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Is there any benefit of using the stand-alone material editor to create or modify materials?
I would like to take advantage of fire within 'studio' to create materials. I seems like studio
has the same functionality as material editor.

I think it pretty much comes down to how large of a preview you need. Studio allows you to have a larger view but it'll be a bit slower as a result.

Aside from that it's nice to have the editor for quick tweaks while you're browsing through your material library. But if you're starting from scratch and building an important material I can see how having the larger preview would be beneficial.

-Brodie

thanks brodie,

sounds like they both do the same thing.
I was not sure if 'studio' was a local material editor, which only affected the material associated with that mxi file, or a global material editor.

sean

Well, they have identical functionality (there's no material you can create in one that can't be created in the exact same way in the other).

Good point about the localization though. When you use the Editor, you can just save it to whichever folder in your library you want it. When you create a material in Studio, you'll want to go to File (the File in the Material Editor panel, not the one at the top of the screen) and either Export MXM or Pack n Go MXM.

Export MXM is just like saving the .mxm to whichever folder you want.

Pack n Go MXM will do the same thing but it will also transfer all the image files used in the material into the same location where it saves the .mxm. I find this quite useful as I'd rather have duplicates of an image rather than accidently move or delete an image somewhere that I forget is linked to an .mxm somewhere.

-Brodie

Hello soarchitect,

Maybe you find interesting to know that the MXED and the Material Editor inside Studio are exactly equal (in fact, the MXED is compiled from that fragment of the Studio code).
So the functionality is mainly the same.

And you would like to know that Fire is already implemented inside MXED (and the Material Editor in Studio). To enable it, just click in the lock icon. While it is locked, Fire will be continuously rendering to show you interactively the effect of your changes. If disabled, you have the refresh (double-clicking on the preview) to refresh the changes.

In case you prefer to navigate your scene with Studio while creating your materials, then it would be better to use Studio for that.

Let me know if this answers your question.

Greetings

Dario Lanza

Dario/Brodie,

Thanks for the feedback- I have a much better understanding of how the material editor & studio handles mxm files.
I like the fire inside the material editor, however, it would be nice if there was a way to increase the size of the material preview.

As I understand it:
once an mxm file is dragged from the material browser to the material pallet inside studio-it adopts the material attributes of the mxm in its current state.
any changes to the mxm in the material editor does not update the material inside studio- and vice-verse.

Any changes to the material inside studio does not create a new mxm until it is exported- until that point, the mxm is basically embedded inside the mxs file.
All textures, however, are still externally linked to the original mxm textures whether it is exported or not.

pack and go creates a new mxm with new textures, which the mxm will then reference.

Question:
Is there a global method of updating a material inside studio if that same material was later edited inside the material editor- something like an update from
library command?

best,
sean

I know of nothing like that within Studio although it's an interesting idea. That sort of functionality is available through the 3ds Max Plugin though (and perhaps other modelers). The way it works is that you have 2 options when selecting a material. You can choose an MXM Material or a Reference MXM Material.

With the MXM Material you can create a material from scratch or import a material with the option of editing it. Basically this works just like Studio.

With the Reference MXM your only option is to link to an existing MXM in your library. At that point the only way to edit the material is to edit it with Maxwell Editor and resave the material. I tend to favor this option for my car library for example because if I develop a better Car Tire Rubber material I can just change the material in my library and it will affect any cars I render from then on which are all referencing that material.

However, for most projects I would still favor the first option. If you have to come back a few weeks or a few months later you can still render that MXS and get the exact same result as the original render rather than having to worry about materials which you've updated or moved.

-Brodie

soarchitect wrote: Question:
Is there a global method of updating a material inside studio if that same material was later edited inside the material editor- something like an update from
library command?

when You import another .mxs into current scene there is a prompt do You want to replace materials . then skip new cameras or geometry.
but there is a hint ... You have to make scene with all Your material library.

Personaly I almost never use mxm standalone editor. because size of preview window is a joke. I set defaultpreview as net render and all my nodes give me very fast 512X512 preview.

it is easy even on 1.7.1 v just set material on simball, save file , and add new job in mxcl. after 1 one there is no need to add file it is already there. then only hit display on renderjob and voila. big nice preview done.

You have to make scene with all Your material library

What advantage does that give you exactly?

I set defaultpreview as net render and all my nodes give me very fast 512X512 preview.

You network render your material previews? Don't you lose a lot of interactivity in material creation?

-Brodie

brodie_geers wrote:

You have to make scene with all Your material library

What advantage does that give you exactly?

-Brodie

To import and replace materials to a scene i think. Because it's not possible to simply import materials and replace the older ones in the scene (directly or by selection)
The other way is to embed the newer mxms one by one into the old materials in studio and then remove the old layers... but not really a one click solution...

numerobis wrote: To import and replace materials to a scene i think.

Thx numerobis.

brodie_geers wrote:
You network render your material previews? Don't you lose a lot of interactivity in material creation?

-Brodie

of course it looks a little slower at start, but I prefer to have 512X512 at 12 SL preview of details instead of 128x128 noisy something. I am an old date maxwelian (before fire time) and work still on 1.7 but still my network render preview workflow is faster on 4 nodes in cooperative mode instead of 1 fire working machine.

if someone have more than 2 machines it is waste of horse power not to use them in material previews.
for instance - with Vray it is easy to use distributed rendering with pathtracing and get fast feedback from all your nodes, but with maxwell it is not possible in interactive way. but looks like it would be possible because in DISPLAY job of COOPERATIVE render . mxcl merge .bmp files instead of huge .mxi (but I can be wrong)

just dream of fire working on every machines and merging solution "on fly" it would be awesome.

Very interesting. I find that for the most part I know exactly what's wrong within seconds of the preview (the bump is to high/low, it's too reflective, the color is off, etc.). I can't imagine having to hit network render, go through the couple screens to confirm settings, waiting for the render to finish and then seeing the result, simply to find out that the bump it too low and then having to do it all over again. Do you really need a 512x512 rendered image at SL20 to tell you that your roughness is way to high, that you forgot to use your clipmap, or whatever?

I suppose I could see this after you've already done a lot of initial tweaks and just want to refine your material to the nth degree but to use this at any earlier stage seems very odd. It's like taking rough wood and using the finest grade sand paper possible to sand it down into a bench rather than at least starting with a rough grade sandpaper.

I'm not sure I understand your comparison to Vray. Unless I've missed a biggie, Vray doesn't even had it's own material editor. Are you talking about running multiple machines to run Vray RT?

-Brodie

brodie_geers wrote:
I suppose I could see this after you've already done a lot of initial tweaks and just want to refine your material to the nth degree

yes, exactly, but even with primary setings I prefer to fast RENDER REGION in VIEWPORT on simball scene to see some interesting parts

brodie_geers wrote:
.... Are you talking about running multiple machines to run Vray RT?

Have no vray RT - rather vray DR I have on my mind