L Pass Manager

Fantastic job guy, it's a great idea to group all the benefits of vanilla pass and other into one script... And free !!!

Thanks a lot !

sweet looking script, and excellent video explanations. Cheers!

Thanks guys!!
Update:
-V0.81 Vray Properties/User Properties are now supported

hey it must be interesting to have some presets no? like Ao or reflection pass? a set of "click this button and go"

In vanilla seed there is also a preview window for the different pass it must be interesting also

thanks a lot for your work

Best regards
Raistlin

There is an AO preset, if you hit merge preset, there is also a preset for Masks.
You can also easily make you own presets!

New version 0.82 is in,
Thanks,
Lukas

What are the benefits of storing the functions inside a struct if you don´t mind me asking?

Version v0.83 using filein instead of includes,

Hey Marco, it is so there are not a lot of global functions, just for encapsulation.

Version 0.84 is in
-V0.84 Network rendering submitting to backburner is now one click.
-Minor bug fixes.

-Version 0.85 -fix bug of teapot button not rendering
-fix bug of right click render not rendering.
-Rename after creating pass, object set, light set etc...

-V0.86
2 new video tutorials!

-Storing of composite maps, for using 3ds Max as a compositor (check out the new video tutorial )
-Animation button (Check out the new video tutorial on how to playback passes)
-quick storing of time ranges / cameras for common properties.

Big update:
V0.90
-Hardware rendering for previews
-UI Improvements
-Exposure Control override
-Toggle for splitting renders into seperate folders

Unfortunately this version is not compatible with previous verions.
However this version should be forward compatible with future versions.

Thanks!

Many thanks mate, your script is great!

im just in the testing phase with this script - can someone tell me if i need to install this script on network machines if i want to render to a farm via backburner?

Thx,

You do not need to install it on network machines.
Thanks, let me know if you have any other problems.

Mailing list and new website are up.

V0.915 is in!

Hey guys,
New version
V0.92
-Group support for object/light sets
-fixed daylight system not overriding
-removed trailing ".max" when the $max tag is used in the render dialog
-added loop button when playing shots using the play button
-fixed a bug concerning shot names and camera names
Cheers,
Lukas

Hey guys,
I found some new bugs and wanted to fixed them ASAP v0.925
V0.925
-Fixed bug with color/hide buttons
-Fixed bug with common props giving an error in shots
-Added 2 new macroscripts:
-LPM_RenderPass which is hotkeyable and renders the active pass, or performs a default max render if there is no pass to render (F9).
-LPM_RenderPassHalf Same as above but at half resolution.
Cheers,
Lukas

Here is another update of LPM,
V0.93
-Jakub Jeziorski
- Network submit dialog now shows server state as icons.
- Network submit dialog now supports groups. This is however limitted to max 2008+ due to a bug in max 9, see (http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=605364).
-Network submit dialog now shows a progress bar.

-Lukas Lepicovsky
-Layers inside of object Sets and light sets have a new right click menu function, add selected objects to layer.
-LPM_RenderPass, LPM_RenderHalfPass now pop up a dialog to pick a pass if it no pass is active.
-Fixed bug where the camera picker dialog would come up at the end of rendering a pass.
-Dialog for picking object/light set layers is now alphabetically organized.
-The active pass is loaded in the pass drop down list (to the left of the teapot icon) when LPM starts up.
-Pass rendertimes are now printed, hit F11 to view them.
-Middle clicking on a pass now to actives that pass and also hides nodes in the scene based on their object/light set visibility.
-Fixed a bug with lpm not closing on new scene/open file / reset

V0.94
-Xref scene overrides are now supported, this allows you to pick which xref scenes belong to a pass. This is also supported in the hide button.
-Hardware previews now hide by object sets before performing the preview, revealing the correct nodes.
-Middle clicking on a shot now changes the camera to the shot camera and the time range to the shot time range.
-Shots now have a new right click menu has an item, render shot locally.
-Support for vraysun and other lights that use .enabled instead of .on
-Sort passes/shots added to right click menu.
-Delete all passes/shots added to right click menu.
-LPM_RenderPass, LPM_RenderHalfPass now launch LPM to pick a pass if it no pass is active but LPM data is found.
-Render Menu now remembers the root path.
-NetRender Rollout is now resizable.
-Up and Down buttons can now be hit repeatably without reselecting the nodes facilitating moving nodes around.

v0.97
New Features:
[+] Added support for new network render type, "Submit to Max File". This saves out seperate maxfiles for each passes or shots.
These max files can then be submitted to 3rd party network render managers.
[+] Partially rewrote hardware previews, they now have a progressbar, and compute faster/use less memory.
[+] Help button added, listing common hotkeys.
[+] Mini display panel added.
[+] F2 can be pressed to rename nodes.
[+] Added two new overrides to object sets that allow control over the hidden and frozen attributes, this is triggered when you when you middle mouse click on a pass.
[+] Two new right click menu functions for render overrides, the first loads the stored render settings to the default renderer, the other loads the default renderer to the render override.
[+] Hitting the compositor button loads a preview window that shows the result of the composite, this window can be refreshed.
[+] Added select camera to right click menu of common properties.
[+] Middle mouse pressing on a shot also selects the shots camera now.
[+] Layer picker now remembers its size.
[+] Added to the settings dialog a viewport preference for the middle mouse button shot preview function.
[+] Settings menu allow changing the default value of objectSet/LightSet renderability.
[+] Duplicating a pass now no longer appends "01" to the names of objectSets, lightsSets etc.
Bug Fixes:
[-] Fixed slowdown when hidding using the middle mouse button and having the display panel open.
[-] Middle mousing clicking on a layer is reveals the nodes much faster.
[-] Fix bug with pass per camera, pass per light, pass per layer names being cutoff.

v0.975

New Features:
[+] Added a new material type, LPM Render Switcher. It supports 3 sub materials (Scanline, Mental Ray, Vray) and when a render is made LPM automatically chooses right the material based on the renderer used.
[+] Major speedup in loading objects sets/ restoring object sets. It turns out backing up applyAtmospherics takes about 1000x longer than anything else such as material, motion blur, visibility...etc.
Therefore apply atmospherics is now backedup only when it is needed. In my test scene setting all objectSets applyAtmospherics paramater to "--" caused the pass loading time to drop to .45 seconds from 7 seconds!!
[+] Expanded the preview compositor with new functionality, such as easy image loading, automatic image reloads after a preview is rendered and so on...
[+] Added local submit, and network submit buttons to the bottom of the main ui.
[+] Pass per light now has a light selector so that the user can pick which lights to create passes from.
[+] Shot per camera also has a selector.

General Changes:
[+] When rendering shots, all passes belonging to that shot are rendered, regardless of that pass being active.
[+] Updated AO, Mask Presets.

Bug Fixes:
[-] Fix bug with network submit dialog, when not finding LPM_RenderPass causing a submitting error, LPM_RenderPass is now global so it is always found.

Cheers,
Lukas

v0.98
New Features:
[+] Integration of Thorsten Hartmann (www.infinity-vision.de) Photostudio as a new Override. This is for max 2008 and later only.
[+] Render Override, Common Props, Enviroment Overrides, Photostudio now can all be enabled / disabled from the main ui (left click on icon).
[+] Fileoutput Gamma can be specified per pass in the Common Properties Override.
[+] Preview compositor added many new features, users no longer need to use the material editor.
[+] Default file format can now be specified in the settings menu.
[+] Previews are rendered using the default format.
[+] RenderProps auto rename themselves to the name of the renderer being used.
[+] Common Props with auto-rename show if they have a pre / post script.
[+] Network / Maxsubmit names are now easier to read {Shot} (Pass) [Maxfile]
Bug Fixes:
[-] Fix bug with LPM_Hardware_render not being found.

v1.0
New Features:
[+] Licensing Support via Paypal.
[+] Demo vs Pro version, Demo has Limit of 3 Passes, 2 Shots.
[+] 6 Redone video tutorials!
[+] Forum specifically for LPM at http://www.lukashi.com/ForumInstall/index.php
[+] Full support for VRay Frame Buffers, Vray Render Elements, Vray-Raw Image File, Vray Split Render Channels.
[+] Support for command line rendering, this allows for Tile Splitting of render, amongst other things. Commandline rendering can be accessed via the Maxfile Network Type in the Settings Menu.
[+] Creating a render override now automatically asks for the render type.
[+] Shots now have a new feature under Shot->Select Passes: Display Pass, when the user hits the Play button, the display pass will be shown. Also when the user MMB picks a pass, the display pass will be shown.
[+] When MMB hitting a shot, all cameras except the shot camera are hidden.
[+] User Prop Buffer / Vray Properties can now be instanced and copied,
Bug Fixes:
[-] Fix minor bug with Hardware preview not showing the correct nodes.
[-] Fix minor bug with Pass Per Layer, object set layer names being cutoff
[-] Fix issue where having auto key on puts visibility keys in objects when a pass is rendered.
[-] Fix bug when LPM auto renames a Render Override after a custom name is entered.

Cheers,
Lukas

Hi Everyone,
LPM update with some cool new features and a new tutorial!
v1.01
New Features:
[+] Common Properties override now has a aspect lock and the ability to save and load presets.
[+] Deadline support, using Settings->Max File Render Type.
[+] New video tutorial, "3rd Party Network Managers / Render Strips"
[+] Renaming passes / shots automatically filters out windows filename characters such as *<>|...

v1.02
New Features:
[+] Shot and pass sequences can now be viewed in the Ram Player, right click a Shot or Pass and pick 'view Ramplayer'
[+] Pass Drop down list and Camera Drop Down list now resize when the ui is resized.
[+] 'Open Max File Folder' now available in the Render file menu.
Bug Fixes:
[-] Fix bug with light shadow properties not being restored when overriding shadow properties.
[-] Fix bug with include maps not working with backburner submits.

v1.03
New Features:
[+] Support for $Element tag in the filepath. This allows the user to split seperate elements into different folders and folder structures.
For those who prefer this, I would suggest using "$Shot\$Pass\$Element\$Pass_$Element_" as their default pathString.
[+] LPM_RenderSwitcher material can now be used without being installed across the network.
[+] Added a new dialog in tools-> quick scripts. Scripters can add scripts into the specified folder and they will appear inside LPM.
[+] Added quick script, Object Id Manager.
[+] Added quick script Ambient Occlusion Render Element for Mental Ray.