VRayFur's "Flat Normals" not working?

[Rick Eloy]

Recently upgraded to 3.20.02 and noticed something weird with VRayFur: even though the "flat normals" option is on, it always renders with cylindrical strands instead of flat (see screen grab). First time I noticed this was on 3.20.01, and I expected this to be corrected on 3.20.02... Any thoughts?
Cheers!

[Svetlozar Draganov]

It seems this feature has been broken with the latest release.
I'll make a note about it in our bug tracking system.

Thank you very much for your feedback.

[ramy02]

Could this also be why I'm getting this issue as well in 3.20.01. As soon as I isolate it, it goes away though...very strange.

[Svetlozar Draganov]

Yes it could be although it might be due to different V-Ray builds participating in the rendering.
Would you please double check that the same V-Ray build is installed on all the machines and if it is please pack that scene and send it over for investigation.

[vlado]

I'm afraid this won't be corrected and we will remove the option. Regular VRayMtl materials will always use the cylindrical normals, whereas the VRayHairMtl material will use the flat ones. If you want the flat normals, it is best to use the VRayHairMtl material. Adding this option was a mistake, in hindsight...

Best regards,
Vlado

[ramy02]

Svetlozar,
the buckets are all from one machine. VrayHairMtl is applied to fur as well. I'm afraid it might be a bug? FileVrayFur_Bug_3.20.01_Max2016.zip attached.

[Peter Getov]

Hi Ramy,
this bug is already fixed in the nightlies.

[ramy02]

Seems the bucket issue is different than the normals issue...but maybe they're related.

[Rick Eloy]

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

[Macker]

Ramy, you use VRay fur for grass? What makes you pick that over a scattering plugin?

[Rick Eloy]

I use VRayFur for grass too, mainly because it has become a viable alternative since the introduction of the LOD function and because it's free.

[ramy02]

much quicker setup and adjustments. With 3.20.03, still not seeing the Flat normals working with Production render only RT

[piotrus3333]

can you guys please share some samples of vrayFur grass? Some time ago I was trying to develop something decent. stopped the work because of larger scale of projects - its mostly photoshop grass now.

[Svetlozar Draganov]

Svetlozar,
the buckets are all from one machine. VrayHairMtl is applied to fur as well. I'm afraid it might be a bug? File[ATTACH]25247[/ATTACH] attached.

This scene works fine into our environment with V-Ray 3.20.03 and Max 2016:


Please try to update to 3.20.03 and let us know if the same issue is still present.

[ramy02]

The flat normals are still definitely not working and an issue. Any clue as to an update to when this will start working again?