RT and gpu (Hardware guidance please)

[BVA]

I have never really been very impressed with RT in the past and don't use it at the moment.
My pc have a gtx 970 at the moment. Would it be worth it to add another one or 2 GTX 970's?
I am trying to find out if the cost would be worth it and if RT will then be a replacement for preview window.

We do arch viz so lots of details and lots of textures to be loaded.

[vladimir.nedev]

Before going this route, you should test your scenes in RT GPU, since not everything is supported.
We will eventually be implementing more MODO specific stuff (shader tree blending, gradient texture, etc..) for RT GPU, but I can't promise when.

Currently MODO's material is exported in a completely different way for RT GPU and for RT CPU/Production.
This is because RT GPU doesn't support any non-physical options (like additive blending of materials, different reflection/specular colors, blurry specular with clear reflections).
So, any preset MODO materials that you may be using in V-Ray RT CPU/Production may work differently. If you are going to use RT GPU, it's probably best to completely
switch to using V-Ray's own material, as it should act the same (not counting some special features that may not be implemented in RT GPU) in Production, RT CPU and RT GPU.

Also have in mind that each GPU needs to have its own copy of the rendering data (geometry/textures/materials).
So adding more GPUs won't increase the available video RAM for the machine, just the speed of rendering.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[BVA]

Thanks Vladimir

I prefer the modo materials to be honest. I only use vray materials if I really cant get anything to work cause of compatibility.
Currently I will texture a item with modo materials and then use the preview window to make sure all work as I want it. this is nice cause I can use the ctrl H command to isolate items I am working with. once I am happy with the items I will unhide all and render the complete scene in vray. unfortunately sometimes it does not render the same and needs to be tweaked.

I will then rather keep with my current workflow. Thanks for the heads up!

PS... is there any possibility for better or more integrated support for modo materials?

[vladimir.nedev]

If you provide me example scenes with the MODO material that doesn't quite work in V-Ray for MODO, I can take a look.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[BVA]

That is GREAT/ kind of you thanks!
I am under huge presure at the moment...can I came back to this in 2 or 3 weeks time?

[vladimir.nedev]

Yes, of course.

Just a note though, switching to V-Ray materials might be a bit harder at first, but I think you will get better, more realistic results in the long run,
since the V-Ray material won't allow you to make materials that are not physically-based.

As for hiding/unhiding objects with H/Ctrl+H/Shift+H, unfortunately I can't get at this MODO state with the current MODO API.
But I can probably make V-Ray Production/RT render only the selected objects. Basically everything that is not selected will be considered hidden.
And this can be a toggle for RT CPU so you can quickly unhide everything.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[BVA]

Thanks Vladimir, this sound good. If you can get that to work with RT it might help the workflow a lot! (replacing my need for the preview window)

I just noticed for the first time this morning I can now see vray materials in the preview window. This is a huge benefit for me as I like to see that my mapping is working properly and the basic reflections etc works well.
I use preview to set up everything and then vray frame buffer to set up my lights. so, I might start using the vray materials on the next job...maybe it is worth it! One thing I don't like is to create a material and then convert them to a vray material. I did create a button to convert it but it is still an extra step in the process. Add hundreds of materials and it add a lot of extra clicks..... I always try to speed things up, not add extra

So, I know this is petty but is there any way I can create a shortcut to create a vray material in stead of converting default materials?

[vladimir.nedev]

Thanks Vladimir, this sound good. If you can get that to work with RT it might help the workflow a lot! (replacing my need for the preview window)

I just noticed for the first time this morning I can now see vray materials in the preview window. This is a huge benefit for me as I like to see that my mapping is working properly and the basic reflections etc works well.
I use preview to set up everything and then vray frame buffer to set up my lights. so, I might start using the vray materials on the next job...maybe it is worth it! One thing I don't like is to create a material and then convert them to a vray material. I did create a button to convert it but it is still an extra step in the process. Add hundreds of materials and it add a lot of extra clicks..... I always try to speed things up, not add extra

So, I know this is petty but is there any way I can create a shortcut to create a vray material in stead of converting default materials?

It is pretty easy to create a button that will create one of the V-Ray materials, but I guess you know that.
I suppose you want to have a command similar to the 'm' command that will assign a material tag to the selected faces,
create a group with that material tag in the shader tree and then put a V-Ray material in it. I am planning to add such a command
at some point.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[BVA]

yes, that is exactly what I mean, you just word it better!