propery way to set up camera distance based bump/normal effect

[jasonhuang1115]

The VRayFalloff node just gives you the per pixel distance from whatever camera it’s being rendered through, there are no connections involved.

Yeah, I did a quick test and noticed that's one of the benefits where I don't need to spend time on connecting a camera to multiple nodes. Trying to figure a way to get a visual read of the Bump Mult value at the moment though. I kinda know the range of Bump Mult I want for each shader so being able to get a read before kicking off an IPR really helps speed up the setup.

[dgruwier]

You know the options now, so pick what works best for you.

That being said, you could create a very fast render layer with no lights or reflections, using the Extra Tex element like I mentioned earlier, then just have that running in the IPR while you make your tweaks. That way you can see the exact bump multiply value across the entire image, for every object at the same time, and (most importantly I'd argue) you can actually see the bump itself. If you just have that running constantly, there's nothing to kick off.

[yolov]

[USER="192139"]
I also came across an approach here (https://jdbeals.com/tutorials/camera...-bump-mapping/) and with that, I was able to see the Bump Mult value changing in UI as pull camera close/away from the character, something I couldn't visualize with VRayFalloff until I IPR the scene. It works when I test it but again need to figure out a way to scale up for my scene that has multiple shaders and camera switch at the end.

That's an interesting approach.
Do let us know how things turn out at the end, I'm curious.

[jasonhuang1115]

You know the options now, so pick what works best for you.

That being said, you could create a very fast render layer with no lights or reflections, using the Extra Tex element like I mentioned earlier, then just have that running in the IPR while you make your tweaks. That way you can see the exact bump multiply value across the entire image, for every object at the same time, and (most importantly I'd argue) you can actually see the bump itself. If you just have that running constantly, there's nothing to kick off.

dgruwier Oh man, cool trick! I'll give that a go. cheers!

[jasonhuang1115]

That's an interesting approach.
Do let us know how things turn out at the end, I'm curious.

yolov sure thing Alex. I didn't realize there are multiple ways to achieve this each with pros and cons until this thread. Thanks guys!

Also, is this setup gonna be obsolete if I use displacement map instead?

[yolov]

Also, is this setup gonna be obsolete if I use displacement map instead?

Good question. Depends on what you need to control. I think you can get a camera-depth-dependent amount and quality (edge length + max subdivs) for displacement with a similar setup. Have never tested such a thing, so I don't know how it will behave.