V-Ray 2.0: VRayHDRI vs Bitmap texture and the bitmap pager

[MoonDoggie]

The problem with loading them as vrayhdri maps is that you have little control over any map parameters (like the curves, etc). Has this changed in 2.0?

[vlado]

@MoonDoggie

The problem with loading them as vrayhdri maps is that you have little control over any map parameters (like the curves, etc). Has this changed in 2.0?

Nope, although I made a note to add them. Still, you can use an Output map for more control.

Best regards,
Vlado

[MoonDoggie]

Thanks for the info Vlado!

[cecofuli]

Hi Vlado,
very intresting. So, the correct way for better performance with bitmap in any map channel (diffuse, specular etc…) is:
ColorcorrectMap->OutputMap->VRayHDRI

in fact we use always, before bitmap, add a neutral ColorCorrect map

[olly]

@cecofuli

in fact we use always, before bitmap, add a neutral ColorCorrect map

May I ask why?

[cecofuli]

It’s simple. We have more control over the bitmap.
Without use photoshop, we can change a bit the bitmap look.
The best will be have in the colorcorrect map level and curve adjustment
Anyway, neutral because I don’t know if I need to change the bitmap properties. Right now i do this automatically
Sometimes I need to change some properties (hue, saturation etcc…) sometimes no.

[olly]

Sounds good.

So to clarify Vlado, we’d all like a vray bitmap loader that combines all of the colour correction map capabilities and the native bitmap options, such as cropping and curves. All accessible by maxscript. When can you have it ready by?

Only kidding, but seriously this would be a real power map; do you think it’s possible to include in 2.0?

[cecofuli]

@olly

we’d all like a vray bitmap loader that combines all of the colour correction map capabilities and the native bitmap options, such as cropping and curves. All accessible by maxscript.

+1

ehh…

[vlado]

@olly

Sounds good.

So to clarify Vlado, we’d all like a vray bitmap loader that combines all of the colour correction map capabilities and the native bitmap options, such as cropping and curves. All accessible by maxscript. When can you have it ready by?

Only kidding, but seriously this would be a real power map; do you think it’s possible to include in 2.0?

Not for the release obviously, but it might make its way into a service pack.

Best regard,
Vlado

[cecofuli]

Hi Vlado,

will be one of the usefull shader for max XD

[trixian]

Can we get it with colour variation controls and randomization parameters, and the ability to load multiple bitmaps into the same node, extremely similar to the multitexture map from CG-Source, just with all the bitmap entries visible, pluged into the input slot of the map. (Won’t be backwards compatible though since older versions of max don’t have the slate editor).

[johnszot]

sorry, but can anyone clarify (?):

it sounds like this technique will lower the “overhead” time of loading the scene for rendering, but not actually the process of rendering the image - is that correct? for example, if a frame takes 3 hours to render using max native bitmaps, can i expect a 60% reduction time in rendering that frame?

sounds too good to be true…

[Morbid_Angel]

Im a bit confused. So with the bitmap pager “off” does it still render slower then with vray hdr?

[Jiri.Matys]

So is it jpg on both test or once its jpg and once hdr?

[Markus]

@vlado

If you were wondering why VRayHDRI now allows you to load other image file formats like JPG, PNG etc, here is a part of the explanation.

Below is a scene that was rendered on a dual Intel Xeon 5660 machine (2x6 physical cores; 24 logical cores). I rendered it once with the standard 3ds Max Bitmap texture. Then I rendered it again with the textures converted to VRayHDRI (but without converting the files to tiled OpenEXR files - just using the original bitmap files).

Can you find the differences

Best regards,
Vlado

After some more tests, the slowdown for the Bitmap texture appears to be caused by the bitmap pager being enabled (which it is by default).

Sorry to “hijack” this thread but i read that you are using a dual 6-core system…

Just a quick question about this. I read on the area that people have a massiv slow down in viewport performance regardless their videocards (ATI or nvidia / gaming or workstation card) on dual 6-core system and the lastest max. the last sp1 and hotfixes etc didnt help…
Could you experience the same on your system? If not i would be really curious about your config your config?

thank you very much Vlado.

best,
markus

[vlado]

@Markus

Just a quick question about this. I read on the area that people have a massiv slow down in viewport performance regardless their videocards (ATI or nvidia / gaming or workstation card) on dual 6-core system and the lastest max. the last sp1 and hotfixes etc didnt help…
Could you experience the same on your system? If not i would be really curious about your config your config?

Yep, I did notice it, espesially with the DirectX viewport driver (e.g. I have to wait a few seconds from the moment I click to create a teapot to the moment it actually appears in the viewport). OpenGL is not that bad though and it’s what I’m using now.

It appears to be more of a general issue with the 3ds Max user interface when using DX, rather than viewport graphics as such. For example, just clicking the viewport zoom or pan button causes a stall of several seconds even though nothing in the viewports has changed yet. Again, no issues with OpenGL…

Best regards,
Vlado

[Jiri.Matys]

Iam experiencing something similar at work. Not have 6-core machine, but have two GTX 295 graphics card and 4-core procesor with multithreading. I try to switch to openGL.

[simmsimaging]

I was watching EGZ Vray 2.0 training video and decided to try out the tiled exr conversion on my current job. Original RAM usage was 3.6 GB and it rendered in 4:40 min. After using the converter it rendered in 5:50 min, took 7GB of RAM, and basically jammed my entire system by sucking up a ton of page file as well. Aside from that, the render came out differently as some textures were significantly darker once converted.

I was anticipating at very least a match on render time, but shouldn’t things have gone the other way?

b

[vlado]

@simmsimaging

I was watching EGZ Vray 2.0 training video and decided to try out the tiled exr conversion on my current job. Original RAM usage was 3.6 GB and it rendered in 4:40 min. After using the converter it rendered in 5:50 min, took 7GB of RAM, and basically jammed my entire system by sucking up a ton of page file as well. Aside from that, the render came out differently as some textures were significantly darker once converted.

I was anticipating at very least a match on render time, but shouldn’t things have gone the other way?

b

Did you actually convert the textures to OpenEXR files or you left the original files?

Best regards,
Vlado

[simmsimaging]

Yes they were converted to exr.