Messages

1

Gallery / Guitar amplifier Sigma III

« on: 2021-03-12, 21:09:00 »

My design of a guitar amplifier inspired by Audio Assault Sigma VST amp plugin.
The project is not an official design, and I'm in no way affiliated with Audio Assault.
HDRIs from hdrihaven.com

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[Max] I need help! / Any way to speed up this material rendering (layered glass)?

« on: 2021-03-07, 17:50:24 »

I have an object, glass bulb that has it's top covered with mirror like material on one side, dull material on the other side. So technically three materials, but I cheated with Corona Front Back map for mirror/dull one, and used just a regular glass one for the other. Mix them with gradient map in Corona layered material. They have to gradually transition from glass to mirror.
Turns out this layered material slows the render down, a lot. In my scene expected render time 30+ hours. With just the glass material assigned, or just the mirror one, it's about 12 hours. Usually render times on my PC end up being double of what is predicted after 5-10 passes, so 50-60 hours for a single image is a little too much.

Path tracing or UHD cache, the same.
Turning on "Thin (no refraction)", didn't help.
Turning off Shell modifier on the geometry helps a bit, but negligible.
Turning on Caustics helps a bit, but negligible.
Switching base material and layer 1, didn't help.

Test scene with the material attached.
Can anything be done to speed it up? Thanks in advance!

3

Gallery / Demons within

« on: 2018-12-22, 11:56:47 »

After a long pause, returning to 3D with an artsy farty piece. I contemplated ruining it by creating one of those "no color no saturation and above all no contrast" images, you know, something like this https://i.imgur.com/AizmtpO.png

But in the end decided against it and opted for this warm, almost sweet tasting atmosphere.

That's all, thanks for reading :)

4

Off-Topic / Mental ray discontinued

« on: 2017-11-17, 20:28:46 »

NVIDIA will no longer offer new subscriptions to the NVIDIA ® Mental Ray ® plugins for Maya and 3ds Max, as well as Mental Ray standalone from November 20 th , 2017 onward.
...
To bring AI and further GPU acceleration to graphics, NVIDIA continues to significantly focus on developing SDKs and technologies for software development partners who create professional ray tracing products.
...
With this focus, we have discontinued development of plugins and new features for Mental Ray.

Haven't used it for several years, still sad to see it die like this, not with a bang but a whimper.

http://images.nvidia.com/content/newsletters/email/pdf/Mental-Ray-FAQ-201.pdf?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWVRNME5qbG1ZekF6TkRJMCIsInQiOiJKV3FqYlwvYkVSUlcxN0V5NXdxcjRvYSt3SkpmXC96cW9JamRKU0Nmc0QrTnFHXC9DQjJLQ3VDVXB5ZlVjRUdZZUJ1NklSRDNzVUpjd01oYWRXUURTMnh4OEQ2cytpaDB5MTJRaEYxQUNRM1dXbFpEWTM0bGNCb2hOWXRSRUlpZHpnKyJ9

5

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Render Legion and Corona Join Forces with Chaos Group

« on: 2017-09-28, 11:08:44 »

I am disappointed for the years I spent on studying Corona.

You spent years learning Corona?! Really? Years to learn the most intuitive render engine out there? Years?

Are you sure you're not mixing Corona with Mental or V-ray :D

6

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Daily Builds 1.7

« on: 2017-09-04, 13:17:43 »

I don't understand?

Never mind, happy rendering!

7

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Daily Builds 1.7

« on: 2017-09-04, 13:14:06 »

it doesn't matter we are all one team whether we work at Corona or not, aren't we troubleshooting these daily builds?

I guess you're that one "i" in team.

8

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Daily Builds 1.7

« on: 2017-09-04, 13:07:59 »

you confuse my helping you to figure this out with whatever.

You confuse me with someone employed at Corona :D

9

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Daily Builds 1.7

« on: 2017-09-04, 13:00:21 »

I am sorry but I don't have time to do this. This is not a bug that I should be fixing for you it is your software and your business. it is a major flaw, akin to Corona shooting itself in the foot

Jeez, man, calm down. No one asked you to fix anything, just to report where everyone reports bugs.
Besides, no one forced you to use daily builds, have you read this:

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK
Always make backups of important projects! Daily builds may contain unfinished features and may not be stable - they may damage your scenes, freeze your 3ds Max, make you miss your deadline

https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000570015-corona-renderer-for-3ds-max-daily-builds

10

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Render Legion and Corona Join Forces with Chaos Group

« on: 2017-08-30, 21:37:07 »

Best regards,
Vlado

If anything, I have to give you credit for being far more patient then I expected :)

11

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Render Legion and Corona Join Forces with Chaos Group

« on: 2017-08-28, 15:55:40 »

What is the pesimistic version? In 2 years Corona will be gone

No, it won't be gone. It'll just get jammed into V-ray (which will get another 7 tabs with 84 roll-outs) and be sold as part of it - "(un)biased mode".
All with appropriate "teams have decided that this is the best move, all that you love is now under one roof, better then ever, working together to bring the best rendering engine to you, the artist" sales pitch.

Mark my words! :laughs ominously:

12

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Render Legion and Corona Join Forces with Chaos Group

« on: 2017-08-27, 01:42:40 »

That would be a pretty stupid thing for us to do, don't you think? Besides, one company can make many different models of cars (and they do!) at different price points with different characteristics and with different users.

Best regards,
Vlado

All true, but MANY people here actually used to be truckers. They drove the big ugly truck, struggled with its size, hated rev matching, had leg cramps from heavy clutch.
Then they switched to a beautiful EV and life was beautiful, it allowed them to just enjoy the ride, which is all they ever wanted.
And now, out of the blue, their beloved EV is owned by the very trucking company that made them hate driving?! Hell no!
Being emotional and impulsive many are thinking no way I'm supporting them ever again, I'll rather switch to this, especially not knowing what the future brings, and seeing other mergers like this go south.

13

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Render Legion and Corona Join Forces with Chaos Group

« on: 2017-08-27, 00:44:31 »

Initially, the talk is all sunshine, and dev teams will go on, and that no product will be sacrificed etc...then fastforward 2 years, and the story is very different.

This reminded me when master Zapp switched to Autodesk and promised to make MR usable, only never to be heard from ever again.

14

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Render Legion and Corona Join Forces with Chaos Group

« on: 2017-08-27, 00:34:33 »

It's somewhat disapponting to read all these responses. Guys like Ondra and the rest of the Corona team are extremely rare, and they chose to work (very hard) for you. They can do many amazing things for you in the future as well. Still somehow you turned from loyal supporters to pure hatred in a single day. Hate me all you like, however those guys have been nothing but good to you.

I've worked on V-Ray really hard for 15 years, long days and many nights including weekends, with very few vacations, and no sick leaves to get where I am today (no matter how much you despise my work). It's a tough road to walk. Is it so bad that those guys want a short cut? I think you will like the results. Corona will continue to serve you well.

Best regards,
Vlado

Well, consider this.
You are a proud owner of one of these.



It's beautiful, new, different, fast and so easy to drive, it doesn't even have a gear box! Everything you ever wanted from an electric car. A dream come true. And you've been using it since it was just a small 0.4 alpha that couldn't even get over bumps properly.

Then, one day the company is sold to guys that make these:



Yes, it's a vehicle that will get you from point A to point B, it can even carry a lot more load. But it's big, and ugly, and old, and the company that makes them never cared for EV-s. They are huge, and they make only their huge ugly trucks.
Naturally you are concerned, you are sure that the new big trucking company will ruin your beloved EV. They don't care about it, they just want the competition gone, they're in trucking business. We don't care how long they've been making trucks, we hate trucks.
At this point we are certain they will kill the production of our beloved EV, or leave it as it is but wit their big ugly truck price tag, or at best stick an electric motor in their big ugly truck and say "see, we're in EV business now".

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[Max] General Discussion / Re: Render Legion and Corona Join Forces with Chaos Group

« on: 2017-08-26, 21:13:22 »

I don't understand why so many of you are so angry, after all, we do live in the real word. Corona probably didn't generate enough money to continue comfortable development, so Ondra took the opportunity, nothing to blame him for there.
And on the other hand Chaos group took the opportunity to kill it's competitor that started to take a noticeable chunk of (mostly) archviz market.

As for Coronas future, let's not be naive, it will probably meet Mental rays fate once it got bought by Nvidia. It will either become some overpriced pet project of Chaos group, or over time completely abandoned.

C'est la vie, end of an Corona era, others will come. Heck, two years from now 32 gigs graphics cards will become the norm and we'll wonder how we ever got anything done on those old CPU renderers.