Vray for Maya 3.3 normal map looks different than 3.1

[gianca]

I'm getting a very different look in vray for maya 3.3 from version 3.1 when using normal maps.
The pic attached shows the same scene rendered from Maya 2016 with both vray 3.1 and vray 3.3.


Gianca

[vlado]

V-Ray now supports by default the color management functions for File nodes in Maya 2016; try setting the color space of the File texture to "Raw" or just disable the color management and see what happens. You can also disable color management for V-Ray specifically by setting the environment variable VRAY_TEXTURES_USE_SYNCOLOR=0

Best regards,
Vlado

[gianca]

Works like a charm Vlado,
it is actually a great feature to have color management functions within maya!

Thanks!
Gianca

[vlado]

Ok, glad to know it works

We only support a limited subset of all color spaces right now (sRGB, gamma 2.2, gamma 2.4 and gamma 1., but we can add more as needed.

Best regards,
Vlado

[gianca]

ACEScg comes to mind...


G

[vlado]

ACEScg comes to mind...

Yes, I can imagine... that one is fairly easy to implement.

Best regards,
Vlado

[snivlem]

Vlado, maybe this is a question you get a lot (I can't find the answer already in the forum), but does this mean with VRay 3.3 for every texture map going into bump or any other value based slots we put Maya's color management to RAW?

[vlado]

Vlado, maybe this is a question you get a lot (I can't find the answer already in the forum), but does this mean with VRay 3.3 for every texture map going into bump or any other value based slots we put Maya's color management to RAW?

If Maya's color management is enabled, then yes. Not sure if there's a way to handle this automatically... we could assume that single-channel textures are not sRGB?

Best regards,
Vlado

[ivaylo.ivanov]

Well, in theory, we can use the shading graph to see where the texture is attached. But we haven't investigating this yet, since the graph may be complicated and it will need more testing to see if it works well. Another option is to return to the old behavior with the env variable VRAY_TEXTURES_USE_SYNCOLOR=0.

[snivlem]

Both interesting ideas.

I think it would make sense to assume that a map plugged into a vraymtl driving a value based attribute (ie reflection glossiness, bump map) then it shouldn't be treated as an srgb. How that would work though is beyond my scope!

[vlado]

People often have the same map plugged into multiple places - f.e. a color map used to drive the diffuse color, and after some color correction nodes, it can be used to drive bump mapping. What then?

Best regards,
Vlado

[ivaylo.ivanov]

We can detect this case also, but like I said, it needs some testing and tweaking until we get it right in most cases. After all, we are trying to figure out the best default value, you can always override it with the extra attributes.

[GoodbyeKansas]

I can't notice any change in render when swithing Color Space on the file nodes. Maya Color Managment is enabled.
When set to sRGB I would expect to get the almost the same result as adding a Texture Input Gamma attribute and setting it to 2.2.

Am I thinking wrong?

Running Maya 2016 ext1 sp5.

-- Erik

[ivaylo.ivanov]

If the image is exr or hdr, the color space is ignored. Otherwise, I will need an example.

[ivaylo.ivanov]

Also, if you put the VRay extra gamma attributes (even disabled), they will override the Maya's color space.