VrayHairMtl and VrayHairInfoTex enhancement

[kagemaru]

First of all, congratulations on achievements with primcurves rendering, vray really needs to push this feature.
I have a couple of suggestions about hair/fur shading in a character production rendering workflow.
Back when i was working in renderman-based pipelines, when rendering curves i had this option that really helped integrating the character with fur/hair: you had the option to blend, along the lenght of the strand, the normal of the curve itself with the one of the polygon face that generated the curve. In this way you could create a smooth transition between the two.
Another cool option would be to access the complete strand mapping along the curve: right now correct me if i'm wrong but i can map just two colors with a simple interpolation. For example i can't create an opacity at the root and at the tip at the same moment, or having a complex gradient.
It would be great to have these features.
Thanks in advance,
fede

[FSGFX]

im with you... everything that makes hair and fur more useable is good...

[vlado]

For example i can't create an opacity at the root and at the tip at the same moment, or having a complex gradient.

Why would you not be able to create that? You can plug the output of the VRayHairInfoTex texture into a GradientRamp texture and put whatever gradient you need.

Best regards,
Vlado

[kagemaru]

Why would you not be able to create that? You can plug the output of the VRayHairInfoTex texture into a GradientRamp texture and put whatever gradient you need

Hey Vlado, i think i didn't catch entirely what you suggested, but in the meantime i discovered that rotating 90° every map on the V axis allowed me to map the strand lenght even without the VrayHairInfoTex, sorry for bothering about a feature that was already there.
Though I'll quote myself for the possibility to mix the curve's normal with the generator's one, it would be a killer feature.
Cheers,
fede