It was a tough call, but we managed to choose our three winners of the CheckMate Tools contest. Once again, our members succeeded in dazzling us with their brilliance and ingenuity.
The goal of the contest, which ran until March 31, was to create a script that would look for CheckMate issues when running pre-2010 releases of 3ds Max. Our existing CheckMate script relies on XView features, which are not available in 3ds Max 2009 or before. This made it hard for artists using older software (of which there are many at TurboSquid) to prepare or fix their models for CheckMate certification.
Of all the entries that we received, there were three scripts that stood out above the rest. It was a tough decision, as these three scripts each did a great job of creating a new tool that can be used by 3ds Max 7 or later. Here’s a snapshot view of the three winning entries, with more details below.
Grand Prize / First Place: Popa_3D
This full-featured MAXScript batch-fixes errors and renders thumbnails and turntables. In addition to running tests for both Checkmate Pro and Lite, this script can run individual tests one by one. Plus it’s lightning-fast!
2nd Place: Denys Almaral
This MAXScript features a handy display of sub-object level problems so you can easily zoom in and locate problematic faces and vertices. This submission runs faster than the original 3ds Max CheckMate Tool, especially on high-poly models.
3rd Place: Atanas Bakardzhiev
Created by using the existing XView-heavy CheckMate Tool as a base, this MAXScript adds a non-XView option that performs most of the same commands without calling XView itself. When running this script, you can choose whether to run it in XView or non-XView mode.
Congratulations to all three winners! The winning MAXScripts are available for free download on our CheckMate Tools page, so you can pick one or try them all. We hope you use these tools to help you build, check and fix up your products for CheckMate certification.
Read on for more detail on each of the submissions. (more…)
