VrayCurvature Feedback

[soulburn3d]

Oh, and I'd be fine if this were added as a mode in the VrayDirt map. Or adding features to the VrayCurvature shader. Whatever is easier for the programmer.

- Neil

[vlado]

As far as speed is concerned, for the patch next week, the texture will be quite a bit faster.

Best regards,
Vlado

[soulburn3d]

As far as speed is concerned, for the patch next week, the texture will be quite a bit faster.

That's good to hear. The biggest issue I believe is the need of a gain and a kfactor, which will let us get a pattern similar to the other two examples. 3 colors for concave, convex and flat would be nice too, although I believe those may be achievable by running the map through an output curve. I'll test it once we get those other two parameters. Feel free to pass your developer my name if he wants a copy of my test scene to play with.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

So did some more poking, and the issues may actually be bugs as opposed to limited features. Take a peak at this. The surfaces produce areas that are black when they are flat (and should be grey), and areas that are convex should be white but are still grey. Any idea what might be going on?



- Neil

[Mnietek2707]

There is possibility to transfer curvature to vertex color using MCG:
http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/chris...creation-graph

Here is comparison of MCG and Vray curvature:


I think there is something wrong with Vray curvature map.
Regardless of value of "Sample spread", I get results which are just wrong in my opinion...

[vlado]

I think there is something wrong with Vray curvature map. Regardless of value of "Sample spread", I get results which are just wrong in my opinion...

The result is correct for the way the shader is coded to work (by shooting feeler rays around the shading point). Whether this works as you expect or not is a different matter; for the moment there are no plans to change it.

Best regards,
Vlado

[soulburn3d]

Can you give me a use case for the current VrayCurvature shader? I'm not sure under what conditions would one use it.

To get a curvature shader that produces the expected results, would it be easier to enhance the current one (like you mentioned earlier in the thread) or setup a wish for a brand new vrayCurvature shader?

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

Here is comparison of MCG and Vray curvature:

Yup, the vraycurvature shader should be producing red at the concave parts and it isn't. Good test.

- Neil

[vlado]

Well, I will probably end up hiding it altogether... or renaming it to something different. Seeing as how there are a few other and better options, it probably doesn't make much sense to spend efforts on it. Now I'm sorry we added it at all, but mistakes happen

Best regards,
Vlado

[soulburn3d]

Well, there really is only one other full option which is Boomerlab's Curvemap.

The MCG version bakes to vertex colors only, so its only useful if you have tons of geometry. The same with my SoulburnScript, it also bakes to vertex colors.

I'd still love to see a curvaturemap native in vray, as there's no free plugin that does the same thing, and its such a fundamental map to texturing things. Do you think it would take a ton of development time to modify the current curvemap to produce the expected results?

- Neil

[vlado]

Do you think it would take a ton of development time to modify the current curvemap to produce the expected results?

I don't know for sure; it looks like it might take more effort than I'm willing to put into it. I need to think it through it a bit more carefully. Adding colors and remapping parameters is easy, but the basic fundamental algorithm is based on raytracing which apparently has some drawbacks.

Best regards,
Vlado

[soulburn3d]

but the basic fundamental algorithm is based on raytracing which apparently has some drawbacks.

Gotcha. Well hopefully then the algorithm is fine and just has a bug or two, so you won't have to completely throw away the technique. Thanks for looking into this, we really appreciate it.

- Neil

[Alex_M]

Hi Vlado,
I read the whole thread and I have a question regarding the curvature map. If there are plans for removing it, is it safe to use it in production? What happens to materials using this map if in a future update it's removed?

I'd also like to report a bug. When I use this map in a mask slot of the Composite map, Max crashes immediately after render.

[vlado]

The composite thing is fixed already, I believe, if you download the 3.20.02 update from the website.

As for the future of the map, if we decide to remove it, it will still be available as a separate download.

Best regards,
Vlado

[chadstevens]

Hi Vlado,

Are there any updates on whether the curvature map is being updated, It would be much better than downloading a different plugin or baking to vertex colours as those both have drawbacks.

Cheers.