Files Rollout

Overview

  • The XMesh Loader MX supports two file sequences - a Render Sequence and a Proxy Sequence.
  • The Proxy sequence is optional and is typically employed to display a lower-res. version of the geometry in the viewports.
    • The XMesh Saver MX provides options for saving the a Proxy sequence using the current viewport settings of objects like Particle Flow and Frost, as well as the viewport settings of any modifiers set to affect the object differently in the viewport and in the renderer.
    • On top of that, mesh optimization / decimation modifiers can be added when saving the Proxy sequence to produce a lower resolution representation.
  • There are controls in the Loading rollout to determine which sequence should be used for rendering and which should be used for viewports.
    • When there is no Proxy sequence specified, the Render Sequence will be used for both viewports and rendering.
    • If no Proxy sequence is defined, you can still optimize the viewport display by using the Loading rollout’s controls to show a bounding box, a percentage of the faces or a percentage of only vertices, or nothing at all.
../../../_images/xmesh-loader-mx_ui_files.png

The following controls are exposed in the Files Rollout:

Render Sequence

  • Choose the Render quality sequence.
  • You can control which sequence is displayed in the viewport and at render time using the controls in the Loading rollout.

Proxy Sequence

  • Choose the Proxy quality sequence.
  • You can control which sequence is displayed in the viewport and at render time using the controls in the Loading rollout.

Timing Controls

  • The “Timing” controls are similar to those found in the Krakatoa PRT Loader and the Frost particle mesher.

  • You can load the specific file name without changing the time, limit the loading range (YOU SHOULD limit the frame range to the valid interval saved to disk to avoid render frame failures - in fact, the XMesh Loader will set it automatically when you pick a sequence), offset and retime the animation using a Playback Graph.

    Load Single Frame Only

    • Load the exact particle file name you selected, and do not attempt to load different frames.
    • Animation playback will be effectively turned off.

    Graph [a]

    • Enable the Playback Graph control, which is described below.
    • This animatable parameter controls which file frame number is loaded for each scene frame.

    Frame Offset

    • This offset is added to the scene frame number to calculate the particle file frame number.
    • For example, if you are on frame 0 in the scene, and the Frame Offset is 10, then XMesh will load frame number 10 from the file sequences.

    Limit to Custom Range:

    • When enabled, the XMesh Loader will only load frame numbers inside the range given by the First Frame and Last Frame controls.

      Range

      • Attempt to find a frame range that is present in the render file sequence.
      • If a range is found, then the First Frame, Last Frame, and Limit To Custom Range controls will be set.
      • If no range can be found, then a warning dialog box will appear instead.

      First Frame

      • When Limit To Custom Range is enabled, this is the first frame number that XMesh Loader will load.

      Last Frame

      • When Limit To Custom Range is enabled, this is the last frame number that XMesh Loader will load.

      Before Range Behavior

      • Control what the XMesh Loader will use for frames before the First Frame.
      • Hold First will use the data from the first frame, while Blank will use an empty mesh.

      After Range Behavior

      • Control what the XMesh Loader will use for frames after the Last Frame.
      • Hold Last will use the data from the last frame, while Blank will use an empty mesh.

Loading Mode

  • Control the behavior when sub-frames are requested by the renderer to produce Motion Blur.

    Frame Velocity Offset

    • Uses the nearest full frame and the corresponding Velocity channel (if generated during the Saving process).
    • The Vertices will be moved along the velocity vector.
    • The result is linear interpolation between a full frame and half a frame later due to the linear nature of the velocity data.

    Subframe Velocity Offset

    • Uses the nearest sub-frame file and its Velocity channel (if available).
    • If you have saved sub-frames by setting the Step value in the Saver to a value less than 1.0, the XMesh Loader will take full advantage of the sub-frame data.
    • Switching back to “Frame Velocity Offset” will effectively ignore the sub-frame data on disk.
    • Using sub-frames will allow you to produce more curved vertex motion between two frames thanks to the additional samples stored in the sub-frame files.
      • The higher the number of sub-frames, the closer the vertex interpolation will be to the original motion, at cost of disk space.
      • If only the vertices are changing position (all other channels like Face list, Material IDs, Smoothing, Texture/Mapping Coords etc. are the same), a sub-frame will contain just the Vertex list and Velocity channels, with all other channels reused from a previous frame.
      • Thus, using multiple sub-frames does not necessarily cost too much disk space and is more similar to Point Caching.

    Frame Interpolation

    • Uses the two surrounding full frames and, given consistent topology, produces the sub-frame vertex positions on the fly without the use of the pre-saved Velocity channel.
    • If the two frames have mismatching topologies, no sub-frame data will be generated and the closest full frame will be used.

    Subframe Interpolation

    • Uses the two surrounding sub-frames, otherwise the same as the previous mode.
    • If no sub-frames were generated at saving time, it behaves identically to “Frame Interpolation”.
    • Switching to “Frame Interpolation” effectively ignores any sub-frame files on disk.

Length Unit

  • Controls the scaling of the data relative to the 3ds Max System Units.

    Use File Unit

    • When checked, the file units saved at the time of XMesh caching will be used and all other controls in this group of controls will be disabled.

    • When unchecked, the data will be loaded according to the System Units settings in the drop-down list:

      Generic

      • No unit scaling will be applied, all data will be loaded in 3ds Max Generic units.
      • If the System Units settings of 3ds Max or Maya happen to match the System Units settings of 3ds Max at the time of loading, the object will appear the same size as the original geometry.
      • For example,
        • If a Sphere with radius 10.0 was saved from 3ds Max set to 1 Generic Unit = 1 Inch, and is loaded in 3ds Max with the same System settings, the resulting mesh will also have a radius of 10 / size of 20.0 inches.
        • If the 3ds Max scene loading the data was switched to 1 Generic Unit = 1 Centimeter, the resulting mesh willl have a radius of 10.0 centimeters and size of 20.0 centimeters (no unit conversion)

      Inches

      • The incoming units will be assumed to be Inches.
      • A Sphere with radius 10.0 will be loaded in a 3ds Max set to 1 Generic Unit = 1 Centimeter as a Sphere with a radius of 25.4 Centimeters, because 1 Inch = 2.54 cm.

      Feet

      • The incoming units will be assumed to be Inches.
      • A Sphere with radius 10.0 will be loaded in a 3ds Max set to 1 Generic Unit = 1 Centimeter as a Sphere with a radius of 304.8 Centimeters, because 1 Foot = 30.48

      Miles

      • The incoming units will be assumed to be Miles.

      Millimeters

      • The incoming units will be assumed to be Millimeters.

      Centimeters

      • The incoming units will be assumed to be Centimeters.

      Meters

      • The incoming units will be assumed to be Meters.

      Custom

      • The incoming units will be scaled according to the “Custom Scale” spinner value:

    Custom Scale

    • Defines a custom scaling factor for the incoming units.