Particles related requests: PRT, VrayPointParticleMtl and Alembic

[kagemaru]

Hi all,
as written in the subject, i have several wishes about particles rendering features.

- As requested here (but it wasn't the right place i admit), i was wondering if it will be possible in the near future to be able to render prt particles, maybe with magma modification as well. The PRTLoader is a very good system, and being able to render them natively using VrayPointParticleMlt would be very useful now that a lot of people are starting to use Houdini. I know there's alembic but it's 50% heavier...
Even reading a prt sequence with a VrayProxy would be unvaluable.

- About VrayPointParticleMtl, since it's possible to make custom channel travel across softwares, would it be possible to add an opacity for this shader? Also an emission slot would be cool.

- I'm not sure if this is technically possible, but it would be very cool when rendering particles with VrayProxy to be able to have custom width per particles. For example using a pscale att, or even the color/Cd. Right now i'm stuck with just a single value.

Thank you very much in advance,
cheers,

fede

[kagemaru]

No answers at all?
Sigh.... am i the only one rendering points with vray?

[vlado]

Sorry, somehow I missed this post. PRT rendering should not be too difficult. You can convert .prt files to .vrmesh files with particles, but I agree that direct rendering would be better.

I can add opacity to the VRayPointParticleMtl material very easily. About the emission - do you expect it to light the scene as well?

It is possible for particles to have per-particle widths, f.e. we are using this capability when rendering Alembic files (and when converting Alembic to .vrmesh).

Where are your particles coming from, by the way?

Best regards,
Vlado

[kagemaru]

Thanks for the reply V, i thought this somehow slipped

Sorry, somehow I missed this post. PRT rendering should not be too difficult. You can convert .prt files to .vrmesh files with particles, but I agree that direct rendering would be better.

Yes i already do this in houdini exporting both formats (btw my particles are coming from there) but i'm forced to use two caches since as i wrote in some other threads, vray reads .abc/.vrmesh and thinkbox reads .prt and both don't do that the other way around.
I would still prefer vray to read .prt because the manipulation you get with the magma modifier can be very powerful.

I can add opacity to the VRayPointParticleMtl material very easily. About the emission - do you expect it to light the scene as well?

To be honest i thought about emission to simulate some effects like atmospherics, gi, etc with custom attributes i create in houdini, and i would imagine that once i got emission i would use gi if i want to light the scene: i normally use point rendering with tons of them so creating lights would be unproductive i guess... having said so it couldn't hurt having this feature but i would prefer developing other things first.

It is possible for particles to have per-particle widths, f.e. we are using this capability when rendering Alembic files (and when converting Alembic to .vrmesh).

Do you mean it's already in there somehow? At the moment i'm using the vrayproxy point mode and its width multiplier: i was thinking about using some custom channel within the abc/prt/vrmesh as a multiplier of this.

Where are your particles coming from, by the way?

Houdini. This with vray point render and i'm starting to drop Krakatoa. I'm guessing you guys are already working on vrmesh export from H right? can't wait to put my hands on it.