8

XRef Scene 417
source scene is protected from any modifications
you might make to the XRef scene. U pdates
or changes made to the source scenes are also
updated in the target file once the changes are
madeandsavedtothesourcefile.
TheXRefscenefeatureallowsteammembers
working on a project to have access to each other’s
work without the risk of changing the files. A
modeler can create a sett ing, whi le a second
modeler might c reate a character. The animator
can externally reference the setting as a scene and
animate the charac ter in the setting without being
able to make changes to the setting. If the setting
file is changed, those changes will be reflected in
the animator’s scene.
XRef scenes do not appear in the Select Objects
dialog, t he modifier stack, or the Track View. They
canbeanimatedinthecurrentfileonlybyusing
the Bind To Parent func tion in the XRef Scenes
window.
Importing the whole village model into the b ui lding model
as an XRef
Radiosity solution data cannot be part of an XRef if
objects have duplicate names. To solve this, change
the duplicate names. A lso, to reference radiosity
data externally, the Save Scene Information In
MAXFileswitchmustbeoninthe
Radiosit y panel
(page 3–866)
of the Preferences dialog. (It is on
by default.)
Be aware that render effects and environment
effects are not carried in XRefs. To use the render
effects (such as glow or flare) or environment
effects (such as atmosphere or fog) from the XRef
file, merge them in using t he Merge buttons found
in the Environment And Effects dialog.
Choosing XRef Scene displays the
XRef Scenes
dialog (page 3–420)
.
Over lays
Overlays allow multiple scene r eferences without
the risk of circular dependencies. The overlay is
loaded only into the target scene that references it,
and is not visible in other sce ne s that might X Ref
thetargetfilethatusestheoverlay.Considertwo
scenes that reference each other:
Ordinarily, 3ds Max would recognize this as
a circular dependency, and disallow it. But in
3ds Max 8, you can set up such a combination of
XRefs by following t hese steps:
1. Inscene2,XRefscene1andusethetoggleto
flag it as an overlay.
2. Save scene 2.
3. Open scene 1, and XRef scene 2.
The previous example is not notably practical. But
suppose you want to mask off part of your scene so
other artists who XRef the scene will not see it. For
example, you are working on a building and have