Some features

[7enith]

While working on a scene I came up with some stuff and ideas!


Two little ideas:

I´m a zbrush nerd and love to produce meshes with lots and lots of detail. Ideal for Vray proxy
Sometimes the asset density can be very high like 40 Million or even more (f.e. foreground mountains with stone ect. whatever), so waiting for loading such a dense model into modo (or any other app) and exporting afterwards can take a lot of time. A nightmare if you have several dense meshes! I heard there´s obj and ply converter which does the conversion on the fly (<-does it exist for mac too?)

But would´nt it be nice to select a obj and ply and have it automatically converted and loaded as a proxy mesh from inside modo? So one click and have the assets ready?


The second idea:
Vray converts Modo Materials and some textures automatically behind the scenes. So while blocking the scene out, one might stick with modo materials first. But at some point if you want to switch out the shaders to vray you´ll have to go into the menu´s load the vray material and make adjustments. Which can take some time depending on how many materials you have.

So if Vray converts materials and textures in the background anyway, would´nt it be possible to expose a switch that replaces the selected modo materials with vray materials?


Anyhow, just some ideas Thanks for reading!
All the best
christian

[vladimir.nedev]

I´m a zbrush nerd and love to produce meshes with lots and lots of detail. Ideal for Vray proxy
Sometimes the asset density can be very high like 40 Million or even more (f.e. foreground mountains with stone ect. whatever), so waiting for loading such a dense model into modo (or any other app) and exporting afterwards can take a lot of time. A nightmare if you have several dense meshes! I heard there´s obj and ply converter which does the conversion on the fly (<-does it exist for mac too?)

But would´nt it be nice to select a obj and ply and have it automatically converted and loaded as a proxy mesh from inside modo? So one click and have the assets ready?

You can find the ply2vrmesh tool in /Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/MODO_x64/bin/ply2vrmesh.bin , if you installed V-Ray for MODO in the default location.
I can make a MODO UI command for the tool, and a button inside the V-Ray Proxy item to invoke the command. This way you won't have to deal with command line options.
Good idea. And I think it will be straightforward to implement.

The second idea:
Vray converts Modo Materials and some textures automatically behind the scenes. So while blocking the scene out, one might stick with modo materials first. But at some point if you want to switch out the shaders to vray you´ll have to go into the menu´s load the vray material and make adjustments. Which can take some time depending on how many materials you have.

So if Vray converts materials and textures in the background anyway, would´nt it be possible to expose a switch that replaces the selected modo materials with vray materials?

This won't be as easy as it sounds. V-Ray For MODO currently uses two separate conversions of the MODO materal:
1. for Production/RT - this conversion creates a pretty complicated shading network in order to match the MODO material as close as possible
2. for RT GPU - a much simpler shading network using only RT GPU supported nodes

In both cases the shading network that's created won't be very presentable in MODO's UI. So I will have to create a third conversion process, which will work in even less cases than the other 2.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[jonmoore]

You can find the ply2vrmesh tool in /Applications/ChaosGroup/V-Ray/MODO_x64/bin/ply2vrmesh.bin , if you installed V-Ray for MODO in the default location.
I can make a MODO UI command for the tool, and a button inside the V-Ray Proxy item to invoke the command. This way you won't have to deal with command line options.
Good idea. And I think it will be straightforward to implement.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

Yes please.

This sounds like a great idea to me.

[7enith]

That sounds like a dream That would make vray definitely a good companion for high resolutions! Thanks!!!!

[7enith]

Hi Vladimir,

the Render State Option (the small camera icon) inside the Group Palette doesn´t seem to work with vray yet.

all the best
cv

[vladimir.nedev]

Hi Vladimir,

the Render State Option (the small camera icon) inside the Group Palette doesn´t seem to work with vray yet.

all the best
cv

Yep, this has been request multiple times. Hopefully I can fix it soon.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[uncle pritt]

Hi Vladimir,

is it possible to add a save "separate render channel" check (like in vray for max) in the main Vray Tab prior to hit render? Or we can handle it with the autosave check of the History section in the VFB?
Also, do you know a way to build a render queue compatible with vray for modo? This is a big feature missing in Modo, something like Autodesk Backburner given with 3dsMax.

Thank you.

[vladimir.nedev]

is it possible to add a save "separate render channel" check (like in vray for max) in the main Vray Tab prior to hit render? Or we can handle it with the autosave check of the History section in the VFB?

If you specify a file in the "Final Color Output" item in the Shader Tree, the rendered images will be saved to that file. Each render element in its own file (unless the file extension is tiled exr).
If you forget to specify a file, the Save button in the VFB is actually 3 separate buttons, hold down with the left mouse button on it and you will get the 3 options
- save current render channel
- save all render channels in separate files
- save all render channels in a single file (in which case only .exr and .vrimg formats are available)

I am not sure the "separate render channel" option from V-Ray for 3ds Max is needed in MODO. Or am I misunderstanding ?

Also, do you know a way to build a render queue compatible with vray for modo? This is a big feature missing in Modo, something like Autodesk Backburner given with 3dsMax.

I just searched for MODO compatible render managers, and interestingly enough, the MODO page for "Deadline" states that it supports V-Ray for MODO :
http://docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/pro...modo-ref-label

I haven't tested it though, and they've not contacted me with questions or anything else. Not sure if all of Deadline's options that work with MODO's renderer work with V-Ray too. Not mentioned on their page.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[uncle pritt]

If you specify a file in the "Final Color Output" item in the Shader Tree, the rendered images will be saved to that file. Each render element in its own file (unless the file extension is tiled exr).
If you forget to specify a file, the Save button in the VFB is actually 3 separate buttons, hold down with the left mouse button on it and you will get the 3 options
- save current render channel
- save all render channels in separate files
- save all render channels in a single file (in which case only .exr and .vrimg formats are available)

I am not sure the "separate render channel" option from V-Ray for 3ds Max is needed in MODO. Or am I misunderstanding ?

Oh, I didn't notice it, thank you. At the moment I'm using the three separate buttons. Thank you for thins hint. The "separate render channel" button is useless knowing this.

I just searched for MODO compatible render managers, and interestingly enough, the MODO page for "Deadline" states that it supports V-Ray for MODO :
http://docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/pro...modo-ref-label

I haven't tested it though, and they've not contacted me with questions or anything else. Not sure if all of Deadline's options that work with MODO's renderer work with V-Ray too. Not mentioned on their page.

Thank you, I'm checking right now.
Sorry for the silly requests

Regards.

[vladimir.nedev]

But wouldn´t it be nice to select a obj and ply and have it automatically converted and loaded as a proxy mesh from inside modo? So one click and have the assets ready?

This has been added in today's nightly build ( 2015-11-17 ).
Here is a screen-shot:



Right now, there are some problems with it, since it invokes the ply2vrmesh executable as a separate process, I need to eventually merge the ply2vrmesh code inside V-Ray for MODO to get rid of most of these problems:
- under Windows, a separate command line window with progress messages will open up, MODO will be blocked until the ply2vrmesh tool finishes
- you can't safely abort the ply2vrmesh tool, if you do while the .vrmesh file is being written, it might create a corrupted .vrmesh file that will then hang V-Ray for MODO while it attempts to read it
- under Mac OS X, the application is run in the background with no progress of any kind visible, you just have to wait until MODO becomes responsive again

When I merge the ply2vrmesh code inside MODO, you will get the normal V-Ray for MODO progress bar, with the ability to abort the conversion process.

It will be great if you can give it a test, and see how it works for you.
Unfortunately there are no software licensing builds anymore, so you might have to wait until we get the new licensing out.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[janko22]

Hi Vladimir, is the new loader also able to convert lxo files on the fly and load them as proxies? Could it be possible to load materials from proxy file, when loading proxy file to a new scene?
Also is there any ETA on the new licensing, so we without dongles can continue to use it?

[vladimir.nedev]

is the new loader also able to convert lxo files on the fly and load them as proxies?

No, it works only with the formats supported by the ply2vrmesh tool - obj, ply, geo-bgeo (which come from Houdini I think), Realflow bin and some others.
Extending it to work with .lxo won't be of much benefit, as you already have the Convert to V-Ray Proxy command.
Also, loading a .lxo scene in the background, while another is already opened, will probably result in a lot of additional problems.
I don't think attempting this is worth the development time it will take to implement.
You can always load a second scene in MODO, use the "Convert to V-Ray Proxy command" on it, then close it. This will be what will happen internally anyway.
With the other formats, you have the benefit that ply2vrmesh doesn't try to display them using OpenGL like MODO would. So you save that step of the conversion process, which for heavier meshes might completely block MODO.

Could it be possible to load materials from proxy file, when loading proxy file to a new scene?

No, the vrmesh format doesn't contain any material information. Including this kind of information will be a huge amount of work. Considering the vrmesh needs to be re-usable in different 3D Apps with different material systems makes it even harder.
You can use MODO's preset system to store the V-Ray Proxy materials separately from it. This gives you the ability to have one .vrmesh file with a few different material presets. As explained here:
http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthr...640#post633640

It might be possible to embed the MODO material preset file inside a vrmesh though and have it loaded automatically, but I am not sure how easy that can be done.

Also is there any ETA on the new licensing, so we without dongles can continue to use it?

I've asked the guys that are doing the release for a status update, will let you know, as soon as I know more.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[janko22]

Thanks Vladimir,
Maybe you don't have to embed material presets to proxy, just create some default materials from polygon tags in proxy file. Because now you have to create/load new material and then assign it to polygon tag from proxy file (from the list).

[vladimir.nedev]

Thanks Vladimir,
Maybe you don't have to embed material presets to proxy, just create some default materials from polygon tags in proxy file. Because now you have to create/load new material and then assign it to polygon tag from proxy file (from the list).

Ah, yes, this is on the TODO list. I thought you meant storing/loading all the material information, not just the material assignment.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[7enith]

wow, that sounds really cool! I´ll put it to a test right away