cester, only way to use Helium is through maxscript, things are a lot harder to do in SDK and SME is entirely written in maxscript. So the short answer is no, it wont be translated into C++, there is already a plugin that does it and its NodeJoe.
Ruramuq, I still didn’t manage to properly crash SME with those bezier colors, I guess I just have to keep trying. That error report is nice but unfortunately I would need steps to reproduce it in order to fix it. You simply can’t wire color to map slot so that can’t be the problem.
I’m aware of the problem in screenshot. Its because StandardMaterial has many aliases for same parameters. So Diffuse and Diffuse_Color are pointers to exactly same thing. I’m going to fix it with material specific defintion files once I get them working.
kees, yeah you can already do that in SME. I understood he meant dragging wire from input slot to another input slot and creating a new node to connect both of these input slots.
Thx your replies!
Only thing that would become faster is the auto arrange function in SME since its fairly complex. However, if there is anything else that seems too slow please inform me and I’ll see what I can do.
Anyway, here is a screenshot of next versions new channel node. It allows you to seperate color channels to floats: 
I’ll also make it possible to transfer nodes between views. I think the best way of doing this is transfering selected nodes. Oh and merging two views together will also be there.
Material definition files (fixed standardmaterial etc.) probably wont make it to the next release which hopefully comes out before monday.
No, I don’t think The Mat Editor is slow, I only think it could be faster. I ask abaut the difference between sdk and Maxscript , and Bobo answer to me:
LinK
– SME Beta Version 0.2.3 –
Download: http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~jylilamm/Resources/SME_Beta_0_2_3.rar
Note: Delete existing SME folder (if you have one) before extracting this into your script folder, otherwise you might get error when starting SME and it wont load properly.
Release info:
- Channel nodes
- Added Merge for views
- Added ability to transfer nodes between views
- Material/Map definitions system (Man this was harder than I though)
- Definitions for Raytrace and Standard materials (No more duplicates in Standardmaterial!)
- Dialog position and size are not reseted when closing and reopening SME
- Views list now displays which view is currently open
- Fixed shift/ctrl getting stuck when released outside schematic view
- Fixed crash which occured when changing views
- Fixed crash with color nodes when changing their color (The one Ruramuq reported)
- Fixed focus problems
Screenshots:
Channel nodes –
Raytrace material – 
Standard material – 
Well now its finally starting to take shape. Next thing I have to do is update the node updating system. After that its gonna be few more node arrange features, ability to import lots of materials from Medit and hide/unhide nodes. Hopefully I get the first “final” version out by the end of next week. For that I’ll probably try to get some help files done too explaining all the stuff in SME.
awesome man!
I guess this is really the end for the old material editor button up there, and the M shortcut also:)
– SME Beta Version 0.2.4 –
Download: http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~jylilamm/Resources/SME_Beta_0_2_4.rar
Release info:
- Ability to change Math/Channel nodes type (Add, Subtract etc.)
- Import dialog for Material Editor
- Remade toolbar
- Color settings
- Horizontal/Vertical align
- Ability to Hide/Unhide nodes
- Material Editor slot is now saved with settings
- When browsing views, it now lists materials/maps inside selected view
- Improved right-click menu (Add Selected to import medit selection to SME etc.)
- Improved performance
- Lots of bugs fixed
Okey, its about to be finished. My to-do list is empty, if you can think of something to add please let me know.
Now I’ll start making help files and tutorials to explain all its features. After this I’m going to release the final version.
Very good work!
Hi Bercon…good ME,but for me max crash if I load the p_megatk shader for MR inside the SME…
Thanks for reporting it demoniorojo. I’ll see that it gets fixed before final release.
Manual for SME can be found at http://www.niksula.hut.fi/~jylilamm/help/ however its still in progress and lots of stuff is missing. I’ll compile CHM (like max’s user refenrece etc.) of it for final release.
I’ll probably get first final release ready on next weekend. It will feature some new hotkeys and icon for openSME macroscript.