rendering curves with constant thickness

[marcovn]

Hi,
I wonder if vray offers a way to render NURBS curves as lines with constant thickness (like vectorlines).
In practise, when flying through a model of a solarsystem, there is always the pain in the a... with the orbitpaths of the planets. Looking from above, all looks fine, but when you ride through the system, the elipsecurves of the planets always have to be animated in thickness to get a decent look. But the problem raises if you still can see the orbitline in the background (opposite of the sun), which should not change in thickness.
While in every planetariumprogram these lines were drawn as vectors, I see no simple solution for that in a 3D-program. (Actually my planet-orbits-toruses consists of paint-effect brushes with a thicknessmodifier parented to the camera).

Perhaps vray has something to offer? Or is it simply not doable?

Thanks,
Marco

[super gnu]

vraytoon? you can set the edge thickness in pixels.

[vlado]

VRayToon would still need the lines to be at least thick enough so that camera rays can hit them. We can probably add an option for constant thickness relative to the camera, but I'm not sure how complicated it will be to implement right away.

Best regards,
Vlado

[marcovn]

Thank you for your answers!

I tried Vray Toon but besides of the camera-ray-hit-problem, the original tube still gets very big when nearby the camera (then I get 2 toonlines which enclose the tube). How about an option in "renderable curves" for constant thickness relative to the camera? So there could be Highlights, Reflections, Textures etc. too. But the curve needs to be tesselated every frame an I have no idea what problems will show up then even with motion blur.

So, if there is an easy way to go for that effect (or a vectorlinedraw posteffect or whatever) I would be more than glad to have it. Otherwise it would be better to put all resources in finishing vray 3.0 for maya

Best regards,
Marco