Physically Based Shading Model of MODO's 901 Advanced material via V-ray

[jonmoore]

"Anisotropy and clear-coat roughness/bump don't work, but if somebody really wants them, I can try to export them.
I would prefer to look at other things for the moment." - Vladimir Nedev

Just spent the afternoon testing out some great Modo PBS materials via the V-Ray engine and the results are stunning and V-ray works seamlessly with Modo's 'Shader Tree model' (layered gradients, occlusion etc - the occlusion stuff performs exceptionally well). The surface/shading response is subtly different to using native Vray materials but in a good way (another flavour of GTR).

Before my testing session I hadn't read the earlier comments about the lack of bump, anisotropy and clear coat roughness at the moment but I'd love to see these aspects workinging if and when possible. It will make converting existing scenes a breeze and the the speed bumps of rendering Modo's PBS materials via VRay is phenomenal (especially when using IC / LC).

I know that this is more of a 'nice to have' than an essential requirement, but the fact that Modo's PBS tech functions in much the same manner as the V-Ray standard material makes this a breeze to work with from an artist's perspective. And I think it will ease the learning path for many into the delights of Vray.

Killer integration - my favourite thing about Vray for Modo so far.

[jonmoore]

Killer integration - my favourite thing about Vray for Modo so far.

I thought it worth quantifying this statement.

Over the years I've worked with Vray in all it's flavours - Max, Maya, Softimage, Rhino, Sketchup and VrayForC4d (studios I work with specialise in ID/Design Visualisation and Arch Viz). I've always found the Rhino & Sketchup flavours of V-Ray to be of a lesser quality than the Autodesk app flavours. VrayForC4d is unique in this mix as it has some unique features that integrate well with C4D (plus it provides many of the Mental Ray procedural shaders/textures found in the Max, Maya and Softimage).

V-Ray doesn't behave well with native Rhino, Sketchup and C4d shader technology but integrates well (provides relatively simple scene conversion workflow) with Mental Ray so V-Ray feels like an integral part of Max, Maya and Softimage. My initial concern before joining the beta, was that Vray for Modo would be more akin to the Sketchup/Rhino flavours than the Autodesk ones (as mentioned VrayForC4d is unique here as it's not maintained by Chaos Group).

Not only has the deep level integration of Vray within Modo impressed me but I'm finding that there are compelling reasons to creatively mix native Vray shaders with native Modo ones. It's certainly nice to have the option.

Modo's 901 native rendering is IMHO the best native solution on the market but it can't compete with the speed of using V-Ray in IC/LC mode. On Monte Carlo renders I'd say there's not much between Modo and Vray speed wise. So the fact that in many ways I can treat Modo & Vray shader technology with parity within Modo is a huge bonus (I've noticed there's an option to use Vray Materials with the Modo renderer too but have yet to test this).

[vladimir.nedev]

I am glad you like it, thank you.

The V-Ray material renders in a very simple way in MODO's renderer.
The idea was to at least have proper diffuse color, and some simple reflections, if the user is used to working with MODO's preview for material assignments.

The option from the global preferences called "Enable V-Ray materials in MODO renderer" was requested by a user who wanted to turn them off.
So he can have both MODO and V-Ray materials enabled at the same time, and compare the results in MODO with their material and V-Ray with our material.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[jonmoore]

I am glad you like it, thank you.

Vladimir Nedev

And the anisotropy and clear-coat roughness/bump, do you see these being integrated some time soon too?

Really would be the icing on the cake.

jm