[jc4d]

Hi,
I would like to know if the plugin recognize automatically the native C4D instances and convert those into Maxwellrender instances? (I couldn't find this answer in the manual)

Cheers
JC

[JDHill]

The answer to this depends on the version of Cinema.

In pre-R11.5 versions, a Cinema instance is not so much an instance, as it is a dynamic copy of the source geometry. Here, to prevent this copy from being exported as geometry, the plugin keeps a lookup table during export, which associates names and statistics about an object's mesh topology, with duplicates being exported as instances, provided the scene's auto-instances option is enabled. If you think about this though, you will see that it has nothing to do with whether or not the geometry in question is actually coming from a Cinema Instance -- in fact, any geometry at all which meets the requirements (i.e. matching name and topology) will be exported to Maxwell as an instance. That allows instances to work with things like emitters and cloners, which are not actually instances at all in Cinema.

In R11.5, Maxon added the 'Render Instances' parameter to its Instance object. When that is disabled, they behave exactly as they did in previous versions; when it is enabled, the plugin treats them identically to how it handles its own Instance Object.

So, while I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, the basic thing to understand is that when auto-instances is enabled, absolutely anything, regardless of what it is called in Cinema, which can be exported as an instance, will.

[jc4d]

Thanks for your answer, now let's see if I understood right (I'm on C4D R 10.1)
A C4D instance is going to be exported as geometry if in the plugin Auto generate instance is not checked, if it checked is going to be exported as M-R instance, but... this is not limited only for C4D instances, the plugin check all objects which match with some criterias.

Now the problem and a little wish, because I have to produce many projects (houses) in 3 days I can't keep the object order so nice and some objects are just copy paste but with some modifications, but the plugin find that the names are the same so those objects are treated as instances if Auto generate instance is checked (I'm having this problem with a current project), so I have to deactivate this option.
Now it would be nice if there were another option to transform the C4D instances into M-R instances, checking only the instances object presents in the scene and their link and then export and render one reason for this is that sometimes I need to visualize the entire instanced object to place it where it should be and currently this is almost impossible with the M-R instance box representation.

Cheers
JC

PS. I hope all this make sense

[JDHill]

Actually, it seems to me that we are talking about something other than what we are talking about.

but the plugin find that the names are the same so those objects are treated as instances if Auto generate instance is checked (I'm having this problem with a current project), so I have to deactivate this option.

I would like to know first, why this is a problem -- if the objects have the same name, and if they have the same topology, why is it a problem for them to be exported as an instance? I am not questioning that it is a problem for you, but I do not yet grasp why it is so.

[jc4d]

Actually, it seems to me that we are talking about something other than what we are talking about.

sorry, maybe this is so confusing that is better to put some images of my problem to make it more clear.

If a ckeck Auto generate instances in C4D

By jc4d at 2010-07-22

This is the result

By jc4d at 2010-07-22

And if I uncheck this, I have the right result

By jc4d at 2010-07-22

And my starting question was because this problem and the fact that would be nice that option work only with C4D instance and/or objects if you choose it, but I guess is impossible because is only a feature of R11.5
Maybe my dumb level is high today and I'm jumping from sentence to sentence.

Cheers
JC

[JDHill]

You're not dumb, the plugin is -- that example definitely shows some bug. The problem is not whether this or that is being exported as an instance, but that the transformation for the instance is incorrect in the export. Could you send me this scene?

[jc4d]

Is good to know that is not me
Here is the file in R10.1
http://www.4shared.com/file/qWuxBq8b/Autoinstance.html

Cheers
JC

[JDHill]

Thanks much -- I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is, but I'll have to get pretty deep in the code to be sure.

[jc4d]

I'm glad to be able to help
Thanks for your time.

Cheers
JC

[JDHill]

Actually, after looking into this further, I find that it is not something that I can change. Here is the problem: your objects share identical names. The reason this is a problem is: the main purpose of auto-instances is to support things like particle emitters and such, where each instance produced by Cinema is not an actual instance, but just a uniquely-transformed copy of the original. Since each copy shares the same name and topology, and only has a different transformation, I am able to identify these objects and export them as uniquely-transformed instances in Maxwell, rather than as normal mesh geometry.

Since objects in your model fit this criteria, they are getting picked up by the mechanism. That is to say, your drawing is incompatible with the purpose of auto-instancing in the plugin. So the solution here is not to use it, because if I made auto-instancing work with your model, it would no longer work with particle emitters, clones of native Cinema instances (non-'render instances'), etc.

[jc4d]

Now is very clear, thank you so much

Cheers
JC