Latest News
Wednesday 05, August, 2009 - Managing Other Things
Say hello to MatManager's younger brother: MeshManager.
Similar to MatManager, MeshManager combines a scene explorer with asset managemet capabilities. It's however aimed at meshes and scene objects instead of materials. It's still beta but you can download a demo version to testdrive.
For some more info and download you can check out the ScriptSpot page at: http://scriptspot.com/3ds-max/meshmanager
Thursday 04, June, 2009 - MatManager 0.7 is out!
MatManager has been updated to version 0.7. You can now store any kind and any number of modifiers, along with your materials. There's also a new Preview Panel that can be accessed by double clicking the library name, this will display all the material previews from that library and you can drag and drop from these previews directly into the scene!
Here's the full list of the changes:
- Fixed: bug in Random Materials Tool
- Fixed: "Unknow struct member" bug
- Fixed: bug in demo mode - MatManager would not load more than 4 materials instead of 5
- Fixed: the "Remove Map" option no longer shows up on first level map nodes
- Fixed: bug when assigning materials - MatManager assigned an instance of the stored material instead of a copy
- Tweaked: when the Material Editor is open, selecting a material from the MATERIAL EDITOR library will make the corresponding slot the one currently active
- Tweaked:Forced Vray log window off when rendering previews
- Tweaked: several small changes to accommodate for new Modifier Saving
ability (changed UVW: label to Modifiers: / created rollout for
importing several modifiers / changed right click options)
- Tweaked: better support for Mray, Vray & FinalRender when creating previews
- Added: right click menu when clicking on empty area of the treeView
- Added: Sorting of libraries alphabetically to right click menus
- Added: ALL modifiers can now be saved and retrieved using XML format
- Added: treeView resizing when extending the floater
- Added: Isolate Objects option to Scene Materials right click menu
- Added: modifier options to Options Panel
- Added: material previews display floater
- Added: double clicking the Material Editor library opens the Material Editor
- Added: import multiple materials rollout updated. It now uses checkboxes and displays modifiers associated with the materials
NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A PREVIOUS VERSION OF MATMANAGER INSTALLED, MAKE SURE YOU OPEN THE OPTIONS PANEL AND CLICK OK AFTER INSTALLING THE NEW VERSION. This will update the .ini file with the new options regarding modifier storage, you might encounter some errors otherwise.
NOTE Nº2: The new modifier storage system is not compatible with the old UVW storage, so previously stored UVW maps will not work. I'll make a small tool to update the old ones automatically in the next few days.
NOTE Nº3: For the time being the modifier storage does not save EVERY modifier setting, I'll expand this on the next versions but for the time being it should be more than enough. If a property was not stored when saving a material a warning will show on the Maxscript Listener.
GO TO THE DOWNLOAD SECTION TO GET IT!
ALSO: I've changed the Report Bug link on the left for one of those nice free forum thingys. If you have any questions/requests you can leave it there.
Wednesday 20, May, 2009 - Future Steps
The following is a list of features/ideas/concepts I plan to implement on future versions MatManager. It is by no means a complete list, but it should give you an idea of what's coming.
+MaterialEditor 2
This was a side project to MatManager that I intend to fully integrate at some point. Basically it's redesign of the standard Material Editor with a cleaner interface (IMHO at least). Besides it would also allow more direct feedback in MatManager when editing materials.
(click for larger version)
+Store Multiple UVW Modifiers/Store Other Modifiers
Right now MatManager only stores one UVW Map modifier per material. I plan to extend this so it will be possible to store multiple modifiers and other types of modifiers associated with materials.
+Better Material Sorting
Libraries can be a bit hard to browse when they include a lot of materials. For this reason MatManager will include some new functions like alphabetical sorting of materials and color-coding (thanks Erik!).
+New Tools
I have few extra tools in the work that will extend MatManager's capabilities. Like a Bitmap Browser, to scan the scene bitmaps, collect them, copy them, etc. A Material Translator, to switch materials from one shader type to another. And a Material Lab that will allow you to create presets, mix materials, and some other fun stuff...
+Buf Fixes
Can't get enough of those...
Like I said, there's a lot more in the works beside this, but if you have any ideas, just mail 'em over.
Saturday 16, May, 2009 - Video Killed The Radio Star
Nothing like a bit of YouTube to illustrate how the script works...
Thursday 14, May, 2009 - Second Steps
Licenses are beeing sold, people are commenting. I am happy.
Thanks to the new users a couple of bugs have surfaced, I will post a small update around the weekend whith some fixes and maybe some new toys if I have the time.
I've also illustrated the Features section with some nice images, sometimes it's hard to understand just from the text.
Tuesday 12, May, 2009 - First Steps
The website is now online and the licenses are now beeing sold trough PayPal. For the time beeing the licenses are beeing sold at 10 Euro. The price might go up once the final version is out so you better hurry!
Go to the Features section for more info on MatManager (some screenshots comming soon). If you have any questions you can find my contact info at the bottom of the page.
If you wish to learn more about MatManager you can also find the help file in the Download section, along with the program itself of course.
Thanks to everyone who helped along the way (you know who you are).