Topics

16

[Max] I need help! / I'm having issues with button icons not installing with Corona 8

« on: 2022-04-14, 14:58:59 »

I had this same issue with the RC's, but none of the menu buttons for Corona are loading, and they just appear as text. Is there a way I can manually drop them in the right folder so they'll show up?

17

[Max] I need help! / How do I mask an objects visibility, reflection, and refraction in a scene?

« on: 2022-02-21, 16:50:35 »

I know it's pretty straight forward to mask an object's direct visibility using the CMasking_mask render element. But is there a way to also include the object's reflections and refractions in the mask too?

I'm trying to swap out paint colors on some wall panels, and it's not enough to only mask the object's direct visibility because the color is having a subtle reflective effect on the adjacent wall.

edit: I figured it out. I needed to set all the other materials besides the one I was wishing to mask to propagate reflections and/or refractions. Before, I thought I could just set the propagation setting for material to be masked.

18

[Max] I need help! / Suddenly Alt+W isn't toggling viewports

« on: 2022-02-11, 20:42:16 »

Suddenly, Alt+W isn't toggling viewports anymore in 3dsMax for me even though the hotkey is set to it in the menu. I noticed it started happening shortly after I installed the Rebus Farm plugin. Has anyone had any issues like this with a solution?

Nevermind, I think I figured it out. Apparently, I had deleted all but one viewport so there were no more to toggle to. I think Rebus may have done that, but I just had to reset it to the default 4 viewport view.

19

[Max] I need help! / How would I create a mask for a sub material within a layered material?

« on: 2022-02-03, 17:00:48 »

I would like to create a mask of a sub material that is part of a layered material. I tried assigning the sub material a Material ID Channel and create a CMasking element based on that channel #, but it's not masking the sub material.

20

[Max] I need help! / Change how often image noise is caculated

« on: 2021-12-17, 17:29:32 »

How do you change the renderer to compute noise every pass instead of every 5 passes? Is there any drawback to setting it to calculate each pass?

21

[Max] General Discussion / 4K Cache questions

« on: 2021-12-17, 17:28:07 »

Is it okay to use the 4K cache instead of UHD Cache for rendering? What are the benefits and drawbacks? I know it's still labeled as experimental, but has it seen enough development since the release of Corona 7 to be considered on par with UHD cache?

How does the 4K cache work that is different from UHD?

edit: I found this

The 4K cache uses only partial caching, so does not try to interpolate everything. While this is slower than a fully cached solution (such as irradiance caching), it does not create artifacts, only noise that eventually goes away.

The 4K cache is an ideal solution for animation, and significantly reduces flickering even when light sources or geometry are moving. This is especially important when the cache cannot be precomputed.

 

22

General CG Discussion / How do you handle bring models from software like Revit, Rhino to 3dsMax

« on: 2021-11-12, 17:39:31 »

In the arch viz world of 3dsMax and Corona, I've always struggled with creating good topology on imported meshes from other software in a reasonable amount of time. Usually it just takes too much time to edit a poly in 3dsMax such that it's primarily quads, especially when you need to have a complex monolithic poly that would represent dry wall for example.

I'm curious what strategies users on here have tried where you don't model everything from scratch. I'm considering just importing an OBJ from Rhino and settling w/ whatever mesh it gives me. I've had success in the past with simpler meshes from Rhino importing them as OBJ's to 3dsMax w/ minimal cleanup, but this may break down when you try it with more complex meshes.

23

[Max] I need help! / Is there a good way to know when you have the right exposure?

« on: 2021-09-10, 19:16:54 »

Typically, I have adjusted the exposure based on what I think looks best. But I'm curious if there's a better, more objective way to know when the exposure is optimum.

24

[Max] I need help! / Issue with tiling wood texture

« on: 2021-08-18, 17:25:34 »

I have an non-tileable board texture (12 feet by 1 foot real world scale) that I would like to apply to a box using the Corona Tri Planar component. I have it setup with a UVW Randomizer going into the Tri Planar component to make it seamless. The Randomizer is setup such that each tile is randomized with movement from 0 to 1, and the rotation is in 180 degree increments (so the wood grain all runs in the same direction). But after setting it up how I think it should be, I keep getting seams in the texture. I've attached images of the material setup and result as well as the max file and texture.

25

[Max] I need help! / Blending tiles of untiled wood texture with UVW Randomizer

« on: 2021-07-26, 22:15:28 »

I have a wood texture that in not tileable, and I'm trying to see if I can the the UVW Randomizer's blend feature to help blend the edges where the tiles come together (where'd you typically get a hard edge b/w tiles).

Even if 'Randomize each tile' is checked, you'll still see hard edges—However, if there's a way to set the size of the initial map to say 5'x5' but have the tiles be 4'x4', the blending could occur with that 1' overlap of the textures, thereby obscuring the hard edge. Does anyone know if there's a good way to do this?

26

Gallery / Fiberglass Light Scoops for an outdoor pavilion

« on: 2021-03-22, 14:57:38 »

I've been studying the idea of using light scoops for an outdoor art pavilion. They will be made from fiberglass, so I wanted to really capture characteristics of a fiberglass material—the subtle texture from the fibers, the slight translucency, and the reflectivity of the resin.

27

[Max] I need help! / Creating translucent fiberglass appearance

« on: 2021-03-15, 17:35:39 »

I would like to create the appearance of translucent fiberglass that may be seen on a thin shell of fiberglass such as an Eames chair.

Quixel has a fiberglass material that can serve as a good starting point, however, I'm looking for recommendations on how to create the translucent effect. Ideally, it would be more than only an adjustment to the translucency fraction.

It seems the key is allowing the translucency, yet also allowing some characteristics of the surface material to show (diffuse, gloss, bump). It would also be nice to see some of the fibers as light shine through the material.

Right now, I'm trying volumetric scattering with a bit of refraction, and I'm NOT setting the refraction amount to 1.0. But I'm having a hard time understanding how these parameters affect one another.

28

[Max] Resolved Bugs / 'Randomize Each Tile' in UVW Randomizer doesn't work correctly with some maps

« on: 2021-01-19, 20:39:15 »

I have discovered that if you take a texture, size it via 'Real World Scale', feed it through another component (I know of two), and then feed that into a UVW Randomizer, it will cause the 'Randomize Each Tile' function within the UVW Randomizer to not work correctly. It doesn't appear that Corona Tri-planar affects this issue at all.

I've attached a Max file that feeds a checker map through a 1) map input of a Gradient Ramp and 2) a Corona Mix, and when 'Randomize Each Tile' is enabled, it causes a speckled appearance.

This has been problematic for me because I use both Corona Mix (to multiply blend maps together) and Gradient Ramp on a lot of materials in my projects. I think a work around for now would be to use the RGB Multiply map to blend my textures together.

29

[Max] I need help! / Something seems wrong with this material

« on: 2021-01-08, 07:50:28 »

I have attached a Max file that has a material in it that seems to be misbehaving. I didn't include the image files, but I'm hoping the same effect occurs if you plug in any texture image into the Corona Bitmap component.

Anyway, I cannot seem to get the UVW Randomizer to work properly, and it's giving me a speckled appearance when I try it. I cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong.

30

[Max] I need help! / Issues when putting a UVW Randomizer upstread from a Triplanar map

« on: 2020-12-21, 23:48:02 »

Earlier, I was having some scaling issues when I put a UVW randomizer upstream from a Tri-planar map (I was using a real-world size for my map). I had the UVW randomizer set to randomize tiling. The issue was gone when I swapped the UVW to be downstream from the tri-planar map. Is this is known requirement for the UVW Randomizer?