GUI for a macro-script, help

[Justin Hunt]

Just a quick one,

 

I have developed a max script to tweak RPC materials. Not knowing much about scripting I used the Macro-recorder. It does the job but I would like to incorporate it into a GUI and have it affect all selected RPC's. At the moment I have to manually load each rpc material one at a time.

 

Would anyone be willing to help me finish this off.

 

Once its completed I will share it for all to use.

 

Thanks

[anton]

If you upload the script I will take a look at it. Seems to be pretty straight forward.

 

Thanks,

Anton

[Justin Hunt]

Great thanks

 

here's the text

 

meditMaterials[1].material1.shaderType = 4

meditMaterials[1].material1.adTextureLock = on

meditMaterials[1].material1.diffuseLevelMap = Ambient_Reflective_Occlusion__3dsmax ()

meditMaterials[1].material1[#Maps][#Diffuse_Level__Ambient_Reflective_Occlusion__3dsmax____Ambient_Reflective_Occlusion__3dsmax].max_distance = 1000

meditMaterials[1].material1[#Maps][#Diffuse_Level__Ambient_Reflective_Occlusion__3dsmax____Ambient_Reflective_Occlusion__3dsmax].bright = color 179 179 179 255

meditMaterials[1].material1.selfIllumAmount = 0

 

 

It would be great if there was a way to specify the Ambient Occlusion Max distance and bright colour. First things first the ability to apply to selection

 

Thanks

 

jhv

[Dave Buchhofer]

heres the real basics.. just to make it work on a selection instead of the material editor

 

for rpc in selection do
(
rpc.material.shaderType = 4
rpc.material.adTextureLock = on
rpc.material.diffuseLevelMap = Ambient_Reflective_Occlusion__3dsmax ()
rpc.material.diffuseLevelMap.max_distance = 1000
rpc.material.diffuseLevelMap.bright = color 179 179 179 255
rpc.material.selfIllumAmount = 0
)

 

no error checking at all, but should be it, unless i spelled something wrong will give it a go in a bit.

[anton]

Nice cleanup of the code and now there is no need for the interface anymore!

Cool stuff Dave!

[Justin Hunt]

Thanks so much, always knew the code was a mess. I'll give it a go soon

 

jvh

[Justin Hunt]

I get an error reading

 

..Unknown property:"shaderType"in #Multi/Sub=Object:rpc_Aaron01(Standard:rpc_Aaron01)

 

It seems the script cant drill down to the second level of the multisub material of the RPC's

 

jhv

[anton]

I haven't used RPC's in years and from what I remember, the RPC plugin was shipping with max but I cannot seem to find it. If you have any idea where I can find it let me know so I can install it and test this.

[Justin Hunt]

http://www.archvision.com

 

I am using maxDesign2009 which you have to pay for the plugin- but its free to download and install, just the RPC's will be water marked.

 

Thanks

 

jhv

[anton]

I just installed the plugin but it doesn't come with any test RPC's and the demo ones on archvision.com are not working anymore... Do you happen to have any of the demo ones?

I bought a couple years back some people from them but I have no idea where I have them...

[Justin Hunt]

do these work ?

 

http://http://www.archvision.com/democontent.cfm

 

it appears not.

 

pm me and I can email you one to test

Edited September 4, 2008 by Justin Hunt

[anton]

Those are the ones I've tryed to download but none of them is working...

[Justin Hunt]

pm your email and I will send you one

[anton]

You were right, it was not going down to the material so here is the adjusted code:

 

for rpc in selection do
(
rpc.material.materialList[1].shaderType = 4
rpc.material.materialList[1].adTextureLock = on
rpc.material.materialList[1].diffuseLevelMap = Ambient_Reflective_Occlusion_3dsmax()
rpc.material.materialList[1].diffuseLevelMap.max_distance = 1000
rpc.material.materialList[1].diffuseLevelMap.bright = color 179 179 179 255
rpc.material.materialList[1].selfIllumAmount = 0
)

[Justin Hunt]

Many thanks, I had to tweak the ambient occlusion line to get it to work.

 

Its workg great so for all those who would like to try it I have uploaed the script.

 

In its basic form it makes sure that the self-illumination is set to 0. For some RPC's even if it is set to 0 in the Mass Edit the material itself still has self illumination set to 55.

 

By adding AO, it helps to tone down the over bright apperance when using final gather.

 

Many thanks to anton for compiling my rather messy script, I owe you a beer.

 

cheers

 

jhv

[anton]

Actually the recompiling was done by Dave, I just tested it and made it work with the rpc material!

 

Thanks for posting it for everybody to use!

[Dave Buchhofer]

Ahh good check, I didn't actually have max here to see if the code actually worked and similarly haven't used rpcs ever since they adopted that godawful content manager scheme a few years back.

[Justin Hunt]

Big thanks to Dave as well.

 

RPC's do suck, but with a little trickery they can look ok, not great but ok.

 

Personally I think the parking lot car are the only real reason for keeping them in our workflow, especially so as large scale shopping centres are our main stay.

 

Thanks once again to everyone who helped

 

jhv