Normal maps warning:

[yolov]

If a texture for normal mapping or similar (incl. reflection glossiness, etc) that is normally encoded as linear sRGB - you'll need to set its color space to 'raw'.
V-Ray simply warns that you may get unexpected results, and you can keep rendering, but it's best to make sure all the textures are corrected for the right color spaces.

[TKIO]

Thank you Alex. That's what I read in the doc but using ACES 1.2, anything that has a value needs to be "Linear sRBG" not "Raw"... And it works fine... It's just that that warning which keep on showing up randomly in the bottom script editor bar is quite annoying. If there's no way I can get rid of it, it's ok, I'll try to live with it.

Cheers,

Jacques

[yolov]

There should be a Raw (capital R) built-in color space and then a raw (lower-case r) OCIO color space. Try using one of these depending on your setup.

[TKIO]

Thank you Alex but I tried that and you can clearly see the difference where the "RAW" doesn't correct it right... So that's not really an option.


Just out of curiosity... Why do you give that message for that specify "color space" and for the others... Say "aces2065-1" and "sRGB" for instance?

Cheers,

Jacques.

[yolov]

Hey TKIO
Try searching for one that doesn't say "utility" in the beginning. There should be an option in the list that says simply "raw" (lowercase r) in the list and that's the one you need when using an OCIO configuration (I assume you are using OCIO, since all the Utility spaces show up in the list).
As for the warning - it's to warn the user that there's a texture used for normal mapping, that has unexpected color space corrections applied and the result may be incorrect. The whole purpose of the message is to bring your attention to the color space setting of such textures so you don't get an undesired result. The message will not in any way prevent you from rendering.

Let me know if that helps.

[TKIO]

Thank you again Alex!
There's a "raw" in color space but it doesn't correct right neither:



As mentioned in previous posts and as you said, it doesn't stop me from rendering, it's just quite annoying to see it popping in the "script" bar while doing something that in my opinion has nothing to do with texture conversion such has tweaking xgen guides... But again I'll live with it since apparently, there is no way I can get rid of it.

Cheers,

Jacques.

[yolov]

It does seem to have a (subtle) effect if I look closely at the swatch preview. Or you mean that it corrects the image, but not in the expected way?
Leaving it at 'raw' should also make the warning go away.
In any case, the warning is there to make sure you get the right result, and the most it can do is be annoying, sorry

[TKIO]

Yes I agree Alex, it's subtle but It makes quite of a difference when rendering... It's mainly the hue/saturation of the color and where there's blue in the HDRi, it's even worse where it turns into some sort of saturated cyan... Anyways... Yes the warning is right if you use the Maya built in aces but not if you use the latest aces 1.2

[TKIO]

Hi,
I've been using quite a lot V-Ray recently and noticed that this warning is not just very annoying but It actually slows down my process/pipeline. Many times when doing something like updating a simple XGen groom (eyebrows) with less than 1000 primitives, Maya/Xgren freezes for few seconds, I get the warning "Warning: File texture "file27" used as normal map has a color correction enabled. This may lead to unexpected results" And than only the XGen description updates. I really don't understand why you wouldn't consider changes this to the option so that artists who know for years that a normal map has to be converted as a value and not as a color don't have to suffer from this.

I'm not 100 % sure as I only use Arnold for work and V-Ray for personal work but It's the first time I see a renderer telling me to make sure I converted an image into the right color space.
Besides and again, I can't even really understand and make sense of this warning because it also applies to sRGB textures... If you use ACES 1.2 and use the wrong color space for you "color" textures, It will also look wrong and some beginners won't understand neither might not understand neither so if you want to be consistent, you should give a "Warning" for both.
Either ways, when all working all the day long with a renderer that keeps on giving you warnings like this all the time while you know exactly what you're doing is very very frustrating!
It might sound silly but some day, It's infuriating to a point and that I just want to give up using V-Ray.

Cheers,

Jacques

[damaggio]

I find very useful having the warning show up if have the wrong color profile on a loaded image .

[francomanko]

Also worth noting, that theres been a bug in Maya since wwwaaay back, where if you change the colorspace of a file texture, then click 'reload' it resets this value... the bug was logged a long time ago but nothing done about it as far as 2019.3 goes. I tend to use the vray 'texture input gamma' attribute instead.

There is a script that will automate this on multiple selected filenodes on highend

https://www.highend3d.com/maya/scrip...gamma-for-maya

[TKIO]

damaggio: The issue is not to have a warning if using the wrong color space... I could live with that if I get it once I load the scene or something... The problem is having it at random while working in your scene while doing things that aren't related at all with that texture as described in my post... For instance updating a XGen description that has no texture attached to it. I sometimes do nothing and out of the blue, it shows up in the script bar. And again, it slows down my process because there're things I do and nothing happens as if something is running and after few seconds, I get the warning and after that, what I wanted to do happened... As if V-Ray keeps on looking at all the textures and see if a normal map has the wrong color space.
Besides, if you want to have warnings for wrong color space showing in your scripting bar that keeps on coming out of the blue, that's fine but why not set it up in settings/preferences for people who know exactly the color space they need to use for their color management.

francomanko: I was already using previous version of V-Ray in Maya 2018 with ACES and setting up different color space for all my textures and never got this warning so I think it comes from V-Ray and not Maya.



Cheers,

Jacques.

[yolov]

Hi,
I've been using quite a lot V-Ray recently and noticed that this warning is not just very annoying but It actually slows down my process/pipeline. Many times when doing something like updating a simple XGen groom (eyebrows) with less than 1000 primitives, Maya/Xgren freezes for few seconds, I get the warning "Warning: File texture "file27" used as normal map has a color correction enabled. This may lead to unexpected results" And than only the XGen description updates. I really don't understand why you wouldn't consider changes this to the option so that artists who know for years that a normal map has to be converted as a value and not as a color don't have to suffer from this.

It's not normal to have so many log prints for this warning that it halts Maya.
It would be best if you can get us a scene to debug.

[TKIO]

Thank you Yolov! The scene is rather heavy/complex with lost of images and because of that nasty bug in alsurface, I suspended my license... As soon as I'm back on it, I'll try to record a session to show those warnings while working and how it affects my workflow.

Cheers,

Jacques.

[yolov]

Hi TKIO ,

OK, I understand. Whenever you have the time - do let me know and I'll see if there's something we can do to help make this easier.