ScrubbyDoo

MaxScript Beta 0.1.4 (07/18/2003) for 3ds max 5+

Copyright (c) 2003 by Borislav Petrov
SHORT DESCRIPTION
ScrubbyDoo  is a nearly complete rewrite of the old Scrubing MatchMover script for Max R3 from 1999.

Its main purpose is the caching and realtime scrubbing of background animations in 3ds max
In addition, this new version got a really stupid name ;o)

 
VERSION 0.1.2 SCREENSHOT
 
 
VERSION HISTORY
  • v.0.1.4- 07/18/2003 - 
    Customize Colors and Appearance incl. Marker Width options.
    Fixed a bug when switching Caches while scrubbing in Freehand mode. 
  • v.0.1.3- 07/18/2003 - 
    Detects and caches newly loaded background animations. 
    Changed cache from .BMP to .TGA - much faster to build, much less storage space required! 
    Finally respects all End conditions and settings in the Viewport Background dialog.
  • v.0.1.2- 07/17/2003 - First Public Version
  • v.0.1.0- 07/15/2003 - Internal Rewrite
FIRST STEPS
  • ScrubbyDoo is implemented as a single floating dialog opened by a MacroScript. 
  • It provides a large scrubbing field with a vertical line for each frame in the current animation segment.
  • When you move the mouse over the scrubbing area, a green marker will be displayed, including the frame number.
  • Click and hold the left mouse button to scrub the timeline - the marker will turn red.
  • Release the mouse - the last (current) frame will be shown by a blue marker incl. frame number.
  • To jump to a specific frame, move the mouse until the desired frame number is displayed, then click and release the left mouse button - the blue marker will appear, and the time slider will jump to the new position.
  • While scrubbing with left mouse button down, the cached background images will be shown dynamically in the viewports. Quality of the cache will depend on the resolution used and on the settings of the graphics card driver. Use OpenGL with Linear filtering for best quality.
  • When you release the mouse button after scrubbing, the original background will be restored immediately.

 

FREEHAND MODE
  • The "Freehand Mode" allows you to scrub through the animation without holding the left mouse button.
  • To enter Freehand Mode, either press the small checkbutton to the right of the 3 cache status lamps, or right-click the floater and select "Setup>Toggle Freehand Mode" from the context menu - the checkbutton  will turn blue.
  • Click the scrubbing field once to enter scrubbing mode. After releasing the mouse button, you can move the mouse left and right over the scrubbing field without holding the mouse button - the animation will follow. Click again to exit the scrubbing mode. Toggle the Freehand mode again to return to the default.
  • The state of the Freehand mode will be stored in the INI file and will be used next time you launch the utility. 

 

THE CACHE
  • When the floater is first opened, any existing background animation assigned via Views>Viewport Background will be cached to disk using the Previews folder defined in 3ds max.
  • The default caching format is 256x256 single TGA files (uncompressed). 
  • Only the frames needed to display the animation in the current scene animation segment will be actually cached. Should  the animation segment change during a scrubbing session, additional frames will be cached when needed.
  • If frames with the same name, number and resolution are located in the Previews directory, they will be reused immediately. This means that automatic caching will happen just once for a sequence unless you decide to delete the frames or force an update using the ScrubbyDoo Cache menu (see below) .
  • All 3 supported resolutions - 128, 256 and 512 pixels - will be stored in separate files. Once created, you can switch between resolutions without recalculating the caches. ScrubbyDoo will remember the last resolution used and will reuse it next time you start it.
  • The 3 lamps in the upper left corner represent the 3 cache resolutions - 128x128, 256x256 and 512x512. The color of the lamp will represent the state of the cache - red means no files available, yellow means caching in progress, green means cache is available. The respective lamp will light up when the corresponding cache size is selected.
  • The 128x128 mode is very low quality but very fast. It should be used on slow machines with old graphics cards, or for very fast previews.
  • The 256x256 mode gives  fair quality and speed and should be used most of the time. 
  • The 512x512 mode is very slow to update but yields quality similar to the one of the original background display in 3ds max. In most cases, you will have hard time telling it apart from the original background when releasing the mouse after scrubbing. Recommended only when a lot of detail is needed.
  • If you delete all caches using the "Cache>Clear Disk Caches" described below and try to scrub through the animation, the cache will be rebuilt automatically.  

 

MANUAL  CACHE CONTROLS
  • You can force a rebuild of each cache size by right-clicking the floater and selecting "Cache>Force Rebuild..." options from the right-click menu. Existing cache files for the current animation and resolution will be deleted first, then recalculated.
  • Using "Cache>Cache..." will load the respective resolution and recalculate only missing frames.
  • "Cache>Clear Disk Caches" will delete ALL 3 resolutions for the current background animation.
  • Finally, restarting the utility will also rebuild the cache in case any frames are missing.

 

SETUP AND ABOUT MENU ITEMS
  • "Setup>Background Settings..." will open the standard Views>Viewport Background dialog.
  • "Setup>Toggle Freehand Mode" will check/uncheck the Freehand button in the UI.
  • "About>Help" will open the default  Internet Browser and load this page.
  • "About>About" will display version and copyright info.

 

POSITION AND SIZE 
  • You can freely move and resize the floater - both position and size will be stored in the INI file under /Plugcfg and reused next time you launch the utility.
     
  • Only the width of the resized floater will be stored - once you move the mouse over the blue scrubbing field, the height will be restored to factory defaults, while the width will be set to the new size.

 

KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS 
  • If the background animation is very high-resolution, releasing the mouse after scrubbing could result in a slowdown when restoring the original background. An option to not restore to original background after scrubbing might be added in a later version..

 

PUBLIC BETA DOWNLOAD
ScrubbyDoo v.0.1.4 - Current Version
INSTALLATION
  • Download the file
  • Unzip to your \Scripts directory, 
  • Select MAXScript>Run from the main menu, run the file.
  • Go to Customize UI...>Toolbar, select the script from "Bobo_s Tools" Category
  • Drag to a toolbar.
  • Press the button to launch the Scrubbing floater.
Copyright © 2003 by Borislav Petrov