On July 20th, Changsoo Eun announced the release of RenderStacks, a new render pass and generic task manager for 3ds Max. This tool shares similarities with other solutions like RPManager, LPass Manager, Prism, StateSet, and Scene State, but is designed to be “a lot smarter, faster and more stable.”
The tool aims to reduce the number of required files by doing more with a single scene. To achieve this, RenderStacks provides artists with a comprehensive set of controls per pass, called pmodifiers. These pmodifiers allow control over the camera, resolution, frame range, object visibility, material object properties, renderer parameters, and more. The initial release includes 26 pmodifiers, with more planned for future updates. RenderStacks uses a stack-based workflow instead of a node-based approach. The developers chose this method to keep the user interface compact and because stacks are easier to read and manage tasks sequentially.
Here is a tutorial to show you how to set up four different passes using cameras, resolution, HDRI environment and lighting.
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