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Author Topic: Save particular items visibility\transformation state in Max's Scene States?  (Read 964 times)

ritoo

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Hi there! Very common problem: some concrete items are not sitting properly in the given Camera view and must be hidden\transformed. And then its generally a good practice to save the Scene State. Could the Subject ^^ be implemented in FP (at least in reference mode)? Any workarounds? The only solution I imagine is to create multiple forests suitable for given view, but it's faaar from ideal.
« Last Edit: November 30, 2021, 11:00:31 AM by ritoo »

Paul Roberts

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Hi,

Thanks for the question. I can see how that would be useful but unfortunately, we have little control over the attributes that can be tracked with 3ds Max's Scene States feature. Autodesk publishes a list of properties that can be tracked in their documentation.

The best workaround I can think of is the one you suggest, i.e. to split the Forest object so that you can use states to toggle on/off visibility. If it helps, in items editor mode it is possible to separate and combine Forest objects using the options shown below.



In normal distribution mode, another option would be to add exclude areas that could be toggled on and off.

I hope that helps,
Paul
Paul Roberts
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ritoo

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Paul thanks for reply. Detaching could is some cases help - thanks for the tip.
BTW I was talking about Scene States support, not State Sets (seen in your link).
Scene states allow to save (I'm not sure if  save = track?) much broader list of properties.


Paul Roberts

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I'm glad that helps. Sorry, I did spot that you mentioned scene states too but it is still unfortunately an aspect of Max that is outside of our control. I'm not sure there's much we can do to make FP trackable but I'll add your suggestions to our list for further investigation.

Best,
Paul
Paul Roberts
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ritoo

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Theoretically, could I animate individual item's visibility? Visibility 0 in frame 1, visibility 1 in frame 2?

Paul Roberts

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I'm afraid not at present, items inside FP don't have a visibility track and in any case, individual items aren't animatable.
Paul Roberts
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Paul Roberts

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I'm not sure if this is any help (its a bit of a hack!)

Using Forest Pack in Reference > Markers mode you could target triangles added anywhere you want a tree/object to grow (these markers could also be scattered with FP). You'd then add an Edit Mesh modifier for each state and delete or move the triangles as required. By turning on an off those modifier for each state you'd get a distribution that can be quickly switched.



Here working in State Sets, I'm not sure if scene states works with modifiers.

Paul
Paul Roberts
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ritoo

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 ;D this is perfect example thinking outside of the box, many thanks. I guess playing with faces material id (instead of Edit Mesh modifier) would work as well.

But the perfect solution would be 2 important* options:
1) Implement layer objects as reference
2) Option to turn forest off if reference\surface  layer is off

*- it also makes possible automatic scattering (replacing) when user reloads dummies from other applications (autocad\sketchup blocks sitting on separate layer).
  I wanted to request this feature before this post, but now I see that 'layer as reference' feature would help to solve item's visibility problem in the current view. all is needed is to temporally put dummies\surfaces on some !!_TempHidden layer and save it in Scene State.
Are those 2 options doable?



« Last Edit: December 01, 2021, 09:00:58 AM by ritoo »

ritoo

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@Paul nice hack but State sets are not recognized by batch render, only Scene states.
What I discovered just now is another trick: The reference objects could be linked to some disabled light (say VraySphereLight) and when needed just move this light beneath the ground and save this scene state. As result forest members will go down as well and won't be rendered in this particular view. Kind of dirty alternative to forest sets from layers in v8 :)