In the video about proxies, it says that not only can you use meshes generated by Sketchup, but those from other software, like MAX. But what about materials? Are VfS materials now compatible with the MAX version? Or does the software just understand the MAX materials? Or is it that when a model is converted into a VRay mesh, that the materials are transformed into some internal format that both versions of the software understand, so there is no compatibility issue?
Thanks,
Dave
Was wondering about the same thing… Is it now possible to import a vray proxy (made in 3d max) into sketchup and have all the textures etc working?
the vrmesh format does not contain any material information. It does keep track of how many materials were used on the mesh that was used to generate the vrmesh, as well as the uv info, but the actual material itself isn’t in the vrmesh. When you import a vrmesh, we automatically create a multi material, which is applied to the entire proxy object. The multi material will have one sub material for each material that the original mesh used, and each of those sub materials will be one of our standard materials, with default values and a random diffuse color (so you can visually differentiate in a render, which material ID corresponds with which part of the mesh).
If you are creating the vrmesh from within V-Ray for SketchUp (or V-Ray for Rhino), we will use the existing materials that are applied to the geometry in the multi material, rather than default materials with random diffuse colors. This can save you a ton of time and frustration.
So if you’re using a vrmesh from V-Ray for Max, V-Ray for Blender, etc, it will look pretty strange by default. You can then go through each of the sub materials of the multi material, and switch the assigned material for each material ID to any other material in your scene.
Not quite as easy as that. Each ID will come in with a standard material with some arbitrary diffuse color. You need to remake each material manually. It goes quick with trees, but things like cars you need to note each ID from MAX and it’s settings. I bought a car model from Evermotion and it took me about 30 min to setup the proxies in SU. Once you have it saved as a SU component, then you can save to a new SU Proxies library that you will build quickly.
fyi, there is another forum that has been set up for the beta (scroll down to the bottom). If anyone has trouble accessing that forum, please let us know.
I should note that I have been using Onyx Tree and exporting OBJ and converting to meshes right from the ply2vrmesh utility that comes with VR4SU. It lives in the Start / Chaos/ Tools menu.
Hi Matthew, any idea if there’s an OS X equivalent for that tool?
Thanks!
Not sure. Maybe someone at Chaos can elaborate.
Hi dkendig, I am in the beta testing, but cannot see the bet testing forum. Can you send me a link?
if you can’t see the forum, send an email to support@chaosgroup.com so that they can fix your account to have proper access.
Ive just sent a request to support to be allowed into the beta forum. So until that happens I will have to post a beta question here. Is the only way to make a proxie within SU?
Because say if I wanted to use a very high poly model (Evermotion vegetation) I cant even navigate with these models in SU to make them a Vray proxie. So are we still handicapped by SU’s limitations in this regards? Or am I missing something? Other rendering software over come this by having a studio.
You can import any vrmesh file. You need to get it into that format though. So a hi poly tree, like an Evermotion tree, will need to be made into a mesh via Max. The other way is to convert an OBJ into vrmesh using the ply2vrmesh utility that exists in the VRay for SketchUp menu in your start menu. I have to say though that I tested the OBJ file that comes with the sample from Evermotion and it doesn’t have any materials applied to it, so the mesh doesn’t convert correctly with MatIDs but I have trid other OBJ files and it works perfectly. I think Andy uses a Blender / Vray for Blender workflow.
Cheer for the reply. I’ll have to have a look into this ply2vrmesh utility. I cant afford buying Max+Vray or Blender(free)+Vray Standalone for a work flow. If I could I would prob just use them. I tried importing a sample evermotion 3ds tree into SU but no materials were mapped… Oh hang on, can i have Bender with the Vray pluggin and make vrmesh. As I believe thats all for free. The pluggin saves as a vrimage which you then need to pay for the Vray stanalone to render it. So therefore I would be using Bender as a Vray Studio in a way. I suppose this might have to be a question aimed at ANDY.
Andy can fill you in but my understanding is that the Blender workflow is free. The ply2vrmesh converter will only work with OBJ PLY and another uncommon format. Materials will never come over, not even from Max. Just the IDs and the UVW mapping. You’ll have to manually recreate each ID material in SU. Do it once and save the file as a component and start your proxie library.
Yes, the vray for Blender integration is a freely distributed software: http://vray.cgdo.ru/
I’d need to double check about exporting a vrmesh without a license, I’ve only done that on my licensed workstation (vray for Maya standalone) I’m not sure what executable it uses to do that, it may be you need to have the standalone installed to do the export. I hadn’t really thought about it until now.
In terms of exporting any file types - so far obj is the easiest to work with, because you can import it as one mesh. With 3ds files, it’s usually broken up by materials, and so you’d get a whole raft of vrmeshes instead of one file (maybe someone else knows a good way to combine things into one mesh. I’ve tried boolean union, but end up with a crash more often than not). It’s also a little screwey unfortunately with scale - Blender is in Meters, whereas SU is in inches, so the vrmesh doesn’t correctly scale. There’s also the issue of the 2sided mapping that’s still not working properly (some software only UV maps one side of tree leaves, so the backside ends up being mostly transparent. This isn’t an issue in Blender, only SU) Anyway, that’s to say, I’ve not actually ended up using Blender generated proxies in SU very much, or vice versa.
If you are working with just one very high poly model, you can usually get SU to barely work with that one file in an empty SU drawing, make the vrmesh export, and then you’re set. I’ve found it easier to do it that way with 3ds files (which half the time I need to clean up in SU anyway. People seem to model like garbage in 3ds…) My 2 1/2 cents 
Andy
thanks Andy for your reply
Ive got lots homework to do. Im pretty inexperienced in importing Obj files into SU. Ive tried downloading free sample Xfrog trees in Obj. When importing with TIG’s OBJ importer pluggin. I choose with textures but no textures are mapped. I had a look into the downloaded free sample xfrog folder and notice there is a mtl, obj and lots of tga files which i presume are the textures. How do you import obj files?
when you import a vrmesh, no material info comes with it, only mesh information. The mesh has uvw info, and it knows how many material were applied to it when it was converted, as well as which of those materials was applied to each face. It has no clue what your material settings were though.
If you have a model in SU, and you export a vrmesh from our toolbar button, you will be able to retain material information within that scene only. When you try to use that vrmesh in another scene, it won’t have any material info associated with it, and we will just generate random materials. If you get a proxy object set up with the materials you want, save it out as an SU component so you won’t have to mess with material settings again. The material info and proxy info will life in that component, and will be brought in to whatever scene you use them in.
Except as it is now, the materials will be gone from the component file unless you apply the materials directly to some faces within the proxy group. SU doesn’t currently have a way to save the materials if they go into a new file…
the multi material should be attached to the proxy object, which should then bring the other materials along. Is this broken? If so, can we please get a bug report about this if there isn’t one already?
Yes, I reported this a while ago. I got a note back that this is fixed (8446) but I’m not sure that it is.
Actually, it does bring in the materials as listed in the vray proxy material, but they are not in the sketchup materials list.