3DS Max 2021 PBR materials and corona?

[lupaz]

Any tests done with the new materials?
It's pretty impressive how they behave in the viewport.

[enrico.lapponi]

Hi, I've done some simple tests with textures from Megascans, using the latest daily build of Corona v6, they seem to work fine. The difference between the viewport and the rendering is almost none. They are pretty impressive!

[Juraj]

Just to avoid misunderstanding, this is not a new a shader. It's new GUI overlay ("wrapper") for already existing PhysicalMaterial from previous Max versions, which converts/maps to regular CoronaMTL without any different look or features.

Would be great if CoronaMTL could do this directly without the two internal steps above.

[maru]

Just a quick test of Max 2021 vs 2020 (I am sure the same thing was possible many versions back).
- Displaying the physical material is possible and looks the same (supports diffuse, reflectivity, glossiness, bump maps, and more)
- Displaying the HDRI background and simulating lighting + soft shadows in the viewport is possible (you need to add a "Skylight" object in Max 2020 or older, that's the only difference)
- AO works (it's a bit different, but who cares about AO in the viewport)

Some remarks:
- The viewport lighting intensity was different between Max 2020 and 2021 (2020 was closer to the rendering actually) - no idea why, I removed the Skylight object in Max 2021 since it's not needed anyway
- HDRI environment OSL map does not offer the preview of the HDRI file you are loading in the file load dialog :D
- With this viewport display mode + few objects + few materials whole 3ds Max becomes very laggy/slow, but maybe it's just my system (used 3900x + GTX 1660), so it's like this: change material parameter.....wait....see the viewport update.
- Changing bitmap's output parameters does not affect the viewport preview (e.g. changing RGB level, RGB offset, etc) - this concerns both the textures and the HDRI enviro. The workaround is to use the new OSL color corrector.

So my final conclusion would be that using Corona's IR is a better idea. ;)

I haven't checked with Corona materials yet, will try it later (and others can try too!).

[Juraj]

Maru, can you test if there is further viewport quality different between the PhysicalMaterial and PBR Material ? They are internally the same one, so what is even the point of the latter one? Does it give even more accurate represantion in viewport?

The lagginess is not from your hardware, 1660 is not slow GPU, it's probably re-compiling the shader each time you make adjustments, hence my question above. I am very confused by what they tried to achieve with the ultra-limited PBR material if it's not internally new, and the Physical was already PBR in both behavior and parameters.

[lupaz]

Just a quick test of Max 2021 vs 2020 (I am sure the same thing was possible many versions back).
- Displaying the physical material is possible and looks the same (supports diffuse, reflectivity, glossiness, bump maps, and more)
- Displaying the HDRI background and simulating lighting + soft shadows in the viewport is possible (you need to add a "Skylight" object in Max 2020 or older, that's the only difference)
- AO works (it's a bit different, but who cares about AO in the viewport)

Some remarks:
- The viewport lighting intensity was different between Max 2020 and 2021 (2020 was closer to the rendering actually) - no idea why, I removed the Skylight object in Max 2021 since it's not needed anyway
- HDRI environment OSL map does not offer the preview of the HDRI file you are loading in the file load dialog :D
- With this viewport display mode + few objects + few materials whole 3ds Max becomes very laggy/slow, but maybe it's just my system (used 3900x + GTX 1660), so it's like this: change material parameter.....wait....see the viewport update.
- Changing bitmap's output parameters does not affect the viewport preview (e.g. changing RGB level, RGB offset, etc) - this concerns both the textures and the HDRI enviro. The workaround is to use the new OSL color corrector.

So my final conclusion would be that using Corona's IR is a better idea. ;)

I haven't checked with Corona materials yet, will try it later (and others can try too!).

To be honest I don't see myself using a workflow in which I need to see all these details in the viewport all the time, unless of course the result in the viewport is exactly the same as the rendered version. At least with Maru's tests it doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe this is good for games? Don't know.

AO in the viewport in real time (not improving progressively) is a great addition in Max 2021 in my opinion. It really helps to understand the geometry you're working with.