Hail gmax community! (I've never posted here before, so I apologize in advance for stupid things I might say.)

I've been trying to use maxscript to determine which scene mesh objects are either visible or obscured behind other mesh -- really just trying to tell what the visible things are, which my viewport clearly knows already *shrug*. I know you can't use the render method in gmax and then access the render's result to check its g-buffer channels -- but is there a way just to read the g-buffer of the current (-ly rendered) scene? (Parentheses cause I'm scared to hear myself asking about "render"-sounding words.) Like is there a virtual frame buffer (or whatever it's called) where the last render is sitting so I can just check it channel properties?..

-Wynheim
[Let the beatings begin lol]