maximum max material editor slots

[flipside]

Hi,

1. I was wondering, how do you work with many many materials in the same scene?

I usually need way more than 24 slots in my material editor, how can I add more (there is a scrollbar so I assume you can have more slots in there?)

I want all my mats in the material editor so I can easily acces any of them.

2. Another question: how can I save a max file with all maps etc so I can bring that file (or folder with max file and all the maps) to another pc and hit render without loading any materials or maps?

I think I don't understand the workflow of max's material editor etc...

3. I want to make some material libraries that I can acces at any time so I don't have to recreate metal and glass etc everytime I need it. I know I can save these .mat files but the actual bitmaps are not saved together with that file, these are just links I suppose. It would also be nice when a project is finished, that I can save all the mats and maps one way or another into one folder, write it on a cd so if I ever open that file again I don't have to load 20 bitmaps that I don't have anymore.

Can someone shed some light on a good workflow in using materials and maps in max?

thanks,

flipside

[cocolas]

good questions flipside....
I don't know the answer to the first but it's something I've wanted to know for a long time!!!!

as for the second, I usually use the resorce collector utility (UTILITIES>"more">resorce collector)...it works really well in collecting all your files (maps/max files) and copying them to a folder or even puting them into a zip file for shipping.....

paul.

[Sushidelic]

Hi Flipside!

Usually, you can only have the 24 standard slots of the ME. Anyway, there is a script extension by bobo, that allows 1024 slots, but they cannot be saved with the scene (exept the first 24).

http://www.scriptspot.com/bobo/mxs3/...extender012.ms


There's another script that refills your ME with all the materials used in your scene - I don't know if both scripts work together, but it coud be an alternative.

http://www.scriptspot.com/scripts/we...rialeditor.zip

Try it out - greets, Michael

[flipside]

Ow, so it really isn't possible without extra help?

How do you get around this problem then? How do you organize and manage your materials? I see many images here where there must way more than 24 materials in the scene. Do you just overwrite them in the slots and when you need to alter one that you removed from the ME you load it back over another mat and edit it?

Thanks,

flipside

[suurland]

You can't have more then 24 materials in the editor, but your scene can hold more then you want. If you run out of space in the medit just delete one of the slots and say it should "affect only mtl/map in the editor slot" if you later need the material back you can just use the "get from scene" or "pick material from object"

To me it's fine there is only room for 24 since it can get a bit heavy to redraw. But it would have been even better if you could make groups of mats with 24 slots each.

/Thomas

[cocolas]

yeah...it sounds like such a logical thing to add...say you could have different sets of 24 mats....like opening up different "folders" or sections of the ME.....gee, you'd think discreet would've imporved on this....this kinda ME was like this since the max 2 version......

paul.

[natty]

well ive alway's come across this problem and i would have thought they would have address it by now ... why cant you have an endless amount of slots for mats ... just seems stupid to me.

[cocolas]

maybe we should create a post link on the discrete forums for this tread......someone at discreet must have an answer for that.........but you'r right natty, it seems such a no brainer!!

paul.

[DaForce]

hehehe i wonder what made them choose 24 as the magical number.....

Do you think they actually consulted the industry

"In a recenty survey we found that 8/10 professioanl 3dsmax users require 24 material editor slots or less"

haahahah

[e3d]

The way I get around it is to use the material scene selection, this shows you all the materials in the scene, then you just over write the ones in the ME. If you want a specific texture from the scene click on it in the viewport then goto selected and then over write a slot in the ME.

Seems to work ok for me.

Hope this helps abit.

Cheers

[losbellos]

"In a recenty survey we found that 8/10 professioanl 3dsmax users require 24 material editor slots or less"
haahahah

amazing, is there a name, that who did this research?
maybe those profs., were rendering only teapots,balls, and planes

[natty]

Perhaps there is a script out there to overide this problem.

[flipside]

Folders etc... in a mat editor should be very basic stuff, now it's like having only 10 layers in Photoshop, those days are also long gone.

I find it very annoying having to overwrite another material everytime I need to edit one.

[percydaman]

I pretty much do what suurland said. It indeed is frustrating at times. I usually remove materials from the editor that Im pretty sure Im happy with and wont need to edit. I also use the Multi/Sub material some for this issue.

percy

[natty]

yeah i think thats what we all do ...but you get too a point where you are deleting and then bringing mats back and deleting .......bla bla so on so on