transparency maps for perforated materials

[Markvanhandel]

Is there any way to tile a bitmap to maintain its original scale regardless of the proportions of the object it is being mapped onto? For instance I want to use a map with only one or two "holes" to be used as a universal perforated material on any object any size and have the pattern come out the same scale on everything. Am I missing something?

Thanks for any help.

[Micha_cg]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

In this cases I use the Rhino mapping tool, for example "planar" or "box", and set the mapping size at same values.

[craiggorton]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

I still wish for "unit-specific" textures, like you're describing.
In Flamingo I had a teak deck (imagine hardwood flooring) material. Everything on a certain layer was assigned by layer, and the layer was assigned to my material. It was set so that the planks were always 2" wide. The only thing I ever had to change was the u-v to get them running in the right direction.
Now, any time I change geometry I have to remap it.

[joe_b]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

I still wish for "unit-specific" textures, like you're describing.
In Flamingo I had a teak deck (imagine hardwood flooring) material. Everything on a certain layer was assigned by layer, and the layer was assigned to my material. It was set so that the planks were always 2" wide. The only thing I ever had to change was the u-v to get them running in the right direction.
Now, any time I change geometry I have to remap it.

If you set the repeat to be [ 1/length in scene units ] it is possible to get that unit-specific behavior. It works if you use the V-Ray Planar uvw - I'm not sure if it would work using the RDK mapping stuff. But for your example...lets say my scene is in inches and I want a texture to repeat every 2'/1' I would set the x repeat to be 1/12*2 or 0.0416 and my y repeat to be 1/12 or 0.083. We definitely need easier UI to facilitate this - but it is possible to do now if you use that trick.

[craiggorton]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

Very very useful trick! I haven't played around much with world xyz and object xyz.

One hiccup, if I swap the u-v's of a surface nothing happens (because xy's aren't uv's). So I can change the rotation globally at the material, but not per object. It's better than nothing, because I can have all surfaces on a layer with planks running parallel to X axis and then manually adjust the odd surfaces per mapping.

It would also be great if the rendered viewport displayed these materials correctly, but that is not Vray controlled, right?

[Markvanhandel]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

Thanks for all the help, I'll try that out. Can't wait to buy the plug-in when it's ready.

Cheers!

[joe_b]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

It would also be great if the rendered viewport displayed these materials correctly, but that is not Vray controlled, right?

I believe the rendered viewport is still limited to what the Rhinoceros basic material is capable of rendering. So any of our V-Ray-specific stuff is a no go as far as I'm aware. But perhaps as the RDK stuff gets more advanced they will add features to allow custom viewport preview renders

[dalomar_cg]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

The displaying of the materials is really quite a complicated endevor (when you go beyond basic material settings), and even though Max's display is better then ours, it doesn't really come close to looking like whats really going to happen in the render. Vray realtime display has become its own enterprise with a 3rd party plugin called RedViewer (only for vfmax at the moment) that is only for accurate display of vray materials, lighting, and phys cam settings in the viewport. So my point at least is that trying to display vray materials accurately in the viewport is an extremely complicated enterprise, and even though we'll improve things in the future, it probably won't come close to what things are going to look like in the render.

[joe_b]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

It would be totally possible to do a real rendered viewport if the viewport rendering control was passed over to us by the RenderedViewport command (or whatever its called). But then again it would take as long as a real render too

[dalomar_cg]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

I was making reference to realtime-interactive display.

Here's the link for the RedViewer software...http://www.redway3d.com/2.0/pages/redviewer.php

[Markvanhandel]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

OK I have gotten to the point that I am making some perforated patterns and mapping them really well. The problem is that I am trying to make an "aluminum_matte" material perforated and while I am able to get the diffuse layer to have holes the fresnel reflection layer is still showing highlights over the holes.

I have tried adding a map to the reflections and to the highlights as well as adding a second reflection layer with the same map but have had no luck.

Any further help would be appreciated.

mark

[Micha_cg]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

... add the transparency map to the white fresnel color. White fresnel color is the max fresnel reflection value, the black color the min value.

Look at the material tutorial - ceramic tile material - non reflective motar gaps. Here an image from the tutorial.

[Markvanhandel]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials

Being ignorant and only knowing one language I can only say "thank you" in one way. But I can say it honestly here:

Thanks everyone for their help. This is a great community and as much of an asset to the software as any transparency map capabilities.

[Micha_cg]

Re: transparency maps for perforated materials