Messages

1

[Max] I need help! / Re: Nesting Multi/Sub-Object materials is not supported in corona Layer material

« on: 2025-03-17, 05:17:32 »

Hi,

Very interesting topic, thanks for posting.
If you have a VRay licence, and since you say VRay handles it, you can convert the VRay material into Corona. It's not ideal as you will still have to manually tweak every material one by one, but at least it should be a bit less time consuming.

The only workaround I can think of is creating dirt using decals.

2

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Corona and Gaussian splats?

« on: 2025-03-16, 11:53:56 »

Thanks for the help @romulus

3

[Max] General Discussion / Corona and Gaussian splats?

« on: 2025-03-16, 03:29:10 »

Hi,

Having seen this post: https://www.chaos.com/blog/gaussian-splatting-3d-rendering I was wondering if there's any plan for Corona to handle Gaussian splats in the near future?

4

[Max] I need help! / Re: viewport is slow down when using 3000 corona light even it is hide

« on: 2025-03-12, 01:24:27 »

Hi,

As Maru said, thousands of lights in a scene is not recommended.
In that case, what I would do is probably using a CoronaLightMtl for the light bulbs (make sure it does not emit light), and scatter few regular Corona Lights to light the scene.

5

[Max] I need help! / Re: CoronaRandomizer and Triplanar maps: what order?

« on: 2025-03-10, 11:26:24 »

You can go through this article, maybe it will be helpful: https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/13800753963537-How-to-correctly-combine-Corona-Mapping-Randomizer-Triplanar-and-Normal-maps

Thanks @Avi

6

[Max] I need help! / Re: CoronaRandomizer and Triplanar maps: what order?

« on: 2025-03-10, 11:19:53 »

(...) or shifting UVs in triplanar itself.

Well I've never been paying attention to these settings of the Triplanar map actually, but you're right, thanks.

7

[Max] I need help! / Re: CoronaRandomizer and Triplanar maps: what order?

« on: 2025-03-10, 10:07:15 »

Thanks.
The thing is: in this particular case I don't care about randomizing the map, what I'm looking for is a way to apply a material on an object that doesn't have mapping coordinates, and at the same time I want to have the ability to shift the map on the Z axis.
So I use a Triplanar map for the first purpose, and then I add a Randomizer map to play with the Z Offset.

So my setup is: map > Triplanar > Randomizer > Material

8

[Max] I need help! / CoronaRandomizer and Triplanar maps: what order?

« on: 2025-03-10, 05:33:30 »

Hi,

I'm a bit confused about the order in which to connect the CoronaRandomizer and Triplanar maps.

I've read somewhere that the CoronaRandomizer map must come first, then it has to be plugged into the Triplanar map, but I recently had the case where it didn't work and I had to plug the bitmap first into the Triplanar map, then into the CoronaRandomizer map.

Can you clarify this point?

Thanks

9

[Max] I need help! / Re: Long rendering time

« on: 2025-03-07, 00:08:42 »

But from your Caustics article here - https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4954589213457-How-to-render-caustics-with-the-caustics-solver-in-Corona-for-3ds-Max

"There are also some limitations:

Caustics may render slower/differently when using render regions. The smaller the region the harder it is for the caustics solver to optimally guide photons. "

I confirm this point: caustics on the table look different when rendered with 'Region render', compared to the whole scene being rendered (see attached the region render, and the whole scene cropped to the region render).

10

[Max] I need help! / Re: Long rendering time

« on: 2025-03-04, 00:24:09 »

@maru: Thanks, so you confirm there's no need to upload the scene and it's investigated by your team to be fixed in the future?
That'd be great.

In the meantime I'll do some region render only for the glass area.

11

[Max] I need help! / Re: Long rendering time

« on: 2025-03-02, 06:49:02 »

Do you mean enabling caustics for that single glass object in its material settings, or enabling the caustics solver in Render Setup > Performance?
If it's the latter, then the caustics solver then becomes active for pretty much all reflective surfaces. You can add a caustics render element to see what exactly is handled by it.

Both. I enabled caustics in the glass material settings and I enabled the caustics solver in Render Setup > Performance.
The only refractive material in the scene with caustics enabled is the glass on the table.

I understand that enabling the caustics solver makes photon calculation available for the whole scene, and this is why I used the caustics include/exclude list: the include list contains only the table, nothing else.

And by inspecting the Caustics render element, I can see caustics being rendered on the table only. So I still don't understand why the render takes 2x longer when only such a small portion of the whole image is concerned by the photon calculation.

12

[Max] I need help! / Re: Long rendering time

« on: 2025-02-28, 05:51:40 »

So I did some tests, given what you said, but the problem remained, except when I turned off caustics.
I turned On Caustics so that the glass on the table casts nice light patterns on the table. And this is what is causing this massive slow down: when I turn caustics Off, the image renders 6.5x faster!

I hardly understand why, as the only object in the scene set to receive caustics is the table. How can a small object like this glass being responsible for the render time being 6x slower?!

13

[Max] I need help! / Re: Long rendering time

« on: 2025-02-26, 22:15:22 »

Thanks guys.

More info:
_ Max 2023 up to date / Corona 10HF2
_ FP Pro 8.0.6
_ RC Pro 5.2.8 I can't update these as my support is now expired
_ no environment effects

I finalized a render: 3000px, noise limit 4%, render time: 9h30

_ Generally speaking I do agree with @alexyork about not modelling windows as thin planes, but in this particular case I will give it a try as I want to reduce the reflections in the windows, quite the opposite of what we're after most of the time.

_ Light sources: all optimized, except light bulbs in the ceiling. I will do that as well (including only the spot light fixtures etc ...)

14

[Max] I need help! / Long rendering time

« on: 2025-02-26, 12:03:26 »

Hi,

I'm rendering an interior. Nothing fancy, just a basic dining room with a small kitchen and a living-room.
The scene is lit by a Corona Sun, Corona Sky as environment, very basic.

Here are two screenshots: the plan, so you have an idea of what the space looks like, and the camera view so you see what the actual render will look like. These are clay viewports but all materials are done. No displacement. Few forest packs here and there, for mulch and grass mainly, few Railclone objects, for the fence mainly. Some Coronaproxies for neighborhood buildings and some small trees. Nothing extraordinary really.

When I render in 4000 pixels wide, Corona says it will last for 15 hours. I use a Threadripper 3990X: 15 hours seems a lot for this 128 cores cpu.

I tried playing with the "GI vs. AA balance" setting, but I didn't notice any particular change in the rendering time.

There are only 5 windows, so I guess what Corona is struggling with is the lack of light coming in, especially in the kitchen area.
To help brighten this area a bit, I added a simple Corona Rectangle Light in front of the kitchen island.

My question is: what can be optimised in order to reduce the rendering time?

Thanks a lot for your help,

15

[Max] I need help! / Re: Does anyone know how to create this material in Corona/3ds Max?

« on: 2025-02-25, 05:18:57 »

Hi,

It looks like frosted glass to me. Start from a CoronaphysicalMtl and choose the "Glass frosted" preset. Then play with the Glossiness value.
As for the other materials, they look like metal, so do the same but choose a metal preset.