New feature ideas

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

Max allows for a custom scene to be used as preview, lighting and camera included (say dome with sun and sky, or whatever else).
Unfortunately, it's broken to bits in the latest versions of Max.

Therefore, official Vray implementation would be very welcome.
Looking at the material preview in the material editor is pointless at it is now.

[justini]

VrayLightMTL in LightSelect element

[kosso_olli]

I would like to bring up more options for the ground projection of the VrayHDRI. This was mentioned here already, and there are some images shown.

https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/...rrectly-scaled

What would be a must for this is a value for the scale of the projection, so that we can make it appear smaller. Also, maybe a kind of box mode would be handy to simulate urban streets, tunnels, parking garages etc. For the automotive viz guys, this would be heaven!

[dean_dmoo]

In the mean time, you can use the falloff map in distance mode and make your displacement map gradually fade off to a flat colour that represents your "zero displacement" value - we use this on oceans where you'd get sparkly geo off in the distance so we fade from a phoenix map as a displace with normal sharp reflections into a zero displacement area but with a bump and glossy reflections to mimic the breakup.

Yeah thats what I meant how I now do it, although for paving mostly. But having to tweak the falloff manually depending on the scene or having to add it to every quixel material manually is a pain. Unless Ive missed something the falloff trick only works for 3d displacement which is more ram intensive. So having it in the modifier as a fixed distance would be handy imo.

[dean_dmoo]

Max allows for a custom scene to be used as preview, lighting and camera included (say dome with sun and sky, or whatever else).
Unfortunately, it's broken to bits in the latest versions of Max.

And reading the probably accurate comments it will be another few years before the bug is fixed, let alone having a decent one. So you agree that chaos should do one then?

[vlado]

And reading the probably accurate comments it will be another few years before the bug is fixed, let alone having a decent one. So you agree that chaos should do one then?

Yeah, that's already on the "to do" list and will be done. Anything else?

Best regards,
Vlado

[^Lele^]

Corona has a nice ‘custom’ preview, although it’s not tweakable it is better than the default preview. Does this not work on the latest versions of Max? Even something like that would be great.

"nice" is quite arbitrary. It's different, and as far as i am concerned, just as limited as any other shaderball approach.
My post was to mention a feature no one -to my knowledge- used in the fifteen years it was there (you may find a post of mine somewhere on the forum where i share such approach, from ages back.).
It was a rhetorical -and implicit- question on the method itself to point out that it's old, and it's severely limited.
Now, debug shading, however, is incredibly useful, doesn't require guessing from the part of the user, and needs no tweaking whatsoever (what works for SSS may not work for diffuse, or volumes, or speculars, or with the lighting changed ever so much, etc etc.).
So why bother with material editor previews, at all?

[vlado]

So why bother with material editor previews, at all?

At this point we are just collecting the items; there could be separate discussions why they are needed and how important they are, I don't want this thread to diverge too much

Best regards,
Vlado

[^Lele^]

Yep, i wanted to be more precise on the previous post which had bits that somehow didn't get into writing. End of the debate, as far as i am concerned. Users'll get both.

[wyszolmirski]

Idea: Improved / reworked VRay2SidedMtl

Reasoning: I'm struggling with this a lot when leaves have bump assigned to both sides. That's the underlying issue, but it very well might need solid improvements in general. Maybe some lessons learned from creating HairNext shader could be applied here ?

[wyszolmirski]

Idea: Dedicated node based V-Ray Shading Editor build around PluginNodes. (VRmat on steroids ?)

1. Could make editing the shaders that are being exported into vrscene user-friendly.
2. Could allow creation of cross platform shading much easier. I know that there is VRmateditor, but it's not very friendly.
3. Detaching it from software limitations. Allowing grouping, better material preview.
4. Could allow exposing only certain properties to user, allowing for creation complex but user friendly shaders.

[vlado]

Reasoning: I'm struggling with this a lot when leaves have bump assigned to both sides. That's the underlying issue, but it very well might need solid improvements in general. Maybe some lessons learned from creating HairNext shader could be applied here ?

The bump issue will be fixed for sure and it's on the "to do" list.

Best regards,
Vlado

[bardo]

Now, debug shading, however, is incredibly useful, doesn't require guessing from the part of the user, and needs no tweaking whatsoever (what works for SSS may not work for diffuse, or volumes, or speculars, or with the lighting changed ever so much, etc etc.).
So why bother with material editor previews, at all?

Interesting...I've missed that.. really nice.

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

VRAY FOLIAGE MATERIAL based on the findings from vrayscan technology.
i remenber Vlado saying on the forum at some point that while scanning the materials, there may be some more knowledge for building perhapse more complex translucent material.
currently you see 2-3 approaches when tackling thin surface translucency on leaves/grass. They all work but not in all situations. Making something that would be used as standard would be great.
Btw... the way translucency on foliage is translated/converted from corona to vray material os very weird and i always have to redo it.

[glorybound]

Some kind of loader for the V-Ray scene converter. My last few projects have been brutal and have taken over an hour to convert. It would be nice to know if it is a coffee break wait or an afternoon nap wait.