Chapter 50 Max and Games 1173

Summary

If you’re working with games, then you’ll want to use these features to help keep your models small and fleet. In this chapter, you

Created low-resolution models with the MultiRes modifier.

Discovered what channels the models have

Used Vertex Colors to paint models

Learned how to bake textures

The next chapter hands control over to a bunch of engineers as we look at using Max for visualization and architecture.

Max and

Visualization

Max enables you to create things that are visual, so it is no surprise that another major area where Max is used is in visual-

ization. Visualization is the concept of creating new and unique ways of looking at things. It is often used in the different branches of science to seeing things that aren’t visible with the naked eye, like molecular structures or far-distant galaxies.

Another place visualization is used is in the field of architecture. Max is used quite often to build and present a new building mapped against the background of the existing site. This type of visualization enables teams of engineers, foremen, and construction workers to see the building before breaking any ground.

Max and Architecture

If you march up the corporate ladder at Discreet, you’ll eventually find your way to a company called Autodesk, which makes a product known as AutoCAD. This product is used by a vast number of engineers and architects to design the layouts for building physical structures.

Along with AutoCAD is VIZ, another very popular package that would be considered a close sibling to Max. AutoCAD VIZ is used to create visualizations of AutoCAD data and, like Max, deals with modeling, rendering, and shading 3D objects. In fact, many of the new features found in Max were originally developed for VIZ.

Autodesk VIZ support

Discreet has insisted that Max play nice with its sibling, and that includes supporting its various formats. The VIZ Render file format (with the .DRF extension) can be loaded seamlessly into Max. In addition, the DWG and DXF file formats use the same import and export features as VIZ.

HDRI File support

Another file format that is common in the architectural world are HDRI files. HDRI stands for High Dynamic Range Image. These images have a higher contrast than typical images, which makes the white sections have a brighter luminance. This makes them ideal to use as a light source when applied as an environment or reflection map.

51C H A P T E R

In This Chapter

Using Max for architecture visualization

Using the AEC Objects

Using the Architecture materials

1176 Part XIII Max in Action

New	Support for importing and exporting HDRI files in new in 3ds max 6.
Feature

Max can save rendered images to the HDRI file format. These files have the .hdr HDR file extension. When HDRI files are loaded, a dialog box appears, shown in Figure 51-1, where you can remap a file’s dynamic range. The minimum Black and the maximum White values are marked with a red line. As you drag the Log and Linear values, the areas that are clamped are shown in Magenta or Cyan in the thumbnail.

Figure 51-1: You can remap the dynamic range of HDRI when they are loaded.

Using AEC Objects

Another huge feature that migrated over from VIZ are all the various architectural objects commonly found in buildings. These objects can all be found in the Create AEC Objects menu. The AEC Objects are broken into several categories, including Foliage, Railing, Wall, Doors, Stairs, and Windows.

New	All the AEC Objects are new in 3ds max 6.
Feature

Foliage

The Foliage category includes several different plants all listed in the Favorite Plants rollout, shown in Figure 51-2. The available plants include a Banyan tree, Generic Palm, Scotch Pine, Yucca, Blue Spruce, American Elm, Weeping Willow, Euphorbia, Society Garlic, Big Yucca, Japanese Flowering Cherry, and Generic Oak.

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Figure 51-2: The Favorite Plants rollout shows thumbnails of the various plants.

At the bottom of the Favorite Plants rollout is a button called Plant Library that opens a dialog box where you can see the details of all the plants, including the total number of faces. The winner is the Banyan tree with 100,000 faces. Using the Parameters rollout, you can set the Height, Density, and Pruning values for each of these plants. Also, depending on the tree type, you can select to show the Leaves, Trunk, Fruit, Branches, Flowers, and Roots, and you can set the Level of Detail to Low, Medium, or High.

Railings

The Railings option lets you pick a path that the railing will follow. You can then select the number of Segments to use to create the railing. For the Top Rail, you can select to use a Round or Square Profile and set its Depth, Width, and Height. You can also set parameters for the Lower Rails, Posts (which appear at either end), and Fencing (which are the vertical slats that support the railing).

The Lower Rail, Posts, and Fencing sections feature an icon that can be used to set the Spacing of these elements. The Spacing dialog box that opens looks like the same dialog box that is used for the Spacing Tool, where you can specify a Count, Spacing value, and Offsets.

Walls

Walls are simple, with parameters for Width and Height. You can also set the Justification to Left, Center, or Right. The nice part about creating wall objects is that you can connect several walls together just like the Line tool. For example, creating a single wall in the Top viewport extends a connected wall from the last point where you clicked that is connected to the previous wall. Right-click to exit wall creation mode.

Doors

The Doors category includes three types of doors: Pivot, Sliding, and BiFold. Each of these types has its own parameters that you can set, but for each of these door types, you can set its Height, Width, and Depth dimensions and the amount the door is Open.

1178 Part XIII Max in Action

Be aware when creating doors that Doors have two different Creation Methods — Width/ Depth/Height and Width/Height/Depth. The first is the default and it requires that the first click sets the Width, the second click sets the Depth, and the third click sets the Height. The Parameters rollout includes options to flip the direction in which the door opens. This is very handy if you position your door incorrectly.

Stairs

The Stairs category includes four types of stairs: LType, Spiral, Straight, and UType. For each type, you can select Open (single slats with no vertical backing behind the stairs), Closed (each stair includes a horizontal and vertical portion), or Box (the entire staircase is one solid object). For each type, you also can control the parameters for the Carriage (the center support that holds the stairs together), Stringers (the base boards that run along the sides of the stairs), and Railings.

The Rise section determines the overall height of the staircase. It can be set by an Overall height value, a Riser Height value (the height of each individual stair) or by a Riser Count (the total number of stairs). You also can specify the Thickness and Depth of the stairs.

Windows

The Windows category includes six types of windows: Awning, Casement, Fixed, Pivoted, Projected, and Sliding. As with doors, you can choose from two different Creation Methods. The default Creation Method creates windows with Width, then Depth, and then Height. Parameters include the Window and Frame dimensions, the Thickness of the Glazing, and Rails and Panels. You can also open all windows, except for the Fixed Window type.

Tutorial: Add stairs to a clock tower building

I’ll leave the architectural design to the architects, but for this example, we create a simple staircase and add it to the front of a clock tower building.

To add stairs to a building, follow these steps.

1.Open the Clock tower building.max file from the Chap 51 directory on the CD-ROM. This file includes a building with a clock tower extending from its center, but the main entrance is empty.

2.Select Create AEC Objects Straight Stair. Click and drag in the Top viewport from the upper corner where the stairs meet the entryway to the bottom of the stairs. Then drag downward to set the stairs’ width and click at the opposite side of the entryway. The drag downward again and watch the Left viewport to set the stairs’ height and click. Then right-click in the Top viewport to exit Stairs creation mode.

3.With the stairs selected, click the Select and Move (W) button in the main toolbar and drag the stairs in the Front viewport until they align with the front of one side of the entryway.

4.Open the Modify panel and select the Box option in the Parameters rollout. Then adjust the Overall Rise value so it matches the entryway.

5.Select Tools Mirror and select the Copy option with an Offset of around –140 about the X-Axis. Click OK.

Figure 51-3 shows the clock tower building with stairs.