- Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:32 am
#255019
There is a post in the forum main section that asks how to optimize the textures and materials...
I thought it would be interesting to know how everyone is doing it and what are good points or flaws in their systems...
Since we are working with Sketchup too, we need to organize both libraries and its a bit complicated indeed, especially when networks are involved...
Here is what I do:
-mxm are located in the material database of maxwell
- textures are in same folder, in a texture folder... i also made a subfolder within this texture folder which holds the downloaded textures from downloaded mxm or added textures.
- created a SU texture folder in the same material mainfolder. In this folder i keep exact copy of the texture folder, but i remove bumps, and displacements etc maps... i only keep reflectance / main images. THEN, i resize all new images in there so their max size is 200 kb for use by Sketchup ( heavier size make sketchup VERY slow to manipulate the material menu)
- In sketchup folder, i keep materials ( .skm) where they are supposed to be.
Procedure of creating a material from lets say a downloaded mxm on the website.
1 - copy the zip file into the material database folder, in a temporary folder, then unzip.
2 - put the mxm into its mxm folder, put jpgs etc in texture folder ( more precisely in the subfolder i made for those downloaded materials)
3 - copy the reflectance / main image in the SU textures folder nearby ( not in SU program folder) and resize it to under 200 kb ( acdsee makes it possible to do this in batch with many files..just do resize by x % until the file is under 200kb.
4 - open mxm material panel and relink the eventual missing images to the mxm, save it
5 - In SU: create new material, search for the reduced image size, make sure the texture is at the right size by applying it to a test face, and save as xxx.skm into the SU materials library.
Backup ( for new installation, etc, since i do not want the risk to loose everything)..:
I simply backup SU material folder, and MR material database, and overwrite any newly installed stuff, or do it folder by folder in case there is new mxm in future versions...
Cons: long process, risks are high of forgetting something...
Pros: works
What i would like to achieve but cannot figure out... would love to have help here:
Have all those textures and mxm's and skm on the network so the other PC with a license can use it and we can do network rendering or be sure to both have the same library without wondering what texture has been added etc.... Is it possible for MR and SU to work with networked folder?
( assuming i have a fast enough server to make it work ( now its too slow anyway)
Have an automated way of importing mxm's into SU...aka fetch all or designated mxms, use an automated resize tool to get in SU only the main image in reduced size and save the .skm.
How do you do this all? would be interested to know if i am loosing way too much time with my method!
thnx
nils
I thought it would be interesting to know how everyone is doing it and what are good points or flaws in their systems...
Since we are working with Sketchup too, we need to organize both libraries and its a bit complicated indeed, especially when networks are involved...
Here is what I do:
-mxm are located in the material database of maxwell
- textures are in same folder, in a texture folder... i also made a subfolder within this texture folder which holds the downloaded textures from downloaded mxm or added textures.
- created a SU texture folder in the same material mainfolder. In this folder i keep exact copy of the texture folder, but i remove bumps, and displacements etc maps... i only keep reflectance / main images. THEN, i resize all new images in there so their max size is 200 kb for use by Sketchup ( heavier size make sketchup VERY slow to manipulate the material menu)
- In sketchup folder, i keep materials ( .skm) where they are supposed to be.
Procedure of creating a material from lets say a downloaded mxm on the website.
1 - copy the zip file into the material database folder, in a temporary folder, then unzip.
2 - put the mxm into its mxm folder, put jpgs etc in texture folder ( more precisely in the subfolder i made for those downloaded materials)
3 - copy the reflectance / main image in the SU textures folder nearby ( not in SU program folder) and resize it to under 200 kb ( acdsee makes it possible to do this in batch with many files..just do resize by x % until the file is under 200kb.
4 - open mxm material panel and relink the eventual missing images to the mxm, save it
5 - In SU: create new material, search for the reduced image size, make sure the texture is at the right size by applying it to a test face, and save as xxx.skm into the SU materials library.
Backup ( for new installation, etc, since i do not want the risk to loose everything)..:
I simply backup SU material folder, and MR material database, and overwrite any newly installed stuff, or do it folder by folder in case there is new mxm in future versions...
Cons: long process, risks are high of forgetting something...
Pros: works
What i would like to achieve but cannot figure out... would love to have help here:
Have all those textures and mxm's and skm on the network so the other PC with a license can use it and we can do network rendering or be sure to both have the same library without wondering what texture has been added etc.... Is it possible for MR and SU to work with networked folder?
( assuming i have a fast enough server to make it work ( now its too slow anyway)
Have an automated way of importing mxm's into SU...aka fetch all or designated mxms, use an automated resize tool to get in SU only the main image in reduced size and save the .skm.
How do you do this all? would be interested to know if i am loosing way too much time with my method!
thnx
nils
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Architecture we make in Lyon, France
http://www.swoard.com
Extremecarving snowboards we produce in Switzerland