V-Ray Material File Conversion -- Vray 5.20.05 / Update 2.5

[index]

Hi,

on trying to convert an old file i got these issues :

- Colormapping was not converted, eg Reinhard Burn Value was ignored
- Colormapping changes are not updated in the VFB when life rendering is on

- The Conversion for Light Intensities seems to be buggy ...
- - Area Light with Radiant Power (W) is completely wrong (20W --> 15970W)
- - Area Lights with Radiance (W/m/m/sr) getting different conversions for the same value (75 --> 86, 100 or 110)
- - former Mesh Lights are converted to C4D Lights

Even after correcting all values something is off.. everything is way to warm...
adding 180 degrees to the white balance color in the camera helps... no idea if this the correct solution (?)
if yes, that could/should be done automatically...

best, Index

Update:
Adding 180 degree is probably wrong. The picture is still way too warm.
Is it possible that the light colors or the cameras white balance are interpreted differently in V-Ray5 ?
(maybe a gamma correction is needed somewhere)

[index]

Update ....

After trying with input color profile Linear in the project settings i get a bleached image ...
If it is supposed to work with input color profile Linear (as posted in another thread),
would it be neccessary to convert all color values to linear?
(materials, light colors, camera white balance, etc)

As of now I was not able to convert an old file and make it look the same in V-Ray 5
It would be nice to get a walk trough in some form on how to do this

[sirio76]

I’ve said this many time, when you switch to a new engine forget the old one and start from scratch any new project/material/lighting etc, in the end you will save time and improve your skills, at least this is my experience
Conversion is not that good but if you carefully rebuild all material/lights you can get similar results.

[sirio76]

Here is an example, the post production is not the same but in linear they are almost the same:

[index]

hi sirio, thanks, ofc i can make it looking "similar" in a visual way as well, that is not the point.

i have properly converted all materials, set the same color mapping, same light colors and intensities, same camera white balance
this is doable ... still my result is way warmer than before, so something is different in vray-5 somewhere !
changing things in the right place probably fixes it and gives (almost) the same result out of the box.

[sirio76]

I seem to remember that at some point in the past the white point has slightly changed. I'm not sure if that's your issue though (I'm rendering a scene right now and I can not test this on V3.7/V5).
Regardless my advice is always to forget about the old software and embrace the new, if you get warmer results just adjust the white balance in the VFB, it's a single click

[index]

well, the colors are a very sensitive topic here.
these are projects in several steps and i am interested if it is possible to upgrade and continue in vray-5
as of now the converter doesn't even set up the light intensities correctly...

[sirio76]

Forget the converter, if you keep rely on it you will never switch to V5. Start projects from scratch, like if you were using a totally different software like Octane, Corona etc.
I have not encountered any particular issues with colors, but even if there are slight differences then just adjust to the new standard and live with it

[index]

sirio76
why? this is not a completely different render engine, almost all settings are exactly the same.
it's clear that material conversion is not doable in perfection, there you need to invest time in creating new materials.
but regarding everything else the converter can save a lot of tedious manual work.

aleksandar.kasabov
it would be nice if the bugs mentioned in post #1 could get fixed
(wrong light intensities, color mapping settings, etc)

[sirio76]

this is not a completely different render engine

That's the problem, it is some settings may be similar but the software was rebuild from scratch and many, many things are handled differently right now even if they have the same name, on top of this there are also two generation of software update with large differences (Vray3.7 > Vray Next > Vray5).
When I suggest you to forget about the old software I'm just trying to help, the software may have some bugs here and there but most of the time works very well and you just need to adapt to new workflows and standards, that's all.
If your main concern is to get consistency with old software and convert old scene perfectly then I'm afraid this will never happen. Believe me this would be useful for me too since I regularly reuse old assets, but I largely prefer to waste a few minutes rebuilding shaders and enjoy the huge improvement of V5 (and soon V6) rather than stitching to an outdate software just because I was accustomed to its standard and I have ready made assets/lights etc.
Of course that's just my opinion based on my experience and I hope you will consider it is as valid as yours just don't think that V5 is only a simple upgrade from the old developers, that would be unfair considering the job that Chaos have done and is doing

[index]

hi sirio, i know you mean well...

i just believe it is mainly a color IO issue and if you would srgb/linear convert at the right places things would match out of the box ... (not 100% ofc but almost)
today i tested with all light colors / white balance set to neutral before conversion... then the results looks almost the same.

but i know this is a complex topic and would need the devs to have a look at it.
you're right in the sense that it probably won't happen because there are other priorities, so I better not cling on the subject .-)