Messages

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General CG Discussion / Re: AI what are peoples thoughts ? I think we are in for big change.

« on: 2023-05-28, 01:28:12 »

AI is not replacing anyone really. BIM was the next  big thing years ago but no matter how big the project all involved in any meeting are folding out A1 or A0 sized prints to discuss. At least that is my experience. Even when clients hire human intelligence or experience they still do what they want regardless of the outcome...

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[C4D] General Discussion / Re: Very very slow development of new version of Corona, why?

« on: 2023-05-23, 01:04:42 »

I think we will see Twin Motion gaining marketshare along with Unreal. I predict Lumion has lost some to both mentioned.

Vray and Corona will will most likely still be first and second. High end rendering with real time render apps isn't just there yet especially considering the assets and resources.

I do see a trend among students in architecture and smaller younger studios to skip traditional platforms like Max and C4D for apps that require a less steep learning curve and less costs for assets.

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[C4D] General Discussion / Re: Very very slow development of new version of Corona, why?

« on: 2023-05-22, 16:38:20 »

Good to read that Tom, thanks. I enjoy working with Corona for now. CGArchitect does a survey each year which gives an impression on where things are going. I just took the survey and looking forward to see if Unreal Engine is still at the forefront and Corona still as much used as before (2 behind Vray).

What I need is short times to first pixel. In other words, the quickest way to interact with color and light. I have never been able to see if GPU would help or even real time renderers like Unreal. The way I work now is still mostly in wireframe and in separate files for vegetation and the building itself. I feel like a dinosaur but maybe that's where things still stand in 2023.

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General CG Discussion / Re: AI what are peoples thoughts ? I think we are in for big change.

« on: 2023-05-21, 02:42:19 »

AI in architecture will work the same way as design competitions with hundreds or even thousands of submissions.
The client gets caught up in the hassle of so much choice and wishes he had hired just one architect. Someone with some social skills to guide him or her through the whole proces of construction with the local officials and contractors.
That you can generate hundreds of versions of the same proposal has np purpose. It's like going to a restaurant with a menu of a thousand dishes. If one day AI in architecture will be really good it will show the one and best option. A bit like Google Maps showing you the best route with the shortest drive or the one most scenic.

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[C4D] General Discussion / Re: Very very slow development of new version of Corona, why?

« on: 2023-05-21, 02:21:52 »

The OP I think is right. It does seem a little silent or slow as of lately.

If I look at Lumion , Twin Motion and Unreal things seem to be going fast forward there.

I would love to see where CR is going the next few years to compete with mainstream archviz going in the direction of realtime renders and sophisticated generated assets and content. I also see Vray and Enscape joining in a combined workflow. Anyhow, Coronarender feels like a great but an end of life product. Could also be the team is just small with little time or money for marketing.
I am on a Mac, a fast one with 20 cores and 128Gb ram. Coronarender is really the only option on a Mac. If Coronarender is indeed at the end of its life it's time for me to move on before I am forced to. I have seen many render apps fade in to oblivion over the past 30 years. Stratavision, Maxwell to name a few. I don't think the OP is wrong to sense something is off a little.

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[C4D] General Discussion / Re: ///// 3dtools.info v2.0 & DNA|Materials for Corona /////

« on: 2023-05-16, 01:38:24 »

With 128Gb no problem indeed. But its weird that with 16Gb ram swapping needs 400+Gb...

Importing into the asset browser was easy too and very handy with the previews in the asset browser.

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[C4D] General Discussion / Re: ///// 3dtools.info v2.0 & DNA|Materials for Corona /////

« on: 2023-05-14, 22:54:15 »

Had some problems login in to get the assets but Stefan solved it quickly.

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[C4D] General Discussion / Re: ///// 3dtools.info v2.0 & DNA|Materials for Corona /////

« on: 2023-05-14, 01:36:32 »

I will surely buy some more. Concrete and plaster I use a lot as well.

In my project I have a lot of rough sawn timber which is almost knotless. Platowood Fraké. See attachment. I haven't found any textures on the web with fine or rough sawn surfaces.

I am not aware what a lineair color profile would do or how to set that. I do play with the displacement depth in regard to model size. I also noticed you set the bump at only 2%. Is that still useful. I never really see much result in my materials below 10 or 20%.

My Mac book air with 16Gb M2 has one problem with these materials. C4D after the second render crashes with an enormous amount of ram swapped. Over 500Gb...  When I render you textures at about 3600 pixels wide. I will try next week with my Mac Studio 128Gb.

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[C4D] General Discussion / Re: ///// 3dtools.info v2.0 & DNA|Materials for Corona /////

« on: 2023-05-13, 00:15:11 »

Just got these. Did not expect much since usually these asset packs are not all that great.

But these are in fact. Just tested the shingles. CR materials seem to be set up really well even though not too complicated. See a quick one minute render screenshot.
Happy I got these. Thanks.

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[C4D] General Discussion / Re: 3.25 Gb file renders without crashing Mac OS/Studio

« on: 2023-04-15, 00:45:38 »

@BigAl3D
In my case C4D deletes duplicate materials after I convert materials to PBM. At least my Maxtree materials.
@Stefan-L
Thanks for the tips.
@Konichowaa
thanks for these tips as well. I notice that in Archviz a lot of different skills are needed to handle large amounts of data. I think CR can add some features here as well to switch on and of certain bottle necks. I keep wondering how all this works with Unreal, Lumion and the like since they don't seem to have this hassle to keep things fast. The quality is much less but they are getting there sooner or later.

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[C4D] General Discussion / Re: 3.25 Gb file renders without crashing Mac OS/Studio

« on: 2023-04-12, 11:55:19 »

Tx Tom and BigAl3D for the tips.

I would love to have an "iterative" render button that renders images before the final one. I find working with deadlines in a busy office not ideal for the hassle to deal with regrouping materials and geometry to minimise render time for iterative images. I think most time is spend calculating displacement. Imagine terrains, pavements, masonry etc all need displacement at a very fine level. Wish the VFB had a button to switch of displacement temporarily.

What I do now is to have several files open to render parts of the model for lighting, instances, renders without vegetation etc. If all is set within one file things can get really slow. The C4D asset browser can also seriously slow down the workflow. The asset browser duplicates each material for each asset placed. So Maxtree vegetation placed with the asset browser can cause hundreds of materials extra compared to place the same assets by copy pasting the assets between files. The asset browser can not deal with layered Corona render materials. It's a bit of a pity that the asset browser in C4D is not as useful as it could be.

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[C4D] General Discussion / Re: 3.25 Gb file renders without crashing Mac OS/Studio

« on: 2023-04-07, 00:46:53 »

Files this big will never really be fast in viewport. Sketchup and Vectorworks are far worse. No idea how 3DSmax is though.
I will check your suggestion on GI from file. This project took about 15 hours modelling vegetation and texturing the buildings, iterative rendering and so on. Getting the libraries from Maxtree took about 2 hours, they really have a slow website... Updating the textures from Maxtree also took some time. I would say that if Maxtree libraries had been easier to obtain, the time to first pixel had been fast and the viewport in C4D was a lot faster this image could be made in a few hours. I charge for these images somewhere between 3 to 400€. It's not my main job and do about  one or two images per month.  This pays for the apps and libraries I use for my own architectural practise.

The image has a purpose but it's not great image on itself. Indeed the hedge could be better and there is a halo around the vegetation near the sky. I can't really get that right since the alpha channel is not that good. I added the sky in PS. I sharpened in Corona and in Lightroom and indeed a bit too much. Adding more hours to this job would improve the image but they liked as it is so left it there.
tx for your comments, greatly appreciated !

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[C4D] General Discussion / 3.25 Gb file renders without crashing Mac OS/Studio

« on: 2023-04-06, 14:29:04 »

Hi,
just to keep the enthusiasm for CR. I rendered a file yesterday with lots of Maxtree assets up to 3.25 Gb and my Mac Studio 128Gb rendered it all without crashing once even during all the iterations before the final render.
I used the edge trimmer for the grass which works very well since C4D allows you to select the texture opacities and set them on edge trimming all at once.

C4D became  slow though, I could only handle the file in wireframe view . Scene preparing by CR also takes a while, a few minutes.  I wonder if other render engines for GPU rendering would allow for much faster iterations and save time to first pixel. The render times for the final high res renderings are less meaningful to me. Since overall most of my time is spend on modelling, vegetation placement and render interations on low res.

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[C4D] General Discussion / C4D 23.2.0

« on: 2023-04-01, 23:39:02 »

Just installed the newest C4D 23.2.0
Corona seems to be ok on it.
Be careful though. C4D installed by erasing my previous version including all plugins. Had to reinstall those. Mac OS btw.
Maybe there is a way to prevent this.

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[C4D] Bug Reporting / Re: difficult to set material colours and Corona Pattern seems broken

« on: 2023-03-09, 00:59:36 »

Tx again for the help.
The gravel is incredibly realistic when used with Corona Pattern. So I am tempted to use it as much as possible. But it's also very unstable and can cost many hours of trial and error when used in a project. Wish this feature had better or more straightforward setting.