BAKE GI option inside VRAY TOOLS

[Robert Everhardt]

Wouldnt it be great, if vray for 3dsmax has a one quick button
to create UV lightmaps inside 3Dsmax, which you then can use to bake the VRAY GI maps.
Like Unity has one button for creating UV light maps.
Wich are then used be enlighten too calculate the GI solution one time only for static models.

that would be a great speedup for rendering walktroughs, and it would be awesome
if you can then take those maps to example unity. and skip Enlighten.

And for the unity workflow.
I rather do it with vray then in unity, because i can get faster feedback in 3dsmax with vray.
then waiting for enlighten too make a solution which is crap and then redo numerous itterations in unity.
for example i could make my lighting setup first in 3dsmax/vray render previews as usual and when content.
push a vray button too generate uv lightmaps, give vray some baking time. and voila you have a static GI model.

would it work?, or is my reasoning flawed.?
what are your opinions?

[joconnell]

It's kind of built in with render to texture inside of max - you can bake either raw total lighting or complete map?

[Robert Everhardt]

yes, but in unity the workflow is too a point faster.
you can just check generate uv lightmaps on the whole model, and it will unwrap for you.
not per object like in the render too texture scenario in 3Dsmax
and when it generates the Gi solution it creates raw lighting maps.. i think. because afterwards you can still change the diffuse materials.

havent really messed with render too texture, but from what i have seen its a slower workflow.

[vlado]

Like Dmitry said, you can do that in 3ds Max but some scripting may be required to make it a one-click workflow.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Robert Everhardt]

Hi Vlado

thanks for your response
I checked Redshift 2.0 and they have a option too bake, yet not for 3dsmax.
still i think it would be a nice addition too vray arsenal of tools.
And would be awesome if the feature is similiar as in unity/enlighten that it
makes its own atlas and uwv unwrap.


Executing baking in Maya:
To execute baking in Maya, through the Redshift menu select Redshift->Baking->Bake…
From there you can select to bake all objects or just the current selection.
You can also bake all objects in the scene (if you unselect the “Skip objects not assigned to a Redshift bake set” option)
using a default set of values.

[vlado]

I'm not sure what's your point? For V-Ray for Maya, texture baking can be performed by going to Lighting/Rendering > Bake with V-Ray... menu. You can also attach V-Ray bake properties to objects in the scene to specify resolution etc. More information can be found here: https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...Texture+Baking

Best regards,
Vlado

[Robert Everhardt]

well my point was.
a quick and easy way too bake the GI result making rendering even faster
or too export the GI result for game engines like unity.
i know 3dsmax has a render to texture feature.
But my point is more like what flat iron does,
or unity/enlighten, which can unwraps, makes atlas and bakes automaticly.
render too texture in 3dsmax for a complex scene is a bit off work setting up.
And it would be a great time saver, as well in workflow as in rendering

anyhow this was on my wishlist.

[cheerioboy]

Here's my ghetto way of doing it - http://www.quitenice.co/blog/2014/9/...nity3d-updated - there are also some other blog posts in there that might be helpful

Similar to flatiron - I use a script that does a very basic flatten/unwrap on all geometry - and then use UVPacker (made by the guys who made Flatiron) to pack the UV's better. This has worked really well for me. I'm looking for more projects that I run through my process and make public. Most of my work has had to stay private. I'm looking for other folks projects to test with my workflow and publicly share if possible...

I've only used this workflow to bake the complete texture - but it should work with the other passes. I try to keep away from doing too much work in Unity besides tweaking metal materials and reflections since many of the projects I do run through this process are still in flux

Will be updating with a new workflow post soon enough - I've got some more scripts being worked on to help in organizing materials (so you don't have to bake glass/mtl objects), as well as separating geometry at the end for better reflection handling in Unity.

But you're right, it's not a one click solution which I think is fine right now. Everyone will have a different process for how they want to go about doing things.

[Robert Everhardt]

thanks cheerioboy.

seems still a bit extensive.
especially in this ever demanding fast line of work.
But maybe there are no shortcuts in the workflow.

will have a go at your tutorial. thks

ps: may i also point out, that in unity you can check generate uv lightmaps.
and it does the unwrapping and baking in a couple of clicks.
yet your stuck with the enlighten solution of the bake.

[cheerioboy]

thanks cheerioboy.

seems still a bit extensive.
especially in this ever demanding fast line of work.
But maybe there are no shortcuts in the workflow.

will have a go at your tutorial. thks

ps: may i also point out, that in unity you can check generate uv lightmaps.
and it does the unwrapping and baking in a couple of clicks.
yet your stuck with the enlighten solution of the bake.

Yes I've tried using the 'generate UV lightmaps' - probably depends on the project and amount of geometry. But I haven't had much luck with it or with Unity's built in GI renderer. Just takes forever with crap results. I much prefer watching the renders with vray and being able to even test pieces as the maps finish, than waiting for the whole thing.

[vlado]

Hm, interesting... it's good to know that. Perhaps there are ways that we can streamline the process.

Best regards,
Vlado

[cheerioboy]

Hm, interesting... it's good to know that. Perhaps there are ways that we can streamline the process.

Best regards,
Vlado

yas! Especially if there were specific render to texture 'texture elements' that could relate more to maps needed for game shaders. like a reflection map wouldn't be a bake of what is seen in the reflection, but the texture being used for reflections. There's be a diffuse, gi, shadows, gi+shadows, reflection, bump, roughness, etc. Bonus points if they could be combined the way some Unity textures need to be where the alpha does one thing and the rbg another.

I'd do it by hand, but when you start to work with baking 100 objects - you don't want to spend a lot of time on each shader unless the 3d model was 100% complete. Which is never the case. Hence doing 1 or 2k complete maps of everything has been working for me almost all the time - especially to quickly get into the space in VR and size up things before changes happen.

[Ihno]

Speeding up the texture rendering would be also very cool. It allways renders the complete map.
I think it could be smarter.
For example; if you want to render the GI you'll have to render the reflections if you want to have GI caustics.
Would be cool if it could just render what you really need for the selected elements.
A render to Texture version of the denoiser would also be very nice, although it works quite well with the standalone version.

[Robert Everhardt]

Maybe they have made just such a thing what i was meaning too say, for the unreal engine
but perhap this powerful feature?,Unlike other light baking implementations?, could also be implemented inside 3dsmax.

""The official launch will introduce V-Ray Light Baking, a powerful feature that lets users bake V-Ray lights (including IES) directly into Unreal with full GPU acceleration. Unlike other light baking implementations, V-Ray Light Baking maintains V-Ray accuracy, ensuring a lifelike, physically based result for real-time experiences and VR.""

[Morne]

I'd do it by hand, but when you start to work with baking 100 objects - you don't want to spend a lot of time on each shader unless the 3d model was 100% complete. Which is never the case. Hence doing 1 or 2k complete maps of everything has been working for me almost all the time - especially to quickly get into the space in VR and size up things before changes happen.

cheerioboy Did you by any chance find a more streamlined process for Unity since you posted your original workflow more than 2 years ago?