second bump slot?

[AEBI_VINCENT]

Hi

I love to use VrayEdgesTex in my renders, especially with concrete, mixing it with noise or dent shader. I love what that does to the material, it's an incredible effect (screenshot). But my problem is that the EdgesTex occupies the bump slot of the material. So if I want to use a strong bump map on the material, I have to use a Mix map to mix it with the EdgeTex. I make it 50/50, so I lose half of the effect of each map (screenshot).

Couldn't you just make a second bump slot, both working at the same time at 100%? If we had that, we could also control them individually, maybe I want the edge only 10% strength and the surface bump 100% strength.
Or maybe I get the whole thing totally wrong?

thanks

[seandunderdale]

Isnt that what a bump shader is for? Love the technique btw, will defo try that out, looks great!

[fixeighted]

I kind of see what is meant here, though could you not achieve the desired effect by e.g. setting the main bump amount to an abitrary high amount and making the mix variable to compensate one or the other?
I just woke up though, so maybe I'm dreaming this

[AEBI_VINCENT]

Isnt that what a bump shader is for? Love the technique btw, will defo try that out, looks great!

Sorry, let me explain further: Lets say I have a bump map I want to use at 100% strength, maybe for an extremely rough material. Now I also want to use the edgeTex on the same materials bump slot. How do I achieve this without compromising one or both of the two maps? If they get mixed 50/50, they both decrease in strength. I want the full bump effect on both maps though.

I kind of see what is meant here, though could you not achieve the desired effect by e.g. setting the main bump amount to an abitrary high amount and making the mix variable to compensate one or the other?
I just woke up though, so maybe I'm dreaming this

I always feel like I just woke up, kek. So what you suggest is set the map value of the bump slot to 200 and then each of the maps will work at 100% (since they are mixed 50/50 to a total value of 200)?
I don't know, I've never though of that. Will increasing the map value increase the strength of the bump effect? (screenshot)


Another thought: Could this all be done with a blend material? Maybe by blending a VrayMtl (with bumped edges) with a VrayBumpMtl?

[seandunderdale]

I must be missing something....because it still sounds like a bump shader / bump mtl is the answer to me....layering bump maps on top of each other without compromising the effect of any by mixing maps directly, and having individual control over each layers amount.

[fixeighted]

So yes, I was half asleep, as that'd work exactly the same, just simpler

[AEBI_VINCENT]

I must be missing something....because it still sounds like a bump shader / bump mtl is the answer to me....layering bump maps on top of each other without compromising the effect of any by mixing maps directly, and having individual control over each layers amount.

You're right, it was me who was missing something. I never considered the VrayBumpMtl for this endeavour.
This is how it's done: I use the original bump slot of the VrayMtl for my EdgeTex. Make this 100%. Then I make this VrayMtl my Base Mat in a new VrayBlendMtl.
Then I add VrayBumpMtl, link it with my base concrete and then add as many noises and bumps as I please (new VrayBumpMtl for each) and blend them on top of eachother without compromising them.

I guess that's it, maybe I just needed a thought-provoking impulse.

[fixeighted]

I haven't even had breakfast yet...I should learn never to first look at this forum when I wake up