Ivy Generator and 3Ds Max (8)

[BDelacroix]

I'm writing this because I realize there may be others in the same boat I am with getting that nifty Ivy Generator to work with 3Ds Max.

I use v8 of Max so my findings are in relation to that.

Ivy Generator is a standalone program that will import .OBJ files and "grow" convincing ivy on the objects in the scene. Its actually quite nifty, once you get it to work. It took me the better part of a day to actually get it to work. That is, to import files exported by 3Ds Max.

v8 of Max has a built in exporter for .OBJ + .MTL files. This makes it convenient because you don't have to go hunting for a 3rd party exporter/importer.

So, the problem: You export an OBJ and get one of three things happening.

1. The file seems to read but you get a warning that "can't find ./bla". This is because ivy generator doesn't like spaces in file names. See, an .OBJ and .MTL file are basically text files describing a scene. Part of this text is the material file (.MTL) name. If it contains a space, everything after the first space is ignored. So, be sure to save out your exports without spaces in the file name.

2. You get a simple crash on importing. I don't know all the reasons this happens. It doesn't happen all the time but it does happen a lot. It seems to have gone away when I finally got something to actually appear within the Ivy Generator on importing.

3. You import your file but it is blank. Yea, this was a real hair tearer. Finally, I started messing with changes in the export options of 3DS Max and it finally put out a file Ivy Generator liked.

Pretty much you want :

Group by : Object
Use materials and create material library are left unchecked.

rotate model is unchecked
Faces: Triangle
Texture Coordinates: checked
Normals and Smooth groups unchecked
Vertex Scale is 1.0
# of digits is 6
compress numbers and relative vertex numbers are left unchecked

With these settings I finally had a .OBJ that ivy generator would read.

Now, import it into Ivy Generator and play.

My computer is still trying to work out the leaves on the ivy I made on a simple scene so I'll come back if there are troubles with importing the ivy back into MAX. Assuming I get that far.

EDIT: Holy Magnolias. Its a big file to import but it works.

[Ramiel]

I just export-import-grow-export-import...
Without problems (yet), but if I wil have a problem, I know what it could be now!

[BDelacroix]

In addition, when you import you want to type in the .mtl file name (I just used ./viney.mtl for instance) and you get all the proper materials applied to the ivy.

Thing is, it appears you'll want to mess with the bitmaps as they come out with no alphas. I downloaded the extra textures file on the same website as the ivy generator and changed the paths to use the jpg files rather than the pngs.

When importing, be prepared for it to seem to freeze up. It isn't broken (most likely) but it does slow things down and takes a while.

Makes some very nice convincing ivy and good enough is better than perfect any day.