Max7.0 will be released at this Siggarph?

[gimpgutter2]

f97ao...im glad you had this little problem. Over the years i have posted several threads on www.maxforums.org about meshsmooth being incredibly slow in max. They all blamed my crappy hardware, so I got a new cpu and graphics card, and it made no difference at all. I tested on my friends machine...same problem. I knew it was just poor coding that caused the slowdown, and discreet focuses on adding new features instead of perfecting the ones already implemented. I just wanted to say thank you for putting your knowledge, time, and effort into creating a script for helping the community so much. (even if it was meant for personal use initially) I would be glad to thoroughly test the script for you, even though i dont have any max script knowledge at all. Here is my email address: ngmitter@eden.rutgers.edu

I am looking forward to giving this a try...then maybe, just maybe i can finish one of my car models without max slowing down to rediculously useless speeds.

Thanks again
-Nick-

[f97ao]

I'm "glad" to hear that not everyone has the same problem as me with max being slow with polys. I mean, it was serious enough so that I decided to not work with 3d for a while, waiting for the programs to mature. I have even looked in the internal c++ code for max, but the program is that the meshsmooth code isn't released to the public, otherwise I should have been able to offer an improved version of meshsmooth.

I tried the script yesterday quick on max6, and it worked without crasching. One thing to note is that the script is ment to speed up _detail_ work of polygons mostly. So for example if you work on say details on the doors etc, then it will be far faster, it won't be that much faster if you work on the whole object at one time, since well then it has to calculate meshsmooth for the whole object anyway. Also I think there was one optimization that does not work perfectly in max6, this is because Tada... they broke polygons even more, however I think i can fix this pretty easily. It's when you rotate the objects, I would automatically apply a turn_to_mesh modifier, and then take it away when the user is working. This was not needed in max5, but in max6 it's important.

Anyway, I'm sending you the script now, I hope it works ok.
I have sent it to a few others, and haven't heard anything yet, looking forward to some response.

/Andreas

[f97ao]

Ok. I have updated the script now so it's easier to use. I will istal max on this computer and fix some small user friendly bugs.

I have posted detailed threads on maxforum about exactly how they should improve the meshsmooth script and general polygon works, and why it's so important, since max4. But well, they just don't seem to listen at this I'm afraid.

/Andreas

[f97ao]

It will be interesting to see the new faster meshsmooth in 3dsmax7. Unfortunately I don't think it will cache the areas that don't need to be recalculated so I don't expect it to be great for large meshes.


I've done a movie that shows how my PolySpeed plugin will speed up meshsmooth. Feel free to take a peek at it. With PolySpeed you can work fast in detail areas with meshsmooth applied even with 2 or 3 iterations, while it's totally unworkable in standard 3dsmax.

The PolySpeed movie (50MB)
http://www.fusion-wave.com/3dsmax/po...polyspeed1.avi

edit: another movie
The PolySpeed movie (24MB) - showinv auto zoom and transparency
http://www.fusion-wave.com/3dsmax/po...polyspeed2.avi

The Techsmith avi decoder (if you don't have it already. 170kb)
http://www.getafile.com/cgi-bin/merl...smith/TSCC.exe

PolySpeed also speeds up modeling for very large meshes, in the 100k-1mil poly area.

Please tell me what you think!

/Andreas Öberg

[gustojunk]

Hi Andreas,

thanks for showing us. This looks very cool! I think the feature set that you have implemented makes a lot of sense. But it will be a matter of trying it to really see what other features/changes make sense to this.

Have you showed this in the Max forum of cgtalk.com or in maxunderground.com? I think you should, lots of people are going to love this plugin.

Please keep us apdated about development and release of this, and if you want some beta testers just let us know.

Best Regards,

Gustavo


PS: btw, my email is gustojunk@hotmail.com If you can send the script to test it, i'd really appreciate it.

[percydaman]

thats just genius! I would love to use it if possible. The video is great as well! You have some persistant insects in the background. My email is percydaman@yahoo.com if I could try out your script.

percy

[Long John]

Max 7 will have Turbosmooth.

You think the tricks will still be needed?

[percydaman]

yes... since I dont plan on upgrading to another version of max anytime soon.

[egz]

This script looks great!

As for TurboSmooth, I still haven't seen any REAL information about what this does, only the marketing speak in the PDFs. Did anyone see this at Siggraph? Will it be as useful as this script?

[hughg]

My email is hgallagher@yahoo.com I am really interested in testing your script as well, very interesting thread,
Thanks for your work .... Impressive!!!

HughG

[f97ao]

Thanks for the positive words everyone. Great to hear. Also, note that I added a second smaller movie too in the post above. There is a pretty big threat at CGTalk about the plugin, please visit if you have the time, I will bring tea and cockies.

Max 7 will have Turbosmooth.

You think the tricks will still be needed?

Jepp.
I doubt that they will have changed the core calculations for editable_poly, this is even more important than meshsmooth. Also even turbosmooth won't be possible to use on large objects. Also from what I'm hearing it "sounds" like it's not 10x faster than the integrated meshsmooth, but 10 faster than the meshsmooth modifier, and on my computer the meshsmooth modifier is 2-3 times slower than the internal one. This means it will "only" be 3 times faster than the meshsmooth I use. And i don't think there will be any problems to integrate turbosmooth into PolySpeed for even greater speed. I think it will make PolySpeed even more useful in fact.

Concerning beta copies I will definetly consider it everyone. I'm a little careful with sending out too many betas that are not time looked so bear with me for a while. I sent out a bunch before and did get very little response, I prefere having a closer contact with the beta testers if possible.
And I really do listen to requests, I have them all written down and have already added several, this tool is for you guys not for me.

Cheers!
/Andreas

[f97ao]

I have recompiled the movies so they are much smaller now. Only 13mb and 7mb so you guys without 10Mbit have a chance too
/Andreas

[f97ao]

Just so you know, I'm considering adding some features that would be connected to Vray in the Polyspeed script. Last time I checked I recall seeing maxscript for vray, is this correct?

I think especially some of the features to have extremely large meshes in vray 1.5 would be a perfect match with Polyspeed. If you have any ideas on what would be useful please let me know.

I will try not to offend the Vray team by spamming about my plugin on this forum, so if you are interested in it please go to the Polyspeed forum for more info about it and beta testing as well.

there is also a seriously long thread on the CGTalk forums about the plugin.

www.fusion-wave.com/forum/index.php
/Andreas

[Geddart]

Wow, i remember someone talking about a simple script to speed up meshsmooth some time ago - i think he meant yours. I just read through the CGTalk Thread. Damn' this is not a simple script anymore! This is really usefull for almost every max user around. I wish you all the success with this thingie. (I'm sure you'll get it)

Concerning new features, suggestions and so on. I will definately think about them but i have to say that it would be also much easier for people to make suggestions when they could actually use the tool. At least i often come up with new Ideas for Max and Vray when i use them. Furthermore it seems you're really good in implementing those things i would wish for too.

One thing i don't like at all right now is the look of the Interface. I like clean, intuitive and fast interfaces that are customisable to some extend. I would prefer something like a large "Detail Mode" Button on the very Top of the Tool and selection tools under that. But i can only judge it from this first glimpse. I think i have to use it to really say something about the Interface. (I see you have a look on the workflow - great!)

I need this tool as fast as possible. You said one can "prebuy" it - is this already possible? Ah you asked about a possible price for your baby. I hope you stay under 100$. Although there could be even people that would pay more. Anyway, i wish you luck with this thing and hope you will speed up some other areas in max where discreet screwed up.

[f97ao]

Wow, i remember someone talking about a simple script to speed up meshsmooth some time ago - i think he meant yours. I just read through the CGTalk Thread. Damn' this is not a simple script anymore! This is really usefull for almost every max user around. I wish you all the success with this thingie. (I'm sure you'll get it) .

Thanks for the success wishy. Yes it was probably my script at the time. And no, it's not so simple anymore. There will probably be something like 1000+ hours development time for version1 I estimate, and I've spend a few hundreds so far. There are also far more features now, and far, far less bugs. Also The interface has been updated alot.

Concerning new features, suggestions and so on. I will definately think about them but i have to say that it would be also much easier for people to make suggestions when they could actually use the tool. At least i often come up with new Ideas for Max and Vray when i use them. Furthermore it seems you're really good in implementing those things i would wish for too.

Yupp, easier if you use it for sure. Alot of folks have been good at giving ideas even without it, which is great. I have a limited number of beta testers that help me out. look for forums about it.

One thing i don't like at all right now is the look of the Interface. I like clean, intuitive and fast interfaces that are customisable to some extend. I would prefer something like a large "Detail Mode" Button on the very Top of the Tool and selection tools under that. But i can only judge it from this first glimpse. I think i have to use it to really say something about the Interface. (I see you have a look on the workflow - great!)
.

Good that you mention this. I like customizations too and have lots of them, not so many for the UI yet, but I plan to add that later. I'm considering a "erhm beginner mode" with big buttons etc. Right now the UI is packed with buttons since I really want the user to be able to access them very fast, downside is of course that it looks somewhat nasty in the beginning. I think I will come up with something that most users like.

I need this tool as fast as possible. You said one can "prebuy" it - is this already possible? Ah you asked about a possible price for your baby. I hope you stay under 100$. Although there could be even people that would pay more. Anyway, i wish you luck with this thing and hope you will speed up some other areas in max where discreet screwed up
.

Haha, that's a spirit I like. Well, no one has asked abot prebuying yet, but I think the idea is good, and should work for both of us, at least in a little while. Thanks for giving a price suggestion. I have some very heavy and powerful features comming in a while, and honestly for the final product staying under 100$ does not seem realistic. Pricewise that would put the plugin next to plugins that create rolling stairs.... (I don't think I found any plugin that was serious under 100$). However I'm definetly not going to charge any insane amounts of course.

/Andreas