Controlling VrayObjectProperties in Xrefs?

[Nickh]

Hi Colin,

Yeah, as Mark says, I think those are the main controls. It would make sense if this came off the XRef scene dialogue, so maybe a VrayProperties button on the right somewhere which opened up the normal dialogue to set the properties for each selected xref. But guess that is slightly more than scripting!(?)

Anyway attached shows a possible interface which has it all I think. Would be nice to be able to select multiple xrefs and set them - but obviously this is easier to fake in photoshop, than script in max.

This really would be a very handy script, so good luck!

cheers
Nick

[m_hinks]

Spot on Nick, I was about to make the same image this morning!!!

See you tonight.

Good Luck Colin

[gilpo]

Also need to include the setting for the shadow brightness as well as the full controls for receive gi, cast gi, and visible to gi. We use that here a lot to 'fake' things when doing matte passes to speed up rendering.

Question: do the matte settings to the xrefs persist through a network render through backburner?

[MoonDoggie]

Thanks for the guidance. I will incorporate all the vrayproperties in the script for tuning. I have not tested if matte settings persist through a network, but I'm 95% sure they do. Someone want to test this quickly? If it doesn't work it's easy enough to add a script that is run before network rendering.

Let us know,
Colin

[m_hinks]

Ill try to test this morning, but about to leave for meeting all day. Ill keep you posted.

Thanks again for your hard work.

On a side note, I wonder if it would be good to get the input from Vlado. I asked him a while back if this feature could be built in to Vray, and I would hate it if he has put it in to Sp3 and we wasted your time.

Anyway ill test asap.

[gilpo]

I might be doing something wrong but when I run the script I get:

-- Frame:
-- i: 0
-- xrscene: undefined


I'm on max 2008 64bit on Vista.

[MoonDoggie]

You don't have any xrefs in the scene then probably

[MoonDoggie]

I revised the second posted code to return a true false value based on success or failure, also should make sure the user has xrefs in the scene.

[m_hinks]

I have just had time to try it out!
It seems to work well, but untill there is a UI it is of course annoying to have to edit the script to work on only certain xref'd files.

I just tried on the network, and it did not work, DOH! But you said that can be fixed?

It reverts back to normal even if you save the file with the script activated, and if I have the master file open with the script run, I can open and render the children files as if nothing has happened. In fact if I open a second copy of the same master file, nothing is getting affected. The script does only work on the local master file.

With the UI and network support working, its going to be a massive time save.

I have had confirmation from Vlado, this feature is not going to be in native Vray for a while at least.

Thanks Colin!

[MoonDoggie]

sounds good, I'll do some internal testing real quick this week and get back with you, it is solvable unfortunately it's a bit of a pain via a callback or a network script...We'll do it.

[m_hinks]

Hi Colin,

I was wondering how the UI was coming on? I realise you must be busy, but I'm about to start a large scale project where this tool will change the way I structure things.

Ill go down the old route if not, would just be nice to try it out live!

Thanks

oh, and any help I can proved, Im gash at maths! Ill be pleased to.

[MoonDoggie]

No worries. Thanks for the post. If you and your project will benefit I'll write it tonight. It's really not too hard to do, nor is it very long. I have been thinking about it lately and I think the best way to do it will be to specify a layer or layers to create the matte pass, another idea was a saved selection set to generate the matte pass, but I prefer the layer method. Comments?

[m_hinks]

Thats an interesting option, using selection sets, or layers. I'll have to think about that.

Under normal use, for me at least. I would only need to make a matte overide of an entire xref. IE I want to add a car to a render, I overide the landsape xref, maybe the buildings xref, and render the car xref and get a clean matte to drop in.

If it worked using overides to layers, it would require the xref files being set up very specifically and named well to allow the user in the master file to know what layers are getting effected.

Can it be done with both!! te he?

[Nickh]

I think both ways have their own advantages...

I've wanted to do this by layers before, but found layers in general hard to make sure everyone sticks strictly to them - especially as deadlines approach and naming can stray. But if there was a good layer naming convention in place (that was strictly stuck across the whole team), this could offer more flexibility (and less max files).

in practical terms, in a big team I personally think by max file would be easier to manage.

But then again, maybe its a case of better project management and ensuring a layer naming is stuck to. Do others use such conventions successfully across big teams?

Nick

[m_hinks]

I think for simplicities sake, and the fact that its less likely to course issues down the line with layer control, sticking to just overall control of each xref scene is best.