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[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion
« on: 2025-06-18, 14:00:18 »
I tested this and yes the result is better than the original. AA of finer details and highlights and bitmap filtering are obviously sharper due to downsampling.
There are limitations though which aren't obvious:
- Complicated shader trees tend to resolve detail (bump, procedural details in noise maps etc) at a later stage in the render progress. With only a few passes the result will be less surface details.
- Some of Corona's sampling-based maps like AO and Curvature will also refine at later stages. I got some heavy differences between the two images where AO was much less pronounced and detailed in the downsampled image (with less passes). If you're using those kind of maps, it's best to still allow more samples.
- Refraction details also tend to take a bit longer, so you trade sharper details (implying more detail) for less actual detail and accuracy.
However on simple scenes and simpler shader trees the workflow results in surprisingly more detail when compared 1:1.
Interestingly, in the first days of Corona there were no image pixel filters and this was exactly the way Corona did it - by rendering twice the resolution internally and displaying the downscaled image in the VFB. EDIT - Oh wait, this was already mentioned above...
There are limitations though which aren't obvious:
- Complicated shader trees tend to resolve detail (bump, procedural details in noise maps etc) at a later stage in the render progress. With only a few passes the result will be less surface details.
- Some of Corona's sampling-based maps like AO and Curvature will also refine at later stages. I got some heavy differences between the two images where AO was much less pronounced and detailed in the downsampled image (with less passes). If you're using those kind of maps, it's best to still allow more samples.
- Refraction details also tend to take a bit longer, so you trade sharper details (implying more detail) for less actual detail and accuracy.
However on simple scenes and simpler shader trees the workflow results in surprisingly more detail when compared 1:1.
Interestingly, in the first days of Corona there were no image pixel filters and this was exactly the way Corona did it - by rendering twice the resolution internally and displaying the downscaled image in the VFB. EDIT - Oh wait, this was already mentioned above...