Easiest way to ''reuse'' vray proxy objects with material intact

[nealewan]

Hello guys,

its great having a reliable source of learning, really appreciate you guys.

 

i am an average user of 3dsmax and vray and i am having this problem with vray proxies.

vray proxies have been very helpful to me so far but my biggest problem is ''REUSING'' them

 

each time i render a scene with previously created proxy objects the materials are always absent.

 

i got a tutorial online which involved creating material libraries from the 'multi/sub-object' material and later loading them onto the proxy object in the new scene, but when i load in the material library, the material still dont load into the scene.

 

i guess i am missing it somewhere..

 

i am planning to create a collection of VRAY PROXY cars, plants trees and other entourage intact with MATERIALS from which i can easily populate my scenes. which can be reused anytime.

i'ld love to learn from your experience how to easily create and manage a collection like this.

thanks a lot

[Corey Beaulieu]

Are you placing a VRay Proxy and then pointing it to a file?

 

I think you would be better off just saving the Cars out as a scene file with a Proxy in it and then simply merge the contents into your scene. You could keep all cars and their proxies in a single scene file and then name them appropriately so you could even select which cars you do and do not want to merge by name. Materials will travel much better this way. At least with much less effort.

 

Also, the Connector app is really useful for this: https://www.designconnected.com/connecter/

[nealewan]

Are you placing a VRay Proxy and then pointing it to a file?

 

I think you would be better off just saving the Cars out as a scene file with a Proxy in it and then simply merge the contents into your scene. You could keep all cars and their proxies in a single scene file and then name them appropriately so you could even select which cars you do and do not want to merge by name. Materials will travel much better this way. At least with much less effort.

 

Also, the Connector app is really useful for this: https://www.designconnected.com/connecter/

 

thanks so much for the reply CoreyMBeaulieu

i have tried creating a proxy object and pointed them to a file before but it never worked.

 

i later went ahead to study what could be wrong with the material libraries...it turned out i had to close the 3dsmax file in which the material library was created before i can use them on a proxy object in a new 3dsmax file.

 

also thanks for your suggestion on proxy management.

i presume i would have to carry along all bitmap files into the project folder of the new scene for the materials to work correctly...i guess.....

am not sure how this solves the problem of handling the materials

 

and thanks for the connecter app...still studying it.

[Corey Beaulieu]

It solves the problem of handling material in the sense that an object with materials applied can be merged into a new scene and Max just continues to read the materials bitmap information from the originating file. If you work by transferring maps to a project folder then you will still have to do this (try a script like ZOA Path editor), but you could also have a library server where you keep all Proxies/Model files in one folder and the corresponding maps in a central maps folder and then all projects could safely link back to these folders without further management. Unless you outsource your rendering.

[nealewan]

thanks so much sir,

i never really noticed that max reads the textures from the originating source when u merged a file into a scene...would try that out..thanks

...i got sick of always having to transfer maps around for objects i use regularly,i guess i just have to work with having a project folder of these objects and proxies and just merge them into a scene whenever i need them and max continues to read the materials from the source folder..

 

for the last suggestion you gave...really good idea but i think except the materials are in separate folders its likely some of the textures have the same name then overwrite each other..

 

thanks for the hints