Messages

31

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Different Colors Between Corona VFB and Saved Image

« on: 2025-03-03, 12:24:42 »

My 2 cents - while Corona has followed the 3dsmax development with OCIO, you also omitted the work case most users will face just like Autodesk did, namely going to PS and work on the images - where ICC profiles count, not OCIO view transforms. OCIO might support ICCs but so far I've only seem convoluted ways to get there and it's nowhere near user friendly.

The only way to solve this really common problem would be to finally implement ICC profiles in the VFB, and embed them in the files saved.

I've been asking for this for years and I believe you really have to consider finally adding ICC functionality. It would finally make it possible to preview images the way they'd display in PS.
Most users would already be happy with only adding final VFB transform (not taking care of any input conversion for textures, or only on some general global level, not per texture).

32

[Max] I need help! / Re: CMasking masks aren't completely white

« on: 2025-02-27, 14:58:09 »

Any exposure/tone mapping involved? Sometimes I'm rendering masks 'manually' by using LightMtls to work around limitations and typically have to disable exposure/tone mapping (because I'm using the RGB output, not the alpha channel).

33

[Max] I need help! / Re: Corona Image Editor

« on: 2025-02-26, 20:57:47 »

Renaming the cxr to exr will make it open in any app that can open exr files. I'm not sure about the dynamic range though - as far as I know tone mapping will be baked in so probably no access to the full dynamic range and non-tonemapped image.

34

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

« on: 2025-02-25, 11:34:06 »

I appreciate that software development isn't necessarily as straightforward as saying "just change it from A to B" but I'm curious to know if the QT re-write could be done in stages?

As others have mentioned the biggest impact would be the material editor change so even if just the CoronaPhysicalMtl was updated in 12u2 (or 13) and other parts of the UI followed in later versions this would already have a huge effect on productivity.

Side note, slightly related - not sure what's happening with LayerMtl but it looks like adding a new Layer to it will update all layers (probably registering/re-ordering anim tracks for all 10 layers...?) adding a lot of overhead and time until you can work again.

35

[Max] I need help! / Re: Different background image colors in rendering

« on: 2025-02-24, 21:11:04 »

In my opinion this is a problem because it becomes more difficult to find the right match when you have to insert a 3D model on a photo..isn't that the case for you too?

Yeah, it's a major pain. Not being able to match lighting/level/hues against backplates because of tonemapping that can't be worked back is really a problem in my case and almost every project suffers here because I can't be sure I'm 100% where it needs to be.

In case you wanna vote for it:
https://chaoscorona.ideas.aha.io/ideas/CMAX-I-27

For some reason, the team never properly acknowledged the need for unchanged background colors, and it surely can get complicated. But even a simple solution, even if limited, would help.
Don't get your hopes up though, people want stars and the moon in the VFB and I bet it's going to be there way sooner.

36

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

« on: 2025-02-24, 15:32:07 »

We might see some initial / partial work on this for Corona 14, though 14 isn't fully planned out yet (and won't be until 13 is released). BTW, back when mapping out plans for 13 it was not that far ahead of Toon shading, and Toon shading also has a history dating back to 2016 or more on the forums that we also took into account :)

My 2 cents - even though Toon might be on the list for quite some time its availability will affect a smaller group, while a Qt port will benefit all users.

I think material/map UI components would be the most pressing as these are slowing down working with Corona the most, the render dialog can probably have less priority.
Is Scatter's modifier UI already ported?

37

[Max] Bug Reporting / Re: Backplate + Sun causing shadow bug

« on: 2025-02-06, 18:36:21 »

Hi everyone.

Wanted to picked this back up again please.

We are currently working on a big project with a house and a skyline blackplate.

The backplate is sitting on a light material, with emit light unchecked, The scene is lit with sun and sky,

The backplate is semi blocking the sun shadows, if we unhide it to just see the corona sky the shadows are great. I have read the above post and for a work around I have unticked "visable in reflections"

Im getting a better result, but I assume there hasn't been any further developments on getting this fixed? Its a real shame because we are loosing alot of reflectivity in the glass of the builiding.

Maybe you can get around that by using the backplate image in the 'Direct Visivility Override' slot in Corona's render dialog (and in the Refractions override if needed, too). That way you wouldn't need any plane with a LightMtl, maybe it helps in your case. (Of course, it doesn't solve the original problem discussed in the thread...)

38

[Max] I need help! / Re: Volumetric optimisations

« on: 2025-02-03, 21:59:30 »

Unfortunately, no. And make sure it doesn't mess with alpha and masks, too. It's not supposed to but it might.

39

[Max] I need help! / Re: Volumetric optimisations

« on: 2025-02-03, 16:52:43 »

From my tests, step size has the biggest effect on speed. Interpolation has some effect too, but it's not as noticeable.
Another way to save time is using less bounces but that may affect the look of the volumes too much.

If you're rendering volumes in a separate pass and compose them in post, have a look at Arnold, it's built in and can be a lot faster with volumes. Too many GI samples will make it slow, too, but you have more control over the final look and maybe can compensate low GI through some shader wizardry.

40

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

« on: 2025-01-24, 11:39:03 »

Does that mean you are working on it? That would be finally a good reason to upgrade for me.

41

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

« on: 2025-01-23, 22:44:38 »

definitely an improvement with the latest HOTFIX - well done team :)  More of that please :)

Thought - seeing as though the only thing that is still bad and i dont think its all corona related - is the material editor.  It would be great if corona had its very own material editor, outside of autodesk with the hope that the UI is completely in the hands of the Corona team.  the material editor in Max has forever been laggy.  I did write a post on this with a supporting video.
https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=43406.15

have a great weekend all.

That would be the old Qt story... vote for it here:
https://chaoscorona.ideas.aha.io/ideas/CMAX-I-23

42

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Corona 12 Update 1

« on: 2025-01-23, 14:34:10 »

There's a hardly a reason to visit the website. The info could've been displayed on the forums main page, as it was the case on the Chaos forums where it was displayed prominently on top.
No e-mail in December here, only one a few days ago saying one week left to update.

43

[C4D] General Discussion / Re: Amazon AWS Render Nodes. Has anyone done this?

« on: 2025-01-15, 18:10:38 »

I'd contact Chaos licensing team directly, chances are they have answers for AWS, you probably are not the first to try/ask.

Please share whatever you learn, would like to know what the situation is, too.

44

[Max] I need help! / Re: Image is looking nice in vfb but not in PS.

« on: 2025-01-15, 14:12:24 »

Check you monitor profile is set to sRGB in the windows display settings.
Save to EXR from the VFB then load into PS.
Assign your sRGB profile and when saving to whatever format you want ensure you embed the profile in the save dialog.

Id struggled with this for ages and the part i had missed was ensuring my monitor profile was set to sRGB.

If you have a profile coming with your display or it's calibrated and using a profile from the calibration, you probably don't want to go with limited sRGB and the display uses a different profile - in that case the above post ytr_bolanda is the way to go.

45

Gallery / Re: Laurel.

« on: 2025-01-03, 20:46:37 »

Really great shading and... everything, and it really conveys the 'feel' of the place.