A bunch of questions

[Pixero]

Will you implement any more shading types than Blinn and Phong? Like OrenNayar, BRDF and Lafortune for example.

Will you implement more blendmodes like multiply, add, overlay and screen?

Is there, or will there be, a SDK for extending the VrayforSketchUp with custom shaders and plugins? (This is kind of important to me.)
I've written some MentalRay shaders (http://www.pixero.com/downloads_mr.html) and would like to port some of them to VrayforSketchUp.

How to get the Vray (Physical) camera to match the sketchup view camera? Im thinking; rendering a pass in Vray and one in sketchup and mixing them in post.
(I read that the Standard camera didnt work well with physical sky for example.)

How about line rendering? Will there be any? And what about sketchy lines?

Will there be any speed improvements once its out of beta?

This beta 4, how far from version 1 would you describe it? One, two...ten more betas? I understand that you cant give a date. I'm just interested if its sooner or later.
If I'm to be convinced to go with this I need to approximate when it will be production ready.

I've read about a Vray material converter on the way. Great!
Could you describe what the difference is between your vismat and the standard Vray mat?
Will the converter be able to go both ways?


So far its looking good and I like the ease of use.
Keep up the good work!

[dalomar_cg]

Re: A bunch of questions

Will you implement any more shading types than Blinn and Phong? Like OrenNayar, BRDF and Lafortune for example.

Currently the only shader that is supported by vfMax that we don't support is Ward...so thats going to be dependant on ChaosGroup

Will you implement more blendmodes like multiply, add, overlay and screen?

Not a bad idea...I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think our material structure doesn't really work like the Max one does, so some of those may be possible via an added feature in the UI. Joe would be able to give you a more definite answer on that one.

Is there, or will there be, a SDK for extending the VrayforSketchUp with custom shaders and plugins? (This is kind of important to me.)

Well your first step should be to download the Vray SDK from ChaosGroup. Your going to need to write the shader to work with that first. The development for vfsu is (to way oversimplify what's happening) just a hand off of the scene info (geometry/mat/lighting) to the vray core...were not developing the core, so thats getting your shader to work with that is priority number one. After that Joe is the one to ask. If I might ask...If you have the know how to write shaders...why is SU your platform of choice?? (I'm just curious on that one)

How to get the Vray (Physical) camera to match the sketchup view camera? Im thinking; rendering a pass in Vray and one in sketchup and mixing them in post.
(I read that the Standard camera didnt work well with physical sky for example.)

Well if your talking about exposure, the physical cam will never "match" the standard cam. Its because of the difference in how each one reacts to the light in the scene. The standard camera can work with the physical sun, but the sun's multiplier will need to be incredibly small (.002-.003 to be exact...at noon)

Will there be any speed improvements once its out of beta?

Well rendering wise the speed you get is full throttle...we're not holding anything back. As far as ui and other things (like the inital hand off of the scene info) there is a decent chance that Joe will optimize that even more. Short answer...Rendering is at top speed...Working with the scene will probably be improved.

Will the converter be able to go both ways?

Not sure...but that would be good to have.

[Pixero]

Re: A bunch of questions

Thanks for your answers. I look forward to hearing Joes explanations too.
I've contacted ChaosGroup about the SDK so hopefully I'll get it soon.

getting your shader to work with that is priority number one. After that Joe is the one to ask. If I might ask...If you have the know how to write shaders...why is SU your platform of choice?? (I'm just curious on that one)

I'm currently working as an archviz, and since a lot of modelling is beeing done in SketchUp I think this integrated renderer would be a great solution for those tight deadline jobs.
I still use Max and MentalRay at times.

Well rendering wise the speed you get is full throttle...we're not holding anything back. As far as ui and other things (like the inital hand off of the scene info) there is a decent chance that Joe will optimize that even more. Short answer...Rendering is at top speed...Working with the scene will probably be improved.

Well I guess coming from MentalRay I simply havent learned how to optimize my renders yet...
A few "optimize Vray render settings" tutorials would come in handy.

Will you implement more blendmodes like multiply, add, overlay and screen?

Not a bad idea...I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think our material structure doesn't really work like the Max one does, so some of those may be possible via an added feature in the UI. Joe would be able to give you a more definite answer on that one.

I hope so.
Not sure if you need this, but here is a useful link on blendmodes:
http://www.pegtop.net/delphi/articles/blendmodes/

Currently the only shader that is supported by vfMax that we don't support is Ward...so thats going to be dependant on ChaosGroup

I guess it would be useful with some custom 3rd party shaders then right?



I think you covered most of my questions exept for line rendering and the beta status.
It would also be great to hear what Joe has to say about custom shaders integration...


Thanks, I guess I'll be back with more questions.

Edit: Like this one.
I've read that SketchUp simply ignores if a imagemaps is larger than 1024x1024 and down samples them to that size. What happens to them in Vray?

[dalomar_cg]

Re: A bunch of questions

I'm currently working as an archviz, and since a lot of modelling is beeing done in SketchUp I think this integrated renderer would be a great solution for those tight deadline jobs.
I still use Max and MentalRay at times.

Cool...I was just wondering where SketchUp came into the piture.

Well I guess coming from MentalRay I simply havent learned how to optimize my renders yet...
A few "optimize Vray render settings" tutorials would come in handy.

One of the biggest ones is Detail Enhancement...It produces great result quickly and is easy to implement (2-3 clicks at most). I'd go into more, but that probably deserves its own thread.

I guess it would be useful with some custom 3rd party shaders then right?

I believe there are a few out there for Max... A few are just a "new skin" and there are others that add some different functionality.

I think you covered most of my questions exept for line rendering and the beta status.

Didn't want to give you false information on those.

I've read that SketchUp simply ignores if a imagemaps is larger than 1024x1024 and down samples them to that size. What happens to them in Vray?

Vray obviously handles textures that are bigger than that, but you might have a point. My guess would be that any pure Vray material would support the larger texture, and any SU wrapped material would have the downsampled maps...that would be worst case senario...best is none get downsampled

I think the shader implementation would be a great step foward. I don't know if it would also work with Rhino, since both platforms should be much more compliant with each other than max to su or rhino. Either way I'd love to see it happen as it would push our product forward, our users forward, ChaosGroup forward, and ultimately Vray as a whole.

[joe_b]

Re: A bunch of questions

I'm not sure if it is as cut and dry to create your own shaders. Even if you are capable of programming your own version - you would need UI for it to be usable in VfS. We haven't had much thought on users creating their own homegrown shaders via a c++ interface. I'm not sure about the logistics of that.

[Pixero]

Re: A bunch of questions

I'm not sure if it is as cut and dry to create your own shaders. Even if you are capable of programming your own version - you would need UI for it to be usable in VfS. We haven't had much thought on users creating their own homegrown shaders via a c++ interface. I'm not sure about the logistics of that.

Please consider it.
I believe it's important. Not just for me, but for the community to grow and to be able to enhance the tools your working with. Just think about what, lets say, Photoshop would be without its plugins. Or Max, or Maya, or MentalRay, or ....
In a perfect world all software comes with everything you'll need for every situation.
In reality that is seldom the case.

[joe_b]

Re: A bunch of questions

You are the first to request being able to build upon any of our plugins - but I'm sure you won't be the last. So we will have to think about it