"render map" function defective

[super gnu]

tbh i dont think this is vray.. but hey maybe you guys can help fix it.

when you right click on a map in the mat editor and hit "render map" the rendered version has some colour issues.

im using it a lot at the moment to generate bitmaps from procedurals for use with RT gpu.

i have a set of tiles that are sub-optimal 8 bit images.. low res and borderline mach banding visible.. just usable in my case ( they came from bad photography)

once ive set them up in omnitiles (ace) i render them out with "render map" and the resulting map has very harsh banding visible.


this is also the case if you just load a bitmap of the tile and render that out using the same feature, so i know its not omnitiles.

the preview floater you get if you just doubleclick on the map is fine.. and so is a scene render using the map directly ( not in RT obviously. )

so the problem is specifically the "render map" function.. i guess it always has this issue, but my maps in this case are so borderline quality that it becomes highly noticeable.

it seems to use the scanline renderer for this job? can Max be convinced to let vray handle this? any suggestions?

[vlado]

You can enable the "supersampling" setting of the map, maybe it will work better for the scanline renderer.

For V-Ray, the only thing that I can think of is to apply the map in a self-illuminated material mapped on a plane and render that (or texture-bake it) with V-Ray.

Best regards,
Vlado

[super gnu]

just to clarify the issue, here is a screengrab. on the right is the original map, loaded as a bitmap and doubleclicked in the material editor to get a floating preview. as you can see its crap but not unusable if small.

on the left is the same map, when you right-click on it and choose "render map"




awful!

obviously this is a pointless example as you would never re-render a bitmap like that, but when that (and other tiles) are used in a procedural map that needs rendering out....

whats it doing to my maps!?


also, vlado, im not sure how i can apply supersampling here? ive got vray set as the mateditor renderer in max? it still seems to render these "render map " things with a scanline process.. so i assume its not using vray in this specific part of the material editor?

[vlado]

Sorry, I misunderstood. If you right-click on that rendered image to get pixel color information, is it an 8-bit or a 16-bit image?

Best regards,
Vlado

[super gnu]

it says 8 bits per channel.. original is an 8 bit jpeg.