MaxMounts 1.3.0

For Autodesk 3ds Max

Help Document

Oormi Creations

http://oormi.in

Contents Introduction Feature List What's New in version 1.3.0? Running the script Quick Start Mountain Materials Mountain Presets Mountain Parameters Mountain Range Environment Contact and Support Introduction MaxMounts is a MaxScript for creating realistic mountains in 3ds Max, in a single click. Several tweakable parameters have been provided to get an infinite variety. MaxMounts is not a simple random noise modifier on a plane, it is a sophisticated algorithm for generating realistic mountain models. Script includes readymade procedural textures. The script also has an Environment creation function to create Sky, Sun and Clouds with correct colors depending on the Sun's position in the sky. All the renders in this help document were done with Max's default Scanline renderer or Mental Ray. No additional plugins were used. With this script you also get full support and one free upgrade (for registered users only). Feature List Current version 1.3.0 has these features: Single click mountain creation No two mountains are same, even when created with exactly same parameters 14 tweakable parameters 9 Presets for common terrain types 9 kinds of procedural textures Mountain Range creation Saving and loading of presets Assign or change built in materials Environment creation (Skydome, clouds, sunlight, skylight, ground and camera) Automatically sets Sky, Cloud and Sun colors depending on Sun's angle Full control over materials is available Several options like optimize mesh, add turbosmooth etc Output is Editable Poly, materials are common 3ds Max materials, Fully editable. Free Upgrades and support The trial version has a limited feature set and most of the things will not work in the trial, but it never expires. What's new in version 1.3.0 Version 1.3.0 has these new features and improvements: Improved algorithms and faster creation of models Better geometry, more detailed geometry is possible Replaced max optimizer with Pro-optimizer for better low poly meshes and better geometry Support for 3ds Max 2014 Bug fix : Folding edges when number of sides is high Bug fix : Open top in 3ds Max 2014 Added two new presets (Cliff and Crater) and all other presets are fine tuned for better models Added two materials (Cliff and Volcano) and improved existing ones Added two more parameters (Cliff and radial twist) Preset for Pillar type is deleted Parameters are now logically grouped and their scales/ranges are improved for finer adjustments Option to add Turbosmooth automatically for smoother models Option to create a ground plane in Environment creation utility Environment creation code improvements Loading of presets saved from earlier version is supported Save Presets now also saves the material type (builtin material type) Selecting a preset also loads a material Behavior of many parameters have changed a bit, please see the detailed help below for description and examples.

System Requirements

Supported versions are Autodesk 3ds Max 11 to 3ds max 2014.(English Language Versions) It may or may not run properly in lower and higher versions than these.

For satisfactory speeds the minimum recommended hardware is a CPU with dual cores and 2 GB of RAM. It runs a lot better on Windows 7, 64bit with Quad cores and 8 GB of RAM.

Running the Script

The filename for the script is MaxMounts-130.mse

Simply drag the script file into 3ds Max. Or click on menu MaxScript->Run Script and select this script. No installation is needed.

Alternatively, run the macroscript MaxMounts-Macro.mcr which will allow you to add it as a menu item or keyboard shortcut (via Customize User Interface Menu of Max)
The folder MaxMounts-130 must be copied to your default scripts directory (e.g C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2011\scripts) so that the menu item or keyboard shortcut works properly.

Quick Start

1. Press the Create Mountain button
2. You are Done !!

Its that easy.

To see the script in full action:

1. Select any material from Material list and any preset from Preset list
2. Press the Create Mountain button
3. Press the Create Environment button
4. Render the Camera View

Try creating a few more mountains. You will never get the same mountain again, it creates a unique one each time, so if you like a particular mountain save it. Now its time to play with various parameters to see what each does.

Mountain Materials

MaxMounts provides 9 kinds of preset materials. After creation, these materials are placed in 3ds Max Material Editor, where you can tweak them further, if needed, and assign your own textures etc.

Select a preset material before creating the mountain or you can assign a material after creating, by selecting the material and clicking the >> button. To assign a material to many mountains, select all the mountain objects and click the >> button.

You can also create it with no materials applied, may be to check the geometry/details etc. Some of these materials can be previewed in viewport and some cannot (3ds max default behavior), so if you see a gray mountain in the viewport try rendering it to check the material. If you scale the model, you may need to adjust the material too, some of these are height based, such as the realistic snow, so you will find that when you scale it up, the snow disappears.

If you choose a custom material, the script will prompt you to select a texture image. The names of the materials are self explanatory.

Snow Rock Grass	Snow Rock	Realistic Snow
Iceberg	Layered	Icy Slopes (Mental Ray)
Dune	Cliff (Mental Ray)	Volcano

Mountain Presets

If you need a particular kind of mountain, you can quickly create one using a Preset. These presets are available:

1. Default : Creates a pretty mountain
2. Hill : Creates a more or less smooth and not so tall mountain
3. Plateau : A mountain with flat top
4. Volcano : Has a hole/crater on it
5. Crater : Creates an impact crater, also good for a lake
   
6. Dune : A more or less rounded hill, slightly leaning
   
7. Pit : A depression instead of mountain
   
8. Low Poly : Less polys for games or distant mountains
9. Cliff : A cliff or rock extending away from a mountain. Good for waterfalls if you angle them right.
   

You can create your own preset files via Save/Load Preset buttons. These save the parameters described below for future use.

Default	Hill	Plateau
Cliff	Volcano	Dune
Pit	Low Poly	Crater

Mountain Parameters

If you are still not satisfied with the Preset mountains, go ahead and unleash your creativity, tweak the parameters to get what you want.

Mountain Shape Group : Includes parameters that influence the overall size and shape of the mountain model.

Height : Sets the height of the mountain peak.

Expense : More or less expensive mountains or bigger or smaller in horizontal size (At constant height)

Flatness of top : Lets you flatten the top or make it extra steep or make it a crater instead.

Steepness : Sets the steepness of the mountain

Cliff : Skews the mountain to a side, giving it a look of cliff. Increasing the steepness makes it more pointy.

Geometry Group : Parameters in this group change the mesh.

Sides : The number of ridges a mountain has. E.g. with 3 Ridges you will get a tetrahedral mountain, with 4 you get a pyramidal. More sides will make it conical.

Vertical segments : The number of "steps" from top to bottom. More of these means more detailed mountain and more polys too.

Detail levels: Controls how much detail you want on the mountain, this is actual geometry not the bump map. A value of 0 gives you no details at all and anything over 10 will probably add too much details and slow down the creation. This should be adjusted along with the fine roughness parameter, because more detail levels increase the roughness and vice versa.

Optimize : Same as 3ds Max ProOptimizer modifier. It will optimize the mesh (and collapse it). Its useful because it gets rid of extra polys in flat areas. It also makes the mesh less clean. (Note that higher value means less polys, i.e. more optimization)

Coarse : Controls the coarser details of the mountain. Higher values gives a more uneven mountain.

Fine : Controls the finer details on the mountain.

Roughness extent : Determines up to what height the rough terrain goes. A high value will make the whole mountain jaggy and rough and a low value will make only the peak jaggy

Roughness scale : Controls whether the bumps are finer or bolder on the geometry. A smaller value means finer bumps.

Mountain Range

Clicking on the Create Mountain Range button will create 12 distinct mountains all at once.

The creation parameters are taken from the current Mountain parameter settings, so they will be of the same "species". The spinner named Variation % determines how similar or different the mountains will be to each other. High variation means that the peaks will vary a lot in size, height, sides etc. Low variation means that although the mountains will be unique, they will be almost similar to each other.

The mountains are roughly placed in a circle, so it instantly creates a valley surrounded by peaks. You can always move them, or delete some.

Please note that this is a time consuming process and Max may stop responding for a minute.

Environment

This is a little value addition to the script and is very useful for quickly setting a scene.

Sun : Check this checkbox to enable Sun. It creates an Omni light with shadow maps and with an Inverse falloff. The color of Sunlight is controlled by how high the Sun is in the Sky. You can also set the color by clicking on the swatch next to this checkbox and override the auto color. Another Omni light is also created to simulate the glow of the sky. Its intensity is auto set based on Angle of the Sun.

Please note that you may get a too bright or too dim light depending on the materials and sizes of objects, so you may want to manually adjust the intensity, or create your own lights or daylight systems. When Final Gather or GI are enabled, the renders may look overexposed and you should reduce the light intensity. The Sky light can be deleted when FG is enabled.

Angle : This spinner specifies the angle of the Sun in degrees above the horizon. At 0 degree it is at the horizon (Z = 0) and at 90 degrees it is exactly overhead (X=Y=0).

Sky : Check this checkbox to enable Skydome creation. It creates a hemispherical dome with flipped polys and assigns a procedural map to it. You can find that map in the material editor. There are three swatches besides this checkbox for assigning the high, mid and low altitude colors to the Sky. The Sun Angle setting will auto set the colors for you, but in case you want to override them set the colors manually here, or after creation, in the material editor.

The Lock button : It toggles the link between Sun Angle and colors of Sun, Sky and Clouds. Click it to set everything by hand.

Clouds : Enables the cloudy/clear sky. You can tweak the clouds in material editor. They are simply the built in noise functions in 3ds Max.

Camera : Creates a Target Camera, so that you don't have to ;-).

Ground : Creates a ground plane.

The placement of camera is only approximate and you will get a good shot only with default settings, so place it in a good position manually, if you have used your own settings. If you have created a Mountain Range, the camera will be most surely in a wrong position and you may also like to scale up the Sky dome and change the lights a bit to cover the whole range.

Please note that whenever you create a new Environment, the old Environment (If any) is deleted !

Contact and Support

For free support, bug reports, requests or queries please contact on oormicreations@gmail.com

One upgrade of this script is free for registered users. Click on the Register button on the Help rollout to register via Email.
Full support for registered users will be provided via Email.

Customization requests are most welcome. So if you need extra features in this script for your project please contact with full requirements.

This SCRIPT, MaxMounts 1.3.0, is being provided by OORMI CREATIONS "as is" .OORMI CREATIONS makes no claims or warranties of any kind concerning the safety, suitability, compatibility, performance and durability of this SCRIPT. There are inherent risks in the use of any software, and you are solely responsible for determining whether this SCRIPT is compatible with your equipment and other software installed on your equipment. You are also solely responsible for the protection of your equipment and backup of your data, and OORMI CREATIONS will not be liable for any damages you may suffer in connection with use of this SCRIPT.

MaxMounts 1.3.0

©Oormi Creations 2013, All rights reserved.

http://oormi.in