.vrmat converter limitations

[Mats_O]

Hi all,

When exporting materials to .vrmat using the vrmat converter, there seems to be a lot of nodes in my materials trees that not follow. Is there any documentation describing its limitations when it comes to what follows and what doesn´t? We are moving materials from 3ds Max to Houdini.

Thanks!

[hermit.crab]

There isn't a list, though I'm aware that Multi/Sub-objects nodes do not work well at this point. Maybe you could share the scene so we can test it out?

[Mats_O]

From our experience, not many nodes at all follow. vraybumpmtl, falloff, color correction, normal bump, composite all seem to result in empty .vrmat materials. Seems like only simple bitmap loaders follow making the idea of using .vrmat in a pipeline where assets are moved between DCCs useless. Or am I missing something? The documentation doesn´t say much about how to use the tool. Thanks.

[hermit.crab]

See if the material network is correctly transferred by applying the shader to a box, export it as .vrscene, and import it in Houdini.

[Mats_O]

We have now done more testes, compared vrscene to vrmats and more. Actually, the ONLY thing that seems to be working is textures connected directly to the diffuse slot. Anything beyond that is ignored. Not even a simple bumpmap is working.

[hermit.crab]

Well, the .vrmat converter is kind of old, and its future is uncertain. Try the already mention suggestion and see if it helps.

[Mats_O]

.vrscene works...sometimes... but crashes Houdini from time to time when unpacking.

This is not just to solve one asset or scene. We are building an automated pipeline where thousands of assets will be moved from Max to Houdini. So the workflow must be 100% reliable and effective. Since we have all assets in Max with VRay materials, it is just sad if we can´t use them in Houdini with VRay.

[matanov]

.vrscene works...sometimes... but crashes Houdini from time to time when unpacking.

This is not just to solve one asset or scene. We are building an automated pipeline where thousands of assets will be moved from Max to Houdini. So the workflow must be 100% reliable and effective. Since we have all assets in Max with VRay materials, it is just sad if we can´t use them in Houdini with VRay.

If it's an asset (geo+mtl), maybe the best solution will be the vrscene exporter with "export selection only" option. For the crashes on import it will be best to open a thread in the V-Ray for Houdini section with some example files.

As of the "vrmat converter" we have an idea to just make it pack the selected mtl(s) to the vrscene format. Load/import of those files will be entirely up to the technical possibilities of the respective V-Ray integration, though.