Make Preview Dialog

The Make Preview dialog lets you create an AVI file or custom file type preview of the animation in the active viewport. You can also render a preview to a specified device.

When the preview is complete, 3ds Max starts the Media Player with the preview _scene.avi file ready to play. (If you don't want the Media Player to start, choose Customize Preferences General and, in the UI Display group, turn off AutoPlay Preview File.)

Left: Make Preview dialog for Nitrous viewports

Right: Make Preview dialog for legacy viewports

Preview Range group

Specifies the frames to be included in the preview: either the active time segment or a custom range of frames.

Frame Rate group

Specifies the playback frame rate in frames per second. Use Every Nth Frame to preview a regular sampling of the animation. For example, a value of 8 includes only every eighth frame in the preview.

Image Size group

Sets the resolution of your preview as a percentage of the current output resolution. You set the output resolution on the Render Setup dialog. For example, if the rendering output resolution is 640x480, and you set Percent Of Output to 50, the preview resolution is 320x240.

Note: The size of the preview image is limited by the size of the viewpanel region (the region that contains the viewports). The setting is clamped to the maximum value that allows the preview image to fit in the viewpanel region.

Display Filter group (Nitrous viewports)

For Nitrous viewports, specifies the types of objects to include in the preview.

Overlay group (Nitrous viewports)

For Nitrous viewports, specifies additional information to write to the preview frames.

Display in Preview group (Legacy viewports)

For legacy viewports (Direct3D or OpenGL), specifies the types of objects to include in the preview. Frame Numbers prints a frame number in the upper-left corner of each frame of the AVI file. Background includes the assigned viewport background in the preview.

Visual Style group (Nitrous viewports)

For Nitrous viewports, lets you choose the visual style, as well as whether the rendering will include face edges, lighting highlights, textures, or the viewport background.

Rendering Level group (Legacy viewports)

[Rendering Level drop-down list]
For legacy viewports (Direct3D or OpenGL), specifies the viewport rendering method to use in the preview.

Camera View group

Specifies whether the preview should include multi-pass rendering effects.

Output group

Specifies the preview output format.

Render Viewport drop-down list
This list shows the names of the currently visible viewports, letting you choose which viewport to render from within the Make Preview dialog. Default=the active viewport.