What’s New in the MAX 5.0 SDK

See Also Required Changes to Certain MAX 4.0 Plug-Ins, New and Unsupported Changes

Overview

This section provides general descriptions and links to the associated classes/interfaces of new feature functionality in 3ds max 5.0.

Global Illumination

Description: 3ds MAX 5.0 currently has two solutions for global illumination: Radiosity, and Light Tracer.

Documentation: Class RadiosityEffect, Class ISpecularCompositeShader, Class IEmissionColor, Class INodeGIProperties

Spline IK

Description: Refers to the new modifier which, when assigned to a spline (or a NURBS) curve, generates a certain number of helper objects attached to the knots of the curve. This interface provides access to most of this new functionality

Documentation: Class ISplineIKControl

Texture Baking

Description: Povides the interfaces for creating Texture Baking plugins in 3ds max. The texture baking plugins are controlled through the Maxscript “Render To Texture”. There are methods available in this class that provide the ability to produce a dynamic UI in Maxscript.

Documentation: Class MaxBakeElement

Viewport Shaders

Description: These interfaces give you the oppurtunity for you to write your own DX Hardware Shaders and have a mechanism for displaying them in the MAX viewports

Documentation: Class IViewportShaderManager , Class IDXDataBridge , Class IHardwareMaterial

Skin Posing

Description: This interface provides access for getting and setting a special,non-animated, transformation pose.

Documentation: Class RotationValue , Class ISkinPose

UVUnwrap

Description: This new interface allows for Normal, Flatten, and Unfold mapping. You can bring them up through a dialog or through a script command.

Documentation: Class IUnwrapMod2

Node Exposure

Description: This interface provides the ability for a node to define whether it is visible in any of max’s dialog boxes. This interface will be extended and used by more of 3ds max’s core utilities, but currently ONLY TrackView and the Select Object/HideObject dialog box use this interface. By default this interface is not available through the default nodes, it needs to be added.

Documentation: Class INodeExposure

Node Layer Properties

Description: This class defines an interface for accessing a node's global illumination properties.

Documentation: Class INodeLayerProperties

Assemblies

Description: Assemblies combine the collective nature of a group with the programmability of a system. These interface classes allow control over which nodes belong to an assembly and which is the head. Methods are also provided to control the accessibility of members.

Documentation: Class IAssembly , Class IAssembly2

Edit Normals Modifier

Description: This interface provides access to the functionality in the Edit Normals modifier, which allows you to edit three categories of normals: Unspecified, Specified, and Explicit. Please see the associated documentation for a full description of this modifier’s functionality.

Documentation: Class IEditNormalsMod