In 2023, we released an all new plugin for 3ds max 2021+ that lets you browse, purchase, download, and import all your Poliigon assets with ease. Try it out below:
You can still download the deprecated 3ds Max material converter here
Latest version: v1.9.1, updated August 30, 2022 (Changelog)
This addon will automatically create a material out of your texture maps. It works in 3dsmax 2015 - 2024, with support for: Vray, Arnold, Corona, Redshift, Octane, Art and MentalRay.
How to install
Download the material converter .zip file and extract it into a folder on your computer.
Drag the installation file from that new folder onto the 3dsmax viewport.
Navigate to Customize > Customize User Interface > Toolbars. Then under "Category" find "Poliigon" and drag the converter onto either an existing toolbar above the 3D viewport, or create your own new one.
Click the Poliigon logo icon and it's all ready to go!
Usage
For more information regarding using our converter please check out the 3DS Max area of our Help Section for tutorials on subjects ranging from basic usage to more in-depth subjects.
Renderer
You may choose between the following supported rendering engines:
Arnold
Art
Corona
Mental Ray
Octane
Redshift
V-Ray
Advanced options
Include Ambient Occlusion (AO) maps - If ambient occlusion maps are present with the detected materials, they will automatically be added to the material shader setup.
Include Displacement maps - If displacement maps are present with the detected materials, they will automatically be added to the material shader setup. Please note that some renderers only allow displacement via a modifier that must be applied to a 3d model. In such cases the displacement map must be added manually, as the script only imports textures into a material shader.
Conform UV maps to image dimensions - For textures in a rectangular (non-square) format, this option will adjust the UVs for each map type to match the image dimensions. Please note that this feature does not work with all rendering engines and is disabled by default.
Use 16 bit maps - This will replace all 8 bit images with higher quality 16 bit versions when available, and is disabled by default.
Apply materials to preview spheres - Enable this option to have each imported material appear on a standard sphere. This will allow you to quickly preview materials before applying them to your models. Please note this function is disabled by default.
Complete materials
The material converter is designed to function only when it detects materials that have a complete set of maps, and will give an error warning if one or more of these maps is missing. In order to form a complete material these four map types are required; COL (color), REFL (reflection), GLOSS, and NRM (normals).
Please note that some materials come with ALPHAMASKED files instead of a COL map and contain a transparency channel. These will automatically load in if a COL map is not detected.
Speciality maps
All other additional maps that may come with materials are considered speciality and not required for the converter to work. However some of these are directly supported such as AO, Displacement and Alphamasked maps.
Metal materials
When it comes to metal materials Poliigon offers two different workflows; metalness and specular. Unfortunately not all renderers for 3dsmax support the metalness workflow and so the only supported workflow for this converter is the specular workflow. Please make sure to download this workflow to have the converter work properly.
Support
If you encounter any bugs while using the converter then please contact our support team with the details at support@polligon.com. Thanks!
Keywords
3dmax