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jek

No. They are not working, mainly because the scatter modifier creates a compound object which isn't instanced geometry. Neither Mental Ray can render it as an instanced geometry, so there is no much to do here.

LE: In the above post the assumption was that you're talking about Compound Scatter modifier. If not, Crowd scatter for the win, as Tom mentioned below :).

Under Helpers, you'll find Crowd, which has a Scatter tool inside works nicely.

that update rocks!!!

Proxy Painter would do a nice job too. It's a nice tool for painting instances upon geometry. (It has some limitations too...)

http://www.3rdpole.com/

Tom that's the way we are suppose to use maxwell intances? if not you could you give a brief tut on how to use maxwell instances with 3d max?

It's not about Maxwell instances. If you know how to use instances in Max, that's it. The plug-in will export them.

Simple instances can be done by Shift+Move an object and select Instances when the Max dialog pops up.

and we should use the "bounding box" display in the object properties, or someone has another way to do?

The plugin supports all kind of instances 3dsmax can host.
There are several ways of making instances:

1) The easiest way is selecting an object and pressing Ctrl+V.
2) You can alternatively use Array command for building matrix of objects using position, scale and rotation.
3) ...or other systems like particles, scatter systems etc.

However, 3dsmax's particle systems form compound objects which is not suitable for instancing in the way we need. This is a 3dsmax problem, not Maxwell, nor plugin. In my above post, I've pointed to a Helper object named "Crowd" which provides you a compatible scattering using instances.

If you're planning to model scenes having lots of instances, of course I'd suggest you switching to bounding box mode.

@Tom: The suggestion with crowd->scatter works great, the options to rotate and scale the objects gives a great non-uniform result as it should be... Take 2-3 tree models (obj or 3ds) and make crowds on a surface (terrain) and you got a great forest.

Looks like ForestPack Pro (which I like very much) but with models, so no camera adjustment needed.
Instancing is better than displacement I think... Especially for exterior architectural renderings like the ones I need.

thanks Tom, in Maxwell "instance", i was understanding "proxies"!

Moreover, do 3dsmax proxies work with it?

I just tried the Crowd Helper. It takes a little getting used to in that it is different than scatter, but it works extremely well. Nothing like scattering 3000 bushes across a scene and still have MXCL only use 77 megs of RAM. Absolutely amazing.