Bunch of utilities for CAT rigs to Cryengine and other game asset export functions

03. August 2018
CRYENGINE 3ds Max Utilities, (ceMaxUtils) v0.95b, bug-fixs & enhancements:

general:
- Modified installation batch script: Only one install and one uninstall script file.
- Added a setup maxscript for anyone without Admin rights to run "*.bat" files.
- moved the former PhysMesh creation functions for CAT rigs to "CAT" section, new PhysMesh can be
applied to rigs in general
- some UI changes and smaller bug fixes

"Anim" section:
- Added a bug fix for animations with keys not baked to every frame. This causes "Reorient global
animation direction" to
make "jumps" in rotation and translation.
- Added the missing "UpAxis rotation extraction" to the "forward - " and "sideward" translation
extraction to a root node.
- re-integrated the former Euler curve filter based on Michael Comet's code.
- fixed: after motion extraction from pelvis to the root node, the animation sometimes does not
start in origin.
- added a right mouse-click function for the "<=" buttons to look for filtered nodes

"Export" section:
- custom export folders can now be selected, need not to be the same folder or subfolder of the max
source file
- export CRYENGINE native files: .CGF, .CHR, .SKIN, .I_CAF
- export folder presets(experimental, as GameSDK folder is not longer standard, but the "Asset"
folder)

"Misc" section:
- Added a scaling and constraint option for the Point & GeoTripod helper. This will help visualizing
any local orientation axis problem of skeleton joints or nodes.

"PhysMesh" section:
- Added automated creation of PhysMesh(collision proxies for character skeletons): by single or all
skin bones
Currently: it uses several methods(and their combination) to determine the size of the
proxy/physmesh:
- by skin vertes weighted to the bone ( if there is any)
- by bone length to children
- by casting rays to the skin mesh and the resulting distance

"Rig" section:
- Added an LOD generator function for skinned (character) meshes with various options. It uses
ProOptimizer and SkinWrap modifier.

NEW "AnimBatch" section:
- This is for animation batching, using a clean MAX Rig file and load FBX animations onto the rig
and apply "reorient animation" and "global motion extraction to root" functions and export to
i_caf

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19. June 2018
CRYENGINE 3ds Max Utilities, (ceMaxUtils) v0.94.1b, bug-fixs & enhancements:

- moved all export functions from "Anim" to "Export" section
- fixed the version confusion in "About", added credits to the testers
- some smaller updates & bugfixes

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12. June 2018
CRYENGINE 3ds Max Utilities, (ceMaxUtils) v0.94b, bug-fixs & enhancements:

- added an "Anim" section
- general bone skeleton:
- reorient skinned character mesh
- reorient any global motion of standard MaxBone/node skeleton hierarchies
- extract motion from one bone to a global transform root
- create light dome function, just in case, if you want to use an oldschool 500+ spot lights
distributed on a dome shape.
- added Rig function: bake animation to a duplicated hierarchy of different node types.
- CAT rig/skeletons: selectively extract pelvis bone global motion(translation and rotation) and
retarget motion to a
skeleton root node
- .fbx import/export with CAT animation layer system (tested with CRYENGINE, Lumberyard, Unreal)
- selective CRYENGINE .i_caf export from CAT animation layer list, renaming, etc.
- code reorganisation: most functions are now encapsulated in structs
- UI rework: slowly migrating to some newer UI frameworks (dotNet Windows Forms and later Qt)
- added progressBar for long operations, f.g. the detach/attach all meshes, baking maps, vertex
color ops, etc.
- speed up the mass attach function, but kept "linear attach" for baking maps with post-merge of
hi/lowpoly meshes
- fix and speed up detach all elements, added progressBar
- fast bake normal map workflow by only selecting two nodes or two layers containg the high poly
& low poly meshes
- exclusive display of baking objects and its undo operation
- bake transformation from source to target node
- a start color can be defined when apply vertex colors. Former behavior was using black implicitly
- switched to floating point color values when calculating vertex colors
- combine two normal maps with weights, correctly using vectors
- compose texture maps functions added using different blending methods
- added functions in Inspect section inside the group "Find Bad Polygons":
- calculate the trianglulated mesh total surface area, the minimum & maximum triangle area with
its triangle ID and its average triangle area
- find zero area triangles (which are below an area threshold) in an Editable_Poly geometry
- find thin/skinny triangles with an angle threshold (pointy angle in a triangle)
- find thin/skinny triangles where the shortest edge is under a relative length threshold
- find ngons
- "Display Selected Poly Components(Verts(MapVerts/Edges/Faces) Only" works with an Editable_Poly
which has an Edit_Poly modifier on top of its stack and iwhenyou have the Modify Panel active.
- Added Display Material ID to Inspect section button
- Added Display Smoothing Group to Inspect section button
- Fixed: frame animation length sometimes uses ticks instead of frames causing the time line to
freeze the whole scene
- Fixed a bug in "unhide selection" if node is hidden under a layer
- bug fix for 3ds Max 2017: flipped faces after a "Combine All Selected Meshes"
- added function to "Misc" section:
- Fast import/export as .OBJ for ZBrush or any 3d program that can read .obj files with
standard folder and file name
- Detach Geometry to Layers by Material ID is now working
- added install/uninstall batch file for 3ds max 2018 & 2019
- added beta function for CRYENGINE .mtl file creation right from Max
- several bug fixes

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12. April 2017
CRYENGINE 3ds Max Utilities, (ceMaxUtils) v0.91, bug-fixs & enhancements:

- added display "Viewport Polygon Stats" On/Off button
- support of Vertex Alpha & Illumination map channel when applying vertex colors
- added button: Invert colors of the Vertex Color/Alpha/Illumination map channel
- some small bug fixes

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21. March 2017
CRYENGINE 3ds Max Utilities, (ceMaxUtils) v0.9, initial release:

- first public release in CRYENGINE Marketplace webpage

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Known issues:
- GUI needs an overhaul as Max has switched to Qt especially for display resolutions > 1920x1080
- there seems to be some peculiarities between 3ds Max 2016 and Max 2017(and maybe later?) when
handling with polys. I stumbled upon some flipped normals etc. using these tools.
I only tested them with Max 2016 thoroughly.
- Hitting the "?" help button repeatedly will create a new help text box without destroying any
existing help text box.
- crash of 3ds Max when using ceMaxUtils CAT functionality and loading a new Max scene file
- random 3ds Max viewport redraw lagging in ceMaxUtils.

Workaround: Don't click & drag new CAT rigs into viewport with the ceMaxUtils' CAT events
handling checkbox activated!