RenderLayers

SHORT DESCRIPTION

HOW DOES IT WORK?

FEATURES

WHAT'S NEW IN VERSION 0.63 ?

• Render Passes as LOCAL settings! - each layer can be rendered in passes or as full frame now.
• New Background switch in the Layer Rendering Options - NOTE that it is OFF by default. SInce you will probably want only one (background) Layer to render the Background color/map, make sure to activate the checkbox when needed.
• Scene Snapshot option (UNDER DEVELOPMENT!) - lets you save single scenes with Matte/Shadow materials assigned. It will save a single scene for each Layer and each RenderPass. Unfortunately, the Rendering Dialog settings will not be set correctly. Currently it is necessary to set the output path and any global rendering settings manually. Could be used to send frames for Network rendering.
• All Snapshot files will be saved in a custom directory - there is a new Path option available.
• You can either save the Current Layer or All Layers just like with Rendering.
• FIXED A BUG which prevented the script from working with Target Lights and RenderPasses. It was caused by a test for the wrong Object Class when storing Lights information. Sorry for the trouble.

Version 0.60 BETA (3/2/2000)

WHAT'S NEW IN VERSION 0.60 ?

• Render Passes as global settings - each image can be rendered either as a single normal (FULL) image, or as separate images containing only Diffuse colors, Specular Highlights, Shadows and Ambient color (the summary color of all light hitting the surface before being reflected).
• The RENDER SEPARATE PASSES checkbox will be disabled by default. Its state is being saved though.
• The Shadow Pass, Diffuse Pass and Specular Pass will be enabled by default. Their state will be saved in the RL Helper.
• The Ambient Pass will be disabled by default. Its state will be saved.
• All Render Passes settings will apply to ALL layers (they are GLOBAL settings).
• To render ANY scene with Passes without using the multiple layers options provided by the utility, do the following:
• Load the scene
• Launch RenderLayers
• Press [New] to create a single new Layer
• Under "Layer Rendering Options", set the desired Output Path
• Under "Global Rendering Options", check "RENDER SEPARATE PASSES".
• Check the Passes you want to render.
• Press [RENDER LAYER] to render the scene.

DIFFUSE PASS	SPECULAR PASS
SHADOW PASS	AMBIENT PASS
COMPOSITE PASSES (Diffuse + Specular) x Shadows	NORMAL MAX RENDERING
COMPOSITE PASSES (Diffuse+Specular)-(0.2xShadows)	COMPOSITE PASSES (Diffuse+(0.2xSpecular)-(0.2xShadows)
COMPOSITE PASSES ((Diffuse+Specular)xShadows)+(0.2xAmbient)	COMPOSITE PASSES ((Diffuse+Specular)xShadows)x0.8)+(0.2xAmbient)

WHAT HAPPENED TO VERSION 0.4x ?

• Version 0.4x was an internal development with minor changes which has not been made public because of plans to rewrite the rendering code in an even newer version 0.5 to allow Progress Info Window and Cancel functions. Please read on...

• Changed the Rendering code to allow more flexibility. In older versions, the render command was executed once for each layer and calculated all frames in a single turn. Version 0.50 calls the render command once for each frame to allow Progress Info updates and Esc key monitoring.
• Implemented optional Progress Info floater showing two progress bars (one for all layers, one for the current layer), Layer name and frame settings, output path, current frame and time statistics.
• The Progress Info can be turned off using a new checkbox under Global Rendering Options (but who would turn it off anyway?)
• Whenever Esc key is pressed, all remaining frames are skipped (but the script still has to run quickly through all of them - sorry for the inconvenience)
• Implemented an additional button under the Matte/Shadow Layer List labeled "Get Selected". It allows the user to get all selected scene objects into the Layer.
• Changed tha labels on top of the check buttons/colors to buttons to allow for tooltips. The buttons do not do anything yet.
• Implemented some more error traps for cases the user has deleted objects from the scene without updating the Layer Lists. Still, there might be even more possible case the script could crash. If you encounter any, please email me!

Version 0.32 BETA (7/2/99)

WHAT'S NEW IN THIS UPDATE?

• Implemented new "Hide Object" Layer switch which hides objects on rendertime.

Version 0.31 BETA (6/29/99)

WHAT'S NEW IN THIS UPDATE?

• Implemented Support for all Optional Channels in RLA and RPF files. Settings are Global and not Layer-Specific.
• Implemented Two additional Utilities - [Generate Object IDs] and [Select By Object ID]. The first generates unique Object IDs for all geometry objects with ID = 0. The second selects scene objects with specified ObjectID.

Version 0.21 BETA (6/26/99)

This Version fixes some problems with the first release (which refused to work in most cases ;o).
It also adds some goodies.

WHAT'S NEW IN THIS UPDATE?

• Fixed the bug which prevented new scenes from rendering with Layers. Sorry!
• Implemented Error traps for deleted scene objects in the Layer List. When Rendering, the missing objects will be ignored and no error will be displayed. You will have to remove deleted objects from the Layer list manually though.
• Implemented a new button [Get Unselected] which moves all unselected objects into the Layer leaving the selected ones visible.
• Enhanced the Listener output to print details when rendering Layer or All. The total number of layers, the Frame settings, the name of the currently rendered layer, the output path (if Saving is active) are displayed.

Version 0.2 BETA (6/23/99)

This is the first official public version of the utility after an early internal v0.1 Pre-Preview.

INSTALLING RenderLayers

• RenderLayers is written as a MAX R3 MacroScript and currently comes as two .MS files - the body code and the Layer UI code.
• To Install, please open the script file called RENDERLAYERS_xx.MS and Evaluate it.
• Then go to the Rendering toolbar, Right-Click > Customize > Rendering Tools Category.
• Drag and Drop the RenderLayers button to the toolbar.
• You can start the utility by pressing the button.
• To close, use the Windows' [X] button.
• You can restart the utility ANYTIME using the toolbar button.
• All changes during a session are written automatically and immediately to a RenderLayers Helper object.
• To keep the changes, you have to save the MAX scene.

• When you start the utility, it will report its status in the MAXScript Listener. There you can see which version of RL you are running and which version has the RL Helper (if existing)
• When used for the first time with a scene, you will see a report about creating a new RL Helper.

THE RL HELPER

• The RL Helper is a Text Shape named RenderLayers_Helper which is frozen and hidden. All Layer Definitions are saved as AppData in this object.
• Deleting or renaming the RL Helper will affectively disable all layer definitions and let the utility create a new one. THis would let you keep multiple layer definitions in the same scene. A LayerSet management utility to do this might be provided with future versions.
• The RL Helper in each new version uses a slightly different AppData format and is incompatible with the first Preview Version 0.1. If an old Helper from v.0.1 is found, it will be deleted and a new one will be created automatically. If an older Helper higher than Version 0.1 is found, all compatible data will be used, the rest will be set to default.

• The User Interface has been implemented as a single Floater containing (currently) 4 rollouts.
• When you first start the utility, only 3 rollouts will be shown: RenderLayers Setup, Global Rendering Options and Layer Rendering Options.
• When you create one or more Layers, a fourth rollout called Current Layer Settings will appear. It will change its contents depending on the Layer selected in the RenderLayers Setup / Drop-down list.

• The RenderLayers Setup rollout provides you with the UI to create and manage the Layers. It also contains the buttons to start Rendering.
• The [On] button in the top left corner is the Activation check button - it is active by default when you create a new Layer. You can depress it to disable the whole Layer from Rendering.
• The Drop-down list contains the names of all Layers currently in the scene.
• The Edit field bellow it is the line where you can enter new Layer names. It behaves as follows:
• When the edit field is empty, a New Layer is created with a default name "Layer_N" where N is the number of layers in the scene.
• When the edit field is NOT empty, the text in the field is used as the new name for the Layer.
• When the edit field is NOT empty and the [Rename] button is being pressed, the current Layer gets the new name.
• When the edit field is empty and [Rename] button is being pressed, nothing happens.
• You can press the [E] button to the ledt of the edit field to copy the name of the Current Layer into the field for editing. This will save you time retyping an existing name for Renaming.
• Layer names can be of ANY length, but you will probably want to keep them short to fit in the Drop-down list.
• The text line to the right of the Drop-down list shows the statistics. It contains 3 numbers in the form C/T(A) where C is the Current Layer's number, T is the Total number of layers, and A is the number of Active Layers.
• The [All On] button makes all layers in the scene Active - they will all be included in Rendering.
• The [All Off] button deactivates all Layers. Nothing will render.
• The [Invert] button turns all deactivated layers On and all active OFF.
• The [New] button creates a new Layer with default settings (no objects in Matte/Shadow list, all objects visible).
• The [Rename] button changes the name of the Current Layer to the one typed in the Edit text field.
• The [Clone] button duplicates the Current Layer and inserts the Clone right after the original. You can use this function to create slightly different versions of Layers by Cloning and tweaking only some settings instead of doing it all again.
• The [Delete] button deletes the Current Layer. This function has a Prompt (Yes/No) to prevent you from accidently deleting a Layer.

• Currently there are 3 buttons in the Rendering group: PREVIEW, RENDER LAYER and RENDER ALL
• PREVIEW renders only a single image of the scene with the Current Layer settings at the current scene time. It does NOT save to disk, but uses all other rendering options. Use this to test the settings without generating images on the HDD. It doesn't respect the Active/Inactive status of the Current Layer. Each PREVIEW opens a separate VFB so you can compare the results. You have to close these VFBs manually.
• RENDER LAYER lets you render the Current Layer only using all Settings including Time Range and Disk Saving. It does NOT respect the Active/Inactive status of the Current Layer.
• RENDER ALL is the main Rendering function. It respects ALL Global and Layer-specific settings, inclusing the Active/Inactive state of all Layers.

• The Global Rendering Options Rollout contains the Time Range to render, and some General Options.
• The Start Frame defaults to the Current Time Segment start frame. It cannot be higher than the end frame of the Current Time Segment. When Time Segment has changed, you will have to press the RenderLayer button again to restart the utility and get the correct range values.
• The End Frame default to the Current Time Segment end frame.
• The Nth Frame defaults to 1 and can be ANY value up to 1000.
• There is still no code to prevent you from setting the Start Frame higher than the End Frame. NOTE that there will be no valid image rendering in such a case - just a back VFB.
• The Show VFB checkbox lets you disable the Virtual Frame Buffer display for the rendering session. Images will be written to disk without being displayed. (A rendering progress bar will be implemented in the future.) NOTE that the utility will update the Rollouts to show you the Layer it currently renders.
• The Save Files checkbox is active by default. When unchecked, no files will be saved to disk.
• The Ignore On/Off State lets you render ALL Layers without having to change their Active state to ON.
• All Global Options are saved to the RL Helper object, but ONLY if there is at least one Layer defined in the scene.
• The Global Options are valid for ALL Layers in the scene.

LAYER RENDERING OPTIONS

• The Layer Rendering Options provides you with settings which are specific for each individual Layer. These include the Output Path/Name/Type, and the Rendering Options to control Qulaity vs. Speed.
• The [Get Path] button lets you pick an existing path to save the rendered images to. You should use this button to assure the paths you define are really present on the disk.
• You may however type in the entire path manually. If the Path does not exist, a Prompt will appear AT RENDERING TIME just before the Layer gets rendered. Answering the Prompt with Yes will create the missing path and save the images. Answering with No will skip this particular Layer.
• The Image File Name defaults to the Name of the Layer when it was first created. (Renaming the Layer currently does NOT chnage the File Name!) An additional Underscore character is inserted to keep the name from the frame digits.
• The drop-down list contains the supported file Extensions. Currently, only TGA, RLA, RPF and PNG are supported because of the good RGB/Alpha/Additional channel support they provide. The script could be easily extended to support ANY File Type supported by MAX though.
• The Rendering Options contain a "copy" of some controls found in the MAX Renderer Dialog. They override any default settings in that dialog.
• Any other settings like Output Size or Anti-Aliasing Filter type are taken from the MAX Renderer Dialog.

• The Current Layer Settings rollout contains the actual Layer controls.
• The list to the left called "Matte/Shadow" contains objects which are assigned a Matte Material at render time. The list shows only 9 objects at a time, but can hold ANY number of objects.
• Use the Up and Down arrow buttons to scroll through the list.
• A number of checkboxes/color swatches/checkbuttons are located in the middle of the rollout. These provide the settings for each individual object.
• O stands for Opacity. When checked (Green), it renders the object invisible with Alpha Channel opaque.
• S stands for Shadows. When checked, the object renders invisible but receives shadows from other objects in RGB.
• Sa stands for ShadowAlpha. When checked, the Alpha Channel will also contain the Shadow.
• Sc stands for ShadowColor.
• R stands for Reflections. When checked, the Object will render invisible, but will show reflections of other objects.
• Ra stands for ReflectionAmount. It is a color swatch which is recalculated into Percentage.
• Rm stands for Reflection Map. It is currently NOT being used. Might be implemented in the future.
• The X buttons [>] are used to remove a single object from the Layer List.
• The + chechbox lets you activate/deactivate the object. It is active by default. When unchecked, any settings are kept intact, while the object behaves as if it was in the Visible Object list.
• The 3 rows of buttons at the bottom allow you to turn the above checkboxes/colors on/off for ALL objects currently in the Layer List with a single click. [+] activates all checkboxes. [-] deactivates all checkboxes. [ i ] inverts them - active to inactive and vice-versa. [W] sets the color swatch to White (active), [B] sets it to Black (inactive).
• The Visible Objects list contains all Geometry Objects currently in the scene.
• To move an Object to the Layer List, double-click it in the Visible Objects list, or press the big [<] button to the left of the Visible Objects list.
• To Find the first object starting with a certains character, tyoe in the character in the first (edit text) field of the list. The Name (if any) will be displayed automatically in the Edit Field. NOTE that this function is CASE-SENSITIVE!
• To Move ALL objects from the Visible Objects list to the Layer, press the [All To Layer] button bellow the list.
• To Move ALL objects from the Layer back to the Visible Objects list, press the [Reset Layer] button bellow the Matte/Shadow list.
• Press the [Select In Scene] button to select all objects currently in a list.
• The "Alphabetical" checkbox lets you sort the names in the Visible Objects list. It also updates the list with any newly created objects, so you can use it as an Update function.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Because of some MAXScript limitations, certain characters are NOT allowed in an Object Name when used with this script. RenderLayers will replace these characters with an Underscore character "_". There might be characters not included in the list of the utility though. Please let me know if you experience any troubles with specific names.

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