#Rendering Programs?
8 messages in this thread
Are there any rendering programs that will accept .3ds or .prj files and run an
a DEC Alpha with NT?
Does anyone know if MAX will accept 3DS4 files with everything intact?
>> Does anyone know if MAX will accept 3DS4 files with everything intact?
I asked this question at the SigGraph booth and was told that MAX will
indeed import .3ds files. Of course you have to realize that the objects
imporrted will be "dumb" meshes (for lack of a better term) as opposed to
MAX's "smart" meshes with all the creation and modifications stored in the
stack and easily modified/re-modified.
Ralph
Ralph,
>> .3ds … "dumb" meshes (for lack of a better term) as opposed to
MAX's "smart" meshes <<
PMJI, but this begs the (rhetorical) question:
can dumb meshes be turned into smart meshes? can they be "educated"?
Martin
Gary will correct me if I am off-base here, Martin, but I coulda' swore I heard
him or someone say (in effect) that as soon as a mesh is imported into MAX, it
pretty much "smartens up" right off the bat. I'm suspecting that during the
import process the mesh is transformed into MAX's proprietary procedural mesh
structure and is then completely transformable by MAX's Modifier's, Space
Warps, etc.
What you probably won't be able to do is call it's "Stack", or previous levels
of transformation like a "native" MAX mesh until it is transformed in some way
by MAX itself.
I'm pretty sure this is what I understood. If I'm wrong about this, hopefully
someone like Gary, Jack, Jeremy, Steve, Jonas, or Phil will straighten me out!
<g>
And if this is *not* the way it works, I'd like to add it to the MAX
wishlist…:-)
-Alan
Alan,
>> that as soon as a mesh is imported into MAX, it pretty much "smartens up"
right off the bat. <<
that's what I'm hoping and suspecting 🙂
>> What you probably won't be able to do is call it's "Stack", or previous
levels of transformation like a "native" MAX mesh until it is transformed <<
right. I can see how that would be pretty much impossible.
Martin
Whoa! Someone was listening! <g>
You're right on, Alan… When you load a 'dumb' mesh (from 3DS, DXF, etc), it
actually becomes the base of a new modifier stack, and can end up being taught
to perform any sort of behavior a modifier (or space warp) is capable of (in
addition to be assigned any number of different transform controllers). In
effect, the verts of the new mesh are its initial parameters.
– G
Well, at least I've got a few brain cells left that still work…<g>
Every time another of MAX's features sinks in, I'm just more and more
amazed….and impatient!
Don't forget the sunscreen. <g>
-Alan
To expand slightly, the real difference is between a "dumb mesh" and a
"parametric object." At the bottom of the modifier stack for a parametric
object are its creation parameters (a cylinder's radius, height, segments,
etc), and you can go back and adjust those. A dumb-mesh cylinder has no
adjustable parameters at the bottom of the stack — but you can stack modifiers
on top of it like any other object, including parametric objects. Any modifiers
you apply to an object you can later access to tweak their settings (or
deactivate or delete them), the so-called "creation parameters" at the bottom
of the stack depend completely on the type of object you're modifying — where
it came from.
– Jack