boolean material ??

[muoto]

Hello,

is it possible to make substraction boolean with a special kind of material that would be calculated on the fly when rendering instead of applying it to a mesh ?

Thanks !

[super gnu]

yes you can do it with the vray distance tex. its a bit fiddly as you need duplicate copies of geometry. im hoping that a more automated system could be built in future that takes the fiddlyness out of it.

im sure somebody else will pipe up with a link, but have you tried searching the forums?

[muoto]

did some search on boolean, but didn't see the vraydistance tex info...will check again.

anyway, it would such a cool feature (if it works) because boolean (max ou pro-boolean) is really a pain...


edit: found the post, with the sample ! wonderful !

[Wobi]

Problem with the distance texture used as boolean is that its sloooooooowwwwwww...

[ior=0]

not sure exactly what it is you are trying to achieve but you could try a good old fashioned opacity map if you are just trying to cut holes into something.

[muoto]

yeah sure that works for a single plane, but when you want to create a hole in a mass, you need to boolean (with mtl or real boolean)

[themaxxer]

it would be so cool if there's a substract material like a boolean operation... I second the wish.
you could use it to make holes for lamps for example... the you don't have to make the holes in the mesh physically. when you move a lamp, then you don't have to move the "hole" too. a real time saver...

best regards
themaxxer

[super gnu]

well this is actually quite easy to do with the distance tex since it wouldnt be a true boolean, only the cieling geometry needs cutting, and since the lamp geometry stays, you dont need to cap any internal surfaces.

just put a distance tex in the opacity on the cieling, referencing your lamp geometry.. e voila.

[super gnu]

dont misunderstand me though.. a distance tex based boolean system with a user friendly interface and no need to create geometry duplicates would be awesome. combined carefully with the vray edges tex you can even put fillets on the boolean edges.

[themaxxer]

well this is actually quite easy to do with the distance tex since it wouldnt be a true boolean, only the cieling geometry needs cutting, and since the lamp geometry stays, you dont need to cap any internal surfaces.

just put a distance tex in the opacity on the cieling, referencing your lamp geometry.. e voila.

wow, really great idea! I didn't thought about that... the distancetex is really powerful, but I don't use it much, a bad idea.
thanks

best regards
themaxxer

[super gnu]

might not be so simple actually... if your lamp is hollow inside ( likely) then the distance tex will only cut the cieling -inside- the lamp walls. youd likely end up needing a hidden, solid dummy object linked to the lamp for it to work properly,

[vlado]

a real time saver...

It will cost you additional render time.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Svetlozar Draganov]

Boolean Mtl

You can achieve something similar to Boolean Material by using VrayDistanceTexture + VrayDisplacementMod!
Here is one example how to do it!

http://www.screenr.com/wqM8 - Part 1
http://www.screenr.com/TuM8 - Part 2

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/45398240/Cha...oolean_Mtl.max