BerconMetaballs 1.11

[MasterBercon]

Okey here is the hopefully final (revised) version of the plugin.

For those who haven't heard of it before its basically raytraced version of the Blobmesh max has. It doesn't generate a mesh at all, its raytraced (like VRayFog) on render time. This means its infinitely smooth and has no meshing artifacts. It also scales very well (millions of particles are no problem).

Features and fixes in 1.12
Feature: When using a mesh as a source object and Use Particle Size is checked it takes account soft selection (0..1) multiplied by Radius
Bug fix: Using a mesh as a source object with motion blur on doesn't crash any more

Features and fixes in 1.11:
Feature: Added some new optimizations to make things slightly faster, most noticable on high (over one million) particle counts
Feature: Simple particle systems are supported again (with motion blur and all)
Bug fix: Texture in Multiply mode now supports Strength values above 1.0
Bug fix: When "Use Particle Size" is on, the Leaf Size is ignored, there is no point using it with varying particle sizes

Download the plugin (updated 1.12): http://www.ylilammi.com/BerconMetaba..._2009_09_23.7z
To instal it simply copy the correct DLL version to your 3dsmax/plugins/vrayplugins/ folder and start max. It can be found in VRay object section (with VrayPlane etc.).

Download the source code: http://www.ylilammi.com/BerconMetaba..._2009_09_02.7z

Any bugs/feature requests can be reported here or directly to my email (jerry.ylilammi@gmail.com).

There aren't any known bugs.


To vlado/VRay developers/Random coders: What would it take to convert this plugin to VRay Maya? I don't have Maya myself so obviously I can't do it personally. I guess the VRay interface is pretty much the same so it shouldn't be a big problem for somebody to compile it for Maya.

UPDATE #2! Problems?

If you get error message when starting 3dsmax you most likely have to instal this: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...2-9112bab119c2
It appears the old Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package has some security issues which this new one fixes. My compiler has probably been updated between the versions to require this new package.

UPDATE #3! New 1.12 version with a feature and a fix

[jacksc02]

Thanks for the update Jerry.
Great little plugin.

[simmsimaging]

Awesome - thanks again for sharing this with the community!

b

[Mikokariadis]

Oh this sounds good, kind of like that new zsphere II video over at pixologic. Thanks MasterBercon.

[vlado]

To vlado/VRay developers/Random coders: What would it take to convert this plugin to VRay Maya? I don't have Maya myself so obviously I can't do it personally. I guess the VRay interface is pretty much the same so it shouldn't be a big problem for somebody to compile it for Maya.

The rendering part is very similar; the only difference would be the integration with Maya and reading the particle info from there. I can get one of the guys here to look into it.

Best regards,
Vlado

[YoyoBoy]

Hi,

I'm using Max 9-32 and "BerconMetaball_9-2008_32.dlo" doesn't want to load for me. I get an error. Yes, I did put it in the plugins/vrayplugins folder.

Thanks.

[MasterBercon]

YoyoBoy, try downloading and installing this: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

(or 64 bit version http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en )

If it doesn't help, could you please write down the error message and post it here?

[YoyoBoy]

Hi again,

That didn't work, unfortunately. :-/

The error I get is:

! <D:\Programfiles\Autodesk\3ds Max 9\plugins\vrayplugins\BerconMetaball_9-2008_32.dlo> failed to initialize.
Error code 14001 - This application failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

Thanks again.

- Geoff

[jordanw]

I found i had to create an aditional folder lugins\vrayplugins\Addditional
And had plugin.ini load that dir after all other vray dirs

[Thomas_Pardun]

Hi again,

That didn't work, unfortunately. :-/

The error I get is:

! <D:\Programfiles\Autodesk\3ds Max 9\plugins\vrayplugins\BerconMetaball_9-2008_32.dlo> failed to initialize.
Error code 14001 - This application failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

Thanks again.

- Geoff

me too! with Max2009 64bit

Thomas

[jacksc02]

I get the same problem too.
I installed the visual studio runtime (x64) but I still got the same error as above.

[rs3d]

Even re-installing Visual Studio runtimes and putting it in a different directory
doesn't help. The version from 14/6 works perfectly...

Best, Rob

[MattClark]

Same problem:
Error code 14001 - This application failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

Tried the c++ Redistributable Package mentioned above, makes no difference.

Previous version worked fine.

Max 2008, xp64

[MasterBercon]

A lot of people have reported problems with the 1.11 version so I tested all different flavors (9, 2008, 2009, 2010, 32/64) of the plugin and they work fine on my computer.

So here is a list what you should double check:

Make sure plugin is in vrayplugins folder.
Make sure you have MS VC++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package installed. (32: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en / 64: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en ).
Make sure you have chosen the correct DLL for your max version.
Make sure you are running VRay 1.5 SP3a.

If you are certain you've done all above then I'm really glueless what could be wrong. I haven't changed any compiler settings I'm aware of compared to previous builds.

[rs3d]

Anyone 1.11?

Anyone who is able to run 1.11 at all? Even all the steps considered it
doesn't work, but old versions do/did

Maybe anyone willing to recompile it for debugging purposes ?

Wishlist: And one feature would be supporting Vertex Soft Selection
like "Use Particle Size" for the Radius when using a Mesh...

Thanks Jerry for this great tool!

Best, Rob