Rendering splines without wireframe rendering?

[remainz]

HI

Is it possible yet to render a scene made of splines as lines without making them into solid objects first?

I have models that are just illustrations made with thousands of lines that I want rendered as lines.

Currently I have to "enable in renderer" , making them all into solid object, and apply a flat material to them.

This takes ages even with scripting and slows everything down a lot. 

Wireframe rendering makes the splines look like mesh snakes and not single lines.

Exactly the wrong effect.

Really I just need an Arnold material, or whatever,  that renders all splines as lines but I cannot find one.

Im really surprised that 3dsmax hasn't always had this as a feature so Im hoping that Ive just missed something basic.

A way to allow splines to be rendered as wireframes without having to first make them into a non line based mesh.

thanks

moe

[RobH2]

As far as I know I don't think there is a way to render them the way you desire. Max does not handle basic splines the way a vector 2d program like Illustrator does. Without a surface or poly, Max can't render an object. It's kind of fundamental to 3d. I don't think Blender or any other 3d program can either. I don't think it's a Max flaw, I just think it's the way it is. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. 

What you can do is screen capture a scene that is showing the spline in the viewport. I do this frequently to get renders that Max can't perform. I know that's not ideal, but it can work nicely  if you you have a large monitor and can capture a screen that is 3K+ pixels wide. 

[wernienst]

hmmm... I think you can create (some kind of) Line Art with 3dsMax.

here I created 10,000 splines via tyFlow, then enabled Rendering (Thickness: 0.7, Sides: 8). I splitted them into 3 groups, added 3 colors.
Then I created an Arnold Skydome light. In Arnold Render Setup, I set Diffuse and Specular Ray Depth to 0, set a white Background color and unchecked "Use Scene Environment". Then I rendered the Front Orthogonal View in 4K so that all lines have identical thickness. My computer did it in about 2 minutes. The inset shows a 1:1 crop.

[RobH2]

@wernienst   Really good info and something I'll try. Thanks for this. Hopefully it will help @remainz. 

[remainz]

Thanks guys.

I have also found complicated work arounds.

The fact that you can render the wireframes of meshes and not splines just seems like a basic shader overlook as the wireframe is exactly the same as a spline line.

[remainz]

Ok I found the most basic way, which I must have forgoten.

Choose Scanline render engine 

in render setup, renderer, options, force wireframe

This is for the fastest previews.

[RobH2]

@remainz   Yea, it's just the way Max is wired (pun intended) as it lacks some of the functionality of a vector art program like Illustrator, etc. You know, each 3d program, Blender, C4D, Maya, etc., all have features that other lack and visa-versa. Like them, Max "has what it has" and "doensn't have what it doesn't" have. Besides your specific need, Max does 10s of 1000s of complex things very, very well. It's a fantastic program from which you can indeed cobble together workarounds to do other fantastic things, just sometimes, they aren't "one-click" solutions. 

Even as frustrating for your specific need, it doesn't mean Max is flawed. There are 1000s of unique ways to use Max and it can't be "all things for all people" 100% of the time. 

Fortunately, Max is mature enough that there are 100s or even 1000s of 3rd party plugins and scripts. Frequently there is one that will solve most specific needs that Max can't on its own. Maybe tyFlow is the way to go. tyFlow isn't free but it is exceptional. I use it for things Max is not fundamentally good at. Often, the workaround for things in any software is to invest in plugins that solve the issues. I know that's easy to say if the user is a Pro and has money, and difficult if a student. But, yours is likely one of those situations. 

Anyway, I hope you've figured out an acceptable workaround or workflow. Good luck with the project. 

[remainz]

thanks rob