Revit to Max to Max Interactive (Stingray)

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Here is my query, and apologies if it is answered elsewhere on this forum but I could not find it. As an architectural user of the software I model my buildings primarily in Revit, with the relevant metadata (materials and spec embedded) within the model as this ideal for the day to day workings of managing a construction project. I would then have traditionally exported the Model to Max for visualization and then onto Stingray for VR and interaction. All good so far.

My problem is since Mental Ray has ceased to be I have struggled with materials. I have looked at the ART converter with limited success and as a consequence I normally have to re-texture in Max. I am now considering learning and adopting Arnold as it looks extremly powerful but I am unsure as to whether the materials are supported once I bridge to Max Interactive (Stingray). Any demo I I have seen seems to be using Vray as the render engine.

So my questions is in two parts, a.) Is it worth the investment (time) in learning Arnold and b.) if i do, will the materials/textures work seamlessly in Interactive/Stingray?

Any help/pointer would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[bruno.landry]

Hi,

right now the Arnold materials aren't fully supported going from Max to Max Interactive, however we are working on to have the materials translated correctly.

Quick workaround would be to use the 3ds Max scene translator to convert all materials to standard materials which are also supported by Max Interactive.

Here's more info on the scene converter:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/3ds-Ma...

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2017/ENU/3DSMa...

please let me know if it helps!

thanks !
Bruno

[Anonymous]

Hi Bruno,

Thanks for the reply. Yes i tried to use the Scene converter but found it very limiting and the majority of materials required further enhancement once in Stingray/Interactive. In the end I used a "quasi" approach...for the important surfaces I created DirectX shaders in Max and pushed them into Stingray and this worked perfectly, right down to the AO maps.

I see this as a big issue going forward for Autodesk, why have a "live link" between the two if you are required to constantly re-work materials? It doesn't make sense. Also, nearly all the tutorials (some by Autodesk) that showcase Max Interactive all seem to use VRay as the weapon of choice, again seems somewhat counter intuitive considering VRay is a 3rd party software and Arnold and ART are both in house Autodesk renders at this point, yet they dont perform.

Just my tuppence worth!

Thanks again for taking the time to review my query.

Robin

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