Realtime Cubemaps (Legacy 3DS MAX)

CubeMaps

A realtime engine-generated CubeMap is represented by a Dummy object whose user buffer presents a $CubeMap structure.

The CubeMap Dummy is treated like a normal Dummy, so it can be linked to other nodes and also animated.

Note: It is not necessary to exclude the meshes that use this texture from the rendering of the same texture (through the parameter szExcludeMesh) because the engine will do it automatically.

Code example

This is an example of $CubeMap.

{

szID = CubeMapBox

szTextureDetail = High

szGeometryDetail = Medium

fNearPlane = 10

fFarPlane = 10000

$Commands

{

szExcludeMesh = MeshConTroppiPoligoni

}

}

Texture dimensions

If the dimensions go beyond the frame buffer resolution, the first power dimension of two that is smaller than the frame buffer will be chosen.

Parameters

szID

• Identifier (name) of the CubeMap that will be created.

szTextureDetail

• Size of the CubeMap texture.

• Default: high

• Range: [lowest .. highest]

szGeometryDetail

• Level of detail of the geometry rendered in the CubeMap.

• Default: medium

• Valid values: medium, high

fNearPlane

• Value of the Near Plane of the chamber that will render the CubeMap.

• Default: 10.0

• Range: [0..inf]

fFarPlane

• The value of the Far Plane of the chamber that will render the CubeMap.

• Default: 10000.0

• Range: [0..inf]

iRefreshFrameRate

• Indicates how many frames the CubeMap will be updated.

• If the value is zero (0), the CubeMap will be created only once and then will be converted into a simple compressed texture. This will take up less memory than a CubeMap, which is updated every x frames.

• If the value is -1, the CubeMap will be updated to each frame,

• Default: 0

• Range: [-1..inf]

bAlwaysRender

• Indicates if the CubeMap will always be rendered even if there is no object that uses it.

• Normally, a CubeMap is not rendered if at that time there is no visible object that uses it.

• Default: False.

• Range: True or False.

$Commands

• Structure that contains extra commands for creating and rendering the CubeMap.

$Commands Parameters

szIncludeMesh / szIncludeNode

• Includes this mesh in texture rendering; automatically excludes all other scene meshes.

• In practice, when using this parameter, you must manually specify all the meshes to draw.

• When using this parameter, its inverse (for example, szExcludeMesh) can not be used.

• When you use szIncludeNode all the meshes contained in the specified node hierarchy (which can be a Dummy or a Group) will be included.

• This parameter is optional, and can be repeated multiple times.

szExcludeMesh / szExcludeNode

• Excludes this mesh in texture rendering.

• When using this parameter, its inverse (for example, szIncludeMesh) can not be used.

• When you use szExcludeNode, all the meshes contained in the specified node hierarchy (which can be a Dummy or a Group) will be excluded.

• This parameter is optional, and can be repeated multiple times.