mrbisonm needs help with gmax

[callagrafx]

Firstly, it looks like you've included the spot in the group for the object...this is what's causing the extra large LOD.  Always treat lighting as completely separate from any model.  Ungroup and regroup without any lights.  Secondly, only light sources should be named "nitelite", mainly for good practice reasons.

[mrbisonm]

Firstly, it looks like you've included the spot in the group for the object...this is what's causing the extra large LOD.  Always treat lighting as completely separate from any model.  Ungroup and regroup without any lights.  Secondly, only light sources should be named "nitelite", mainly for good practice reasons.

Thanks, that explains the LOD thing. I'm glad that we can Lod the models without the lights, kinda thought so too or at least hoped for, because the boxes on some models I am working on really have become excessively large.

Now just to make sure for the «nitelite» naming thing. By lightsource you mean the gmax lights only (found in gmax only) and not the Maxis light (found in BAT only), right? The Maxis light is just to make an object lighten up in rendering, like most of the windows we see in BATs. So , I don't have to write nitelite in front of these objects for them to brighten up at night, right?

Sorry , kinda hard to explain and also to understand....lol
Thanks for the help............

mrb

[mrbisonm]

Sorry to bump my thread but this is a complete different question that I have.

I want to elongate some beams in my gmax model, well there are 63 of them, all the same model. Now, here's the question. Is there a way to elongate (make them taller only, not bigger wider etc) all together at the same time or do I have to take them one by one?

Thanks for the help

mrbisonm

[Diggis]

Sorry to bump my thread but this is a complete different question that I have.

I want to elongate some beams in my gmax model, well there are 63 of them, all the same model. Now, here's the question. Is there a way to elongate (make them taller only, not bigger wider etc) all together at the same time or do I have to take them one by one?

Thanks for the help

mrbisonm

Are they instanced?

[mrbisonm]

What does instanced mean???
The beams are just some simple rods (column like) of the same model but of different angles and all I want to do is put the length from 7 meters to 9.3 meters. Is there a way to do modify them all at the same time?

[Diggis]

You can if they are all instanced copies of each other.  When you do a shift+drag copy you get a dialogue box asking what type of copy you want.  Copy, instance, or reference.  If you chose instances you can change one and they will all change.  Otherwise it's changing each one.

[mrbisonm]

No, when I do the drag+shift, no dialogue besides the copy one comes up. Hm...... As complicated, sophisticated and almost perfect this program was made, they forgot to add the most simple tools. I guess that is what the computer program world is like, make it complicated and not simple.....lol.

Thanks for the help, I guess I get to work now doing the *one by one* job...

mrbisonm

[SimFox]

Nope, they haven't
You probably don't do it right I guess. Or may be there is some setting somewhere that turns that dialog off. But even if it exists you must have turned it off, because by default it shows it.
Anyway to default to the conclusion that makers of the program had screwed up isn't very helpful. I would suggest to you to either read some book on Max essentials, some old version would do fine! Alternatively you could download GMAX help, and GMAX tutorials from turbosquid. I believe they should introduce all the features and give basic understanding of their workings. To click blindly isn't very productive...

[mrbisonm]

I don't have the habit to click wildly on anything without knowing what it does. Maybe I don't have the knowledge of the 3d program that much but that doesn't mean I just click blindly.   

I included a picture below that shows what comes up when I do the shift+drag thing........Nothing else ever came up, and I just installed gmax only 6 days ago since I changed computers. It never did it before with the other computer and I re-installed it twice in 3 years, and it doesn't now.
Thanks for trying to help anyways and even if you believe I must have turned off that option, I surely did not! Besides if it can be turned off then how do we turn it on?

[Diggis]

You can if they are all instanced copies of each other.  When you do a shift+drag copy you get a dialogue box asking what type of copy you want.  Copy, instance, or reference.  If you chose instances you can change one and they will all change.  Otherwise it's changing each one.

Maybe read this, and check your pic again... 

[mrbisonm]

Thanks Diggis for pointing that out, but it is not what I really asked. Even if I make a copy and then choose instances of them, they will change only one by one of each one of the original and the one from the copy, but not all of the others, it still comes back to changing one by one. (see picture)



English is only my fourth language, therefore I have some problems explaining things in details and/or understand *professional* words. But this is the best that I can explain what I would like:
I want to be able to choose all of them (the posts standing up vertically) and then make them all longer of 1.2 meters at the same time in one shot. Is that possible or not?
That should be simple and clear enough as a question. Is there a simple and clear answer for this?

Thanks

mrbisonm

[Diggis]

OK, my point was that if you used instance to create them, then you could change 1 and they would all change.  Obviously you didn't, you used copy, so No, you can't do that, you have to change each one individually.

[mrbisonm]

Thanks everyone for trying to help me. I got my answer from a member of Simtropolis (wanting to stay incognito) who pm'ed with the answer and the instructions how to do it. Actually very simple, as my question. So I want to share this with you all, since you don't seem to know it and surely it can become very useful if you don't use instances.

I asked if it was possible to choose all the poles and make them longer at the same time.


1. group them all together in one group
2. Go to Modifier list and choose Edit Mesh and then Vertex.
3. Choose the bottom vertexes of the poles you want to make longer and pull down to the desired length.

That's it.

Thank you all again, I will be back when I need more help with gmax. Maybe I didn't get the solution here, but I learned the differences of copies and instances and what you can do with it/them and that probably can become quite useful one  day, thanks



mrbisonm

[Diggis]

OK, see, I did know that, but as this thread was about lighting I figured you wanted to edit the beam of some lights.  If I had of known it was beams as in columns or posts then maybe I could have helped more.

[mrbisonm]

Sorry Diggis, if I didn't make understand myself correctly. Yes, this thread is about light when it started but instead of opening another thread for every problem I encounter I just decided to use the same thread. Kinda logic....and yes I called them poles *beams* before, as in woodbeams.......I meant 

So, I renamed the thread to *mrbisonm needs gmax help*...sounds ok?...

Thanks

mrbisonm

[Diggis]

Sounds good to me.... But them I'm drunk and most things sound good.  I'll let you know in the morning... 

[callagrafx]

Thanks everyone for trying to help me. I got my answer from a member of Simtropolis (wanting to stay incognito) who pm'ed with the answer and the instructions how to do it. Actually very simple, as my question. So I want to share this with you all, since you don't seem to know it and surely it can become very useful if you don't use instances.

I asked if it was possible to choose all the poles and make them longer at the same time.


1. group them all together in one group
2. Go to Modifier list and choose Edit Mesh and then Vertex.
3. Choose the bottom vertexes of the poles you want to make longer and pull down to the desired length.

That's it.

Thank you all again, I will be back when I need more help with gmax. Maybe I didn't get the solution here, but I learned the differences of copies and instances and what you can do with it/them and that probably can become quite useful one  day, thanks



mrbisonm

One extreme downside with this method...the texture mapping will now apply across the group so you cannot easily vary or apply textures to individual columns, so you'll either end up with a repeating pattern or a real headache if you have to re-texture.  A more obvious method would have been to select everything and clone them vertically downwards.

[mrbisonm]

I know that texturing will change on them, I was informed about it by the person that told me how, but one thing, these represent an old forgotten and abandonned quay and is so small and also partially  underwater that it won't even be recognized or seen ingame. 

[mrbisonm]

I'm back.....lol....that wasn't too long.
I have another gmax or maybe a LE problem now.

While doing everything as supposed to in the gmax and the LE, the lot does not come out as all the others I did that way.
It is a ploppable land/water lot 1x5 that I deleted the textures,  and it is showing somethin as a foundation everytime I render or redo it in the LE. I even deleted the foundation and the retaining walls in the LE and still this brown line is showing.
Does anyone know what can be done?
I have done it exactly like all the others, while they came out just fine......

Thanks

[Diggis]

Is is supposed to just be the posts?