Settting 3DS Max output file specs

[CSwisher]

Using Max 2008 with a new installation of Qube 5.3.  Max rendering works fine, however, I seem to be stuck with some default options for the output file specs.  Where do I set these? In Max or in some Qube submission dialog?

An example - If I want TGA files, I can just put "TGA" on the output file in the Qube submission dialog and I get targa files.  But that leaves me with a default alpha setting (straight/premultiplied).  How can I change that?  Or set the bit depth?

[Ari]

Hey CSwisher -

There are some format options available to the max commandline for jpeg, targa & tiff, but nothing super elaborate. I would imagine you'd need to somehow add those options to the string that qube calls to execute the max render.

Its probably more straightforward to set that info up in your scene before submitting to Qube. Hope this helps ( or one of the pfx moderators can correct me... )

Cheers,
Ari

[CSwisher]

Yeah, I know Maya jobs can read output settings from the scene file, but Max doesn't seem to work that way.  I'm not a user of the software (just the poor engineer who has to set it up) - but from what I can see, and what the users tell me, the output/render settings in Max behave more like a "save as" dialog, rather than a core property of the scene.  Maybe I'm mistaken.

Command line options are probably out of the question, just from a workflow perspective, but we could look into it.

Anybody else have thoughts on this?  Board moderators?  I would love some detailed instructions.

[CSwisher]

Okay, we've found that if you set render settings, save the scene, and submit to Qube, it does pick them up.  However, it seems to get only SOME of them.

Specifically, we're doing an RPF render, and we need additional layers (Z Space, Pixel Velocity, etc).  They're not coming across in the finished files.  What gives?  Does Qube support this stuff?  Am I doing something wrong?

[Scot Brew]

As an alternative to the integrated 3dsmax jobtype, there is also a "3dsmaxbatch" simplecmd that exposes all of the render options for the commandline 3dsmaxcmd.exe.  This may work better for you for your particular requirements.

This "3dsmaxbatch" simplecmd can be found on the new "SimpleCmds" Forum at:
    http://support.pipelinefx.com/smf/index.php?topic=435.0

General and installation information about SimpleCmds can be found at:
    http://support.pipelinefx.com/smf/index.php?topic=434.0

[CSwisher]

That sounds great.  But how do I actually download the file?  I'm not seeing that on the forum post...

[CSwisher]

Weird... my browser is just not showing it.  I got it on another machine.  Thanks!

[Ari]

I just started a new topic that re-addresses this issue - from everything I've searched for, this seems to be a combination of a max issue and how the primary max jobtype renders from max.

here's a link to my post:
http://www.pipelinefx.com/forum/index.php?topic=760.0