Current state of USD with VRay in Max

[Morne]

Hi Guys

What's the current state of this? Can we natively import/export/add USD models with VRay?
If not natively, any other way?

[vlado]

As far as I know, Autodesk is working on adding USD support to their applications for import/export; for V-Ray specifically, we will implement a reader similar to the VRayProxy - although it will probably be a separate object type and not a part of the VRayProxy as we will need some USD specific controls. Not sure about exporting though - it shouldn't be too hard in any case. I suppose something similar to the .vrmesh export dialog?

Best regards,
Vlado

[Morne]

....Not sure about exporting though - it shouldn't be too hard in any case. I suppose something similar to the .vrmesh export dialog?

Best regards,
Vlado

Yes that should be fine. As far I understand, USD embeds materials too, right?

[vlado]

Yes that should be fine. As far I understand, USD embeds materials too, right?

Yes, it does. Which brings me to the next question: when importing a USD asset, what do you expect to happen to the materials? I.e. do you want to be able to a) import the material as a shading network in 3ds Max for editing and b) being able to override the material that is saved in the USD file? Or just rendering whatever is stored in the USD file would be fine?

Best regards,
Vlado

[racoonart]

we will implement a reader similar to the VRayProxy - although it will probably be a separate object type and not a part of the VRayProxy as we will need some USD specific controls. Not sure about exporting though - it shouldn't be too hard in any case. I suppose something similar to the .vrmesh export dialog

Fantastic! I had hoped that Vray will have it's own import/export. I don't trust autodesk with a task like this. Regarding export: what I would actually prefer is an "export" object which can reference a whole lot of scene objects, including "this object an all its children". So this would basically sit as an helper in the scene and you could re-export/update the same set of objects with just a button click in that export helper. I made something like this for fbx and it's a joy to work with - compared with how you would need to do it with a regular export operation in max.

when importing a USD asset, what do you expect to happen to the materials? I.e. do you want to be able to a) import the material as a shading network in 3ds Max for editing and b) being able to override the material that is saved in the USD file? Or just rendering whatever is stored in the USD file would be fine?

Imho it should render whatever is in the file by default ... BUT it also should be possible to import the shading network and to override. Each option is important for a specific case! I would of course prefer if material editing could be working with full usd layer support but that's a bit outside the scope of your importer/exporter and we probably have to hope that autodesk develops actual usd editing capabilites in max (I doubt it).