[Richard]

The new MXM gallery is IMHO becoming quickly useless. About half of the materials you try to download have no maps or no link to maps SO WHAT IS THE POINT!

Sure you can open the mxm and see how clever someone is but without maps you can only see how clever they might have been!

Please if you don't put in the map or a link to the maps don't post useless materials!!!!!

About 10 materials rated 8+ that I have tried to download have NO MAPS!

[ludi]

a overview thumbnail page would be nice as well

[jamsurf]

I didnt try anyone still , except the emitter of tom ( is great ) .

But i supose the next .
the materials has their preview each one . We download knowing the result , but the maps ?? .
I can make a material with my arroway cd and show to all , and
put on mxmweb to download . But i cant spread that texture , is not
legal .
Then , each one put his texture there on the mxm downloaded .
Supose that the material are for use , analize , the mxm config , layers ,
... knowing final result , but not the wood bitmap , or whatever .

i think is reasonable . But i must give a look , perhaps are someone bad

[markps]

who uploads without the maps should disclose it clearly on the title of the material.

The whole point is to have ready made materials... If I make a super duper material with normal maps and all and don't upload the normal maps.. well that's kind of cheating

It is like uploading a scratched aluminum without the bump/anisotropic map.. it defeats the whole purpose.

[Ernesto]

Yes, I have noted those problems...
I wonder how to keep it clean... Perhaps a moderator is needed there.

Ernesto

[markps]

I agree with you Ernesto... if the map is not included I don't think that's the correct area to post ... It could be in the maxwell goodies area or simmilar.

again, all bump maps, transmittance maps, normal maps and anisotropy maps HAVE to be included in order to qualify as a "Library Material" (pun non intended)

Edit: One thing I have to make really clear here.. the new material area is awesome. It is really the crawn jewel of it all. I think the problem is with the users that are uploading missing maps. The material area should be only for turnkey ready to use materials.

[Richard]

Thanks all for adding your support.

As all suggested if maps aren't included we have littel idea of even how to reference how this material was set to perform. The map was it hi contrast, low contrast? The questions are simply unaswered. The material is then just a list of settings with no base reference.

The rating system is a very useful tool and I personally value it but to start downloading materials highly rated from the test image can really disappoint when you find it to be an empty vessel.

[Hervé]

ok, I hope mine don't have this problem.. they do come with several maps...

[hyltom]

I'm 100% agree with you, no provided maps make the material useless. And as markps say:The material area should be only for turnkey ready to use materials. [/b]

[Kabe]

I think it's fair to say that every material that doesn't provide the necessary maps should be simple deleted. This is a site to download materials, and this includes the necessary maps of course.

However, I don't share your experience with materials that are missing
maps. Are you sure that it's not because of path issues that are
unfortunately common in M~R?

Kabe

[Dexel]

I agree wholeheartedly..

And I vote for a read-me txt file to be included with every texture pack where the creator lists if and what extra data (ior, r2, maps) are being used.

fancy.mxm
uses
ior:
-
r2:
-
maps:
weight.jpg
light.jpg
shadow.jpg

Little effort for him/her, much time saved for the rest.

Most comfortably a future update of M~R would include a command in MXED to automatically produce a simple txt read-out of the mxm specifying these data including their settings..

[markps]

It could have some kind of standard on posting Materials to the library...


A good practice would be to keep the maps on the same folder when creating the materials... People might have their maps located on a random folder on their computer and it will be quite annoying to replace the maps of a material with several different layers and several maps set to different channels. It has to be a better way.

Further more, disclosure on the license of the maps.. They should most likely have one of those specific Creative Commons License. Stating that people can use the maps on their commercial renders but can NOT sell the maps or materials by itself.

[Kabe]

Sorry Dexel, but that's a kludge.

M~R should simply search the MXM path for any needed files if not found
at the given location. Then a material is complete and works, or it is not
and will be deleted.


Kabe

[Dexel]

M~R should simply search the MXM path for any needed files if not found
at the given location. Then a material is complete and works, or it is not
and will be deleted.

you are right, Kabe, keep it simple.

[Richard]

I think it's fair to say that every material that doesn't provide the necessary maps should be simple deleted. This is a site to download materials, and this includes the necessary maps of course.

However, I don't share your experience with materials that are missing
maps. Are you sure that it's not because of path issues that are
unfortunately common in M~R?

Kabe

I might have exaggerated the number I've found so far sure, I was just getting P****d when it happened several times and no it wasn't just a path issue. Easy to tell when you try to download a material that you know will require some map/s and the zip file is 80k.