3dsMax Render to Texture Question

[fraggyver]

Hey there,

I have a problem with rendering 4 different unwrapped objects into one texture. Max keeps rendering out 8 (diffuse and lightning map) different images instead of 2. I could merge em together with ps but there has to be some options at max i keep missing to avoid that rather annoying ps work.

Image of my current settings. http://s14.directupload.net/file/d/2683 ... 5z_jpg.htm

Would be great if someone could help me out with this issue.

Regards
Frag

[marks]

Merge them into the same max object, or composite the maps together in photoshop. No other way.

[shawnolson]

I have actually been thinking about this same problem. I may build a function to do this with RTT at some point.

Mark gave the current solutions; but there are times that you may want to use the same actual texture one several objects that are just mapped to separate areas of the texture in UVW--but not always want to combine into a single object. It isn't that hard to hold scene, combine, do RTT and then fetch scene (or use undo, etc) but those are extra clicks/steps that really shouldn't be necessary.

If I could get myself to stop being addicted to reading 3D forums I might find the spare time to do it But then again, I am now winding down on coding for a while and getting back into some design work... I'd rather see Autodesk just do it. Submit a vote for this on the Autodesk Uservoice site.

[fraggyver]

I cant merge because all objects have different animations which will be crushed if merged.
I didnt thought about merging, rendering and undo afterwards tho, clever idea. Ill try that one, till there is an easier solution.

Thanks guys for the input.
Cheers

[marks]

Why would autodesk need to put it into max? Its quite an obscure thing to do, which is very rare and there are some very simple and fast ways to resolve it.

1) Hold -> Merge -> Bake -> Fetch
2) Bake separately, composite in photoshop

It wouldnt even take long to script a tool to do this (but believe me you dont want to look at max's RTT code, its horrific - I've had to deal with it at work and it is not fun).

[fraggyver]

Yep, its a pretty unusual thing to do and i could have done it the normal way, but i just tried to safe UV space and unnecessary files.

On the other hand im also quite sure that Shawn is very able to script such things easily, since he did such fantastic jobs with his previous tools

[shawnolson]

I'd want them to add it (or someone make a script for it) but I do realize that it may be a fringe scenario. Personally, I'd prefer doing anything in a single app that can be done in the single app. I don't like doing much in photosphop/photopaint.

The real benefit is to make it easier to package textures from multiple models into the same texture. Yeah there are pros/cons...

The scenario I'd like it the most is like this:

I've made WWMT so that it can export multiple models at once and using the disp tool you can export them into source al at once. If I have ten models that make up the wall/junk/props of a little set and they all "feel" like a single model (because the textures really go from one to the next) then why not just unwrap them into the same UVW and export one texture?

One obvious convenience of this is that if you do decide to edit the colors later in photoshop, then the levels, hues, etc propagate to all your models all at once instead of having to go and replicate the changes in all the different textures. You can still do this with the solutions mentioned above (compositing textures) but really that's the whole thing... the compositing phase of this scenario is annoying drudgery--the kind of stuff I prefer to avoid (I'm lazy...)

Anyway, it's personally something I'd like but as now been pointed out enough, it's not a big deal to do it... it's just that it's inconvenient (for some of us). But it's not inconvenient enough for me (personally) to tackle yet... despite the fact that I've wanted the feature for a year or two. I looked for a ready-made solution some time ago and found none (well there were a couple commercial solutions--but I didn't feel it's worth paying for).

For example, check out Flatiron.

[shawnolson]

Well I'm certain someone will get mad about resurrecting an old thread. But I loaded a new tool to solve this problem:

You can get Material Merger directly from my site. I will also be adding it into Wall Worm soon.