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Author Topic: Library editor questions  (Read 8994 times)

dschaga

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Library editor questions
« on: June 24, 2009, 10:31:21 AM »
I have a problem with the library editor ( or i do something wrong):
whenever i import a matlib, the libraryeditor search for a map to show as thumbnail which is named after the materialname:
I have a material "Birch" and the libraryeditor thinks there must be a map called "birch.jpg" and when i try to point it to the used bitmap it refused using it by saying that the map must be in the thumbs folder.


I also have another questions related to the forest pro libraries:

How can i archive and backup a library?

I can see that FP is using a library folder with subfolder for the custom libraries and a matlib folder where the matlibs(are they 3dsmax version dependent?) are stored - wouldn't it be better to have the matlib inside the custom library folder to have all files in one folder, which can be backuped easily?

Is it possible to use that way created  libraries with older maxversions?

thanks!

dschaga

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Re: Library editor questions
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2009, 12:27:53 PM »
ok the first issue is solved - FP needs standardmaterial to catch the map. ..i used a mr material first.

btw.. what about gammacorrection for the images in the library? ..they are all to dark!

iToo

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Re: Library editor questions
« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2009, 05:55:42 PM »
The thumbnails must be stored in the /lib/<library_name>/thumbnails folder so the  library browser can find them (This folder is opened by default when you click on the thumbnail button), the files must be copied before selecting them. However, to create the thumbnails easily, you can use the "Get Map" button. It renders and creates the image automatically using the selected material.

To backup a Library, you have to copy both the library folder and the referenced material library from the matlib directory. Since the .mat files are created by max, they are version dependent, if you create or edit libraries take care that the materials will be converted to your current max version and they will not be backwards compatible. Our libraries are created with Max 7 to be used in all supported versions.

We are working to improve the libraries in next versions to support for mesh objects and a more flexible file structure.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

iToo

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Re: Library editor questions
« Reply #3 on: June 24, 2009, 05:58:10 PM »
About the gamma problem.  What gamma correction parameters are you using ? In our testing we are not found problems.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

dschaga

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Re: Library editor questions
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2009, 10:41:02 AM »
The gamma thing is a really problem for me, but i found out that images looks different if i import a standardmaterial or a mr material.

The question is if it wouldn't  be a better idea to use the opacitymap to cutout the tree and use a solid background which can be defined by the user.


btw.. i don't know what your mr shader does, but if it only gets the diffuse and opacity map and creates a own material, then you could write both mapnames into the index.dat file inside the libraryfolder.

When i opened the library i expected a more easy way to creation trees ..the maybe best and logical streamlined way would be to add a tree by create a placeholder in the library which can then be filled by adding a diffusemap and a opacitymap ..if a user wants a more sophisticated item then let the user import a material.

The main advantage of a library with such basic trees would be that it's maxversion independent, since you add both mapnames into the index.dat and the other advantage would be, that Forestpro could generate the best material for fast rendering for the used renderer.

yuv

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Re: Library editor questions
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2009, 01:26:58 AM »
Thanks, you are right. When the input gamma is active for bitmaps a gamma correction is applied to all loaded images, including the used by the browser. We will fix this issue this on next versions.

About the backwards compatibility with old max versions, as any other 3dsmax resource the modified materials can't be opened in earlier versions. In next forest versions will be possible create libraries with 3d objects and proxies, it not possible do backwards compatibility of these things if max don't do it.

Daniel Quintero
Itoo Software
www.itoosoft.com
daniel@itoosoft.com

dschaga

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Re: Library editor questions
« Reply #6 on: August 04, 2009, 11:15:15 AM »
After some testing i found out that changing the materialproperties of a forestmaterial (changing diffuse amount or adding bumpmap) doesn't affect the renderoutput in MR.
The MR shader only takes the diffuse and opacity map to generate the MR shader?

If this is true,  my question is why not offering to "compile" the tree material in the library by adding a treetype to the library which is defined by a diffuse map image  and a opacity map image.

This would be failproof and easy too!

iToo

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Re: Library editor questions
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2009, 04:56:22 PM »

That's right. To render the billboards, we use a custom MR shader that only gets the Texture/Opacity maps and the Self-illum value from the base material (and only if it's a Standard Material), all other parameters are ignored. This shader may be disabled (Forest Material->Forest Shader->Enable), and use the base material to render... but some features would not work well with billboards (as random Tint).

Really, it would be more intuitive to have the texture/opacity/self-illum in Forest Material, instead taking them from the base material, but we have not changed it to keep the compatibility with the existing libraries (specially those created by the users).


Carlos Quintero
iToo Software