Conclusions

We have been using this solution at Vicarious Visions for one year. We have shipped one Nintendo DS project, Kung Fu Panda, and are currently supporting three ongoing Nintendo DS projects and one Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3 project.

Overall, we have had great success using this solution. We have been able to leverage the various systems that 3DS Max provides to alleviate redundant work, which we would have needed to do if we had built a system from scratch. There are factors to consider before integrating existing toolchains with 3DS Max, but they are no different from any other large-scale integration project. Integrating 3DS Max with .NET allows for two distinct disciplines, namely technical art and engineering, to work together cooperatively in developing programs, rather than working in isolation.

In the end, integrating .NET applications with 3DS Max through MaxScript consolidates a great deal of functionality from different applications within a single user interface that artists and designers are already comfortable using.

Downloads and Documentation

MaxScript Help File Sections
- DotNet in MaxScript
- Registering Windows SystemEvents Callbacks Using DotNet
- Loading Assemblies

MSDN .NET Framework
- http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/default.aspx

Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
- http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/aa975050.aspx

Appendix I: Benchmark Source Code

MaxScript Code

function maxscript_test_fn input_array =
(
accum = 0;

for val in input_array do
(
accum += val;
)

accum;
)

DotNet.LoadAssembly "Benchmark.dll";

function benchmarkDotNet samplesize:10000 testlength:10 verbose:false =
(
dot_net_object = DotNetObject "Benchmark.BenchmarkClass";

[Get a reference directly to the method, avoid name lookup; matches native MaxScript behavior more closely.]
dot_net_object_test_fn = dot_net_object.Test;

sample_data = #();

for i = 1 to samplesize do
(
sample_data[i] = (random 0 10) as Integer;
)

[Make a result buffer to avoid any 'lazy evaluation' optimizations MaxScript might do because nothing is using the return value of the function. Also pre-allocate the array to prevent any runtime allocation which may affect one of the loops.]
result_buffer = #();

for i = 1 to testlength do
(
result_buffer[i] = 0;
)



timer1 = timeStamp();

for i = 1 to testlength do
(
result_buffer[i] = maxscript_test_fn sample_data;
)


timer2 = timeStamp();


for i = 1 to testlength do
(
result_buffer[i] = dot_net_object_test_fn sample_data;
)

timer3 = timeStamp();


maxscript_time = timer2 - timer1;
dot_net_time = timer3 - timer2;


if (verbose == true) then
(
format "Results:\n";
format "\tMaxScript : %ms\n" maxscript_time;
format "\tDotNetObject : %ms\n" dot_net_time;
)

#(maxscript_time, dot_net_time);
)

function runFullBenchmark =
(
sample_sizes = #(16, 1024, 131072);
test_lengths = #(10, 100, 1000);

for test_length in test_lengths do
(
for sample_size in sample_sizes do
(
time_results = benchmarkDotNet samplesize:sample_size \
testlength:test_length;

format "[size=%, length=%]\tMS:%\tDN:%\n" sample_size \
test_length time_results[1] time_results[2];
)
)
)

C# Code

using System;

namespace Benchmark
{
public class BenchmarkClass
{
public int Test(int[] buffer)
{
int accum = 0;

for (int i = 0; i < buffer.Length; i++)
{
accum += buffer[i];
}

return accum;
}
}
}