Official documentation of the Megascans Plugin for Cinema 4D 

Overview

The Megascans Plugin for Cinema 4D allows you to connect Quixel Bridge and Cinema 4D, giving you a one-click solution for importing your Megascans, Mixer and custom assets straight into Cinema 4D within seconds.

This tool relies on Bridge’s robust architecture to give you the best asset management experience, and Cinema 4D’s python implementation to create materials, textures, LOD setup and geometry automatically, giving you extremely fast imports on the go. 

Supported renderers:

• Physical/Standard
• Redshift
• Arnold
• Octane

The plugin can auto-detect current renderer and uses the shaders/materials relevant to that renderer. The plugin is automatically started when Cinema 4D is launched and closed when Cinema 4D is closed. 

Installation

Plugin installation is part of Bridge Export Settings. These settings are global and once set up, will not need to be changed too often.

You can install the plugin using any one of these methods:

1. You can set up the plugin when you launch Bridge after installing it for the first time on your machine.
2. Through Export Settings.
3. Through the Manage Plugins option in the Edit menu.

Note: Please make sure Cinema 4D is closed on your machine before proceeding with plugin installation.

Installation during initial setup

• When you launch Bridge after installing it for the first time on your machine, you will see initial setup options. Click the Library Path to choose the folder on disk where you would like your asset library to be.

The Library Path is important because this is where Bridge will store your assets and plugins. If you don’t already have a folder for this purpose, Bridge will create it for you.

• Click Next.
• From the Export Target drop-down, select Cinema 4D.

• Click Download Plugin to begin downloading the plugin.

Once the download is done you’ll see a confirmation message in Bridge.

• Click Install Plugin to install the plugin in Cinema 4D.
• Once the plugin is installed you should see the Installed status on the pop-up. Click Done to complete the set up.

Start Cinema 4D and you should now see a Megascans Plugin option in the Extensions menu.

Installation via Export Settings

• To access the settings, click the gear icon on the bottom left corner of the asset’s right panel or go to Edit > Export Settings. 

• Click Export Settings in the pop-up menu to view all the export options. You can tweak your settings, like texture format, LODs, mesh format (FBX or OBJ), etc.

Exporting Assets

• In Bridge, go to the Local filter in the left panel to export a downloaded asset. Make sure Cinema 4D is running.
• Click the Quick Export icon or hit the Export button.

As soon as you click on Export in Bridge your asset should pop up in your Cinema 4D scene.

Plugin Interface

Inside Cinema 4D, click on the Megascans Plugin option in the Extensions menu to open the plugin’s UI:

1. Use EXRs when available - By checking this box the plugin will use EXR displacement files if they are available.
2. Apply Material to Selection - When checked, the plugin will automatically apply the material to currently selected objects inside Cinema 4D. The plugin will also add tags to the selected objects according to the current renderer e.g. Redshift Object Tag.
3. Enable Displacement - This option specifies whether or not to setup displacement and to  import the displacement map. Please keep in mind that Displacement is turned off for the following renderers even if the displacement map is imported:
   1. Redshift - Geometry Override is turned off by default since there are no displacement settings that fit every asset. If you want to use it then click on Redshift Object, go to the geometry tab and check the Override property. 
   2. Octane - Displacement is turned off by default since there are no displacement settings that fit every asset and Octane also has some issues with overlapping UVs. Otoy is aware of the situation and they are working on a fix. If you would still like to use the displacement with Octane then open up the material in the material editor window and check the Displacement node.

Custom Installation

If the current installation process in Bridge isn’t suitable for your pipeline, you can download the plugin manually as follows.

• Download the plugin from here:

WINDOWS   |   MAC

• Extract megascans_livelink.zip.
• Save your work and close Cinema 4D.
• Copy the megascans_livelink folder to [Cinema 4D Installation path]/plugins/ directory.
• Re-launch Cinema 4D and you are done.
• Open Bridge, and in the Local filter click on the asset you want to export.

• Go to the asset’s Export Settings, select Custom Socket Export from the Export Target drop-down.
• In the Socket Port field set the port to 24420.
• Go back to the asset details panel, click Export and your asset should appear in Cinema 4D.