#384104
I've noticed that some material settings get reset/changed when saving+loading a MaxwellMaterial inside the 3ds max material editor (using current beta plugin 3.1.2 with Maxwell 3.0.99.3).

Global Parameters:
- ‚Specific Material ID Color‘ is set to unchecked
- ‚Scale U‘ and ‚Scale V’ is reset to 0,0

Maps:
- ‘Show In Viewport’ is set to unchecked
- ‘Use Global Setting’ is set to unchecked
- ‘Tile U’ and ‘V’ get changed (does not happen in Global Parameters)
- All values in the ‘Sequence’ section are reset

Emitter in IES mode:
- ‘Preview’ is unchecked
- ‘Scale’ is reset to 1,0

Steps to reproduce:
1. Create a new MaxwellMaterial and change any of the above values
2. Save the material as a .mxm file
3. Load the material into a new material slot

I hope to see a fix soon, as some of these really impeed my workflow.
#384121
gmenzel wrote: Global Parameters:
- ‚Specific Material ID Color‘ is set to unchecked
- ‚Scale U‘ and ‚Scale V’ is reset to 0,0
These settings do not exist in MXED so they are reset to default values when you import a MXM file. We will change the plug-in to preserve them if you've used the "MXED" button to edit a material. However, we cannot preserve them if you export a MXM file manually and import in a different material.
gmenzel wrote: - ‘Show In Viewport’ is set to unchecked
- ‘Use Global Setting’ is set to unchecked
Same problem as above, except in this case it's harder to preserve even when you use the MXED button, because internally all the material contents are destroyed and recreated from scratch when you import a MXM file, which means the plug-in cannot know which map to enable in viewport (especially since you can add or remove maps freely in MXED).
gmenzel wrote: - ‘Tile U’ and ‘V’ get changed (does not happen in Global Parameters)
This sounds like a bug. Could you send me a small Max scene which contains a material that changes the tile U and V values after you edit it with MXED?
gmenzel wrote: - All values in the ‘Sequence’ section are reset
MXM materials don't have the concept of sequences, so this is impossible to preserve when you export and reimport a material.
gmenzel wrote: Emitter in IES mode:
- ‘Preview’ is unchecked
- ‘Scale’ is reset to 1,0
Same problem.
#384133
Mihnea Balta wrote:This sounds like a bug. Could you send me a small Max scene which contains a material that changes the tile U and V values after you edit it with MXED?
The issue seems to be related to 'Scale U' and 'Scale V' settings. It looks like the plugin applies these scaling values to other material settings that would be affected by them, before exporting the MXM - presumably because these scale values are themselves not preserved. If this is indeed the reason, then 'Tile U/V' in Global Parameters should also be affected, which it is not at the moment.
Mihnea Balta wrote:These settings do not exist in MXED so they are reset to default values when you import a MXM file.
Concerning all these 3dsmax specific parameters, a possible one-catch-all solution that comes to mind would be the following:
- When exporting a material, the plugin (for whichever 3d app) serializes host application specific material parameters into a text string (e.g. XML syntax) and stores this string in a new 'meta parameters' field within the MXM data structure.
- MXED as well as other Maxwell Tools simply ignore the contents of this field, BUT preserve it when importing/editing/exporting a MXM.
- This meta parameters field could even contain specific parameters for several different host applications at the same time.
- Whenever a plugin imports a MXM file, it looks inside the meta parameters field for relevant content and, if found, uses these settings.

From a developers perspective, this would be quite easy to implement.
Mihnea Balta wrote:Same problem as above, except in this case it's harder to preserve even when you use the MXED button, because internally all the material contents are destroyed and recreated from scratch when you import a MXM file, which means the plug-in cannot know which map to enable in viewport (especially since you can add or remove maps freely in MXED).
BUT the ‘Use Global Settings’ setting does exists in MXED too. It just isn’t preserved with the current 3dsmax plugin.
#384135
Writing app-specific data to the MXM file is a solution (it's not supported at the moment, but it's easy to add). However, MXM files will sometimes pass through more than one host app, which will either destroy the data, or add more data that not all the apps can interpret. I think the real solution is to standardize the parameters. The file formats for materials and scenes will be reviewed and most likely modified after the 3.1 launch and we'll discuss this matter then. We're also planning to add user or app-defined fields, which will allow stuff that remains app-specific to be serialized.

You're right about the scaling factors being multiplied into the tiling for each map (which is another reason why it cannot be read back, as it would result in double scaling). The fact that the global factors are not affected is a bug, we'll fix it.

You're right about use global settings as well, that's a bug too and we'll fix it.
#385706
I have noticed some things aswell. Using 3.1.3.

- When unchecking the Enabled checkbox on a Displacement layer, the layer disappears. So when selecting another layer there's no way to select the Displacement layer again. When opening the MXM in the MXE the displacement layer is gone, sort of deleted when deselecting.
- The value's of the thickness of a coating aren't corresponding with the MXE, in the MXE you can go as low a 1 nm in the Min value but in 3ds Max the value starts at 20 nm.
- The sky preview has almost never worked for me, I've had different hardware setups but it has only worked few times.
- The Maxwell material preview in the viewport has never worked for me, also on different hardware setups.
Will there be a Maxwell Render 6 ?

Let's be realistic. What's left of NL is only milk[…]