Exporting from 3ds max to vrscene and rendering on linux

[nils@innboks.com]

Hi,
I was wondering where I can find som documents/instructions on how to export from 3ds max (vrscene) to vray standalone on linux.
From what I gather from forums and the net it is possible but i cant find any instructions on how to do it (beside the right-click and .vrscene export funtion. Which has very limited options). Are there any scripts out there to give more options to the export?
I know that the paths have to be changed because of linux, but are there other problems that can arise?
Of the documents i find there are none that explain what to do after you have exported the vrscene. Settings like output paths, file format, and so on.

We are evalutating to use max also on our renderfarm, not only our maya vray.

Nils A.
Senior 3D generalist

[savio alvares]

Hi,
Could u let me know what is vray standalone.....

Thanks
regards
savio alvares

[nils@innboks.com]

vray standalone is the commandline render of vray. You use it to render exported .vrscenes. Benefit is that you can render from other platforms than windows.

[vlado]

There are two ways to export a .vrscene file out of 3ds Max. One is from the viewport quad-menu - right-click a viewport, and select "export .vrscene" or "export .vrscene animation". This exporter is implemented in MaxScript and is somewhat slow; also not all materials are properly exported, but you are free to modify it for your needs. The other method is to use the .vrscene export capabilities of V-Ray RT. Choose V-Ray RT as your ActiveShade engine, and then you can either use the vrayExportRTScene() MaxScript function as described here http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/rt10...script.htm#mxs
or you can export from the V-Ray RT interface directly. The V-Ray RT export is faster, supports more materials and textures, but may have some issues with animation of objects with changing vertex counts right now. For future versions of V-Ray, we will be focusing on expanding the V-Ray RT exporter to support VRayFur, hair, render elements etc, while the MaxScript exporter will remain for demonstration purposes only.

Best regards,
Vlado

[nils@innboks.com]

Hi,
Thanks for all the info. Its been a long time since i replied to this because of vacation and other work.
We are trying to implement max into our pipeline of Maya and vray, but we are unsuccessful implementing the max vrscene export because there are differences in the maya/max file structure.
Mainly we are missing animation info and camera info from the max export. It would also be nice to be able to manually set up the paths setup (for linux) before exporting.
I was hoping someone had a solution or a pipleline setup we could look at so that we can get max working without having to go via maya. We are using the HQrender manager from Houdini for our rendermanager software.

Nils

[vlado]

The latest builds of V-Ray allow you to export animations through the V-Ray RT engine exporter using the "startFrame" and "endFrame" keywords. There is no difference between camera and other animations.

I'm not sure what you mean by setting up paths manually.

There are in fact people who are using the .vrscene exporter in V-Ray RT to render through V-Ray Standalone on Linux, though I don't know of anyone using the Houdini render manager.

Best regards,
Vlado

[nils@innboks.com]

Do you get camera information (like in the maya .vrscene) in the .vrscene file in the latest build? We have the 2.30.01 on both maya and max.
Not sure I know what you mean when you say the startframe and endframe keywords. Maybe Im missing something here.
You mean to use the exporter from the V-Ray RT settings (in the Render setup)? Where do I get the startframe/endframe settings there. The only place I find those is if I rightclick and choose .vrscene export from the quads.

[vlado]

Do you get camera information (like in the maya .vrscene) in the .vrscene file in the latest build? We have the 2.30.01 on both maya and max.

Yes.

Not sure I know what you mean when you say the startframe and endframe keywords. Maybe Im missing something here.

They are keywords that you can specify to the vrayExporRTScene MaxScript command as mentioned here: http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/rt10...script.htm#mxs - you will not find these options anywhere in a UI.

Best regards,
Vlado

[nils@innboks.com]

Ok, thanks Vlado. Ill give it another try. Hopefully we can use max on the renderfarm also

[nils@innboks.com]

Does anyone have an example of a maxscript for the vrayexportRTscene? I just need a starting point that I can use to edit but im not very versatile with maxscript. I have the need to implement cameradetails, fileIO details and animationsdetails into the vrscene before sending it to the farm. Like .vrscene in Vray for Maya has.

Regards
Nils