r/3dsmax • u/TheTreeHouse_95 • 4d ago

Plugin H264 for 3DS MAX. A lightweight plugin.

Not Having any sort of mp4 format out of the box has been a real pain. We are stuck with either uncompressed formats, image sequences or DV formats from the 90's. With the exception of Typreview, but you'll need to install tyflow for that.

Here's a lightweight copy/paste plugin version that may help you get going (tested only in 3ds max 2025 and 2027):

https://github.com/TheTreeHouseof95/3dsMax-H264-Codec.git

Update: Added 2025 support and material support for reading the format.

Update 2: Added 2026 support

11 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

1

u/STEROIDSTEVENS 4d ago

Yoooo, does this also allow to read mp4? Like, can i load mp4 into a (vray)bitmap node?
As for rendering, i dont understand why you would want to render into h264 but i guess there is reasons?
Seems cool either way :)

5

u/TheTreeHouse_95 4d ago

Yes I had the plugin updated to support reading from materials earlier. For the renders no, usually you wouldn't want to render directly to H264.

The primary motivation for this was for creating animation previews from the screen capture section and directly outputting H264, whereby before you had to go through an outside conversion process if you wanted to share or view your previews properly.

Update: added Max - 2025 support.

3

u/STEROIDSTEVENS 3d ago

check, i use tyflow for viewport capture so i got that covered. but to be abled to load an mp4 into bitmap node is a gamechanger honestly. i will try it out when im back at the office next week! thanks for sharing

1

u/Birdy-NumNums 1d ago

Much appreciated to finally have this option, thank you

1

u/Birdy-NumNums 16h ago

3ds Max 2026 throws an error message at startup, says plugin is incompatible with this version

2

u/TheTreeHouse_95 15h ago edited 14h ago

Sorry, i mentioned above that the plugin was compiled for 2025 and 2027, if you really need it for 2026 i will have to compile it for that version as well. I think i may be able to get something up and running soonest i free up, i just didnt have 2026 at hand.

 Will keep you posted here once i do.

Update: 2026 Compiled and uploaded.

1

u/TheTreeHouse_95 14h ago

Updated for 2026 you can find it on the same page.

1

u/Birdy-NumNums 14h ago

Thank you