Image Tiles texture is available from the version 4.00 RC2-6.05 of the 3dsMax plugin.
-For 3dsMax 2017 and over, by default, the tile source is set as Standard texture, and a MultiTile is created.
You can then set your textures with the UV offset matching your mesh UVs using this MultiTile.
You can check "Show shaded Material in viewport' for this MultiTile to view the result in the 3dsMax viewport.
That is the main reason to use MultiTile, as currently the Tile Grid mode will display only the first image in the viewport.
MultiTile also support drag and drop of external image files.
You can also switch to Tile Grid mode, to view / check / update your images. This provides a more simple, visual way to assign images, with one button per image.
In this mode, you can also use a MultiTile to use it's feature of been displayed in the 3dsMax viewport.
Those 2 modes are synchronized by default (see User Global settings, Material tab)
If not synchronized, or when the tiles from the grid and the MultiTile images do not match, options to synchronize the images will appear in the tile button's context menu.
-For 3dsmax 2016 and older, as MultiTile is not available, you must use the Tile Grid source option:
-Set a grid size matching your mesh UV maximum Us and Vs.
-assign images to the cells
-note that the convention used is U:0 V:0 for the base cell.
-Note that UV tile offset need to be positive.
To use negative offsets, you can set a UV Transform and adjust the translation
-MultiTiles can be set to use any of the available formats (ZBrush, Mudbox, UDIM, Custom).
When switching from 'Standard texture' to 'Tile Grid' in the 'Image tiles' octane texture, the images will be set to a grid automatically.
But when switching from 'Tile Grid' to 'Standard texture', the MutliTile will be set to Custom format. A confirmation dialog will let you choose to overwrite to Custom mode.
-Issues with 3dsmax's MultiTile :
-The number of tiles displayed in the viewport is limited to 8.
-Changing the UV offsets by clicking on the spinner arrows redraw all Windows of 3dsmax.. (2017,2018). This has been fixed in max 2019.
-in Custom format, when changing the image file of one of the existing textures, the UVs are re-set to 0,0, even if the dialog shows the previous UVs.
You need to re-type those UVs, and press enter to fix it.
-When changing the UVs or the image file, the render in viewport is not always updated correctly.. It seems 3dsmax keep previous images in a cache, and those are not correctly updated.
One way to fix this is to save and reload your scene.
-When using Tile Grid mode, and also having a matching MultiTile, changes in tiles will be reflected in the MultiTile, and the viewport.
If the viewport do not Update correctly, you can Clear the MultiTile, and recreate it using a tile context menu 'Copy grid to MultiTile'.
-Note that those viewport Update issues come from MutiTile, and happen also without Octane, like when using ScaneLine Renderer..
We should provide a better alternative in the future.