Recent Posts
1
RailClone Pro (*) / Re: Possible bug with Boolean spline node
« Last post by Nasau on November 17, 2025, 05:01:28 pm »Thanks for the quick reply!
One question: is there any way to obtain the Z position of one of the ‘master’ splines and use it as a value to recalculate the position of the Boolean using Z offsets?
I mean, so that I don't have to enter the value manually, it would be recalculated when I move the line to its height, since in my case (procedural pools), its height in Z can vary, and it would be enough for me if they were all generated at the Z height of one of the ‘master’ splines and the entire railclone was generated at the same height in Z as that line instead of being sentenced to Z 0.
Thank you in advance.
One question: is there any way to obtain the Z position of one of the ‘master’ splines and use it as a value to recalculate the position of the Boolean using Z offsets?
I mean, so that I don't have to enter the value manually, it would be recalculated when I move the line to its height, since in my case (procedural pools), its height in Z can vary, and it would be enough for me if they were all generated at the Z height of one of the ‘master’ splines and the entire railclone was generated at the same height in Z as that line instead of being sentenced to Z 0.
Thank you in advance.
2
RailClone Pro (*) / Re: Possible bug with Boolean spline node
« Last post by Paul Roberts on November 17, 2025, 04:52:47 pm »Hi!
Thanks for the detailed explanation. What you’re seeing is the correct behaviour. For spline Booleans to work, the curves need to be on the same plane, so RailClone flattens them before performing the operation. To the best of my knowledge, 3ds Max’s own spline Boolean tools work in the same way.
If you don’t actually need a Boolean and are only merging curves, the Combine operator is the better choice as it keeps the original Z positions intact, exactly as you’ve already found. You might also be able to do something with the SplineOffset node that give you the results you need.
If you need help checking the pool setup or want to share a simple file, feel free to post it.
Cheers,
Paul
Thanks for the detailed explanation. What you’re seeing is the correct behaviour. For spline Booleans to work, the curves need to be on the same plane, so RailClone flattens them before performing the operation. To the best of my knowledge, 3ds Max’s own spline Boolean tools work in the same way.
If you don’t actually need a Boolean and are only merging curves, the Combine operator is the better choice as it keeps the original Z positions intact, exactly as you’ve already found. You might also be able to do something with the SplineOffset node that give you the results you need.
If you need help checking the pool setup or want to share a simple file, feel free to post it.
Cheers,
Paul
3
RailClone Pro (*) / Possible bug with Boolean spline node
« Last post by Nasau on November 17, 2025, 04:42:35 pm »Hello, I have encountered a problem that I am not sure is a bug or intentional, but I would like to know because I was creating a procedural pool generation system and I ran into this problem when using Boolean for the generation of the water and the flat surface of the bottom of the pool using a surface generator with the array generator method and the area generated with extend clipping area.
When you use the node to combine two splines with a Boolean, they stop following the ‘master’ splines in Z and are placed in Z 0 (in the example, a Boolean is not necessary and a combine would suffice, but to show it, this is the simplest way I could think of, using a simple linear 1S to show where the elements are generated). This can be bypassed by simply manually inserting the Z height of the line as an offset, but it loses the ‘procedural’ concept, which is why I prefer to ask you.
My tests have been with Railclone versions 7.1.3 and 7.0.9 with the same results.
Best regards and thank you for your time.
When you use the node to combine two splines with a Boolean, they stop following the ‘master’ splines in Z and are placed in Z 0 (in the example, a Boolean is not necessary and a combine would suffice, but to show it, this is the simplest way I could think of, using a simple linear 1S to show where the elements are generated). This can be bypassed by simply manually inserting the Z height of the line as an offset, but it loses the ‘procedural’ concept, which is why I prefer to ask you.
My tests have been with Railclone versions 7.1.3 and 7.0.9 with the same results.
Best regards and thank you for your time.
4
RailClone Pro (*) / Re: Changing my Segments alignment to pivot messes up the railclone.
« Last post by Paul Roberts on November 17, 2025, 11:21:46 am »Hi,
Could you let me know which axes you are changing. I would recommend that you leave the X axis on Auto unless you have a very good reason to change it. The other 2 axes you should be able to choose without issues. Please feel free to upload your style if you'd like me to take a closer look.
Many thanks,
Paul
Could you let me know which axes you are changing. I would recommend that you leave the X axis on Auto unless you have a very good reason to change it. The other 2 axes you should be able to choose without issues. Please feel free to upload your style if you'd like me to take a closer look.
Many thanks,
Paul
5
FAQ / Crash in Forest Pack with Microsoft Redistributable v.14.50
« Last post by iToo on November 17, 2025, 10:43:48 am »A bug in the Microsoft Redistributable libraries v.14.50 may cause a crash in Forest Pack and other 3DS Max plugins.
The problem is being investigated by Microsoft, and we hope an update is available shortly.
Unfortunately we cannot fix the problem from our side, because it seems the code which triggers the bug may be also present in the 3DS Max code itself.
Until then, you can fix it copying the attached DLL (vcomp140.dll) in the 3DS Max root folder.
If you are curious, the problem is described in detail in the Microsoft forums (very technical).
The problem is being investigated by Microsoft, and we hope an update is available shortly.
Unfortunately we cannot fix the problem from our side, because it seems the code which triggers the bug may be also present in the 3DS Max code itself.
Until then, you can fix it copying the attached DLL (vcomp140.dll) in the 3DS Max root folder.
If you are curious, the problem is described in detail in the Microsoft forums (very technical).
6
RailClone Pro (*) / Changing my Segments alignment to pivot messes up the railclone.
« Last post by KenB17 on November 16, 2025, 05:22:30 am »Hey all!
So I built a railclone for street curbs along a spline. It works perfectly when the segments' alignments are set to "automatic", but when I change them to "pivot", it spawns them correctly via their pivots, but then the railclone itself isn't lined up correctly and has gaps. I've tried resetting the Xforms on the models and overriding the alignment with a separate "Transform" node instead of setting it on the segment nodes themselves, and still no luck.
I attached 2 images showing the issue along with my graph setup.
So I built a railclone for street curbs along a spline. It works perfectly when the segments' alignments are set to "automatic", but when I change them to "pivot", it spawns them correctly via their pivots, but then the railclone itself isn't lined up correctly and has gaps. I've tried resetting the Xforms on the models and overriding the alignment with a separate "Transform" node instead of setting it on the segment nodes themselves, and still no luck.
I attached 2 images showing the issue along with my graph setup.
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RailClone Pro (*) / Re: VrayProxies displaying as full mesh with Railclone 7?
« Last post by DT on November 14, 2025, 12:26:54 pm »Thanks for the reply, I hope you can implement this functionality (disable full mesh in viewport) as an option in a next update as I will probably have to roll back to a previous version where this behaviour is not present, which is stupid because I just paid for the upgrade for the new spline features, which means I won't be able to use them.
Thanks for considering.
Thanks for considering.
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RailClone Pro (*) / Re: VrayProxies displaying as full mesh with Railclone 7?
« Last post by Michal Karmazín on November 14, 2025, 12:17:15 pm »Thanks for your detailed reply. We’ve had several requests in the past about how VRayProxy objects work with V-Ray GPU or Vantage. Based on this feedback, we made some adjustments to how RailClone handles these objects and as mentioned earlier, we’ll explore what can be done in future versions. Any changes will be carefully reviewed by our main developers to make sure they work well across different scenarios.
Best regards,
Best regards,
9
RailClone Pro (*) / Re: VrayProxies displaying as full mesh with Railclone 7?
« Last post by DT on November 14, 2025, 10:40:07 am »Sorry to say but that is not a positive improvement and a very weird decision on Itoo's part as not everyone uses GPU or Vantage.
While this might solve an issue for GPU or Vantage, this brings an extra layer of difficulty for us that is seriously unwanted. Pointcloud doesn't give us a good representation as it's see-through and we can't see the shape of the cars well with 100s of cars or trucks, nor is it easy to see which model is actually used if you're randomizing between 30 cars for instance. Also Pointcloud even on a 5090 doesn't perform as well as just quick mesh with proxies, as well as not being able to select the pointcloud easily, or orbit around point. I tend to avoid pointcloud because well it's not a good representation in comparison to a mesh or proxy approximation.
Think of it this way, I combine several elements in a railclone definition, regular geometries and proxies and set it to quick mesh or even regular mesh (if it's not too complex). I can see what I'm doing and my viewport is smooth. Pointcloud not so much and boxes are just way too simple for lookdev, seeing if everything is nicely aligned etc. I can't do that with Pointcloud or boxes. I can't measure from a pointcloud or boxes either.
Also "V-Ray proxies no longer require full mesh mode to be rendered in V-Ray GPU and Vantage", which is technically not true, you just set it automatically to use the full mesh. Or am I missing something?
While this might solve an issue for GPU or Vantage, this brings an extra layer of difficulty for us that is seriously unwanted. Pointcloud doesn't give us a good representation as it's see-through and we can't see the shape of the cars well with 100s of cars or trucks, nor is it easy to see which model is actually used if you're randomizing between 30 cars for instance. Also Pointcloud even on a 5090 doesn't perform as well as just quick mesh with proxies, as well as not being able to select the pointcloud easily, or orbit around point. I tend to avoid pointcloud because well it's not a good representation in comparison to a mesh or proxy approximation.
Think of it this way, I combine several elements in a railclone definition, regular geometries and proxies and set it to quick mesh or even regular mesh (if it's not too complex). I can see what I'm doing and my viewport is smooth. Pointcloud not so much and boxes are just way too simple for lookdev, seeing if everything is nicely aligned etc. I can't do that with Pointcloud or boxes. I can't measure from a pointcloud or boxes either.
Also "V-Ray proxies no longer require full mesh mode to be rendered in V-Ray GPU and Vantage", which is technically not true, you just set it automatically to use the full mesh. Or am I missing something?
10
RailClone Pro (*) / Re: VrayProxies displaying as full mesh with Railclone 7?
« Last post by Michal Karmazín on November 14, 2025, 10:13:24 am »Hi,
As you correctly pointed out, this change in RailClone 6.3.7 makes it easier to use V-Ray GPU or Vantage without having to set the show whole mesh Preview mode in the VRayProxy object, which we think is a positive improvement. If your geometry is very complex and the Quick Mesh Viewport mode isn’t performing well, I’d suggest switching to Boxes and using the Points-Cloud for the better preview. Thanks for your understanding. We'll see what can be done in future versions.
Best regards,
As you correctly pointed out, this change in RailClone 6.3.7 makes it easier to use V-Ray GPU or Vantage without having to set the show whole mesh Preview mode in the VRayProxy object, which we think is a positive improvement. If your geometry is very complex and the Quick Mesh Viewport mode isn’t performing well, I’d suggest switching to Boxes and using the Points-Cloud for the better preview. Thanks for your understanding. We'll see what can be done in future versions.
Best regards,
