Hey guys, how do you render lfs cars? I picked up a copy of 3DS Max 7 and i dont have a clue where to start on rendering cars lol

Thanks alot Si

Go here, This man will help.
http://ds-autos.digiserv.net/index.php

Not bad for a first attempt

yeah, u gotta work on the rest of the materials now, not just the skin..
also u need a higher quality render, and some shadows..
btw, next time post in the LFS 3D Renders thread so the admins can delete this one

Check out http://www.splutterfish.com/ for a high quality popular renderer (brazil) (for 3ds).

How do you get this tool to show, i cant find it anyhere on mine

take a picture of 3dsmax while its running, and upload a picture

There you go

doesnt work

its on the top bar, just below the file to help bar

if its not there, then go to customize (3rd from right on very top) and click revert to startup layout (4th from top)

There you go

..weird.. ya, just do what i said on the post before your last one (2nd one above this)

It should be selectable by the menus too, something like edit->select by-><type of> region

I just got another free trial of 3Dsm 8, I have no idea how to use it. I have a scene (for the wrong version though, it is editable, not saveable), but no idea how to apply a skin to it. Can someone help me?

better search the forums for the lfswiki link..

I looked at that tutorial last night, still couldn't get a skin on it.

I'm downloading 3DSM 7 now, the cmx plugin didn't work with 8, and the scene I had wasn't for 8 either. Hopefully this will make things alittle more simple.

When I load 3Dsm it says the cmx importer isn't for this version, is there a cmx importer for 3dsm 7?

Tristan posted a zip some time ago with all cars converted into .3ds, here, and there's also the "dS Autos" brazil/max scenes, here.

Thanks alot. I tried the scenes from ds-autos but got an error message about having the wrong version of brazil, when applying the material I was getting different options. Tristan's ones seem to work though, thanks again.

I'm stuck on another part now though, there should be a tutorial for complete f****** idiots like me.

Did I? Must have done I suppose.

There seems to be two CMX importers around - one of which worked for me, and one of which didn't. I think I've attached that (the working one) before, but I'll do it again. I personally prefer working from a CMX import rather than a 3ds saved file by someone else (because 3DS saves some settings in the file too which might not be appropriate for everyone).

Maybe one day I'll 'tweak' Grudd's tutorial for people without Brazil, as the current tutorial requires a bit (but not too much) thought as to which stages don't apply to scanline or vray. But I'm nowhere near the best renderer here, so if someone else wanted to they are more than welcome. I'd make it as a thread first so that suggestions or queries can be added quickly, then maybe it'll be stuck in the wiki for visibility.

This works in 3DS Max 7 (as I use that), but I gather it also works in 8 too, though I can't confirm this. Extract to your 3dsmax\plugins folder.

Is 8 any better than 7?

Quote from Cropsy :

I'm stuck on another part now though, there should be a tutorial for complete f****** idiots like me.

thats why in nearly all threads like these i always suggest you DO NOT look at it, because it wont help you at all if your new to 3dsmax

hehe mastered it

Quote from Si_Si :

hehe mastered it

Downloading a dS Auto's scene and sticking a skin in it doesn't count as 'mastering' it. It's like loading LFS and saying you've mastered making a racing sim illepall
Still, quite a nice skin

Nice, FXR shines a bit cartoony perhaps.

You can cheat Brazil's size limit with a maxscript called bigrender (i think), to render atleast twice as wide/high, i think.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Downloading a dS Auto's scene and sticking a skin in it doesn't count as 'mastering' it.

He mastered most of the "Render my skin" bits of things anyway

Well, I suppose. But to master it you need to import your own models, apply self made materials, improve sections of the cars, add mapping where appropriate, split materials into sub materials, design the lighting layout etc etc. And that's JUST mastering rendering LFS cars, not making 3D stuff from scratch which is a lot harder though often using different skills.

Being good at LFS renders won't make you good at modelling, and being good at modelling doesn't necessarily mean your good at rendering...