job up and use DBR, utilising the rest of the PCs however if there are other renders in the queue the manager will not know that DBR is in use (it is not reported as it is a seperate app) and try to render the next queued job at the same time. Not desirable at all so be careful when trying this. Having said the above. It is a great way to off load all the rendering to a manager pc that then uses other PCs (selected in the hosts file before submitting and unassign any jobs from those nodes in the manager) allowing you to continue working. If you are going to render a single (large) render using DBR then I would not use machines that are being used by others unless you know how to, and can set the affinity for those particular PCs. In my experience fiddling with the affinity can cause random crashes anyway so I would try and stay away from doing this.

Try increasing the shadow samples on the area light. this will icrease the render time somewhat.

I am afraid it is not my script I also have been blown away with the time saved by it for years. Give the credit to the author: http://www.ardakutlu.com.

For those who are still confused on how to create a AO pass try this script. It converts you whole scene, renders the AO pass then converts it back. It is an invaluable free tool that many users have. It also instantly creates object masks (including sub object selections), reflections and shadow passes, Extremely useful for fixing theose problems in post. It can do each pass as a network render so you can submit and carry on working, however even the most complex scenes, 6mil+ polys only takes a few minutes to render an AO pass. http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/quick-passes Remember to always back up work before running any scripts!

Any one got any way/methology for creating the fg map for a scene with moving camera and moving objects on 32bit 2009 I have been trying to pre calc the FG for a scene 2.7m polys, 450fs @720x405. I have been rendering every frame for when the objects are moving but the fg map is well over 100mb for the first 249 frames where it keeps crashing. I have aa set to lowest and tried sending through backburner to keep the crash recovery going but it still is hanging after 249 frames. Task manager states that max is only using 500Mb ram and the total system Ram used is 1.5Gb. I am on 32 bit XP, 3Gb ram I have tried calcing every 10 fames but this results in 'flickers' where the objects are moving. I know 64bit would help with memory/crashing but 32bit is what I am stuck with at the moment. Any pointers appreciated

You have double faces from the conform operation. In the conform select the 'long vertex normals' in the 'vertex projection direction' then edit mesh and delete all the faces except the ones conformed around your object then simply extrude or as suggested use the shell modifier. Using the long vertex normals as the projection makes it easier to select and delete the faces you do not need.

I'm still with mat on this one. Using the render elements is certainly one way to do it though I never seem to get a matched alias setting using this method. Also this might not be so quick for pasting in as selection sets in Photoshop. The render elements involves a lot of extra work to set up and then use in photoshop. If you want to have a selection of objects that have the same material (or different) using the plugin scripts(that are free btw) you to simply select what you want and click the button on the script to render. Renders are extremly fast too as the script turns off all the materials, shadows, lights exposure control and atmosphere then returns them back to the previous state after render. A 3600x2400 with 3million polys renders out in about a minute using either script. Always save your work before running a script!

You cans also try the Quick Pass plug in script which does exactly the same thing but can also do shadows, AO, and reflection passes. They both support sub object face selections too, though not always reliably.

Thanks crazy but unfortunately the .wire format is a client request which I have not had a chance to discuss with them any further yet. I can export/import to .fbx fine but not to .wire.

have you checked your gamma settings within max

I am trying export max scene files/models into the Alias Studio Tools (.wire) format. The import/export capabilty is listed for Max2009 here: http://www.novedge.com/Autodesk/3ds-Max-2009-Standalone-License/products/1882/tab/1 Is this export module only available in the Max 2009 64 bit version? I cannot see the .wire export as an option in the 32bit version on windows XP. Can anyone explain the .wire format and any info on how to export to it. Thanks for any help in advance!

I also find the new select window a pain when it clears you last used setting. ... If Autodesk made it remember the last used options it would be better. And add an option to toggle back to the old version as both have uses. maybe in the next release.... or some one might write a script to do it