Messages

76

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Corona Renderer 8 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2021-11-08, 14:14:55 »

I think the guys from the Corona team meant this function
it globally disables and enables displacement in the entire scene

Hi Yuriy,
I know the Corona team meant the function from your screenshot.
What I'm saying is that these are two different things. If I disable displacement globally from the render setup window, it simply means all my shaders render without it.
Disabling displacement function from current version of Corona Converter allows me to first disable displacement on all my shaders, and then turn it on again for only some selected ones.
This is very helpful in debugging the scene and getting rid of unnecessary displacement from objects you don't want it to be on, while preserving it on the objects that should have it.
You simply cannot do the same with the render settings displacement checkbox.

77

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Corona Renderer 8 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2021-11-08, 13:56:56 »

Hi guys,
Just noticed this in the newest Corona 8 Daily Build changelog:

"Removed Disable Displacement Maps button from Corona Converter - it is much better to globally disable displacement through the render setup menu"

Let me not agree with the above statement that it's much better to globally disable displacement through the render setup.
I find disabling displacement maps through Corona Converter very convenient.
Imagine the scene with large number of imported assets from 3dsky etc, as it's often the case, materials in these models are usually far from perfect, often having unnecessary displacement on.
In such case I can batch disable all disp maps through Corona Converter (without a need to go through hundreds of shaders to find the one that causes i.e excessive RAM consumption in the scene), and simply turn it on again only for specific materials that I do require it to by ON.

Why remove such a functionality? To me it starts to feel like corona converter is heading in the wrong direction.



 

78

Hardware / Re: Sharing drive in Windows vs NAS

« on: 2021-10-14, 18:00:08 »

I think the main downside of the solution you described, so using single machine for both - production and file server purposes, is that it is more prone to failures than a one-task orientated server.

-3ds max crashes on daily basis,
-renderings freeze,
-there's often a need to install new software etc,
In every scenario above when your machine needs a restart, the files you're sharing with others are not available anymore. That often causes scene/rendering errors for other users.

Also the 100% processor and RAM usage during rendering may reduce the file transfers and read/save speeds for other network users.

So in my opinion, the sole purpose of a file server should be to store, share and backup files.
If you happen to build it powerful enough to sporadically use as a render node too, there's probably nothing wrong with that, and this is what we sometimes do in our studio.

Perhaps tell us more about why NAS solutions and HDDs are not working for you anymore?

Our file server is a Windows machine built specifically for this purpose. It's has an i9 9900K processor overclocked to 4.9Mhz, built on AsRock Z390 motherboard, with 64gb ram.
Probably a bit of an overkill, but as I mentioned wewanted to have a possibility to use it as a render node from time to time.
We only keep the library of assets on a fast M2 drive.
All the projects are stored on 7200 HDDs and we're rather happy with scene opening/saving and data transfer speeds.







 

79

[Scatter] Feature Requests / Re: Improved Corona Scatter

« on: 2021-09-30, 13:51:41 »

I cannot wait to see Corona Scatter improvements too.
There were times when Corona Team was sneak peaking "Scatter Pro", although looks like the plans for this have died.

Here's what I wrote 2 years ago and it's still valid in terms of the features I'd love to have:
"If only it had control over the scale of each separate scattered object (within instanced objects menu), simple exclude include with option to mark the areas with a brush, and option to save your setups, it would be a perfect tool.
Using distance maps and advanced scattering techniques unfortunately also slows Corona Scatter down a lot."

Additional handy features would be:
-being able to easily select object in scene from CScatter Objects menu (i.e. right click->select object in scene)
-clustering
-edge trimming

80

General CG Discussion / Re: Materials used in scene show no corner brackets in the material editor

« on: 2021-09-02, 17:39:20 »

I do have exactly the same issue!
Wasn't sure whether it's Max 2022 related or Corona 7 as I updated both at the same time.

81

[Max] Resolved Bugs / Re: Corona 7 'Volume Effect' forces ground plane over Direct Visibility Override

« on: 2021-08-16, 12:04:49 »

Hi!
I second comments in the above posts. I love the new aerial perspective volume effect and the way it enhances some of our shots.
It would be great if it worked fine with other corona options like direct visibility override, not only with Corona sky.
The fact that it appears in Lightmix under "rest" tab is very problematic though.
It would be great to have it under Volumetrics category. Ideally, to have an extra option to render it as a separate render element only (like we can choose with caustics).

82

[Max] Resolved Bugs / Re: Max freeze for a long time after stopping IR and sometimes regular render

« on: 2021-07-07, 18:49:33 »

Hi Corona Team,
Is there any chance that this has been addressed for Corona 7 release?
The problem with max freezing for even couple minutes after stopping IR is definitely still there and we have to deal with it in most of our more complex scenes.
Many thanks.

83

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Lightmix

« on: 2021-03-01, 17:39:58 »

I must say the previous version behaviour when new lights has been just added to the existing lightmix setup (without resetting others to the original values) was just way more comfortable indeed.
I never had a problem with situations which you (@TomG) described as "different lightmixes carrying across values that are dramatically changed due to auto generation".
Worst case scenario if there was any issue I could just manually reset the values of the particular LightSelect that didn't look right anymore.

The new behaviour even if considered as correct by the developers has just not better but worse in the day-to-day work scenario.
For me personally that change has been a step back in LightMix developement.

84

[Max] Resolved Bugs / Re: Serious MAX freezes while using slate material editor

« on: 2021-02-18, 17:28:37 »

Many thanks for all the tips Pokoy,
I do hope SME 2.0 will bring some positive change, as it seems to be becoming our day-to-day issue hugely affecting production speed.
I will try using the methods you posted links to. Some of them I have already tested, unfortunately without much of a change.

In the meantime, I have sent the problematic scene and the dump file via dropbox uploader.
Here are file names:
1789_slate_material_issue
1789_slate_material_editor_dump

My main aim however, is to identify what in particular does cause the problems I described.
Some of our scenes work just fine, even with more complicated nodes, the SME is not the fastest but we do not experience excessive lags or freezes,
The scene that I'm referring to though, is an extreme example of the file that is simply impossible to work with when SME is open.

85

[Max] Resolved Bugs / Serious MAX freezes while using slate material editor

« on: 2021-02-17, 18:22:33 »

Hi,
In some of our files slate material editor is often freezing 3ds max for 3 minutes or so.
Opening the slate material editor itself can also last ages - 3-5mins.
Editing simple materials and applying them to objects in the scene can also cause lag, or freeze max completely.
This however does not happen with compact material editor, files are perfectly usable while using it.

Anticipating questions,
-this happens even if material editor is cleaned of all the materials.
-merging all the objects to the new scene does not help.
-merging files in groups to identify the problem didn't give us much of a success,
we think the issue might be associated with some scatters/proxies/shaders brought from the older scenes that were using older Corona versions,
but we could no identify particular cause of the above

We use Max 2019 (in Max 2021 problem is still present), Corona 6 Hotfix 1

Can you please help us to identify the problem?
I am just about to archive the scene for you as well as provide the dump file.

Thanks in advance

86

Work in Progress/Tests / Re: The Trail to Machu Picchu

« on: 2020-10-15, 11:09:12 »

Oh wow. Great set! The water indeed looks stunning. Really good and cohesive greenery too. Can you please describe your water simulation process? Thanks!

87

[Max] I need help! / Re: FBX Export 3ds max Corona materials

« on: 2020-08-07, 11:22:40 »

Thanks a lot PROH

88

[Max] I need help! / Re: FBX Export 3ds max Corona materials

« on: 2020-08-06, 12:24:46 »

Any suggestions for Corona mat to standard mat converter?

89

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Corona Renderer 6 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2020-07-09, 18:09:41 »

After newest daily installation (07.07) , unknown error appears once IR is activated and scene won't render.
Everything worked fine with the previous daily. Will upload my file for your tests (file name: access_road_base_extra_cam)
Thanks

90

[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / Re: Stochastic texturing to avoid texture tiling

« on: 2020-05-29, 11:03:06 »

This has been implemented and will be in Corona 6.

That's brilliant! Thanks a lot guys, cannot wait to use it in production, it'll be a huge time saver in shaders preparation!