[?] Max3d direct x shader

[smee]

Hi been doing some texturing and using the Static shader shows the different textures in max but when try and render out it comes up as Gray(base colour ) with none of the maps.

In the perspective view window it displays all the texture maps. How can i render it so to have the shadows.


put together in PS. How can i get it to render out with shadows.

[Z-trooper]

Oh boy.

There are two ways of making images of 3d geometry:
- raytracing (what people refer to as "rendering")
- rasterizing/shading/ realtime shading (what ever people call it).

they both represent the geometry as a picture, but the similarities end there.

Raytracing is achived by shooting a lot of rays out through your virtual camera (with the image size as input). This method is for making realistic pictures from computer generated models. It simulates reality by using "rays" (light waves/rays).
Raytracing takes a very very long time (especially with shadow feelers and whatnot, GI, color bleeding, reflection, ray casting). As an example I can refer to the new transformer movie. The scene where all of the transformers are gathered in the alley way... each frame took around 38 hours to render (and that is on a render farm)

Shading (you are using a DirectX shader) operates very differently as the raytracing. It is meant to be REAL TIME (for games) - up to several hundred per second (a whole lot different than the example above).
Lighting works in a different way, the way colors and light is interpeted is very different.
Real time shading is based on approximations which are based on more approximations and fast solutions.

This is the reason why I tell people over and over and over again not to render game models. Simply because of the fact that it will nok look as "good" ingame as what the rendered image looks like.
Mesh errors, bad smoothing and smooth groups are easily hidden when you hit the fancy tea pot icon, especially when people use the cursed skylight fancy pantys clay render style. The skylight is a great tool, no doubt about it, just not for showing game models.
To represent the model you (not "you" but people in general) are working on and need crits on or have finished - simply use the good ol "Prt Scr" button on the keyboard. Cause that is much closer to what it will look like ingame.

It might be difficult to show depth of the model with a screenshot. This is mainly because there is no contrast in light. This issue I cover in a tut I made a little while back:

https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189-m ... s-max.html

Yes, it is a rendering tutorial, but I adress this exact issue near the end of it. And the lighting in there is great for showing game models in real time.

ANYWAYS, back to your question.

Shaders can't be rendered.
What you can do is stick the textures in the correct texture slots in the map rollout of any of the standard or raytrace materials. However it might be a little tricky to set up all the layers of the way bf2 uses it.
So once again I recommend just taking a screenshot, it is the best solution for all parts anyway.

Sorry if it seemed like a personal "attack", but it is just a thing that I keep repeating over and over again. Hopefully this short introduction into shading and raytracing can open some peoples eyes.
I might just write up a damn paper about this stuff for people to read, but I fear that fight is lost anyway since people hardly care to read tutorials anyway.
I took the time to write a bit more detailed response for once so I can just copy paste it in the future that is the reason for the long response.

EDIT:

Forgot to say that you are doing a great job. Saw some of your other models. Nice to see people learning bf2's texture system, thumbs up from here

[smee]

Thanks for that answer covered a lot. Just suppose going to have to set up multiple materials.

cursed skylight fancy pantys clay render style

Thought people liked clay verson?