Dynamic Geometry and framestamp polycount

V-Ray for 3ds Max V-Ray for 3ds Max :: Issues
1

How come when using dynamic geometry or proxies (same thing) the vray framestamp does not show the proper polycount for the objects. See attached images.

I know its not a big deal but would be handy when using dynamic geometry if the proper polycount could be displayed.

Mesh tree (tree courtesty of Percydaman, take a bow Percy)

Proxy Tree. Not sure where that dark wedge came from at the back. The only change was turning the tree to a proxy.. any ideas?

2

ya the same thing happened to me the other day when I was testing something out with morbid angel. I have no idea what causes the dark strip. but it appears to be reproducible.

3

yeah its weird. But its definitly related to the proxy hey.

4

so in requesting one thing you stumble onto something else heheehe

5

Isnt that how vray works :lol:

6

Re: Dynamic Geometry and framestamp polycount

What is the light (e.g. direct, spot etc)? What is the ground plane (e.g. VRayPlane or geometry)?

Best regards,
Vlado

7

Ground is vrayplane and light is IES Sun with vray shadows.

8

Here,
http://myweb.cableone.net/amylenhart/images/RuralMaple1.zip

Thats the file. (percys file)
All i did was changing the tree to a proxy.

EDIT
Ok, i changed the light to a direct light with vray shadows, made the falloff HUGE and turn on overshoot and the same thing happened.

EDIT 2.
Weird i just tried it again with the same light setup (direct) and a mesh tree and that funny triangle was still there.

EDIT 3.
Ok mega weird. Took the tree out, and its still there. tried changing the light parameters, overshoot off..etc. and its still there.

I MUST be missing something.

9

Ok, odd.

Open the file hit render… it renders fine. Hide the tree and render and then the dark triangle area comes back.

10

Yep, I can reproduce that here - it happens even without GI… I’m looking into it right now.

Best regards,
Vlado

11

Thanks Mate.

Also could you shed any light on the original posts problem about the polycount not being correct?

Thanks

12

The problem is that a part of the Sun light’s cone intersects the plane, like in these images:

The 3dsmax Sun light tries to determine the cone automatically based on the scene bounding box. However, both the VRayPlane and the VRayProxy don’t exist as regular 3dsmax geometry. In that case, the Sun light assumes a very large cone radius, which leads to the black artifact.

For example, in the following image, the four boxes are regular static geometry, and the teapot is a proxy. You can see the odd shape of its shadow where it is cut off by the Sun:

The V-Ray sun that we are working on does not have this problem :slight_smile:

Best regards,
Vlado

13

Because in the case of proxies or dynamic geometry V-Ray actually has no idea how many faces they have. They are all considered as procedural geometry. For example, if you have a complex implicit surface, it doesn’t have any actual “triangles” to count.

Best regards,
Vlado

14

Ahh ok… makes sense

But why did it happen when i used a direct light
is it because when i used a direct light it had a very large falloff?

15

Yep.

Best regards,
Vlado

16

So, is there any way around it, if say i had to use a direct light with a very large fall off?

And as for the polycount thing, seeing as the proxys are being read from actual meshes isnt it able to get the polys from the mesh and show that?
Like if i make a 1000 poly tree into a vrmesh and proxy it into the scene. Its still a 1000poly trre, its just being loaded different at render time, so isnt vray able to get the polycount information from the vrmesh and then show it in the framestamp? and if its not able to because the vrmesh doesnt contain that information then wouldnt it be fairly easy to have the polycount of the object stored in the vrmesh so that it can be shown in the render?

I realise its not quite possible with displacement or implicit surfaces but surely its possible with meshes turned to vrmeshes then used via proxys.
Or is it just not worth the trouble :slight_smile:

17

No way other than to move the light very far from your scene. Note that this is not a V-Ray specific problem though, you will get it in any 3dsmax renderer.

And as for the polycount thing, seeing as the proxys are being read from actual meshes isnt it able to get the polys from the mesh and show that?
Like if i make a 1000 poly tree into a vrmesh and proxy it into the scene. Its still a 1000poly trre, its just being loaded different at render time, so isnt vray able to get the polycount information from the vrmesh and then show it in the framestamp? and if its not able to because the vrmesh doesnt contain that information then wouldnt it be fairly easy to have the polycount of the object stored in the vrmesh so that it can be shown in the render?

I realise its not quite possible with displacement or implicit surfaces but surely its possible with meshes turned to vrmeshes then used via proxys.
Or is it just not worth the trouble :-)Let’s just say that it is not possible with the current method that V-Ray uses to count triangles. Further on, the proxies do not explicitly store information about the total number of triangles in them (of course, this can be added if needed).

Best regards,
Vlado

18

Alrighty, Thanks for clearing that up. Might just wait for vraysun :wink: nudge nudge

I think it would be handy to have the proxies have that info… sure its not necessary, but would be handy in certain situations. So if its easy enough to do, and you can squeeze in the time for it … then by all means :slight_smile:

Thanks for your help again, much appreciated.