Zdepth with option to use opacity maps

[mokiloke]

I would for Vrayzdepth to have the option to be based on maps instead of geometry.

I have no way of getting reliable zdepth info at the moment when using alpha maps on my trees. The renderer calcs the zdepth of a rectangle instead of the edge of a tree.

[studioDIM]

that's what the coverage channel is for...
Z is bound to the surface, afaik, in any raytracer.
Try and use a clipmap (displacement+waterlevel) to achieve that.

Lele

[andrewjohn81]

I would like that to work too, although I probably don't need it myself.

I just had a thought that might help you out though.
You could probably create a script, or if your like me find someone that is willing to do it for you, that would replace every diffuse color with a falloff map based on distance, which would give you a zdepth that at least works, although wouldn't work based on scene extents like max automatically creates. Of course, you'd have to make the white end up to be self illuminated by adjusting the output as well.
If you did it that way, the opacity/refraction maps you created should still work properly. So you should see the edges of the trees, right?

Maybe that doesn't work, but it might get some of you guys thinking at least. That was my initial thought. I would have No idea how to make a script for that, but depending on how many materials you have it May not take an insane amount of time to do manually. It also may not work on some complex material structures.