texmapPreview
Does a render of the currently selected texmap from the material editor on the objects that it's applied to in the scene. Think of it as something similar to the "Show Map In Viewport" function, except it works with all procedurals (Show Map In Viewport does not always produce correct results) and does a full render instead of doing the openGL viewport preview.
Tutorial:
Select an object and assign a material to it. Place a noise map in the material's diffuse slot. Go into the parameters of the map. Run the UI version of the script. Hit Do. It will render your scene, any objects that have that material applied will now have a flat looking render of what your noise will look like on the object. Change the Which Objects dropdown to All Visible. Now all visible objects in the scene will have the map applied, not just the ones that have your material applied.
Revision History:
v 1.01 Defined ui as new function.
v 1.02 Fixed a bug where the max vfb would be activated even when brazil was chosen as the renderer. Added new modes so that you can view the texmap on either the objects that contain that texmap, selected objects, or all visible objects.
v 1.03 Added ability to turn off effects in the render.
v 1.04 Added some new code to more cleanly open and close the UI.
v 1.05 Fixed a variable naming error that stopped the Lock Texmap function from working.
v 1.06 Added Brazil 2 support.
v 1.07 Added doublesided material support. Also now the pattern can be applied as a bump or diffuse (default).
Introduction
SoulburnScripts is a collection of scripts that I've written for my personal artwork at home. Some of their concepts are based on scripts I wrote during my time at Blur Studioand released publically as BlurScripts (however the SoulburnScripts have been completely rewritten from scratch, giving them more features and better functionality), others are totally new concepts. Thanks to the blur folk for giving me the inspiration to learn how to code.
Warnings
Feel free to install and use these scripts, however, I can't be held responsible for any problems that arise from their use. I will try and fix bugs or add features that people want, but I have limited free time and so can only promise to do my best. Thanks.
Installation
All the scripts come packaged into a single zip file of interconnected scripts, SoulCollection_v0xx.zip, which includes all the scripts in the rest of the table below. Please download the most recent zip file only, and extract then into your 3dsmax root directory, for example, c:\3dsmax. Make sure you have recurse subdirectories on (it's also called "Use Folder Names" in more recent copies of winzip). The zip will then install a bunch of files and directories...
* c:\3dsmax\help\SoulburnScriptsTutorials.txt: Quick tutorials for the scripts.
* c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\images: This contains images required by the scripts.
* c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\lib: This contains libraries of functions required by the scripts.
* c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\presets: This contains presets for the scripts, which you can save by hitting the "SaveDef" button on any of the UI versions of the scripts. Don't edit any of these files unless you know what you're doing.
* c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\scripts: The scripts.
* c:\3dsmax\ui\icons: Adds a bunch of icons, they all start with the word "SoulburnScripts_".
* c:\3dsmax\ui\macroscripts: the SoulburnScripts.mcr file.
To uninstall the scripts, just delete all the files mentioned above. To install a new collection, just download the new zip and unzip them again into your 3dsmax directory, saying overwrite current files. Check the "Files To Delete" section below for a list of legacy files that you can safely delete from old installs.
Usage
For quick tutorials on how to run these scripts, read the SoulburnScriptsTutorials.txt file in your 3dsmax Help directory.
All of these scripts are run as macroscripts, ie, as buttons, keyboard shortcuts, quad menus, etc, just go to Customize, Customize User Interface, category SoulburnScripts. The SoulburnScripts CANNOT be run by choosinng the "MAXScript" menu and "Run Script" and then a script. You can also use the macroscript called "soulburnScriptsLister" to run any SoulburnScript. All scripts can be run in one of three modes...
* UI Mode. Which brings up a user interface floater that lets you modify parameters before running the script.
* Default Mode. Runs the script using the current default values. To change the default values, open the script first in UI mode, modify the values, hit "SaveDef" to save the defaults, then close and run the script in default mode. Also, if you run any of these scripts as a quad menu, it'll let you access the UI mode by clicking on the mouse icon (with dark click button).
* Argument Mode. This is for maxscripters only, it lets you run the script by supplying it with your own set of values. This lets you integrate these tools into your own tools, or to bypass the default system.
Bugs
If you encounter any bugs running these scripts, perform the following checklist...
* Try deleting any preset you may have for the malfunctioning script from your c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\presets directory
* Open the script in question in a text editor and look under the "Known Issues" section to make sure your bug isn't already mentionned as something I'm aware of
* Email me and give me a list of specific steps to reproduce the bug. I'll get back to you as soon as physically possible.
Files To Delete
If you've installed previous SoulCollections, and are now installing a new one, you may wish to check to make sure all of the following previous SoulburnScripts files have been deleted (all assuming your 3dsmax directory is c:\3dsmax)...
* c:\3dsmax\scripts\SoulburnScripts\scripts\modifierAddAndRemove.ms