Hi,
I’m on the brink of a very repetitive, dull task. There are nearly 500 objects that need a material in a recent scene of mine. Each object needs it’s own material – they are all based on the same simple shader, though and only differ in a diffuse map(It’s a standard material, 100% self illuminated). All those textures are finished already and are waiting to be applied.
The textures are named the same way as the objects are.
I can’t say how hard it would be to create a script that automates this task, but I’d like to get some input here. I guess the script would have to do the following:
- take the first of the selected 500 objects and get its %name
- create a material(duplicate from a pre-defined material) and name it after the object
- assign a bitmap texture map to the diffuse slot. the path will be “textures%name.jpg”
- go the next object and repeat the process until the last one is reached
Unfortunately, my maxscript skills are non-existent and since the deadline is coming close I won’t be able to change this. I’m am however thankful for any comment.
If there is anyone out there, willing to write that script, I’d be able to reward him/her with a small fee.
Thanks!
Hi pd!
I can’t see it be “very” difficult, famous last words…
so something like…
[i]-- Get the master material from the material editor...
-- The material may come from any of the avaliable
-- material libraries...
[/i] local masterMaterial = meditMaterials["Master Material"]
[i] -- Loop through all the objects in the scene...
-- This can be changed to loop through an array or the selection
[/i] for o in objects do (
[i] -- Get the name of the current object
[/i] local sName = o.name
[i] -- Make a copy of the master material
[/i] local materialCopy = (copy masterMaterial)
[i] -- Change the name of the material to match that of the object
[/i] materialCopy.name = o.name
[i] -- Assign the diffuseMap based on the name...
-- I've assumed a Standard material...you will need to check
-- your shaders requirements...
-- The path to the texture should also be absolute...but for this
-- example, I've used you path...
[/i] materialCopy.diffuseMap = BitMapTexture filename:("textures\\" + sName + ".jpg")
[i] -- Finally assign the material to the copy
[/i] o.material = materialCopy
)
I’ve not tested this so other’s may be able to clarify further, but there’s a jumping off point…
[edit]Oups… A bit late.
Here what I came with…
You can change the path to whatever you fit.
Copy paste in a empty text file… And name it something like BatchMat.ms and put it in UI/Macroscript/
If you do run script in the MaxScript menu, the macro will show up in the Customize > Customize User Interface window under the category Material.
macroScript BatchMaterial category:"Material" buttonText:"Batch Material" toolTip:"Batch Material"
(
curSelection = ($Selection) as array
for o in curSelection do
(
TheName = o.name
TheMat = standardMaterial()
TheMat.diffusemap = bitmapTexture()
TheMat.name = o.name
TheMat.Maps[2] = Bitmaptexture fileName:("C:\\Program Files\\Autodesk\\3ds Max 9\\Textures\\" + TheName + ".jpg")
o.material = TheMat
)
)
Wow, thank you so much for the effort. I had to change the first local to global and had a minor issue with the first backslash in the absolute path. Adding a second backslash did it however. I vaguely remember this being called escaping or something. Thanks a ton, mate.
Thanks a bunch U.S.S. Speed. Yours is even working on the current selection, that’s fantastic. You guys saved me from a dull 2 days clickfest!