Shout3D™ 2.0 - 3D Studio MAX Export Tutorial

Hand-editing Material Parameters

It's often more convenient to edit material parameters directly in the .s3d file, instead of going back to MAX and re-exporting.

While you've got ball.s3d open in a text editor, choose one of the MultiAppearance nodes. Edit its the specularColor field to create a strong specular highlight. A value of 1.0 1.0 1.0 is equivalent to a completely white Specular Color in MAX and a 100 percent Specular Level. Thus a value like .8 .8 .8 will produce a very strong highlight. Type these numbers into the specularColor field in place of the existing ones. Save the edited file and preview in the Wizard. You'll see a strong specular highlight on one side, as in the image on the right. Note how the smoothing break affects the highlight.

The MultiAppearance shininess field corresponds to the glossiness parameter in a MAX material definition. The transparency field is the inverse of opacity in MAX. Experiment with different values for these fields in the MultiApperance nodes by hand-editing the scene file. Save and preview to see the results. It's easy!

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