using VDB clouds as environment fog? parsing+camera clipping issues

[Jens]

Hi guys

I'm currently experimenting with corona vol objects (cloud vdb's scaled up many times) to get to a specific mood/look with great effect, but scene performance and scene parsing quickly becomes horrible (even on a threadripper 3990X). While increasing step size of the volumes and overall tweaking help on render performance, I still get 30-50sec of scene parsing per frame. Is it still only the saving of 4k/uhd cache that can speed this up for the final animation?

Also, is there anything in the works that would allow cameras to be placed in or pass through vol objects? It's very limiting doing animations and not have the camera touch the vol objects as it will then just disappear + i still see some "boxing/edges" of volumes overlapping (daily v9 RC2).

[TomG]

Place a slicer object around the camera, linked to the camera so it moves with it. That way the camera will always be "outside" the volume object (as there will be a sliced away external face the camera is looking at), and that way you can fly through a volume object.

[Jens]

Place a slicer object around the camera, linked to the camera so it moves with it. That way the camera will always be "outside" the volume object (as there will be a sliced away external face the camera is looking at), and that way you can fly through a volume object.

Is there a guide to this? Found an old link to freshdesk from Maru way back, but I can not access that page? Our login only seem to work to the Chaos support login and I can't find any article regarding that there?

[Beanzvision]

Place a slicer object around the camera, linked to the camera so it moves with it. That way the camera will always be "outside" the volume object (as there will be a sliced away external face the camera is looking at), and that way you can fly through a volume object.

Is there a guide to this? Found an old link to freshdesk from Maru way back, but I can not access that page? Our login only seem to work to the Chaos support login and I can't find any article regarding that there?

Hi, if you're referring to the slicer article, it has been moved here: https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4956761514897-How-to-use-the-Corona-Slicer-Material-3ds-Max

[Jens]

Place a slicer object around the camera, linked to the camera so it moves with it. That way the camera will always be "outside" the volume object (as there will be a sliced away external face the camera is looking at), and that way you can fly through a volume object.

Is there a guide to this? Found an old link to freshdesk from Maru way back, but I can not access that page? Our login only seem to work to the Chaos support login and I can't find any article regarding that there?

Hi, if you're referring to the slicer article, it has been moved here: https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4956761514897-How-to-use-the-Corona-Slicer-Material-3ds-Max

I can't get the slicer material to work with the camera being inside corona vol grid object (cloud). It works (slices the vol grid) if camera is outside the grid, but that is not the point at all - am I doing something wrong?

Just made a sphere, applied slicermtl to the sphere and placed it on camera pivot point. Tried to have the sphere in different sizes without any effect (when the camera is inside the cloud).

[TomG]

Is the slicer set to create caps, and to use the material from the object being sliced (ie not to override it)? Failing that you can do it the old way with realtime Boolean objects :)

[pokoy]

Is the slicer set to create caps, and to use the material from the object being sliced (ie not to override it)? Failing that you can do it the old way with realtime Boolean objects :)

Am I missing something or are you both talking about different things - Volume Grid vs Geometry using a VolumeMtl.
If I'm not mistaken, the question was how to use a camera within a Volume Grid (vdb) object - I haven't looked into it, but since Volume Grid objects have no material, how would you define what material the Slicer has to work on?

@Jens - if it's supposed to work this was, maybe try inverting normals on the sphere object, who knows maybe that's what's needed.

[TomG]

You don't define the material, then the object should remain untouched (so just make sure the slicer is not overriding the material at all). Maybe only works with Vol Mats, been a long time since I experimented with it, and not sure what it does with Phoenix or VDB objects.