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Author Topic: Newbie question - how to keep segment sizes unchanged (plus Q about Max. Poly) ?  (Read 1813 times)

3dvisuals.co.uk

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Hi,

I have 3 questions.

My first ever RailClone project is of a train 'set'.  i.e. an Engine at the front, 15 Carriages and a Generator Carriage at the end - so 17 segments in total.

All on a railtrack.

And I have a single line (curvy) as my spline (so a 1s array).

I want to put that sequence together, once, i.e. engine at the front/start, followed by 15 carriages, and a generator at the back/end.

All on a railtrack.

Simple !

So how do I do that without Railclone changing the length of my carriages ?? (or changing the length of anything for that matter) ?

I *don't* want the carriages length to be stretched !  I want them to be the size they are meant to be.

My 2nd issue is that when I render my objects do not have their materials ?  I am using VRay Proxies but they definitely do have had their materials assigned.

I did see on another thread that RailClone doesn't work well with proxies, but that was a long time ago ?  (so I'm guessing that it may well have been fixed).  In any case, if I replace the proxies with actual geometry, I still don't get the image rendered with materials assigned ??

My 3rd question relates to the size of models used as segments.  For my Engine, I had to purchase a model from TurboSquid - and this Engine is over 1 million polygons - I'm getting strange results now in using Railclone because it seems I can't even create a 1s array with just that Engine.  The RailClone geometry is visible in my viewports but isn't rendered ??  I'm wondering - does RailClone have issues with high poly geometry ?

Any ideas ?

Soonest help would be really appreciated - thanks.
« Last Edit: October 07, 2015, 07:32:17 AM by 3dvisuals.co.uk »

Paul Roberts

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Hi,

Thanks for your questions. Please find a style attached that illustrates how a style like this might be created and answers to your queries below.




Quote
how do I do that without Railclone changing the length of my carriages ?? (or changing the length of anything for that matter)

In the attached style I have suggested using a Sequence operator to construct the train. To stop the sequence from repeating and so adding train sections along the full length of the track, just add a segment with no geometry applied to the final input slot. RailClone will stop generating objects when it hits this point. I've also exported the carriage's counter property so you can easily adjust the length of the train.

To prevent objects from deforming you can turn off Bend in the segment's properties, though V-Ray proxies cannot be deformed and so this shouldn't be necessary.



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My 2nd issue is that when I render my objects do not have their materials ?  I am using VRay Proxies but they definitely do have had their materials assigned.

RailClone does not automatically consolidate materials and reassign IDs  like Forest Pack does. You will need to generator a material that works when applied to the RailClone object and the V-Ray proxies. Please see the 12th rule in this chapter of our "Next Steps with RailClone" guide for more info.

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My 3rd question relates to the size of models used as segments.

You are free to work with proxies in RailClone but there's no advantage to doing so as the plugin generates instances from geometry on the fly. In fact proxies have some limitations for example as mentioned they cannot be deformed.

RailClone should be able to handle very high polygon counts as it is highly optimised to work with detailed meshes. So I'm not sure what the problem is here. If you'd like to send us the scene so we can take a closer look at it, please send to support@itoosoft.com. Otherwise we can recommend using the actual geometry instead of proxy objects.

I hope that helps, please let me know if you have further questions.

Kind regards,

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

3dvisuals.co.uk

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Paul,

You're a star, thank you so much - I'm currently working on this project so I'll apply your suggestions and let you know how it goes.

Kindest regards,

Jez

3dvisuals.co.uk

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Hi Paul,

Thanks for the max file - that's worked a treat (though I need to understand myself how that formula you created works - I'll study it closely later).

The materials side of things is also going well :)

However, in my Train scenario, I've got that Train engine, then the carriages etc.

The Train engine I collapsed into an Editable Poly, and I did the same for the Carriage.  Both have their separate Multi-Sub Object materials (the Engine has 30 sub-materials and the Carriage has 34 sub-materials).

How do I assign two multi-sub objects materials to a single railclone ??

I assigned the Engine material to RC but the Carriages are taking the Engine's material as well !

Many thanks.

Kindest regards,

Jez


Paul Roberts

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Hi Jez,

You need to combine those two multi/sub materials and reassign IDs so that both objects can use just one material. This can then be assigned to the RC object.  The easiest way to do that is by  following these steps.

-    Attach all the objects into a single mesh. Use the default options, so Max creates the multi/sub material automatically.
-    Detach each object back into separate objects.
-    Re-adjust the pivots if necessary.

You may also find there are some scripts available that create a new Multi-Sub object material and reassign IDs for you. For example we use RappaTools as it has a Create Multi-Material from Selection option. We believe the free version may have the same functionality, but we haven't tried it extensively. Another option is the Material Combiner script by Brian Keffer which performs a similar function.

I hope that helps.

Cheers,

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

3dvisuals.co.uk

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Hi Paul,

Once again, many thanks - that makes perfect sense.

BTW, I have Rappa Tools, I don't see that, plus, the Material Combiner, I believe is pretty old and didn't work for me in 3DS Max 2014.

Kindest regards,

Jez