Very stuck with new colour picker - VRayColour - please help

[LQ2]

I have been very happily using vray 3.7 for quite a few years now, inputting colours, viewing colours and getting the results I expected. This has now changed moving to vray 5, and I need to get this working again.

I have tried reading through various other posts about vraycolour and the colour picker, but I just don't get it.

Here's how I used to be set up:
3ds Max gamma = 2.2
Affect colour selectors (not checked)
Affect Material Editor (checked)

VrayColour set to gamma 2.2

This was to enable a colour to be selected using adobe photoshop colour selector, then translate the exact RGB value into v-ray, and get the same colour in the output render. It would also show a corrected colour in the material palette.

It would also allow the selection of an RGB value of 127,127,127 and you'd get a 50% grey. In the v-ray colour dialogue, the vray colour value (0-1) would be a gamma corrected value, but the colour would look 50% grey. It would also render 50% grey.


My problem now is that I'm using vray 5, and I've been given an RGB value of 60,60,60, which should result in a fairly dark grey, something like (I think, if my understanding is correct) 0.2353, 0.2353, 0.2353. What I don't understand is that when I put in the RGB value 60,60,60 in the colour picker within the vray colour, the vray colour shows as 0.518, 0.518, 0.518, which, if I'm not mistaken is almost 50% grey. Nowhere near the 75% grey that I expect.

I'm a bit up against it at the moment, and I'd love someone to tell me how to set it up so I can choose an RGB colour and get that RGB colour rendered output.

Really hope there's someone out there at the moment that can help me.

Bill

[^Lele^]

Why do you have the "affect color selectors" off?
What you see is a lack of gamma (0.518 is 0.2353^ (1/2.2)).
AFAIK, the color selector should really be on (i've always worked this way, myself, no issues.).

[LQ2]

^Lele^

Why do you have the "affect color selectors" off?

If you do not have it off, the colours in the colour picker do not look the same as those in the Photoshop colour picker. When someone picks a colour in photoshop then passes it on to me, I expect it to look the same colour on screen.

What you see is a lack of gamma (0.518 is 0.2353^ (1/2.2)).

I understand that what I see is a lack of gamma, but if I have been given a specific RGB colour, that looks a particular way on screen, being colourblind, I need to see that it looks close to the same, even be able to colour pick it and it be the same. If I have "affect color selectors" on, the colours picked do not look the same and therefore get very confusing to work with.

My old workflow in this respect was to use the v-ray colour correct and set it to Use 3ds max gamma, which applied the 2.2 gamma to the colour selected in the colour picker and made the rendered colour the corrected gamma colour. This meant that I could select a 50% grey colour, and have it render at 50% grey without too much problems... at leas this is what I understood to be happening... it seemed to give me the correct output results.

Do you have any suggestions as to how I can work around this issue?

[^Lele^]

It may be that PS isn't set up for linear workflow, and doesn't invert gamma on the colors (if so, the visual midpoint for the grayscale gradient is biased to the blacks, and the blacks would look crunched.).
You can specify your own gamma in the vray color map (although that won't be reflected in the color swatch.), but maybe it'd be better to linearise the display in PS, if sRGB displays are the target (and in general, if they are the device you are working with.).
I have no idea of how to go about achieving that in PS, however.
Someone else in here (or in your company.) will surely do, though.