A curvature map can be used to generate procedural wear on the edges of objects.
As a reference for the workflow you can read this article by Neil Blevins and you can take a look at how the Quixel Suite 2.0 generates its masks for layering materials.
Currently you can bake the curvature into the mesh vertices or buy a plugin like GeoMaps.
Personally I don’t like these solutions because:
you have to bake the curvature for each mesh you want to apply the shader on
baking the curvature needs a quite detailed mesh to work
baked curvature is geometry dependent, you have to re-bake when you change the mesh
GeoMaps is a plugin, meaning I have to hope that they will update in time when a new version of 3dsmax or Corona came out
GeoMaps is a plugin, meaning I have to hope that the render farm supports it
GeoMaps is a plugin, each person on the team needs to have the same version (?)
I think that it would be useful to have a dedicated curvature map in Corona.
What do you think about this request?
Anyone sharing the need for this feature?
I see, this is sad.
Next time I will try to search more for already discussed topics.
Do you think the main reason is not to hurt boomerlabs?
With GeoMaps they are selling two products, curvature and tension, we are only talking about curvature here.
In addiction to this, their curvature has a lot o advanced features like: per frame calculation (I think we only need static), smoothing, distortion, directional influence.
I read in another discussion that the general policy is “not developing what it is already there”, do you this is the reason?
Don’t know, but i don’t think so. If Render Legion would be so affraid to hurt someone, they wouldn’t release Corona in the first place. Someones profit is almost always others lost :]
As much as i’d want to see Corona’s curvature and warp maps implementations, i think that this senseful decision. We need things that cannot be easily replaced first. When major features will be done, maybe then time will come for less important ones.
Partially. A dedicated shader map would still be a superior in my opinion because it would allow you to have the complete solution in the material. The Data Channel Modifier method instead splits the solution in two, since you have the modifier that is applied to the mesh and the vertex color map that is in the material.
Just touching this topic again.
I’ve been away from Corona Forum for a good amount of time. I was moving myself and my family to another country (canadá) and i am working with Maya (bleh) and Redshift now. But i still using Max and Corona for comissioned and personal work.
I am here just to say that Curvature Map works very well in Redshift and it adds a lot to the shaders. Not sure if everything there can be replicated using DataChannel only. The shader is a no-brainer in RS, just add and works, very easy and fast. I was adding it on a lot of my shaders on a recent work with a lot of displacements/bumps, etc.
One of the main “problems” using it thru Data channel is when have a lot of objects to apply it. It’s harder to manage a lot of modifiers on many pieces, instead of one single map/shader.
Oh, i would love to see Corona’s curvature map, but now it’s even more unlikely to happen than before, given in mind that newest 3ds Max has its own solution through OSL.
Hi I would like to cast my vote into this request. I would love for dedicated Corona Curvature map. Using the Corona AO map for this is just very tedious and difficult, and with just a slight change in the models scale etc you have to re-tweak the numbers - so not very user friendly.
After testing out Redshift, which has a dedicated Curvature Map I now see how much I miss that opportunity with Corona.
Isn’t curvature map local to the object only?
That would make the usage of a curvature map as a dirt / war map less useful, since a lamp standing on a desk would have wear free base, as the connection lamp base → table is global.
Only proper Global AO or baking AO does that.
SairesArt,
The Curvature map in Redshift works very similar to AO map in Corona except it by default finds the edges rather than the occlusion.
You can choose to find convex or concave edges, and you can also choose for the object to be affected only by itself or by other objects as well. Same as corona AO.
The good thing about it is that since Redshift has one single map for AO and one for Curvature, making worn convex edges or any other usage in this regard super easy, instead of struggling with a Map that is not intended for such usage.
Not really.
The 3ds Max Data channel doesn’t really cut it in this regard, because it has almost zero options. For instance, using a noise map to vary the thickness of the edges and what not is not possible, so its only a very limited workaround at best.
I hope the Corona team will consider making a a separate map for curvature, its very needed for bigger possibilities when mapping objects. In combination with AO and Triplanar this increases the possibilities greatly and make the mapping process a lot easier…THe map option could be very similar to Corona AO, except finding convex and concave edges instead. With options to only do concave or convex or both, include other object or not to the equation and the ability to use a map or number to depict the radius and the strength.
Agree wholeheartedly with all that Joachim said. AO is not a valid replacement, Data Channel isn’t either as setting up a modifier has obvious shortcomings compared to a shading approach.
Only thing worth adding is that a curvature map should also offer a ‘flat’ option in addition to convex/concave.
Any chance this will be added in the roadmap for Corona 6? I saw it was added as a feature for Corona 5 in Trello, bud sadly it was removed again. I really hope this feature will be added to the roadmap again!
Not everyone has access to OSL in 3ds max. Besides Corona’s own curvature map would be very useful in standalone and also for transfering scenes to other DCC programs.
