Octane Material Type Converter - Additional uses:
The Octane material type conversion is based on an internal copy and paste of material parameters.
Those copy and paste operation allow additional functionalities.
Those copy/paste options are available :
-For Octane materials, in the Context menu of the 'Convert...' button (Right click, instead of Left click)
-In the context menu of the 'Convert Current Slot Material' button, in Tools / Material Converter of the render settings dialog.
-In the context menu of the 'Convert All Slot Materials' button, for operations on all the Sample Slots (Compact mode)
* Changing type of Octane textures:
For example, to convert a RGB image texture to a Grayscale image:
-Select the RGB image in a slot if the Material Editor (Compact mode).
-In the 'Convert Current Slot Material' context menu, choose 'Copy-Paste.../Copy properties'
-In a new slot, create a Grayscale image
-In the 'Convert Current Slot Material' context menu, choose 'Copy-Paste.../Paste properties'
* Copy one or all slots from a 3dsMax instance to another.
When working with multiple instances of 3dsMax (any supported version, from 2013 to 2023), you can copy materials from one instance to another:
For example, open 3dsMax 2022 and 3dsmax 2023, each with 2 different scenes.
To copy 1 material, any plugin:
-In Max2022, open the Material editor (Compact mode), and select a material.
-In Render Settings, Tools / 'Convert Current Slot Material' context menu, choose 'Copy-Paste.../Deep Copy properties (clipboard)'
-In Max2023, open the Material editor, and select a slot to receive the material
-In Render Settings, Tools / 'Convert Current Slot Material' context menu, choose 'Copy-Paste.../Paste properties (clipboard)'
To copy 1 material, when both instances slots are Octane materials:
-In Max2022, open the Material editor (Compact mode), and select a material.
-In the "Convert.." context menu, choose 'Copy-Paste.../Deep Copy properties (clipboard)'
-In Max2023, open the Material editor, and select a slot to receive the material
-In the "Convert.." context menu, choose 'Copy-Paste.../Paste properties (clipboard)'
To copy all slots:
-In Max2022, open the Material editor (Compact mode)
-In Render Settings, Tools / 'Convert All Slot Materials' context menu, choose 'Deep Copy ALL slots (clipboard)'
-In Max2023, open the Material editor (Compact mode)
-In Render Settings, Tools / 'Convert All Slot Materials' context menu, choose 'Paste (Overwrite) ALL Slots (clipboard)'
* Copy non octane materials
The copy / paste operations should works for most materials available in 3dsMax.
--- Copy and Paste operations ---
'Copy properties': Copy properties of current selected slot material or texture.
When using a Paste operation, the sub materials and textures will be references.
'Deep copy properties': Copy properties of current material, and all it's sub materials and textures.
When using a Paste operation, the sub materials and textures will be duplicates.
'Paste properties' : copy all properties of currently copied material to selected slot.
Overwrite current material properties with the properties previousely copied.
If 'Deep copy' was used, the sub materials and textures will be duplicates.
'Paste (overwrite) properties: Discard material in current slot
This re-create a new material in the current slot.
The '(clipboard)' operations stores the properties to Windows's clipboard.
This allows to copy materials between 3dsmax instances, as well as copy / paste to a text editor for extented uses.
* Viewport activation of converted / new texture
The conversion and paste operations will try to activate / re-activate texmaps that have the 'Show Shaded material in viewport' enabled.
In some cases, there may be conflicts between the source and destination texmap settings.
You can change the activation method in Preferences / Material / ViewPort Texmap re-activation mode.
* Actions and MaxScript
The copy / paste operations are availables as Octane's 'Actions' in the 3dsMax Customize menu, to let you add custom menus and buttons.
Maxscript support:
You can use showinterface OctaneMaxFPI to list available functions:
<integer>OCMCopyMaterialProp <material>material <integer>storageType <boolean>deepCopy
<integer>OCMPasteMaterialProp <material>material <integer>storageType
<material>OCMPasteOverwriteMaterialProp <integer>storageType
<integer>OCMCopyTexmapProp <texturemap>texmap
<integer>OCMPasteTexmapProp <texturemap>texmap <integer>storageType
<texturemap>OCMPasteOverwriteTexmapProp <integer>storageType
<string>OCMGetMtlPropStorage <integer>storageType
<integer>OCMSetMtlPropStorage <integer>storageType <string>propsText
<integer>OCMChangeMaterialType <material>material <string>className
<integer>OCMChangeTexmapType <texturemap>texmap <string>className
For example, loading the previous sample (MtlTypeConvert01.max)
-open Maxscript Listener window
Convert the teapot material to Glossy material:
OctaneMaxFPI.OCMChangeMaterialType $Teapot001.material "Glossy material"
or
OctaneMaxFPI.OCMChangeMaterialType meditMaterials[1] "Glossy material"
Copy teapot material settings to the sphere's material:
OctaneMaxFPI.OCMCopyMaterialProp $Teapot001.material 0 false
OctaneMaxFPI.OCMPasteMaterialProp $GeoSphere001.material 0
Convert the teapot material diffuse texture from RGB image to Grayscale image
OctaneMaxFPI.OCMChangeTexmapType $Teapot001.material.diffuse_tex "Grayscale image"
The valid values for storageType are:
0: internal copy/paste
1: Windlows clipboard