Messages

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[Max] General Discussion / Re: Path Tracing always as Secondary GI Solver

« on: 2025-07-09, 08:24:12 »

Speaking about bias, how about MSI? I was quite shocked another day to find how much light it could prevent to reach the areas that doesn't even seem that much occluded. Attached are comparison of default MSI 20 vs MSI 0 (off). Of course i would not recommend to turn MSI off in your scenes, because you'll surely get a ton of fireflies and much longer render times, but it might be useful to try adjust it in some darker interiors and see if you like what you see. Does anyone remember the old MSI 200 rule? :]

By the way, new firefly filter does pretty amazing job at removing excessive fireflies caused by turned off MSI (see the last attached example).

Really interesting test, MSI - 0 really brings out the translucency of the leaves, yet it seems the firefly filter knocks that back again despite there not really being many fireflies on the leaves

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[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2025-06-26, 14:47:39 »

What's going on here, I didn't post this ....

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[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2025-06-26, 13:05:39 »

Somehow it just missed us, this knowledge! Been using the default Corona HQ denoising + HQ filtering since... forever. One naturally assumes that anything native/Corona and "high quality" and which is also the default must be the best, for day-to-day use, and of course we've never had any issues with it, therefore no incentive/reason to try anything else. It's just this recent vid that caught our attention recently which caused us to change. But yes, the difference really is night-and-day. I wonder if the corona method simply needs to be improved if it's to remain the default... or just make Intel+Tent the default if better?

That's what I was repeatedly told when questioning it too, in that thread I posted you can see the other response were convinced with comments like "I rarely sharpen now with Corona defaults".  Intel + Tent is my default in my Maxstart file, i like the freedom of Tent too as you can adjust the Width(Px) to your liking, higher values softer, lower values crispier

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[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2025-06-26, 11:35:13 »

Not to derail the topic about the AI thing, but that video about the intel denoiser used with tent really changed the game.

May i ask, what filter and denoising combo you were using before? I always set Intel denoiser and tent filter as default after each new version install since it doesn't work with HQ filter and i find it quite amusing that apparently it's a new discovery. Oh, and i completely agree with you about that rage about 2X scale - i did some short tests and my findings was that out of 3 very different scenes it kinda worked ok'ish in one of them, but the other two were clearly inferior to just simple rendering at native rez.

Glad I wasn't going mad back in 2021 https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=32584.msg182506#msg182506 it was around this time I made my defaults Intel/Tent and never looked back

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[Max] I need help! / Unreal Users ...

« on: 2025-06-24, 14:23:40 »

Finally looking into Unreal Engine properly as I have some time on my hands - i'm still making my way through the various learning paths.  Do we have any power users here that are still using Corona?  I'm currently wrapping my head around the materials side of things and workflows?

Has anyone successfully ported across the CoronaPhysicalMaterial to an Unreal Master material mimicking all the same behaviours/capabilities.  As far as I know, Physical Materials don't directly translate well into Unreal, although that may have changed since the Yotuube videos that i'm watching were made.

If you are still using both, what's the workflow with regards materials?  Especially CoronaPhysicalMaterials?  Everything I've seen so far suggests either using Legacy Materials or Recreating Materials in Unreal?  Seems a little counterintuative?

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[Max] I need help! / Re: Rug rendering

« on: 2025-06-20, 09:07:50 »

I don't use Chaos scatter but you want to be looking for a Scale option in particular the Z axis

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[Max] I need help! / Re: Rug rendering

« on: 2025-06-16, 20:19:19 »

Forest Pack (or Corona Scatter) using a map to drive the height?

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[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2025-06-13, 15:41:12 »

Interface feels very sluggish on the official 13 release with IR running.  Feels like when 12 was first released.

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[Max] I need help! / Re: Finding right white stucco color exterior

« on: 2025-06-08, 22:21:04 »

I think it looks relatively natural.  There are things that need work for sure but it's getting there

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[Max] I need help! / Re: Finding right white stucco color exterior

« on: 2025-06-07, 15:05:31 »

What would I do? I'd rotate the sun 180 degrees so that facade is illuminated and the sunlight penetrates the interiors adding more depth and visual interest to that facade as a whole.  In terms of the contrast, it looks pretty natural to me, but you can always render a mask for the stucco and lift the shadows on just the stucco in post

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[Max] I need help! / Re: Odd Shading

« on: 2025-06-04, 21:52:30 »

Turns out it was a smoothing issue.  Import export didn't do anything.  Adding a turbosmooth did.  Weird because it looked fine to me in the viewport.  Lesson learnt

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[Max] I need help! / Re: Odd Shading

« on: 2025-06-02, 14:02:56 »

Which format? Or does it not matter?

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[Max] I need help! / Odd Shading

« on: 2025-06-02, 12:36:16 »

Anyone know what this odd stepped shading is that I'm getting on these umbrellas, i appreciate there would be some element of stepping due to the shape of the umbrella, but it should be smoother than this right?

14

[Max] I need help! / Re: Corona Slicer

« on: 2025-05-28, 14:57:36 »

My suggestion would be to contact the support team at https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/requests/new with your requirements. You would be connected with a Phoenix expert who could help you with the optimal Phoenix setup.

Also the slicer request has stemmed from long discussions with the Phoenix people over on the dedicate Phoenix Chaos Forums.

And for what it's worth, this functionality is useful for more than just pools.

15

[Max] I need help! / Re: Corona Slicer

« on: 2025-05-28, 11:46:29 »

Every single custom shape pool in the videos here from the Phoenix guy require the VRay Clipper https://www.youtube.com/@zdravkopavlov/videos

The key to the ocean mesh is the control over it's initial fill/height which is needed for a pool