Corona 'bitmap'

[jamieirvin]

Hi guys,

Just a quick question...

Is it good practice to load all bitmaps within a Corona bitmap shader? Until now I have been loading bitmaps directly in to the diffuse texture slot.  I was having a play with Tone Map Control and couldn't get it to function properly.  With all the exposure, LUT & tone mapping checkboxes unticked, the output looked garish and compressed.  Not at all as expected.  Then I tried loading the bitmap in the Corona bitmap shader and hey presto... it worked! 😃

This got me thinking, have I been loading textures incorrectly all along and should all bitmaps sit within the Corona bitmap shader??

Does it make any noticeable difference?

What are your thoughts?

Thanks

[Ealexander]

I would like to know about this too.

[katzenwaffe]

Me too. But I would guess by the amounts of replies, that the Corona Bitmap is not THAT important.

[jamieirvin]

Yeah this topic has not really set the world on fire...

I've not been using it so far and haven't seen a reason for it other than in conjunction with the tone map control. However, it must be there for a reason??

[Nejc Kilar]

Afaik in 3ds Max it should potentially speed up the render times - by a very small amount. Should be similar in C4D. Other than that the Corona bitmap should offer you some settings that the native loader doesn't. In 3ds Max it has a few extra options (and a few missing) than the original UI but thats about it.

Gotta be honest, I personally rarely use it in either application. :)

[romullus]

I think CoronaBitmap will be more important when Corona materials become cross-platform. Similarly to nkilar, i rarely use CBitmaps too, except for loading HDRIs, where it has noticeable speed advantage and superior projection modes.

[Beanzvision]

This may also offer some insight:
https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/12000033420-what-is-the-difference-between-corona-bitmap-and-3ds-max-bitmap-node-

[Cinemike]

Somewhere around here I read that it significantly speeds up rendering with textures that use Opacity.

Found the link: https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=15700.msg99347#msg99347

[jamieirvin]

I think CoronaBitmap will be more important when Corona materials become cross-platform. Similarly to nkilar, i rarely use CBitmaps too, except for loading HDRIs, where it has noticeable speed advantage and superior projection modes.

noted, thanks. I'll give that a whirl

[jamieirvin]

This may also offer some insight:
https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/12000033420-what-is-the-difference-between-corona-bitmap-and-3ds-max-bitmap-node-

That's really useful, thanks.

The reason I kicked off this thread was because I loaded a 4k texture (parquet floor) into the Corona Bitmap shader and it took aaaaaages to load in the material browser.  The it kept stalling and trying to refresh the preview. I converted it back to a standard bitmap and it loaded instantly. 

I'll see if this happens again in the new daily build but it seems odd considering it's intended to be a quicker solution... 🧐