Native Vray Curvature as efficient as Boomlabs

[fraggle]

Hello,
wondering if the curvature have been fix, following Neil Blevins blog:
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_educat...x_map_wear.htm

Thanks

[davision]

Second request for vraycurvature improvements.

It's a great idea for a map but it's very unpredictable to work with. Would love to see a mappable parameter so the transitions between convex and flat, or concave and flat can be broken up (with a noise map or whatever).

[stevejjd]

Being able to put a mask on an object that identifies the qualities in shape is sooooooo important! If vray could make something better that the boomerlabs tool would be amazing.

[vlado]

You can use MCG for that nowadays.

Best regards,
Vlado

[davision]

Vlado -- do you mean MCG or DCM (Data Channel Modifier?)

[vlado]

Yep, that one

Best regards,
Vlado

[Ihno]

With the disadvantage of having to crank up the geometry.

[chadstevens]

I +5 to this request, the data channel modifier is terrible when it comes to CAD data, every time I use it, 3ds max crashes. I much prefer Vray's version, but it does seem to render very slow. I think some extra development to the vray curvature would be fantastic as it is a great feature to have. Also, it would be great if it worked with Vray RT GPU.

Please Vlado

Cheers.

[zeronove]

Yep, that one

Best regards,
Vlado

Right, but we all know that adsk is evil
Luckily VRay is available for a lot of other evil-free sw (blender, modo, C4D, sketchup and so on) ...so, what about those?

[davision]

Yeah, that's what I was going to say about DCM -- requires lots of Polys. Also, in max 2017, I was doing a little testing and I found it sometimes acted quite odd and buggy (big surprise).

VrayCurvature would be a simple, elegant solution and probably often preferable -- if it was just a bit more predictable/controllable.

[stevejjd]

I would love it if Chaos group could make their tool more universal. Meaning that a VRayCurviture map would be constant across the board. I did follow the Neil Blevins tutorial and honestly, I dont like the data channel workflow for the same reason as other posted above.

For chaos group to go ahead and make a user friendly, consistent and useful tool that identifies the shape qualities of a mesh would be brilliant!

All of Grant Warwicks metallic shaders fully depend on being able to identify and mask concave, convex, flat and transitional surfaces.

On a slightly different note, and perhaps more wishful.......I wish that there was a chart with the 3ds max Texture Nodes of the left and Mayas nodes on the right. Highlighted in green would be all the ones that both software have. In red would be ones that are unique to 1 package. Then you could choose all the best and most used nodes that are specific to 1 package and universalize it with a V-Ray implementation (Which would also be a better version of it).

But I think this may be going to far by asking too much. The curvature map however sounds extremely good.

[soulburn3d]

Just to add to the thread, while my workflow is indeed the data channel modifier for all the reasons I state in my tutorials, I am all for improvements to the vray curvature map, and would happily switch to it if it could be improved. I believe vlado mentioned that it would require a whole new algorithm in order to "fix" the issues, so its probably not an easy thing, but if it could be improved, it would be fantastic.

- Neil

[davision]

Neil -- I recently saw your nice tutorial. I have a few questions.... primarily, why do you use the Map channel instead of the Vertex colors (as Adesk does in their video tut)? What is the advantage?

And out of curiosity, do you know what it means to add to the "X" of the Map Channel? That doesn't really logically translate to me. For instance what does the X channel mean versus adding to the Y or Z (which seems to give me no effect when I tried it).

[soulburn3d]

why do you use the Map channel instead of the Vertex colors (as Adesk does in their video tut)? What is the advantage?

From my experience, map channels and vertex colors can almost be used interchangeably (even vertex paint modifier can write to both). But since the curvature data is greyscale, I decide to stuff it into a map channel, and leave the vertex color open for actual color. Plus, when I use a Gradient Ramp to grab the map channel, I can adjust that gradient ramp immediately to affect the transition between curved and flat.

And out of curiosity, do you know what it means to add to the "X" of the Map Channel? That doesn't really logically translate to me. For instance what does the X channel mean versus adding to the Y or Z (which seems to give me no effect when I tried it).

Never used it. It may be leftover UI from the other modes like "position", and does nothing in the map channel mode.

- Neil

[stevejjd]

Hi Vlado.

After you make the Vray for Mari render engine can you please also implement the VrayCurveatureMap as a Mari bake preset to bake curvature maps?

Thanks.