How do you convert a Cosmos model into an editable mesh?

[petya.georgieva]

Hi sersia

Apologies for the delay and thank you for flagging this! I've logged it internally as a bug and we're working on a fix (Internal bug tracker:VMAYA-11789). I'll post again when we have something more stable for you to try

[sersia]

1. Create>V-Ray>Import V-Ray Proxy
2. Select the Cosmos asset .vrmesh (You can check the location in the Cosmos browser Settings)
3. Untick "Use the new VRayProxy node"
4. Select the VRayProxy, under VRayMesh>Restore the mesh>Create a mesh from this proxy

Hi,

Looks like that there is no uv information if I restore the mesh from the cosmos asset in Maya. There is no problem in V-Ray for 3ds Max.
Is there any way to get the right uv information in Maya?

Thank you.

[sean_brown]

Mihail.Djurev this is amazing! Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this!

[Mihail.Djurev]

Hi!

Here's how to do this:

1) Import the Cosmos asset
You'll get the new proxy and all the materials imported correctly
2) Copy the file name from the new proxy
3) Create a proxy checking the flip axis and unchecking the new proxy checkboxes

You'll get an old proxy with no materials attached.

4) Open the old proxy's mesh material.


5) One by one, attach each material from the hypershade to the correct shader slot in the old proxy. Don't forget to press enter after middle-mouse dragging!

6) Render. New and old proxies should look the same at this point, with all materials attached:


7) Go to the old proxy's vraymesh and click the "Create mesh from this proxy" button. Make sure the "Reassign shaders" is ON!

You get the restored mesh with all materials assigned. Voila:





P.S.
I don't recommend using VRayVRMatMtls. There's an importer that you can use. V-Ray menu > Tools > import material from file. The H/M/L are for different LOD levels, so you'd choose H.
Although Cosmos uses the same importer under the hood, there are several cosmos-specific settings, so better use the cosmos import directly.

[sean_brown]

There is no viable bridge that i know of between Max and Maya that can keep editability and properties intact.

and what about the animation bug?

[^Lele^]

There is no viable bridge that i know of between Max and Maya that can keep editability and properties intact.

[sean_brown]

Not really.
It's more of a limitation in Maya, as it doesn't have a multi-sub object material type of workflow, relying on shading groups instead.
In Max, the conversion to mesh with the materials applied is a single click (see attached.) to import the proxy as mesh.
I would assume this could be scripted on the Maya side.

would it be possible to convert it to a editable mesh with materials in Max and then somehow export it to Maya with materials? If so what would be the steps?

Also while Chaos be fixing animation bug with cosmos assets in Maya where keyed objects don’t move in Viewport 2.0, they only move in IPR which is too slow to review animation in real time.

[damaggio]

Oh wow, thanks Emanuele . I do have max installed as part of my subscription, I’ll try that next time.

[^Lele^]

I believe this is by design so people don't pass assets around to non Vray users for free, which makes sense to me.

Not really.
It's more of a limitation in Maya, as it doesn't have a multi-sub object material type of workflow, relying on shading groups instead.
In Max, the conversion to mesh with the materials applied is a single click (see attached.) to import the proxy as mesh.
I would assume this could be scripted on the Maya side.

[damaggio]

You are right sean_brown , that is just too much work , imagine a tree or any heavy asset, I believe this is by design so people don't pass assets around to non Vray users for free, which makes sense to me.

[sean_brown]

You would have to do that manually by i.e. applying multiple VRayVRMatMtls (which load a different shader from the list) on the corresponding polygon surfaces.

Really? So why does having to break up the object into hundreds of faces the way to make it editable because that makes adding the materials very difficult. Why can’t the original objects remain intact like the chair backing or chair cushion instead of hundreds of faces? That would make adding the material back a lot Simpler. Usually when things are built in Maya objects are grouped to make more complex objects. This chair is probably a hand full. But this proxy method merges it all and makes it hundreds of faces. What if this was a car? This would make it really tedious. Is this really the way? Originally I wanted to animate a car and just be able to selected the wheels and tires. Two or 3 objects at most. Now I’m forced to select hundreds of faces instead? Most models imported, objects are selectable when expanding the groups. What aren’t these?

[hermit.crab]

You would have to do that manually by i.e. applying multiple VRayVRMatMtls (which load a different shader from the list) on the corresponding polygon surfaces.

[sean_brown]

Load it into a VRayVRMatMtl.

Hi hermit.crab,

I was able to create a VRmatMtl for the proxy and import the .vrmat file into it, btw there were 3 .vrmat files and the difference is a 3 letter word in the file name 3dh, 3dm and 3dl. After that i can see the main material the covers most of the chair returns but not the others. They are listed in the VRmatMtl attribute editor tho. Is there another step to get all the materials to go to the right place?

[hermit.crab]

Hi Hermit.crab. What are the steps to use the .vrmat file to restore the shaders?

Thanks again.

Load it into a VRayVRMatMtl.

[sean_brown]

There should be a .vrmat file in the Cosmos .vrmesh folder, which holds all shaders

Hi Hermit.crab. What are the steps to use the .vrmat file to restore the shaders?

Thanks again.