Modeling and Styling	Parametric Effects	Animation	Rendering	Import/Export
Edit Guides _Modifier	Surface Comb _Modifier	MassFX Dynamics _Modifier	MentalRay _Object	Alembic Export _Exporter
Ground Strands _Modifier	Curling _Modifier	Strand Multiplier _Modifier	Strand Animation _Modifier	Ornatrix Hair _Exporter
Guides from Surface _Modifier	Frizz _Modifier		Fast Ray Tracer _Atmospheric	Shading and Materials
Guides from Mesh _Object	Hair Clustering _Modifier		Accurate Ray Tracer _Atmospheric	MR Hair _{MR Shader}
Guides from Shape _Modifier	Guide Clustering _Modifier		Hair Draw _Effect	Hair Texture _{2d Map}
Hair from Guides _Modifier	Propagation _Modifier		Render Settings _Modifier	Cheap Shader _Shader
Baked Guides _Object	Gravity _Modifier		Shadow Maps _Shadow	Expensive Shader _Shader
Baked Hair _Object	Length _Modifier		Raytraced Shadows _Shadows	Translucent Shader _Shader
Hair Presets _Object	Detail _Modifier		Deep Shadow Maps _Shadow
Hair Preset Maker _Object	Symmetry _Modifier		VRay _Modifier
Guides from Guide Mesh _Modifier
Guides on Spline _Modifier
Hair Shells _Modifier
Mesh from Strands _Modifier
Hair from Mesh Strips _Object

Guides from Surface Object

Guides from Surface Object
- When to use a guide object instead of a modifier?
- Parameters
MaxScript Access
- Examples

In most cases guides from surface modifier can be used to generate Ornatrix guides. However sometimes it is simpler to create a separate object that generates guides without having to be positioned in the pipeline as a modifier. Using an object instead of the modifier might also resolve an issue of randomly generated hair flickering when underlying mesh deforms.

When to use a guide object instead of a modifier?

When base object can cache at multiple frames
Ornatrix generates roots either through computing UV area of each face, or using its world area. When using the UV area there will be no deforming mesh issues. However when you use world area and your mesh is deforming, the areas of each triangle changes through time. Dense hair is cached before render begins and if you are rendering the whole time range in one go, there will be no problems. If you are rendering in separate pieces, hair will be cached multiple times -once per every render. If the face areas change during that interval you will get flickering once you compose these pieces together.
If you use guide object instead of modifier, you have an option to distribute guides and dense hair on distribution surface only at a specific frame. This implies that the world face areas will stay constant and thus hair will always be generated the same way.
When MaxScript Guides Interface is required
Because guides object is derived from core Ornatrix guide class, it provides the MaxScript interface which can be used to tweak cached guides through code.

Parameters

Most parameters are identical to those found inside a guides from surface modifier.

Distribution Surface
Surface from which the guides are generated
Convert Time
Reference time when guides cache the underlying surface

MaxScript Access

Retrieve MaxScript Guides Interface to be able to manipulate the guides:

myGuides = guidesObjectInstance.GetGuides()
myHair = myGuides.AsHair()

Examples

You can find examples on usage of this object by examining the unit tests in Test_GuidesFromMeshObject.ms.

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