VRayProxy preview from custom model

[cecofuli]

Hi,

It's possible to add a new preview mode in the VRayProxy?
For example, in a big city, I can model a simply version of building and I use this model as a preview. In this way I can see more better the proxy model. Bounding box often it's not very useful and face/edge add more faces in a complex scene.

thank

[peterguthrie]

This would be great, good idea on doing it on vrayproxy loading as then we don't need to redo all existing vrayproxies

[^Lele^]

you'd need to provide the model at saving time, i suppose, which means you'd have to model the low-res as well.

Since the work would be more (from the user's standpoint) than it is when just picking a preview mode that can be inferred from the saved proxy, i don't see why you couldn't parent your low-res house to the proxy, and set the low-res house not to render.
Transform the proxy, and your low-res transforms with it, but only the proxy would render.

[cecofuli]

Build a custom model like that, take about... 30 seconds

[^Lele^]

Make it 32, and parent it.

[peterguthrie]

good idea, i guess it wouldnt work with vrayscatter or other proxy scattering plugins though?

[^Lele^]

No idea either.
The whole point about the proxy is its format, already voxelised, able to load partially into ram when needed in a very efficient way.
I would definitely NOT want it to be bogged down performance-wise by having to display a custom model.
It's all fine and dandy when we talk toy houses.
I've seen and created animated proxies well over 2gb in size, and trust you me, you want EVERY bit of performance you can from it.
Max has tools, and there are plenty of possible workflows to achieve exactly the same thing without having to wish for a code change, which is hardly ever trivial.

[peterguthrie]

for things like trees though, a custom preview would be more useful than the automatically generated preview when placing them, plus in my example above it would be 40 faces as opposed to 10,000

[^Lele^]

And how's that better than a box preview?
I mean, you have to actually build your model to match the original tree shape.
For which, if you're planting on a very wide area, for instance, you only need a BBox to guesstimate overlapping, and if you're close enough to be wanting to see some detail, then the preview with faces or edges or vertices is more accurate, and most of all free with the proxy format (for which on save you can shoose a perecentage of displayed faces).
In the case of an animated object, be it a body of water, a tree swaying in the wind, a character running, what would you do?
There's more to VRay than plain archviz stills, that's what i am saying, and i'd rather not fix something that works, for the sake of something which is very achievable in so many other ways
But hey, that's me.
Should Vlado want to implement it in a very clever, transparent, and optional way, i'd be fine with it.

[cecofuli]

My idea is similar to the 3ds max standard foliage.
You can select a full view mode or "custom model" (canopy mode in the 3ds max standard foliage) . It's very useful see the raw model directly in viewport.

1000 little piece of faces it's not very useful and readable, but with, like peterguthrie show, it's much more clear. And about the bounding box, with 1000 house or 5000 tree, the viewport will be very confused.
And, if you try to move the camera, I've a 2 FPS. Ok, I can do a proxy preview to about 100 face, but in this way I see only some polygon point. But, if I model my custom shape with 100 poly, I've a full preview, fast camera movement and clean viewport.

Lastly, you can render a fast preview just with the custom model (for lighting, positioning etc...)

[^Lele^]

So you'd also need to have an option to actually render the preview rather than the proxy?
Afaik anything in the viewport is NOT rendered, rather, the actual saved geometry is.
I'd still like to know how you'd treat it for animated objects.

Foliage is procedural, so the preview is generated on the fly, whereas here you DO need to model the low res object, and somehow pick it when saving out the proxy.
That's practical for a few, but what if you had hundreds of different proxies?
And again, i don't see why it can't be done by parenting the low res model to the proxy in, say, point display mode.

[cecofuli]

The idea is to save in the same .vrmesh both full model and custom model ( I don't know if it's possible).
And yes, for fast preview, If I've the possibility so render the low-res version It's a good option
You can parenting a low-res, ok, but I think if you have in the same vrmesh both model it's time saver.