MAX2Octane exporter for max 2008-2009 Tweet

[kilaD]

yes. why would you try to render an animation with no animated objects.

- first press render to export obj and camera positions to octane
- in octane, you set up your materials and lighting etc
- close octane, when asked to save changes and overwrite file, click yes
- in max2octane, press use existing project - find the saved file
- animate your stuff and press render animation

[buggy]

Thank you KilaD.
I have been going through the videos to familiarize myself with the process. It does crash a fair amount but I suppose that is to be expected with a beta version.

What I am running into now is that when I export a model into Octane, my model comes in black and positioned somewhere way off from the viewport. After some manipulating I am able to get my model into the view and can pretty much only see it in clay mode.

It would appear that the camera and materials are not being exported.
I checked all the camera options on export except motion blur. I tried to apply a material in Octane using the picker, but it applies the same material to everything in the scene. I made the mistake of saying I am running Max 2008 but I am actually running 2009 and it already had a gw_objio.dle installed (502k) so I assume this is the correct exporter. Am I doing something wrong on the export? I wonder if it makes sense to include a Max file in the demo scenes that corresponds to an unedited Octane file that it produced so that we can open the Max file and export the results to compare them to the provided Octane scene file.

Related to the material issue, if I'm going to do all my material work in Octane, is there a way to select different objects that have the same material and apply different materials to them? Or do I have to set them up in Max with basic materials that are unique to each object so that I can individually select them in Octane? I realize I am green to Octane so I'm probably making some stupid mistakes. . .

Thanks again,

James

[kilaD]

hey James,

Give each object you want separated a unique standard material in max.
That should do the trick.

About the model being positioned way off, i don't see why that should happen.
Do some simple tests with just a box and the camera and see what happens, let me know the result.

k

[buggy]

Hi Kila,

Thank you for your help. I had used different standard materials and to test things using your suggestion, I created a box and a cylinder, each with a different material and a camera. When I render a still from the camera viewport to Octane, it opens with the objects tilted on their side 90 degrees. At least in this case I could see the objects -- I suppose that for my other scenes it is doing this tilt about an off-screen pivot point, which throws things out further.
I tried changing the camera type from a Target Camera to a Free Camera but when I render I get the following error:

Unknown property "Pos" in undefined.

After this, the Octane dialog won't accept any clicks without beeping unless I close it, change the camera to target and open the dialog again.

Also, the objects appear black with just one material applied to both.

I tried copying in a different gw_objio.dle but Max warned me that it isn't designed for this version of Max so I reverted back to the original that I found in there.

I tried again and this time I clicked on Export OBJ/MTL only. After that, when I clicked on the Render button, the scene came into Octane with the materials. I didn't notice this extra step in the video tutorial but perhaps I missed it. To try and figure this out, I closed both applications, started Max again, opened my test scene and added two more objects each with a new material. I clicked Render without first clicking Export OBJ/MTL only and all four objects appeared in Octane with their materials. I would have thought that the new ones would not have come through since I had to click the export button before in order to send the materials through.
I opened up another scene and without clicking he Export OBJ/MTL only button, I was able to click Render and it brought the materials into Octane. Perhaps by doing it one time, the problem has been permanently resolved.

As expected, the camera issue didn't improve. I tried positioning the focal object in my scene in the viewport, but I found it difficult to manipulate the view to achieve this (getting the object centered and upright). I tried playing with the camera controls but it would jump big distances with small adjustments. I'll take another look at the video tutorials which may show how to select an individual object and move the camera around it.

Thanks,
James

[kilaD]

ok, there must be an issue with your OBJexport-plugin, it sounds like you have problems with the scene scale.

Try pasting this in the listener (press F11):
shelllaunch (getdir #plugcfg+"\\gw_objexp.ini")""

and press enter to evaluate it. Is the ini-file being opened? If so, what is the ObjScale value?

Anyway try setting you system units to meters (Customize -> Units Setup -> System Unit Setup)


btw: did you use a standard camera? If there is no camera in the scene, max2octane will create one.

[buggy]

Thank you for the suggestions and sorry about the delayed response. Last week was a bit crazy.

I ran a few tests. I created a simple scene and exported it to Octane. The scene came in on its side. The attached screen shot shows the original in Max 2010 and the results in Octane. I set my units to meters (was cm before), but it didn't change the result.
With the listener on, all I get is "NEWproject = true".

If I delete the camera and export, Octane creates one as you explained, but the result in Octane is the same.
I should mention that if I uncheck Camera in the Export dialog, I get the following errors, but I suppose that this is to be expected.

Welcome to MAXScript.
NEWproject = true
-- Error occurred in getFlags(); filename: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\scripts\max2octane\max2octane2008.ms; position: 9220
-- Frame:
-- yvec_pos: undefined
-- camup_pos: undefined
-- posdummy: undefined
-- themblur: undefined
-- called in btn_render.pressed(); filename: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\scripts\max2octane\max2octane2008.ms; position: 18617
-- Frame:
-- myExeQuotes: undefined
-- thefile: undefined
-- a: undefined
-- str: undefined
Exception: -- Unknown property: "type" in undefined <<

[buggy]

Attached is an example Max file and the OBJ and Octane files that the plugin creates. When I export to Octane, the models are off screen and tilted 90 degrees. I can drag the model into the screen from the left, but the camera adjustment controls are so sensitive that I can't get the scene reoriented and in the frame. A slight adjustment causes the model to fly off in one direction or another.

Thank you,

James

[buggy]

Hi KilaD,

Were you able to replicate the issue using the files I posted?

Thank you,

James

[kilaD]

Hey, sorry but my machine broke down totally. Couldnt even access the forum :O

Have you had any luck with it?

I tried your file, one reason for the strange camera behaviour could be that your camtarget is way behind the teapot.
When moving in octane it will orbit around that target.

Obviously there is an error, but i dont see why this should happen:

NEWproject = true
-- Error occurred in getFlags(); filename: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\scripts\max2octane\max2octane2008.ms; position: 9220
-- Frame:
-- yvec_pos: undefined
-- camup_pos: undefined
-- posdummy: undefined
-- themblur: undefined
-- called in btn_render.pressed(); filename: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2009\scripts\max2octane\max2octane2008.ms; position: 18617
-- Frame:
-- myExeQuotes: undefined
-- thefile: undefined
-- a: undefined
-- str: undefined
Exception: -- Unknown property: "type" in undefined <<

It looks like the camerainformation isn't sent to octane at all.

Have you edited the script in any way? Removed a ( or something?
Try redownload max2octane and see what happens.

[arqrdl]

Hi, I have the same trouble as buggy with my camera export from 3dsmax 2009, if you find the answer, please post it I'll do the same!!