Random Hue through scripting

[peakyfreak80]

I'm creating a series of lights with the intent of having them be the same intensity, but different hues. I've been able to adjust the RGB values through scripting with no problems, but I'm having difficulty assigning random hues the same way. Is there something I'm missing with this? Any help would be greatly appreciated (and a huge time saver!)

Thanks

Jon

here's what I have in there right now:

for obj in $ do
(
obj.color.h = random 0 100
)

[Thomas_Pardun]

Hi Jon,

hope i have understood the question correctly

for max standard lights you can use:

for obj in $ do
(
obj.hue = random 0 255
)

but for Vray lights... i don't have access to Hue value either.
i use this way, not very nice but it works for me

for obj in $ do
(
lightDummy=Omnilight rgb: (color(random 0 255) (random 0 255) (random 0 255)) hue: (random 0 255)

obj.color=lightDummy.color

delete lightDummy
)

Thomas

[plastic_]

You can't directly set the hue component of the color value in the light, you have to reference it first, modify, then reassign it.

for i in selection where (classof i==VRayLight) do
(
	col=i.color
	col.hue=random 0 255
	i.color=col
)

[peakyfreak80]

Thomas - That surely isn't the prettiest way to do it, but it worked. Thanks for the help! Manually changing a couple hundred lights would have been a major PITA.

Marc - I have to say that logically your method makes much more sense to me, but it doesn't seem to work. When I run it, the Maxscript Listener just says "OK" but nothing in the color changes. You have any thoughts on that?

Thanks to both. Hope this helps others as well!

Jon

[plastic_]

it reads the current light color and changes hue. if there is no saturation in the current color, then it doesn't change anything.
so it doesn't work when the old color is white, black, gray.
here is a version that forces a new color:

for i in selection where (classof i==VRayLight) do
(
	--col=i.color
	col=color 255 127 127
	col.hue=random 0.0 255
	i.color=col
)

[peakyfreak80]

Ah....that is great! Thanks so much for your help. I did what you mentioned and re-adjusted the color, then ran the initial script and it worked.

Now...on to make multi-colored lights!!

peakyfreak