March of the clones

[vlado]

The exporter goes through the specified frames and makes a shapshot of the mesh at each frame. It does not matter exactly how the mesh is animated.

Like with regular proxies, if you modify the object, you'll need to re-export the proxy.

Best regards,
Vlado

[^Lele^]

Thanks for the reply, Vlado.
Will look into it from the scripting side, then.

On the proxies, do they support sub-frame snapshotting as well?
I'm thinking of some jittering motion meant to look good when moblurred, or to a football rotating very rapidly (so that for each frame it always shows the same side to the camera).

[Sushidelic]

Very Nice,

who was that guy who wanted to write the Massive2VRay bridge?
(just kidding)

Best regards,

Dieter

Well, i know that guy and you know that guy and i know the bridge is pretty much working - well at least it's a massive2max and max2massive bridge...

[mike_kennedy]

Sounds like the proxies will be a custom version of what point cache does, so same work flow.

[dimo]

Well, i know that guy and you know that guy and i know the bridge is pretty much working - well at least it's a massive2max and max2massive bridge...

Ah,

last time we met he asked me if it can be done. Nice to hear that he succeeded. But I bet Vray could handle it natively. Anyway, I should have another beer with him. It was a nice chat last time.


Best regards,

Dieter

[^Lele^]

Depending on how much time I have before the next official build, I may be adding some compression to the files to reduce the disk space requirements, which should help somewhat.

If i may, when stored on an NTFS filesystem, it would be easy to have the folder with the saved proxies runtime-compressed (set the folder as compressed when empty to avoid having to wait for all the files inside to be compressed at once, and just have them compressed one at a time...).
That does cut down on disk filesizes a LOT for static proxies, so by the same rule it should do a good job also for animated ones.

[RErender]

If i may, when stored on an NTFS filesystem, it would be easy to have the folder with the saved proxies runtime-compressed (set the folder as compressed when empty to avoid having to wait for all the files inside to be compressed at once, and just have them compressed one at a time...).
That does cut down on disk filesizes a LOT for static proxies, so by the same rule it should do a good job also for animated ones.

Wouldn't that cause the server to need to uncompress the file every time it is accessed? On a large farm I think that might be deadly for the server CPU plus the added bandwith. I am not sure how compressed folders are handled client/server wise.

[vlado]

Well, compression is already there (file sizes go down 3 to 5 times); I have not made exact performance comparisons yet, except to note that it is not slower than before in any case.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Da_elf]

did i miss something. i saw the still of the clones marching. however this topic is about ANIMATED proxies. can we see an animation come on vlado hehe

[^Lele^]

Well, compression is already there (file sizes go down 3 to 5 times); I have not made exact performance comparisons yet, except to note that it is not slower than before in any case.

Damn, I knew I saw that one late...

[MoonDoggie]

So animated vrayproxies will be included in sp2? Is this correct?

[vlado]

Yep.

Best regards,
Vlado

[^Lele^]

pushy pushy here: any idea of the prospected timeframe?
I promise i won't hold my breath, just to have an approximate idea...

[RErender]

I hope it is with 2009

[^Lele^]

ah yes, silly me, Vlado did speak about a recompile for max 2009, in fact.
Let me join you in the hope it'll be an SP2 recompile, Eric