[deadalvs]

Hi,

[Using 3.1.1]

Please have a look at 'searchPaths.png' here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g6dbdseuuc1y ... 8UoRa?dl=0


I have ported my project from my desktop machine to a laptop. All mxm materials have absolute paths the desktop machine.

On the laptop, I am trying to add the search path in Maya's render settings, but it seems those search paths are not ported to maxwell render.

Sorry for the long and confusing file paths, but they're correct.

What could be the issue that the laptop cannot render the scene?

Any input welcome .. Thanks!

Matt

[Mihnea Balta]

I've checked the code now and the plug-in is exporting the search paths correctly. To make sure that it's doing the right thing on your machine too, you can export a MXS file, open it in a text or hex viewer, and you should see the search paths very close to the start of the file. I think the problem is that Maxwell isn't looking inside those search paths for files used by referenced MXM materials, but I'll have to investigate a bit more to say for sure.

[deadalvs]

Hey ..

thanks for looking into this.

if you need test files, let me know.

I checked the mxs file in a text editor and find path fragments that look like the search paths, but not all of them: The one with */officeTextures/, I can't find with text search.

Maybe only one of the search paths is exported, not all of them?

Question:
The search path is searched recursively to find any texture, right (means search the missing also in subfolders of the search path)?

Cheers!
matt

[Mihnea Balta]

There's definitely something weird going on at the SDK level, some of the paths are truncated when they are written to the MXS file. I will talk to the people in charge to see what's going on.

The paths aren't searched recursively. Maxwell just looks for missing textures in each directory specified as a search path, without descending into subdirectories, or checking partial paths. For example, if you had a texture at c:\folder1\textures\map.png and it's now at c:\folder2\textures\map.png, specifying just c:\folder2 as a search path won't work, because Maxwell doesn't try to take textures\map.png and append it to the search paths. You have to set the full c:\folder2\textures\ as a search path.

[deadalvs]

ok ..

thanks for the feedback.


recursive search:
I currently have all my textures in subfolders... hmm.
this would be a feature request then, for users that work in folder structures for all textures but still make sure all textures have a unique name.
--> searchPath
--> recursiveSearchPath
this should be easy to implement.

for now, I'll have to restructure the location of all textures and mxm files. I'll put it all in one folder.

thanks for your help again!

[Mihnea Balta]

One workaround would be to enable the "embed in MXS" option on the referenced materials and use Maya's built-in dirmap command to map the old directory to the new one (assuming the folder structure is identical below a certain level). If you embed the materials in the exported MXS, the plug-in processes all their dependencies and fixes the missing files using search paths, dirmaps, common file locations etc.