skin shader a la Alsurface pleaseeee

[Bigguns]

Hey Vlado, it should be included in the next SP of Vray.. don't let this on the side! it's the best shader for sss so far in Vray.. if you want flush the skin shader and let this one instead..

BTW, did you added samples for the sss of the Alsurface, and the ID prepass, etc ?

[Dave_Wortley]

Another vote for inclusion in official VRay.

[Mnietek2707]

Another vote for inclusion in official VRay.

+1 for this

[jstrob]

I also think that this has to be included in V-Ray. Anyone who will try this shader will have no other choice but to use it (for skin at least). If someone does not find it useful it's because he doesn't know about it. The best way to make everyone know about it is to include it within the official install.

The only other method I would still use is the translucency in the V-RayMtl cause it's so faster and may still look good enough for subtle use like for cereals or sss materials other than skin.

The only other potentially better SSS shader I saw so far in max it within Fstorm. It gives comparable results as the Alshader (and also very intuitive and easy to use and control colors) but renders in 4 minutes on my GTX 1080 instead of 30 minutes (with my dual E5-2680 v2) with the alshader in V-Ray. But Alshader in V-Ray is still the best cause it gives no antialiasing problems like I get with storm and fstorm is just unusable for me in production for many reasons. But the SSS method he uses in fstorm is worth exploring. In fact I would not be surprised if it's based on alshader but is just faster because it skips antialiasing and is using GPU power in the best way. See my test here:

[vlado]

The sss in FStorm is equvalent to the VRayScatterVolumeMtl material.

As for the antialiasing in FStorm, Karba should be able to fix this relatively easily.

Best regards,
Vlado

[jstrob]

Ok but why is the VRayScatterVolumeMtl so slower and most of all why can't I get blurred refraction with it (when I look at the silhouette of an object seen through it it doesn't seem to be blurred at all, it stays sharp)?

[jstrob]

As for the antialiasing in FStorm, Karba should be able to fix this relatively easily.
Vlado

Maybe but I was just saying this to highlight the fact that the fstorm sss render time might be an order of magnitude faster just because it does not take the time to compute a perfect antialiasing right now. But even when Karba correct this it will probably be many times faster than the VrayScatterVolumeMtl. so I'm wondering how it can do that and if you could make the alshader or VRayScatterVolume as fast.

[vlado]

Maybe but I was just saying this to highlight the fact that the fstorm sss render time might be an order of magnitude faster just because it does not take the time to compute a perfect antialiasing right now.

No, I don't think so.

But even when Karba correct this it will probably be many times faster than the VrayScatterVolumeMtl.

Of course; I don't think the FStorm's AA issues have anything to do with the SSS specifically.

so I'm wondering how it can do that and if you could make the alshader or VRayScatterVolume as fast.

Yes, we can add support for them in V-Ray RT GPU, if that's what you're asking...

Best regards,
Vlado

[jstrob]

Yes, we can add support for them in V-Ray RT GPU, if that's what you're asking...
Vlado

I didn't think only rendering them with the gpu could make such a huge difference but for sure it would be useful for tweaking and setting things up but the final must still use cpu cause GPU is still too limited in terms of vram.

[vlado]

A Maya/Standalone version of the shader is now available on Github:
https://github.com/ChaosGroup/vray_al_surface/releases

Best regards,
Vlado

[jstrob]

A Maya/Standalone version of the shader is now available on Github:
https://github.com/ChaosGroup/vray_al_surface/releases

Best regards,
Vlado

I just installed Vray standalone yesterday to try it with V-Ray for Blender. Sorry if it's a dumb question but, when you say you made a V-Ray standalone version of the vray_al_surface shader does that mean there is an easy way to make it work in Blender?

[vlado]

I just installed Vray standalone yesterday to try it with V-Ray for Blender. Sorry if it's a dumb question but, when you say you made a V-Ray standalone version of the vray_al_surface shader does that mean there is an easy way to make it work in Blender?

I think so, but I have to ask Andrey if V-Ray for Blender can pick up arbitrary 3rd party V-Ray shaders.

Best regards,
Vlado

[jstrob]

Ok thanks Vlado!

[sharktacos]

A Maya/Standalone version of the shader is now available on Github:
https://github.com/ChaosGroup/vray_al_surface/releases

Best regards,
Vlado

Awesome, just gave this a try. One suggestion from the Maya side is that it would be good to include a bump delta scale parameter in the final version similar to the VrayMtl. The ability to lower the delta is really important when doing skin to get micro detail, otherwise the bump is too blurry and one needs to use displacement instead. In the meantime, we can of course pipe it through a VrayBumpMtl of course.

[vlado]

Yes, I will add the bump delta scale.

Best regards,
Vlado