Hey Raj,
Right now your best bet would be to render a cube map from Inspector then assign it within Max using a reflect/refract map. This is how we do most of the reflections in our internal projects.
At the time of this post, there isn't currently an artist-friendly workflow for parallax correcting cube maps (the technique seen in your screenshot), but it is possible for a skilled tech artist to write them manually in shader code.
This means that the scene will appear to have a reflection that will also be affected by normal maps, and that has very low overhead because it's a static map instead of live 3D, but it won't line up with the assets in the scene the way you'd expect it to in real life.
Here's the current workflow for doing cube map reflections (that doesn't require programmer assistance):
- Starting with a baked and textured scene without reflections (ideally, the baked materials should still be in the Shell material setup).
- Export to OSGB and open the scene in Inspector.
- Move the viewpoint or a node (an empty transform for example) to the place you want to render a cube map from. A typical option is the center of a space and somewhere around the user's eye level.
- Go to File -> Save Cubemap. Then in the sub-menu, set it to 256, 3DS Max, and either camera (from the current viewpoint) or selection center (from the position of the currently selected object).
- Back in Max, add reflect/refract maps to the reflection slot of any materials that will need the reflection. If you are using Shell materials from the bake, and the original materials are Standard materials, it will likely be quicker to clear the shells first, add the cube maps, then rebuild the shells.
- Keep in mind that the VizFX shader has reflectivity tied to specularity, so specular should be white/100% to show the cube map all the way. You can also use various blend modes with a blend material to change how the reflection interacts with the diffuse texture.
When I'm going to be dealing with a lot of reflections on objects, multiple reflection locations, or variations for plastic, blurring, etc. I'll stick placeholder textures so I can replace them in the Asset Tracking dialog instead of clearing and recreating shell materials.
Cube maps can also be created and assigned in realtime, but I'd need a programmer to weigh in on that one.