Vray Layered Texture not working properly / "overlay" blend mode is still additive (instead of doing standard mask compositing)

[BeneZ]

Hello,
I am blending textures with Alpha.
When I use Vray Layered Texture with "normal" or "overlay" they still light each other up.
I am looking for a simple masking mode.
(input Mask used, Opacity was even worse)

When I use Maya Layered Texture for the same task, I don't have this issue at all.
What's different here?

Thanks!

p.s. I have quite often trouble with VrayLayeredTexture in Maya 2019.2. Sometimes it doesn't react at all and I switch to MayaLayeredTexture

BTW:
It would be really great, if the Layers of the VrayLayeredTexture node would display big and clear the name of the input node (not only when hovering with the mouse over it)
Often for debugging in complicated networks this would be a great help instead of only seing "layer 0" / "layer1" / "layer2" ...

[nikolay.kusht]

From my tests, the Overlay works correctly with a simple checker or image file. Is it possible to send us a test scene so we could try to reproduce the issue? Also, are you using procedural textures?

[yolov]

The overlay mode should do the same as in other applications like Photoshop, Nuke, etc where the same blend modes are used.
I can't really tell without a scene if something's wrong, as Nikolay pointed out - send a scene if possible.

It would be really great, if the Layers of the VrayLayeredTexture node would display big and clear the name of the input node (not only when hovering with the mouse over it)
Often for debugging in complicated networks this would be a great help instead of only seing "layer 0" / "layer1" / "layer2" ...

Do you mean to just make the layer name text bigger? We are a bit limited to what Maya allows in this particular UI layout.
Apart from that, we have some improvements in mind for the layered tex, but we need to finish other things before we get there.

[BeneZ]

Thanks for reply!

nikolay.kusht I will look once if I can find the scene and maybe narrow it down and send it

yolov With naming: Currently it displays:
Layers (0)
Layers (1)

It would be great if it displays
Layer (0 / "name of the incoming node")
Layer (1/ "name of the incoming node")

If the Nodes are properly named it helps to read at a glance, what inputs were mixed inside the node, especially when the nodes were collapsed.
The hover over help menu is very slow and with many inputs it's not giving a overview.

[yolov]

I'm not sure what you mean by the 'hover over' menu, can you elaborate?
As for layer names - I don't know what we can do about renaming them, but we'll look into it.

[BeneZ]

Hello,

1.)
I had a look into my last file: Maybe I found the issue:
I have put a mask into OPACITY instead of MASK.
(I don't know which is the difference, because when I want to make somehting more transparent I thought to put a mask into Opacity isn't wrong)
So I know now I will only use "Mask".
The Opacity input does not react at all when I plug my mask into it.
What is the purpose of the checker icon input of Opacity?

2.)
I realized that there is only for the "Maya Layered Texture" node a small (hard readable) message, displayed with black typo, when I go with the mouse over the input node icons.
In the VrayLayeredTexture there is no information.

I attached screenshots again.
Many thanks for looking

[Karol.Osinski]

Having a.possibility to rename individual layers like in 3ds max would be super handy.
Plus maybe viewport 2.0 support at some point. When I create materials at work I am often forced to use maya native latered texture node only because V-Ray one renders black in viewport, thus other less experienced collegues in studio are confused when they see it.

[BeneZ]

Yes, I agree also to the black viewport displaying problem, which is indeed the second downside of VrayLayeredTexture...

I have some scenes completely black in viewport (where it is even better to display them only as default material in grey, to be able to see anything).
In order to find out what has been my „failure“ above, I had to render the scene, whereas the MayaLayeredTex could be controlled instantly in the viewport.
Although the vrayLayeredTex is really much nicer and has more capabilities, this display issue often also me forcing to switch to the older MayaLayeredTex.

I added already a feature request for this topic, have a look there and add your „like“ there

[yolov]

Hello,

1.)
I had a look into my last file: Maybe I found the issue:
I have put a mask into OPACITY instead of MASK.
(I don't know which is the difference, because when I want to make somehting more transparent I thought to put a mask into Opacity isn't wrong)
So I know now I will only use "Mask".
The Opacity input does not react at all when I plug my mask into it.
What is the purpose of the checker icon input of Opacity?

That's some of the things we'll improve in the near future
Opacity is simply the *strength* of the layer. It's called that in other applications and we just left the name 'temporarily'. We'll need to change it to something more meaningful ... like *strength*, but if you have other suggestions, please share.
The checker icon needs to disappear - this parameter cannot be mapped. Another option would be to completely remove it or merge it with the 'mask' somehow.

2.)
I realized that there is only for the "Maya Layered Texture" node a small (hard readable) message, displayed with black typo, when I go with the mouse over the input node icons.
In the VrayLayeredTexture there is no information.

I attached screenshots again.
Many thanks for looking

Ah, thanks for clearing this one up. We'll see how we can add some hint to the connected texture.