Vray User Attribute Triplanar incompatibility

[9k_JHT]

Please fill me in if I'm just doing something stupid, but I'm having no luck getting the Vray user attribute applied to the transform of an object to work correctly with a triplanar node. Job is pretty urgent and this functionality would save us loads of time.

So I have an object with the a vray user attribute like so -

filePath=_Assets\Maps_Lib\_BRAND MAPS\MX MAPS\STRENGTH\ULTRA\MX17_PLACARD_Ultra_Lat_Pulldow n-01.png

Then if I have a file node, that takes in this entry to point to the image -

\\jhtnafile\RenderStorage\<filePath>

put the two together and you get the full UNC pathing to the file node -

\\jhtnafile\RenderStorage\_Assets\Maps_Lib\_BRAND MAPS\MX MAPS\STRENGTH\ULTRA\MX17_PLACARD_Ultra_Lat_Pulldow n-01.png

Now everything is fine and working as long as there are UVs on the object and the triplanar node is NOT being used.

If I do this same application but use the triplanar to project a texture, it fails. Nothing happens like the map cannot be pulled up. This was tested on the latest Vray for Maya version (not nightlies. On a windows 10 machine).

Anyone willing to let me know if there is a workaround to get the triplanar node to work with user attributes in this way OR if this functionality is just not supported at this time. Thanks.

[yolov]

In this case, is the filePath attribute specified onto an object in your scene?
Then a file node(s) is connected as a texture in triplanar, is that correct?
A simple scene would help better understand the setup, so if you have one that you can share, please do.

[9k_JHT]

Attached is a test scene. Also I'll explain further in this reply as well.

The first image jpg is Photo 1. Just a random brick texture.

The full path of the brick texture in my network env is as follows (UNC)-
\\jhtnafile\RenderStorage\_Assets\Maps_Lib\Diffuse \Brick.jpg

Since there seems to be an issue with putting the full path of the texture into the vray attribute on the object, I split the full path up into two parts. First half on the file texture node itself and second half as a Vray User Attribute (probably mel syntax with the double "\" even though I tried "\\\" to account for that).

Second photo shows the attribute of the file node. Third photo shows the the Vray user attribute on the object's transform.

Third image shows my simple material applied to a poly cube with the default UVS on the polyCube.

Fourth image shows the resulting render

So that works fine, but if I connect the outColor of the file node to the TextureX of the Triplanar node and connect the outColor the triplanar node to the diffuse color of the vrayMtl, I get no texture, but just the flat default color of the file node. Since I cannot attach more than 5 images, I will post a reply following this reply with a test scene attached in a minute.

Thanks!

[9k_JHT]

And here is the scene and the texture. To recreate the issue you will need to change the pathing on both the file nodes as well as the vray user attribute on the two boxes to match the location of where you extract the brick texture to.

Let me know what you come up with! Thank you Yolov.

[9k_JHT]

Just to put this in a production context as to why this functionality is important to us I will explain how I'm looking to use it in a real world scenario.

We have over 600 products we use rendering to represent. These products are larger scale and have a multitude of different materials that need to be accounted for. Many of these different material types share a common denominator... For instance, we have multiple materials that are composed out of rubber material, but may vary in bump texture, finish and color.

The goal is to setup "uber shaders" for each primary material type. So an uber rubber shader for instance that would pull from user attributes baked into the scene geometry itself. This way, one material will account for many variations. Making the scene not only lighter, but more manageable to iterate on.

By calling on maps like I'm doing, I can back in certain attributes for noise, geometric patterns, finish, color, etc.. into the geometry to then be called upon by the uber shader. Most of the time we utilize heavily the triplanar node since these are CAD imports and to manually UV map out each part would be unrealistic.

So the User Attributes are great! Having them work with the triplanar node would complete the setup I'm trying to build.

All of this is more-or-less going to be driven by Python and parsing geo into object sets to organize objects by material type.

Just figured I'd provide you with some reasoning behind needing this type of compatibility with user attributes and the triplanar node! as far as maps are concerned. Cheers!

[yolov]

Thank you for the detailed explanation, it makes things very clear. I did some tests here and the export seems to be correct, only the user attributes are not interpreted for some reason when things go through a triplanar node. I'll make a note for the devs to fix that (it's a bug), since I too believe it hinders the workflow.

[9k_JHT]

That would be great! Thank you for the following up on this. After you talk with the devs would you think you could provide an approximate time line for this fix to showork up in the nightlies? (If it's something that we could get into the nightlies that is).

thank you again.

[vlado]

This should be already fixed since a few days in the stable 3.6 builds. In you don't have acces to them, please email support@chaosgroup.com and ask for access.

Best regards,
Vlado

[9k_JHT]

Thanks Vlado. Haven't tried any nightlies for 3.6 Just official 3.6. Will check out the 3.6 nightlies.