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[wallworm]

As some of you may know, Autodesk now launched a site in the last year or two for users to voice their opinions about new features in 3ds Max. I would like to ask any WWMT users to go vote for some of the features that Wunderboy and myself have suggested; these features would directly help the development of WWMT/Wunderboy tools... and/or simply add general benefit tools.

Shawn's Request: Render To Texture onto Multiple Objects at Once into one single output image (or multiple respective images if using different target maps). This would make it easier to Unwrap multiple objects at once and output into a single image without having to composite the bitmaps later in Photoshop. This is good if you want to pack the textures for multiple objects into a single image. I primarily want this for level design.

Wunderboy's Request: Allow Bones to be drawn along any axis rather than just the X axis. This will improve the quality of the SMD Importer... which is something I know that a lot of you use.

I do know that there is a function that does my request in the RTT Assist plugin that Miauu wrote (one of my favorite 3ds Scripters)... but honestly I think this is a feature that should be readily available inside a vanilla install of Max.

[wallworm]

I've added a new Feature Request: Alternative scaling/skewing gizmo like in CorelDRAW, other 2D apps


Edit by AndraX2000: Fixed link.

[wallworm]

I've added a couple more Feature Requests:

• Caddie Spinner Values should set the value when you hit Tab
• Access and move all toolbars and floating dialogs at all times so that you can access hidden ones.

[wallworm]

I've added a new 3ds Max Request:

Nitrous needs to support any map channel and honor tiling turned off in a texture.

Please vote for this feature!

[wallworm]

I've added a new 3ds Max Request:

Nitrous needs to support any map channel and honor tiling turned off in a texture.

As it turns out, tiling and map channel are displayed in Nitrous if you turn on Realistic Materials with Maps. Still... vote for this to make it better.

[wallworm]

I've added a new request:

Editable Poly should have a normals channel and keep the smoothing of the original mesh when detaching elements.

Please vote for this :)

[wallworm]

A new request: Update vertex color map to allow use of alpha/illum channel

This would be useful in many ways. First off... it would mean that a Blend Material could use a Vertex Color as the mask that has the mask in the alpha channel of the vertex color of the map. As it stands... in terms of Wall Worm, displacements cannot be rendered with the correct texture blending unless you manually copy the vertex alpha channel to the vertex color channel... which can be a nuisance; it also means that after you do that, you have to redo it if you make any changes to the alpha.

I'd also like them to make the blend material display correctly in the viewport. In fact, if the Vertex Color Map could use the vertex alpha and the blend displayed correctly, WW could stop using the DirectX Shader for displacements.

[wallworm]

Here is a new vote I need for those of you who want to paint proxies with the Object Paint in the Graphite toolbar. The graphite object paint always paints objects at a negative scale... so what you see in the viewport is not actually what you get in game--because your models will never actually be negative in Source.

Vote to Fix Object Paint Scale

I also wrote about this with a sample file and image on the Area.

[EDIT] This item is no longer needed. It was fixed in 3ds Max 2014.

[wallworm]

Here is one you might like: New File dialog should give option to keep/discard the current contents of the material editor (instead of always keeping).

Option to Discard current Material Editor contents when making new file.

[wallworm]

I have a new request for Max. It's likely this one won't affect you directly unless you are a scripter... but it does affect you indirectly in that the result of the architecture I'm about to share can cause things to be developed more slowly and/or scripts to run more slowly. So I think it is in your best interest to vote for this one:

No* MAXScript function should ever require the object to be selected or the command panel set to the modifier stack.

Many MAXScript functions require that an object is selected and/or that the command panel is set to the Modify tab. This should not be required!

Why?

1) This adds extra steps that don't seem necessary.

2) This is not always clearly stated in the MAXScript docs.

3) Forcing a selection and/or switching to command panel slows down scripts... and in loops it can be a killer slow-down!

Because of this you may spend hours trying to get a function to do exactly what it should do according to the docs (and already have everything written correctly) except that you have to know to use things like setCommandPanelTaskMode(), etc.

Calling any function (even for modifiers) should never require this. Examples of some of the kinds of methods that I know of that need this are functions dealing with FFD Control Points, some Edit Normals modifier calls, etc. I expect I will run into more of these... and I think it is a serious architectural flaw.

[Neil]

All good ideas!

[wallworm]

PLEASE GO VOTE FOR THIS TO BE FIXED:

The Viewport Canvas is one of my favorite tools in Max. But it has a bad UI/display flaw in that the richness of the colors while in the tool get lost when you are done painting--as soon as you exit the viewport canvas... the textures display washed out.

VOTE HERE: http://3dsmaxfeedback.autodesk.com/forums/76763-small-annoying-things/suggestions/4034429-viewport-canvas-display-of-colors-on-textures-does

There is more on this here: http://area.autodesk.com/forum/t79183

[wallworm]

Some new features to vote on, which I discuss in a single thread here Feature Requests: Cap Mapping and Slice Functionality . This thread discusses three independent but related features. A direct, per feature vote request, follows.

Vote For Cap Mapping enhancements - This will benefit Max generally, but for WW can aid in BSP level design specifically.

Add Cap Holes to Slice functions - This function will aid level design as it will make the Slice function in Max work more like the Clipping tool in Hammer.

Slice Plane include QuickSlice drawing - This will make it easier to use the Slice Modifier across multiple objects, as aligning the slice plane between two point is often easier than rotating from a single point.

[wallworm]

DX Shaders should work like other materials in Slate and use Map input inputs. Vote for this now! :) And of course all the things listed above.

[wallworm]

Please vote for this function in 3ds Max: xrefs.addNewXRefObject needs to allow Project-Relative Paths. It would help with some of the tools in WW that I'm trying to update.