Not enough black color variations when using LWF

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

Hi guys,

i am hitting an issue with not enough black color grading when using LWF (LUT pref 2.2,2.2,2.2), color mapping linear 1/1, gamma 2.2, affect colors on, subpixel off, sRGB on.

basically if i have an object that bears color 0,0,0 (pure black) it doesnt seem to get any GI and i cant see direct light on it (only some reflections)

if i shift the objects color and givit a value 1 (1,1,1), then at automatically pics direct light and GI BUT......its WAAAAAYYYYYYY to light for a black object in real world situation

looks like there is not enough "steps" of black between a value 0 and 1...

as per this example below, where the corten metal has

diffuse RGB value 0 on the left / diffuse RGB value 1 on the right



Any tips or hints on this???

Thans a nd sorry if this has been discussed before but i just could not find it anywhere in the forum.

Best Regards

[instinct]

Well, you can use VRayColor to set float values. The problem is rather that byte has too few values between 0 and 1....namely none :P

Regards,
Thorsten

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

Right i get it Thanks a lot Thorsten for the tip !

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

wow this really brightened my day....completely forgot about the float values

[Deflaminis]

I'm quite interested in this...

So simply using Vray Color instead of max color can solve this issue?

Seems it would make sense for a pure black object to not bounce light as it's absorbing all of it.

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

Yes it does indeed but the step from 0 to 1 was just way too big. Wiith vray color its completely different story

[instinct]

You don't even need VRayColor necessarily. There are float color pickers for max if i am not mistaken. While the controls are byte style, max does handle float properly internally. Check CoolPicker for example. (Available via maxplugins.de)

Regards,
Thorsten

[simmsimaging]

This has bugged me since i switched to linear! I just thought it was down to something i had to fix in post. Thanks Thorsten!

/b

[pixela]

I still cant use Vraycolor. I always mix if to paste color forst and than choose gama or the inverse.
How do you use it?

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

in this case i dont play with the gamma at all Pixela, i just use very low values for the black and leave vraycolor plugged into the diffuse slot.