[deadalvs]

hi !

i just could not edit correctly the mxm layers in maya ..

on the right, there's an example from the mxm library with a textured opacity map and the BDSF layer is @ 100

In my example, left, exported from maya, i have 100 at the layer weight and the BSSF layer called "Layer" has a textured weight.

But i want to create a CLIP MAP in maya on the Top most Layer .. Is this a bug in the maya plugin or why can i not get this right ? hmm ..

[deadalvs]

hmm ..

maybe simpler furmulated ..

how do i generate (maya 2011, newest maxwell) a material which has just a color map assigned (0 deg, 90 deg) and gets clipped perfectly. no reflection needed, lambertian ok.

am i missing a very easy step ?
i am working with a tif wile with embedded alpha. i could also use a separate file as alpha file [black and white, without alpha channel]
all files are 8 bit RGB.

* * *

oh.

is it correct that the Layer Weight texture slot only accept ".outAlpha" connections, not also ".outColor" ?
e.g. --> connectAttr -f file6.outAlpha maxwellMaterial5.layers[0].layerWeight;

[deadalvs]

i think i got it ..

i needed to use the layered material and not the standard material .. this has not the features i needed.

i really hope to get it working in my script...

[Mihnea Balta]

Sorry for the late answer. Yes, you need to use a "maxwellLayeredMaterial" node. The "maxwellMaterial" node is there only to be able to load scenes made with 1.x, you shouldn't create new materials using it.

[deadalvs]

thank you .. never mind, you do not have to be here all the time .. i just thought in the beginning this might have been a bug ..

* * *

by the way ..

i have seen in my work that expressions and scriptjobs which depend for example on a "currentTime" mel command or on a attrValue change are not reflected in the batch render of an animation. in my case, it was the renderCam .. not good ..
the preRender mel slot did not work either. i do not know if this is also supported in conjunction with the maxwell batch render.

--> can you introduce a maxwell speficic pre render MEL script slot ?
--> can you introduce a batch render setting which actually steps though all the frames and truly BAKES all data with refreshAllExpressions option ?
i remember that realflow exported animated objects to a .sd file via stepping through all frames too, but i guess implementing this in the native batch render functionality is more complex and for example does not refresh everything.

just wanted to mention this ..

thanks anyway for the answer !

[Mihnea Balta]

i have seen in my work that expressions and scriptjobs which depend for example on a "currentTime" mel command or on a attrValue change are not reflected in the batch render of an animation. in my case, it was the renderCam .. not good .. ;)

Try using a time node in the expression instead, that should work better.

the preRender mel slot did not work either. i do not know if this is also supported in conjunction with the maxwell batch render.

I've just tried it now and it worked both when rendering from Maya and in batch mode. Are you sure it doesn't work?

--> can you introduce a batch render setting which actually steps though all the frames and truly BAKES all data with refreshAllExpressions option ?

Sorry, is that "refreshAllExpressions" thing a command, a flag, or what? I can't find anything about it in the Maya documentation.

i remember that realflow exported animated objects to a .sd file via stepping through all frames too, but i guess implementing this in the native batch render functionality is more complex and for example does not refresh everything.

RF exports frames in the same way that Maxwell does (I should know, I wrote both plug-ins :) ). The only difference is that you're probably running the SD exporter in interactive mode and the Maxwell exporter in batch mode, and some things don't refresh in batch mode.

[deadalvs]

Try using a time node in the expression instead, that should work better.

will look into this in future, thanks for that input !

I've just tried it now and it worked both when rendering from Maya and in batch mode. Are you sure it doesn't work?

i have tried putting my refresh script in the preRender slot and it did not update when i rendered.. but maybe i did something wrong or had the other script jobs currently not active by the time i was trying .. it's pretty hectic here, so i guess i won't have time to analyze this further right now. i might come back to this at a later point.

Sorry, is that "refreshAllExpressions" thing a command, a flag, or what? I can't find anything about it in the Maya documentation.

i'm sorry, i should have posted "refreshAllExpressions" as pseudo code name ... that does not exist .. it was too late yesterday ..

RF exports frames in the same way that Maxwell does (I should know, I wrote both plug-ins ). The only difference is that you're probably running the SD exporter in interactive mode and the Maxwell exporter in batch mode, and some things don't refresh in batch mode.

damn, your're mister plug-in ..

it would be nice: if everything would update, even in batch mode, but i guess you cannot react to all the user throws at you in a scene, right ? i guess at least the manual should explain what is updated and what not .. e.g. scriptJob stuff ..

that was the idea behind a "refreshAll" before rendering MEL script which helps the user to port all the data he intends to without having to worry about refresh/update problems.

[Mihnea Balta]

The thing is, I don't have control over what refreshes and what doesn't. I just tell Maya to advance to the frame I want to export, but apparently it decides that in batch mode some things can be skipped, when they shouldn't. I'll investigate it further, but officially it should Just Work™.