Envision thoughts

[nunomatos]

Hi there
from my very first tests on Envision, I must say that i'm really impressed with this new software... I'm a C4D+V-ray user and I use very often Vantage to render animations, but the UI of Envision is super cool and very intuitive (some of the things are not but in general this UI should be moved to vantage or maybe unify both...
but in general, great work Chaos Envision team
some thoughts from a C4D+Vray user and exported scenes:

- all the cosmos objects that we have in c4D+vray scene, open with wrong orientation axis
- there are some v-ray shaders that won't load (example layered shader; 2side mat; UVWrandomizer; etc) It's possible to have a list of unsuported things in Envision?
- imported trees (not Cosmos trees) won't assume the two side materials or even refraction SSS... It's possible to have a list of unsuported things in Envision?
- Decals not imported in vrscene... It's possible to have a list of unsuported things in Envision?
- normal map bump won't load. would be awsome to add the possibility to fine tune materials like the ones we can tune in Cosmos materials...
- bump slot does not work at all (bump or normal bump)
- displacement won't assumed in imported vrscene... It's possible to have a list of unsuported things in Envision?
- seams that randomization is not working on materials (at least i've tried in some cosmos materials and is not working as expected) can you confirm?

- I think that should be added a set of water presets (something like vantage, but better integrated, like animated trees and so on)
- would be possible to add animated textures to a slot? for example to displacement (animated water)?

i'll keep making some more tests to give you more feedback
thanks
best regards
nuno

ps i've attached a list of warnings when imported the vrscene in envision.

[nunomatos]

Hi
keeping on my thoughts about envision tests:
- when we use scatter tools inside of envision, we don´t have the option to activate a up vector. For example scatteing trees, then can not align with surface
- missing fog... it will help to bring more depth to the images; animations
- very poor displacement and with very poor quality. it's possible to add some kind of update like in vantage?
- will be in the future, possible to add decals?
- I think this is a bug, but I can't hide scatter

can we have a list of unsupported v-ray shaders? to understand if that is a bug or not?

thanks
best
nuno

[george_karampelas]

Hi again nuno, please see the following:

- Would it be possible to provide us with the .vrscene that is causing the wrong orientation axis issue on you end, we are unable to reproduce this locally.
- Sadly I cannot provide such a list for the time being and some things are indeed unsupported for the Beta. The same can be said for things like decals, double-sided materials, imported displacement details, animated textures etc., although most of these cases are planned to be supported in the near future.
- Normal map and grayscale bump works and is supported, can you please clarify or share with us a case where it doesn't from your side?
- Randomization is working just please make sure the surface you are testing your material on has proper mapping, you can switch to triplanar and validate. Do note that in some rare cases seamless randomization can cause some issues with bump but this is a known issue we are currently working on EC-1418.
- Please note that displacement quality is dependant on mesh tessellation/subdivision, i.e. you will need a lot of polygons in the faces you are trying to displace a material on.
- With regards to scatter a lot of its functionality is currently WIP, and more properties will soon be exposed going forward, so you can expect more functionality. Lastly, as for the scatter visibility bug this is a known issue that will be addressed on the upcoming update.

I hope this helps, please feel free to let us know if you have any other feedback or questions.

Best,
George

[nunomatos]

Hi george_karampelas
thanks for your answer. it's hard to understand if some features working or not as we don't have a list of supported and unsuported features, so it's hard to tell you as a beta test, our thoughts... but ...
i'm going to send you the files (vrscene and c4d scene) so you can confirm via PM
thanks
best regards
nuno

[Ana Lyubenova]

Hello Nuno,

On behalf of the entire Chaos Envision team, I would like to thank you for your positive feedback about Envision and its UI!
I tried to address some of your questions in this post. I hope it helps.

Below is a list of the Envision material parameters and their V-Ray counterparts:

• The Base properties, Reflections, Transparency as well as some of the Enhancements correspond to parameters of the Generic V-Ray material (aka BRDFVRayMtl)
  • Base Color -> This is the V-Ray Diffuse, which in Envision could be a color, a texture or a combination of both via the TexCombineColor V-Ray plugin
  • Bump -> As you pointed out, there’s been an issue with the bump type (grayscale vs normal) assignment which will be addressed in the second beta update (we’re full for the next week’s one)
  • Reflections -> I believe most of the parameters exposed in Envision are self-explanatory. Amount corresponds to V-Ray’s reflection glossiness, whereas Strength corresponds to the reflection IOR. (We decided to rename the V-Ray Reflection IOR parameter to avoid confusion. Any better name suggestions are welcome.)
  • Transparency:
    • Amount when Glass is off corresponds to V-Ray’s grayscale opacity and is not implemented yet
    • Amount when Glass is on corresponds to V-Ray’s Refraction.
      Frost is refraction glossiness, and Tint is fog color
  • From the Enhancements:
    • Coat/Varnish corresponds to the BRDFVRayMtl coat layer. Only the exposed Coat parameters are supported, i.e. Coat bump is not supported.
    • Cutout corresponds to V-Ray’s opacity texture in Clip mode (Stochastic mode is not supported)
    • Depending on the picked material, Self-illumination corresponds to either the BRDFVRayMtl, or the VRayLightMtl (aka Emissive material)
• The rest of the Enhancements correspond as follows:
  • Foliage -> Two-sided V-Ray material with the same front and base.
    When enabled, this enhancement wraps the material you see in the Envision material editor into a two-sided material.
  • Displacement -> the GeomDisplacedMesh V-Ray plugin (2D displacement is only partially supported, this might be causing the issue you experienced with your vrscenes)
  • Strands -> the GeomHair V-Ray plugin, aka V-Ray Fur

As the Vantage render engine is used under the hood, you can check what is supported in rendering on the following docs page.
Randomization and any additional modifications to both the Opacity and Grayscale Bump textures are currently a known limitation of the render engine, which we will be working to solve.

The provided material editor framework in Envision complies with our Cosmos material library standard and is capable of displaying the majority of the Cosmos materials.
After being picked, non-supported V-Ray materials are displayed as "black box" in Envision. This means that you can't edit them, yet you can replace them with Cosmos materials or other scene materials. The same is valid for all procedural textures (which we'll be providing support for gradually).

Let me know if you have any further questions. Like I said in another forum thread, we are very open to receiving your feedback, and even having a more in-depth call.

Cheers,
Ana