- What are the advantages of using Flare materials in 3dsmax?

Flare3D materials are specifically designed and optimized for better performance and visual quality in Adobe Flash Player.

Flare3D offers basic support for 3DMax StandardMaterials, though this is only for compatibility reasons and to make the tool accessible to users.

– What 3dsmax materials are accepted by Flare? What 3dsmax material parameters are exported?

Flare3D includes some of the features of StandardMaterial.

If the material has no texture, color parameters are exported. This includes Ambient, Diffuse, Specular, Specular Level, Glossiness, Soften, as well as the color of ambient light.

If the material has texture in the diffuse channel, this will be included though it will not reflect light parameters. (You may select “Convert StandardMaterial to Multimaterial” from the exporter options to convert StandardMaterial into a more complex material with support for lighting).

Opacity is supported in both cases.

-  Why do textured materials seem to have no volume (they are not shaded). Is there any way to achieve this effect?

Shading involves a very costly process and results in far poorer performance as Flash does all the rendering in software. However, if required, Standardmaterials can be converted to Multimaterials, as it was stated in the previous question, or you can just use “Flare3D MultiMaterial”.

– How can I recreate plastic or metal materials?

These materials can be easily achieved using “Flare3D Environment” and “Flare3D Planar”, using textures with gradients, spherical maps or environments.

– When I export a scene in Flare, objects sometimes cannot be viewed. Why is this so?

When using Standard materials, it is important to consider that the only texture formats supported by flash are “jpg” and “png”. For other formats, texture will not be exported and, therefore, objects may not be properly rendered.

– How can I prevent Flash from running slow or the final swf file from being too heavy?

When time comes to render a scene for Flash, the following good practices should be followed:

-          As Flash can render a limited number of polygons, use Flare3D Preview to check scene performance as you go along.

-          Avoid “Flare3D MultiMaterial” whenever possible.

-          Avoid large-size textures or textures with transparency, whenever possible.

-          Avoid having too many objects and materials.

-          Adjust the Near and Far Clipping Plane parameters in Camera Properties and avoid adding elements that are unnecessary to your project.

- Is there a limit in the number of polygons to be used in the 3dsmax scene?

There is a limit of 65,000 vertices per object. However, that is much more than what Flash can render at any given time.

– What limitations in the use of textured images does Flare pose?

The texture formats supported by Flash are “png” and “jpg”

– Why do some objects sometimes appear to be in front of others when they should be behind? (How to assign render priorities. Polygon subdivision)

One of the difficulties we may encounter when viewing scenes in Flare3D is the order in which polygons are rendered. This is so because, for optimal and functional performance, polygons must be organized based on their centroids. This may pose a challenge when there are both large and small polygons in a very close range.

The most convenient option here is to use the “F3D Render” modifier. This allows us to modify object render priorities manually. Otherwise, we suggest dividing large polygons into smaller ones.

- If I have an object hierarchy in 3dsmax (linked with one another), is this hierarchy maintained when it is exported with Flare?

Yes.

– If I have a group in 3dsmax, will it be maintained when it is exported with Flare?

Yes.

– Are 3dsmax modifiers exported to Flare?

Only the Skin modifier and Flare3D’s own modifiers, “F3D Render”, “F3D User Data” and “F3D Animation Labels”.

The other modifiers can have an effect on geometries, but they will not be exported as such.

- What skeleton systems can be exported with Flare? (Biped, Bones, personalized rigs)

Although any system is valid, Skin – and not Phsyque – should be used.

– Can any modifier be used to skin a character? (Skin, Physique, other plug-ins)

Only Skin.

– What limitations does Flare have for the export of animations and the use of animation controllers?

Flare3D only exports the animations of those objects that have defined animation KeyFrames. When using controllers, it may happen that the controllers are animated but the controlled objects are not. In that case, at least one KeyFrame should be added to these objects so that animations are properly exported.