Override Mtl - Objects without a Material assigned

[hartherb_jj]

Hey,

a small QoL feature request.

Could we get an override material option to only override objects without material applied?
Some use cases:

• It be handy when starting to texture a new scene. Everything is overridden with a neutral material, and we can start to add one material after the other.
• Creating a preview rendering, where not all materials are applied yet.
• Just have it enabled to eliminate the strong colour bleed in case there are some objects hidden from camera view which don´t have a material applied.

Thanks!

[hermit.crab]

You can add the idea to the Portal so that people can vote on it.

Otherwise, for now, it can be done with a script by selecting all objects without a material and putting them in a Layer. Like so:

(
        newLayer = layerManager.newLayerFromName ("Objects without Materials" + "_" + ((layerManager.count + 1) as string))
        select(for each in geometry where each.material==undefined collect each)
        for o in selection do newLayer.addnode o
)​​

Afterward, when using the override, use the Exclude layers to exclude everything other than the no materials layer.

[^Lele^]

Simpler still (for now at least) is to hide anything without a shader.

for g in geometry where g.material != undefined do g.isHidden=true

Of course, should you wish to unhide the same nodes, then you'd need to collect them first, and restore the visibility of the collection later.

global theNodes=#() --declared empy and global, so it will persist in the Max session
theNodes=for g in geometry where g.material != undefined collect g --filled with nodes. Rerun this line to refresh.
for n in theNodes do n.isHidden=true  --nodes hidden

and later on (as "theNodes" has been globally stored)

for n in theNodes do n.isHidden=false --nodes shown

should you change what nodes have a material assigned (as you added new materials to the scene, f.e.) then you'd need to rerun the second line to re-collect them.

variations to this include creating a selection set, should both visibility and layer membership be unchangeable properties.