Networked paths

[Macker]

Hi all,

We've recently changed our workflow a bit (using .vrscene rather than the 3ds max references for a number of reasons) and we've run into what I hope is a small issue.

Basically upon export to a .vrscene VRay decides to bake the file paths of the local machine into the texture paths - meaning if the scene is opened on a different machine, it won't find the paths to the local railclone/forest pro assets.

There is a "work-around" for this by using an environment variable but this seems like way more hassle than it is worth.

The solution then seems to be having our railclone and forest pro maps located on the server, with all of our other maps. What is the best way to go about doing this? I had found a tutorial for railclone/forest pro 6 which seemed quite complicated, so I was wondering if this has been improved upon since? Ideally a "install assets to x location on server", or just a dialogue within the plugins that lets you direct to the server based assets/maps akin to how Chaos Cosmos/enscape asset browser does?

[iToo]

Hi,

Currently there is not any option to define the asset's paths. It must be done modifying the registry keys, as described in the post.
Anyway, it's much more simple that it seems. It can be done in this way:

1) Install the assets locally in any workstation, using the default procedure (Update Manager).
2) Copy assets from C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Itoo Software\Forest Pack Pro to the desired location.
3) Use registry tool to modify the location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Itoo Software\Forest Pack Pro\LibraryDir\Forest Library, or alternatively using the Forest Library Browser->Preferences->Library Paths.
4) If needed, add the texture paths to 3DS Max->Customize->Configure User Paths->External files.

We'll see if this procedure can be improved for next updates.

[RealViz]

+1
All the paths for FP/RC could be in standard format, i.e. when installing FP/RC we specify the path where FP/RC will store its bitmaps. In addition, this way there are usually duplicated files all over the render farm in C:/users/.... (9GB for FP, 2GB for RC)- It would be useful to be able to save all these files to specific locations (network path) with the option to have absolute paths as well.