[Michael Betke]

1. I have a problem with my imported MXS. They are just a small plane or flat cube...it should be a small bush.


2. The same appears with proxy objects. They are a cube but no point cloud in 3dsmax 2012 (Nitrous viewport). After reloading the scene they look like this flat pane too until I add a modifier somewhere. Then they "pop" up again as bounding boxes.

3. Old model-material are still black with the new maxwell 2.6 version.


Also if I use an imported .MXS object and use it as a forest (with instances) its very slow and eats up a lot of RAM plus even more time. If I import the object as a regular model into my scene, do a proxy object and scatter this as a instanced forest on my scene all is fine.

This can't be all true?? I'm a mix between happy about new release but disappointed too.

[Bubbaloo]

1. & 2.

I have found that a little care when exporting MXS references will go a long way. First, isolate the object(s) you wish to export. Move the object(s) to 0,0 (origin). From a perspective or camera view, select the object(s) and click the button to export them as referenced MXS.

Now when you create a referenced MXS object and pick the one you just created, it will reliably import at 0,0.

Try that and see if you have any luck. This is my workflow that has been reliably working for me so far.

On your last point, remember that Maxwell no longer treats Max instances as instances. It only treats Maxwell Proxies as instances. So instead of scattering around your referenced MXS object, you need to first make a Maxwell Proxy from it and use that MXProxy object to scatter around the scene. Hope this makes sense.

[Fernando Tella]

...remember that Maxwell no longer treats Max instances as instances.

I guess there's a reason for that, cause it sounds far more laborious than making instances.

[Bubbaloo]

Yeah, it's a push of a button. Laborious!

[JTB]

This is a really usefull explanation... I didn't realize that MAX instances are no more supported...

[Mihnea Balta]

Nitrous is not backwards-compatible with any plug-in objects, so nothing works in it: sky preview, embedded materials, proxies, MXS references, IES preview, Maxwell lights. Most of these objects use the drawing primitives provided by 3dsmax which are supposed to work regardless of the viewport driver, except somebody at Autodesk decided it's too hard to actually make them do what they're meant to do (or forgot). We have to rewrite all the objects for the new viewport mode which is not trivial due to a bunch of stuff. We didn't have time for that before the 2.6 release, but it's next on the work list.

[Michael Betke]

So instead of scattering around your referenced MXS object, you need to first make a Maxwell Proxy from it and use that MXProxy object to scatter around the scene. Hope this makes sense.

No it doesn't work. I tried it at first because I though the same. If the proxy source is not in the scene it doesn't render. No proxy made from a imported .mxs is rendering here.

so nothing works in it: sky preview, embedded materials, proxies, MXS references, IES preview, Maxwell lights.

I had the same problems with 3dmax 2010 unsing directx drivers. Even worse. The pointclouds were "jumping" around or getting invisible as soon as I moved around in my scene or selecting objects. I was not able to work properly there. Same if I switch in 3dmax2012 to dX drivers. Even with a scene of 5 objects I get problems.

[Bogdan Coroi]

I had the same problems with 3dmax 2010 unsing directx drivers. Even worse. The pointclouds were "jumping" around or getting invisible as soon as I moved around in my scene or selecting objects. I was not able to work properly there. Same if I switch in 3dmax2012 to dX drivers. Even with a scene of 5 objects I get problems.

Can you send us a scene so we can see what's going on? bogdan.coroi@gmail.com

Thanks.

[Mihnea Balta]

What video card do you have? Have you installed the most recent drivers for it?

How do you scatter the instances in your scene?

[Michael Betke]

Okay tested a bit further. If I import MXS and do a proxy from it, then it works. I made the MXS a proxy. This cant work.

For viewport issues I'm uploading a scene at the moment with my DX9 problems I have in max2010 and max2012. Nitrous viewport is understandable then. I guess I will have to live with my boxes for a while then.

Here are two viewport graps. First is how it looks in shaded mode. The wireframe one displays the proper coordinates of all assets.




I use a Nvidia 580GTX with 3GB Ram and the 280.26 drivers on Win7 x64. I had the same problems with other (older) drivers too.

EDIT: I scatter instances manually or use scripts. Mostly itoo forest which let me instanciate the trees after setup. But no matter what technique i use it shows up the same.

[Bubbaloo]

No it doesn't work. I tried it at first because I though the same. If the proxy source is not in the scene it doesn't render. No proxy made from a imported .mxs is rendering here.

It's working here. Can you describe your exact process? Maybe there is a missing step.

Edit: Oops, never mind, I see you got it working.

[Bogdan Coroi]

The problem Michael have is that he uses Hardware Shading in viewport and this causes all the trouble. We'll try to see if we can fix it. Until then, the only workaround is to disable it or switch to wireframe display (but this way you can't use bounding box for selection since we don't hit test with the point cloud (speed considerations)).

[Bogdan Coroi]

Fixed for the next update.

[rusteberg]

remember that Maxwell no longer treats Max instances as instances. It only treats Maxwell Proxies as instances.

hey, that's some pretty useful information.
can useful information like this be added to the release notes?

[Bogdan Coroi]

remember that Maxwell no longer treats Max instances as instances. It only treats Maxwell Proxies as instances.

I just want to add that you can create Max instances from Maxwell Proxy instances and that should be the workflow when you want instances support.

@rusteberg: When we introduces Maxwell Proxies we also "transparently" removed support for Max instances by adding a render option called "Export Max instances as Maxwell instances" that was set to false by default. That means any instances in the scene was exported as normal geometry except for Maxwell Proxies or instances of Maxwell Proxies. But you're right, since it's somehow obscure how it works we should have added in the release notes. We'll make a new manual also and everything will be covered properly.