Automating bitmap swap & render for over 100 bitmaps?

[MegaPixel]

We've entered the world of online color/material configurators and we're doing a project that would allow a client to choose from over 100 unique materials for a particular facade. Currently, we are sending 100 unique network render passes to the farm by manually changing the bitmap file of the scene elements that will be configurable - a baby sitting process indeed. What we were hoping to do was to somewhat automate this process better, maybe through maxscripting? (I'm a scripting newb)

 

I played with the batch render utility but it seems like you have to go through the same amount of work just to set everything up perfectly to go in one shot.

 

If we just targeted one material's "bitmap slot" and designated a folder which contained all of the bitmaps we wished to see rendered, would it be possible to automate a network render to render the same scene 100 times while swapping the bitmap file out each time?

 

Thanks in advance for any help. -Pixel

[david.jones]

The only suggestion i can think of is numbering the bimaps sequentially.

 

ie. image_0001.jpg, image_0002.jpg (theres software that automates that,select a folder and rename all file within it) and then render the output images as if its an animation, and use the textures as image sequences...

 

Might work!

[Chad Warner]

David's suggestion was exactly what I was going to say.