Work with sloppy scenes

[KushnerArt]

Hi,

We constantly use Vantage when working with heavy scenes that use models from different software(3DsMax, Revit, Sketchup, etc.), different versions and created by different people. 3DsMax files contains thousands of objects hundreds of helpers, hundreds of Multi-Materials. Constant changes are made to the *.max scene and *.vantage scene by different people during the design process.
I would really like to see improvements in ChaosVantage:

1. A script that moves objects in 3dsmax that were moved in Vantage. I am not asking for a reverse Live-Link, but some ability to make changes to the *.max file - moving, rotating, scaling objects. You can make a script that adds Helper objects with the names of moved objects in Vantage (like importing cameras from Vantage into 3dsmax button – it creates new Camera objects and work great).

2. The ability to work with objects with the same names. Or make a warning message when creating a vrscene with duplicate object names and a list of these objects. For now – only one unique name is in object list in Vantage, other objects can not be selected and moved or be hidden.
3. The ability to work with materials with the same names. Or a warning message when creating a vrscene with duplicate material names and a list of these materials. For now ChaosVantage can not use even one materials with duplicate names.


4. The ability to work with MultiMaterial. Many objects are made by VrayProxy+MultiMaterial – it would be very convenient to change only some SubMaterials.
5. Make the work of the Diffuse and Bump(Normal map slot direction works fine) map directions identical. As for now – Chaos Vantage ignores BumpMap direction.





I have attached *.max, *.vrscene, *.vantage files and images.

Thank you.

[hermit.crab]

1. A script that moves objects in 3dsmax that were moved in Vantage. I am not asking for a reverse Live-Link, but some ability to make changes to the *.max file - moving, rotating, scaling objects. You can make a script that adds Helper objects with the names of moved objects in Vantage (like importing cameras from Vantage into 3dsmax button – it creates new Camera objects and work great).

It isn't so simple. Vantage works with the .vrscene you exported from the host platform, not the 3ds Max file.

2. The ability to work with objects with the same names. Or make a warning message when creating a vrscene with duplicate object names and a list of these objects. For now – only one unique name is in object list in Vantage, other objects can not be selected and moved or be hidden.

We already have this one logged (internal bug-tracker id: LAV-1012).

3. The ability to work with materials with the same names. Or a warning message when creating a vrscene with duplicate material names and a list of these materials. For now ChaosVantage can not use even one materials with duplicate names.

I guess a warning prior to the export would help.

4. The ability to work with MultiMaterial. Many objects are made by VrayProxy+MultiMaterial – it would be very convenient to change only some SubMaterials

Basically, you wish to be able to override sub-materials in VRayProxies, correct?

5. Make the work of the Diffuse and Bump(Normal map slot direction works fine) map directions identical. As for now – Chaos Vantage ignores BumpMap direction.[

This is reproducible. I'll log it.
EDIT: Check post below.

[npg]

As we've discussed in multiple other forum threads, shading graphs are not available for bump maps, so only plain bitmaps are supported. You can have a shading graph with a normal map.

[KushnerArt]

Hi,

thank you for your answers. items 2,3, and 5 - i understand and will not ask anythink more.

item 4 - yes, i would like to changle sub-materilas in MultiMaterial. for example when we have 3d model of sofa and it has multimaterial with "LegsMat, LeatherMat, PillowMat" it would be useful to change LeatherMat for fabric material from CosmosLibrary for example. It helps artists to see different material options in scene.




item 1 is the most important for our team. i am thinking to find someone to make a simple script for money.

we always have many rounds of edits and improvements in the design scene. for example, one person prepares works in NAME_ONE.max and exports NAME_ONE.vrscene to Vantage with NAME_ONE.vantage. other person works in Vantage - creates new cameras, moves decor objects, sets up the lighting and gives the list of edits to the first person. the first person improves 3d scene in 3DsMax and exports it again with a new name NAME_TWO.vrscene f.e. Manually renames NAME_TWO.vrscene with NAME_ONE.vrscene - so that NAME_ONE.vantage file could open new scene with old settings. this method works 50/50 and the heavier the scene, the less often it works.


In fact, "Import Changes from Chaos Vantage" button can easily create cameras in 3DsMax. F.e. i created "DeathStar camera" in Vantage. we can easily find part of the code about this camera in Notepad. i attached image.

a few lines of code:
{
"cam_type": 0,
"use_fov": 1,
"hfov_deg": 45.0,
"transform": [0.7547095417976379, -0.6560590267181397, 1.4901161193847657e-8, 0.26684319972991946, 0.3069680333137512, 0.9135454893112183, -0.5993397235870361, -0.6894615292549133, 0.4067365825176239, -256.943359375, -392.7569580078125, 291.9895324707031],
"roll_angle": 0.0,
"clip_enabled": 0,
"clip_near": 0.0,
"clip_far": 9.999999884841548e26,
"name": "DeathStar camera",
"ortho_width": 1000.0,
"film_gate": 36.0,
"focal_length": 42.531288146972659,




Example: I created simple objects in 3Dsmax with unique names( Din Djarin_, AHSOKA TANO_, Captain CT-7567 "Rex"_) and exported the scene to vantage. When I change the position, rotation or scale of the two objects(AHSOKA TANO_and Captain CT-7567 "Rex"_) and save it to a file, then in the Notepad you can see only the changed objects and their parameters. I did not change Din Djarin_ object in Vantage and can not see any text in *.vantage about it.

a few lines of code:

"changes": {
"transforms": [{
"scene_name": "Captain CT-7567 "Rex"_",
"transform": [1.2339998483657838, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.2339999675750733, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.2339999675750733, -41.90874481201172, 56.306640625, 0.0]
}, {
"scene_name": "AHSOKA TANO_",
"transform": [1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 99.9990005493164, 22.222000122070314, 0.0]
}, {
"object": 9,
"transform": [0.7547095417976379, -0.6560590267181397, 1.4901161193847657e-8, 0.26684319972991946, 0.3069680333137512, 0.9135454893112183, -0.5993397235870361, -0.6894615292549133, 0.4067365825176239, -256.943359375, -392.7569580078125, 291.9895324707031]
}, {
"object": 10,
"transform": [0.7547095417976379, -0.6560590267181397, 1.4901161193847657e-8, 0.26684319972991946, 0.3069680333137512, 0.9135454893112183, -0.5993397235870361, -0.6894615292549133, 0.4067365825176239, -256.943359375, -392.7569580078125, 291.9895324707031]
}],
"pivots": [{
"scene_name": "Captain CT-7567 "Rex"_",
"pivot": [0.0, 0.0, 0.0]
}, {
"scene_name": "AHSOKA TANO_",
"pivot": [0.0, 0.0, 0.0]
}],



If i make some changes to 3DsMax scene(adding new objects, delete several others, etc.) and export new *.vrscene with old name - ChaosVantage may open this vrscene properly. this method does not always work and I cannot count on it





I understand that it is difficult to change objects in 3DsMax or other software. But it would be magical to have a script that creates Dummies in 3DsMax with the transform parameters of the modified objects from *.vantage file. In my example - script should create two Dummy objects Dummy-AHSOKA TANO_ and Dummy-Captain CT-7567 "Rex"_ with new transform,rotate and scake parameters. So i could easily Allign my objects in 3DsMax with Dummies with AllignSelectionTool. As a result, the objects will be located the same place as in the vantage. It seems to be similar approach as "Import Changes from Chaos Vantage" button, right?

I hope I explained the idea clearly. Such a script\tool would save me a lot of time in my work. maybe there is another solution to my problem and I will be glad to hear any advice.

I attached example scenes, but I think you do not need them.

Thank you

[hermit.crab]

There's no automated solution at this point, I'm afraid. I suggest you add the idea to the Portal (you may link this thread to it) to see how much interest there is in such a functionality. This goes for the ability to edit multi/sub-object materials.

[serdar_turanl]

There seems to be a serious error in the bump channel - Chaos Forums

this is a known problem, so I shared it.

[KushnerArt]

Thank you.

I understand about Bump maps direction - i will control it in 3DsMax scenes for now. And maybe will add an idea at Portal about SubMaterials.

One last question remains - can we collect some information about transformation of objects from Vantage and snd this information to 3DsMax?

[hermit.crab]

One last question remains - can we collect some information about transformation of objects from Vantage and snd this information to 3DsMax?

Only through the .vantage and .vrscene files, I suppose. Otherwise, we have similar requests (for transferring info from Vantage to the DCC) already logged (LAV-1653 and LAV-1653) for merged assets (Cosmos) and light changes. If there is interest in the Portal Idea, we'll consider adding such a script for objects too.

[KushnerArt]

So, i am working on plan-B now - pay someone to make small script ((
it works with most objectsand i am testing it now. i think it works better without Groups in 3DsMax scene and when Pivots are 0.0.0, but sometimes we need to calculate this

and it is not working with visibility for now, but i think it iwill work

some screenshots with 3DsMax viewport before and after script





maybe you could give some advice about vantage file information we need to collect and calculate?

for now we read information after 'changes' and collect Transforms, Pivots and try to work with visibility

some code and MaxScriptListener with result



i think i can share this script if needed

thank you