Viewport and Render Preview / 3ds Max

From this guide you can learn how to configure 3ds Max viewport to match Verge3D look and feel, and how to use Arnold rendering and the ActiveShade feature to obtain a reference image.

Viewport Settings

To enable better viewport preview in 3ds Max, switch from Standard to High Quality in the viewport settings:

Enable high quality viewport rendering in 3ds Max

Click Realistic Materials with Maps in the Materials submenu (this operation is required every time you add a new material):

Enable realistic materials in 3ds Max viewport

Enable Environment Background in the Viewport Background submenu under Default Shading:

Enable environment background in 3ds Max viewport

The above-mentioned settings are pre-enabled for the default cube project.

Viewport shading, however, does not always appear to provide an accurate approximation of the in-browser rendering - for instance, environment reflections ignore normal maps in the viewport, etc.

Arnold/Scanline Rendering

Verge3D rendering strives to be as close as possible to Arnold render if physical materials are used, and to Scanline render if standard materials are used. So you can preview your scenes in 3ds Max without exporting for quicker tweaking.

To select the renderer, click Render Setup... in the Rendering menu (F10):

3ds Max render setup

In the window use the Renderer dropdown to switch between Arnold and Scanline:

Switching render engine in 3ds Max

To render a scene, click Render (Shift+Q):

Render in 3ds Max

Subsequently you can use the Render button to repeat your render:

3ds Max render result

ActiveShade Mode

For faster iterations, you can use the ActiveShade mode which automatically updates the render every time you modify a scene (works best with Arnold render).

You can enable ActiveShade in the Render Setup... window:

Enable ActiveShade mode

After that you'll be able to switch a viewport to ActiveShade mode:

Switching viewport to ActiveShade mode

This way you can achieve a better approximation of what you get in the browser, at a near real-time speed.

Got Questions?

Feel free to ask on the forums!