Messages

31

[Max] I need help! / Re: Dramatically INCREASED render time

« on: 2017-06-28, 18:36:01 »

IT doesn't run anything at backround...only the test...
And I run it on windows and there is the problem...on macosx works fine...

From what I can find it's a pretty common issue running both Boot Camp and Parallels. Most people seem to attribute it to drivers and/or Apple design. Unfortunately Apple laptops are far from ideal for rendering, especially the newer ones without fans.

32

[Max] I need help! / Re: Dramatically INCREASED render time

« on: 2017-06-28, 17:11:49 »

I have a MACOSX laptop and I also run it on windows,

What generation Macbook do you have? If I'm not mistaken, the cooling 'solution' for newer Macbooks is to throttle down the CPU rather than have a fan.

33

Hardware / Re: Skylake X

« on: 2017-06-27, 23:33:23 »

Pretty interesting times for people who do CPU based rendering and gaming. And good timing for myself who was planning to upgrade this fall!

I'm interested to see what ThreadRipper has in-store before I make a decision.

34

[Max] Tutorials & Guides / Re: Substance Designer > Corona (3ds max)

« on: 2017-06-21, 15:47:05 »

The coronaColour node is not white (1, 1, 1), it's extremely nuclear (99999, 99999, 99999). This effectively disables the shaders Fresnel component, so that the falloff can do it's job.

Right, I got it working now. Do you know if using a CoronaColor gives you different results from making the Fresnel IOR 999.0 without a CoronaColor? I did a comparison in the VFB and couldn't see any difference, but if this thread has taught me anything it is that I shouldn't assume things are as they seem! Thanks again for all you help, Njen. I will update the initial post when I get home this evening.

35

[Max] Tutorials & Guides / Re: Substance Designer > Corona (3ds max)

« on: 2017-06-20, 15:35:59 »

The diffuse color should be black for the gold shader
99% sure ;)

I had thought that having the diffuse level as 0.0 was the same thing as black diffuse? Regardless, I will make it black before re-uploading the material set. Thanks for the heads up.

36

[Max] Tutorials & Guides / Re: Substance Designer > Corona (3ds max)

« on: 2017-06-19, 23:26:22 »

Since the metallic's are the problem I thought I should target those. Here's a simple gold preset from a base material node, with no roughness. Rendered in Substance Designer with iRay.



Here's the material in Corona. Notice I had to lower the Reflection Glossiness amount to get it to look similar.


I've tried it with the fallout in reflection color, and without:

Fallout



Without Fallout



The one with fallout definitely looks more like the Substance Designer render. I still can't seem to get anything to happen when I put a white CoronaColor into the Fresnel IOR slot though.

EDIT: Apologies to the mods, this turned into a 'I Need Help' post. Feel free to move it, otherwise I will update the initial post when it's all sorted out.

37

[Max] Tutorials & Guides / Re: Substance Designer > Corona (3ds max)

« on: 2017-06-19, 06:00:01 »

I think the metal was too dark from Substance Designer. I copied the Base Color node, and re-imported the map with Gamma = 1.0 for the metallic material, and it's looking a little better.



Can I ask why you use the CoronaColor node in the Fresnel IOR? When I put a pure white color in there it makes my material pitch black, or am I misunderstanding something?

As for the gamma, I was already using that method when importing them. I was hoping for a solution in the CoronaBitmap node so it would lock the gamma for any map I imported, but it's not a huge deal to set it every time.

Thanks again for all your help, Njen.

38

[Max] Tutorials & Guides / Re: Substance Designer > Corona (3ds max)

« on: 2017-06-19, 04:04:00 »

Njen, thanks a lot for the reply! I appreciate you taking time out of your day to help me out. You've cleaned my mess up nicely! The dielectrics are looking great (way better than before), but I'm having trouble getting the metals to show up properly.

I adjusted the substance to have a cleaner, less-rough metal but it isn't looking much like that in 3ds. I also tried to mix it like I originally had, but that isn't looking correct either. I may have been doing something wrong though...





What did work was simply making the metal in Corona, then using the Reflection Glossiness and the Normal from Substance. It's probably quicker this way, and allows for adjustments of the metal.

39

[Max] Tutorials & Guides / Substance Designer > Corona (3ds max)

« on: 2017-06-16, 23:37:34 »

Updated the images and attachments with thanks to Njen!

I've been trying to streamline a Substance Designer to Corona workflow. I've made some substances and a material library that I'd like to share, and to ask for some help tweaking the process. I'm no expert in 3d, so I'm guessing this isn't 100% correct, but I thought it may serve as a stepping stone to people more adept than myself.

First off I made a Corona converter substance (see attachments). I used a Material Transform node to allow for easy input and then the BaseColor/Metallic/Roughness Converter. The outputs have all been renamed to correspond with a Corona Material.

Diffuse
Reflection Color
Reflection Glossiness
Normal
Displacement
Metallic Mask (used for materials that are mixed metallic and dielectric)



Any substance should be able to plug into the Material Transform. Just adjust the substance to your liking then export the outputs as bitmaps. I rename the Corona converter before export to match the material name to save myself from renaming all the maps individually.

Once that is finished you can head over to 3ds Max. I've made a material library (see attached).

Dielectrics



Metallics


Mixed dielectric/metallic material that uses a mask to differentiate between the two.


All that you need to do is pick the map that is named the same as the CoronaBitmap. You must import the Reflection Glossiness and Normal with a Gamma of 1.0. I'm not sure if there is a way to set it so these couple maps automatically import at gamma 1.0, it would be great if someone could let me know.

The only problem that I can see (remember I'm an amateur), is that the Reflection Glossiness doesn't import correctly. To fix this I've added a CoronaOutput after the map, all you have to do is adjust the brightness/contrast to suit your scene. I've been finding I have to lower the contrast a bit, and raise the brightness a bit. I'm not sure if that works for every scene but it seems to be a good rule of thumb.

This is the most efficient method I can come up with. I would love some advice, comments, criticisms. Here's a final substance from Substance Source I got into Corona in about 60 seconds:



Thanks for reading. I've attached the substance and the material library to the post.

References/Thanks:
NicolasW for this great Polycount thread: http://polycount.com/discussion/155524/pbr-basecolor-metallic-to-vray-3-2-corona-redshift-arnold-converter
Wes McDermott and Allegorithmic for their rendering documentation: https://support.allegorithmic.com/documentation/display/integrations/Rendering

40

[Max] Corona Goodies - User Contributions / Re: Corona Toolbar for 3ds Max

« on: 2017-06-16, 02:30:36 »

Does anyone know if this works in max 2018?

Worked for me

41

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Corona to stingray

« on: 2017-06-15, 20:58:51 »

I would assume once you convert your materials to standard that Stingray will make use of them, wasn't that one of their big selling points of Stingray? The live link to 3ds max?

I don't have Stingray on any of my computers but you should give it a shot and let us know how it works.

42

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Corona to stingray

« on: 2017-06-15, 15:37:12 »

There was a discussion about converting Corona materials  to standard materials recently on the help forum:

https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php/topic,16474.0.html

It seems like there is a program that can do this pretty easily.

43

[Max] I need help! / Re: VizPark's Real Grass - Corona Preset Question

« on: 2017-06-09, 18:20:02 »

Thanks for simplifying the process for me, Jadefox.

I really like the RealGrass bundle, especially the grass fields they have, but I knew from all the Corona tutorials that there was something up with the materials.

44

[Max] I need help! / Re: VizPark's Real Grass - Corona Preset Question

« on: 2017-06-09, 16:19:34 »

Thanks for the reply Juraj, I will see what I can do about the grass. Much appreciated.

45

[Max] I need help! / VizPark's Real Grass - Corona Preset Question

« on: 2017-06-08, 21:02:47 »

I had a couple questions about VizPark's Real Grass and was hoping I could get some clarification from the Corona pro's.

First, when I open a scene I get this message:

If my gamma is set to 2.2, when I import these bitmaps I should override to 1.0 correct?

Secondly, the materials seem to be made differently than anything I've read or watched about Corona. As you can see they use a Fresnel IOR of 999, and a refraction level of 1.0.



Is this a correct way of doing it? Or should I be adjusting them? Thanks for the help in advance!

EDIT: Not sure if the images are showing, I've added them as attachments as well.