Messages

1

[Max] I need help! / Re: Production upscaling

« on: 2024-12-10, 13:00:56 »

That's it exactly - renders one half width, one half height (so, one quarter of the pixels, meaning it renders four times faster) then upscales using the NVIDIA AI Upscaler. Only really useful for drafts and tests though, and sometimes for a more responsive IR - but that's still a useful time saving when doing tests and drafts!

2

[Max] I need help! / Re: UHD Cache precomp issue

« on: 2024-12-10, 12:58:47 »

Ugh - well, hurray it's working, but ugh for unknown random issues where you never know if they will pop up again. If it does, we'll be here to sort it out!

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[Max] I need help! / Re: UHD Cache precomp issue

« on: 2024-12-10, 08:37:50 »

TY for the extra info! If the scene is shareable (perhaps it can be shortened to the problem object and another object or two, enough that the problem occurs, but reduced so that nothing NDA breaking is involved), you can send it in by ticket for us to look at https://support.chaos.com/requests/new - otherwise nothing springs to mind for me at the moment based on the description :(

4

[Max] I need help! / Re: Production upscaling

« on: 2024-12-10, 08:35:04 »

It's described fairly thoroughly in the release blog at https://www.chaos.com/blog/corona-12-update-1 . You'll find a brief discussion in the release video at

t=419 , and the webinar is worth a watch too at

. There will be a tutorial later on, but it is pretty straightforward stuff so the blog should have all the description needed :)

5

[Max] I need help! / Re: UHD Cache precomp issue

« on: 2024-12-09, 18:09:13 »

Just thoughts on troubleshooting steps

- If you load the old scene, it still calculates fine? (in case it is an update to Corona or some other plugin, and not a scene change, that has caused the issue)

- What happens if you use the 4K cache instead of the UHD?

- You can force a minidump, which if you want to send in a ticket will basically let us see what the software was doing at the time,https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/4649117083409-How-to-report-issues-3ds-Max for forcing a crash

- I know you did some object hiding, but what about hiding everything leaving the HDRI and a new cube, does it work then? Then add objects back in groups?

- What happens with a Material Override set to a default Physical Material? Might pin it down to some translucency or volume textures.

- Thinking of volume textures, anything that uses a volume (including the absorption etc in a standard Phys Mat) is applied only to enclosed objects, and not to single sided things like planes? (Remembering that on a plane, Corona has no idea where the volume stops, which can "embed" the camera inside a volume)

6

[C4D] Bug Reporting / Re: Masks render different in teamrender

« on: 2024-12-09, 17:16:18 »

That will keep you going in the meantime, so there is that.

Also on reflection, I am not sure whether this would be regarded as a bug or not, so to err on the side of caution can I ask that you also enter it as a feature request on our Ideas Portal at https://chaoscorona.ideas.aha.io/ ? Then both bases are covered, whether it's considered a bug (here) or not (there) :) Want to be sure we have it in the system as something to look into, thanks!

7

Off-Topic / Re: Clients and AI

« on: 2024-12-09, 17:02:26 »

PS and your case is not helped by all the hype that comes with AI, both from the companies that make it or use it in their products or offerings (as many more companies include AI but do not make it in any way), but also from users who have a blinkered view - maybe for their clients and projects, AI is just fine; or maybe they've invested too much in it emotionally or financially to afford to have any doubts or admit any shortcomings; either way, you get a lot of vocal "rendering is dead!" stuff flying about (just as "GPU rendering has killed CPU rendering!" has been said for oooh the last 15 years or so....)

8

Off-Topic / Re: Clients and AI

« on: 2024-12-09, 16:57:17 »

You are correct in your understanding of AI. It is fine for generalities, but it fails when it comes to specificity. And it sound like specificity is a key requirement of your client (as it is for many).

If you want to "edit" an AI result, you just have to roll the dice again - you can't make specific changes, like "rotate the cup an extra 5 degrees" is precisely what AI can't do. Or if you had AI fill in a high res version to replace a low rez model (e.g. people), and you want the person to be identical but change that jersey for a jacket... no can do, you will get a different person where features etc. change as well.

AI has its uses for ideation, and then for "refining things where specific details don't matter", but that's it for the present time. Also I'd say this is pretty fundamental to how AI works, so "present time" could mean until there is a radical and as yet unseen shift on how things are done.

This is why Chaos has very specific uses for AI and we are not just throwing it into everything everywhere :) We want to use it where it is genuinely useful, given the actual jobs that our customers do ;)

As to how you convince your client, well that is harder. You may want to search for articles on the problems AI has with specificity, find some videos, tutorials, and even papers that describe that shortcoming.

9

[Max] I need help! / Re: wood

« on: 2024-12-09, 16:42:19 »

Worth following the full Physical Material series at

. You can jump straight to chapter 3 (

) if you want to deal with just wood, but it is worth going through all the chapters from the start :)

You can also check out the Corona Academy at https://chaos.com/corona-academy as the material chapters there will be handy, there are two lessons on doing a wood floor, but then things like "dirtying up the coffee table" show principles that could be applied to any material and not just glass. Hope this helps!

10

[Max] General Discussion / Re: VFB in C12 Update 1

« on: 2024-12-09, 12:16:28 »

Can you share a video showing what you mean please? It would be a big help in knowing what you are seeing (in case things don't work the same way when we test them here).

11

[Max] Bug Reporting / Re: Corona 12.1, Archive Issue

« on: 2024-12-09, 12:10:33 »

It is never guaranteed that a file saved in a new version of Corona will open in an old version - 12 Update 1 is a prime example, because there are new things like Automatic Exposure and White Balance that exist for cameras that do not exist in earlier versions, so the earlier versions can't read the data. Corona will warn you if you are about to overwrite a scene saved with an earlier version and prompt you to make a backup of the scene made with the earlier version. It's always worth just manually being sure to create a new copy of any scene with any new version of Corona, and leave a previous untouched old version on disk.

12

[Max] I need help! / Re: Still no OPEN button to open a CXR in the VFB?

« on: 2024-12-09, 12:07:07 »

CXRs are loaded into the History in the VFB 2, so the button is in the History tab :) EDIT and of course drag and drop works too, when that is more convenient.

13

[C4D] Bug Reporting / Re: Masks render different in teamrender

« on: 2024-12-09, 12:03:51 »

Can you share how you are using Team Render - e.g. is this an animation where each machine is rendering its own frame, or is this for a batch of unrelated images, or is it to have all machines working on one image at once?

One thought on a workaround for now is to not render the masks during Team Render, and then use "Render only masks" to render on one machine (https://docs.chaos.com/plugins/viewsource/viewpagesrc.action?pageId=85039562). Because this does not do any of the lighting calculations etc. that lead to the Beauty pass, the mask rendering is very fast, so it should be fine to do it on just one machine.

14

[C4D] Daily Builds / Re: Vantage export Mac

« on: 2024-12-06, 12:38:11 »

Just a note for clarity, Corona 12 Update 1 is not a hotfix but a full release. The last hotfix was Corona 12 (Hotfix 2), and at some point in the future there will be a Corona 12 Update 1 (Hotfix 1). Sorry for being nit-picky, but want to be sure we all stay on the same page with what we mean, so to avoid wasted time with folks having to ask "Wait, did you mean...." :)

Anyway, yes, export should work in Corona 12 and Corona 12 Update 1, and live link should work in Corona 12 Update 1. Can you explain what you mean by "Cannot get any vrscene at all" - when you follow the Live Link tutorial at

, what happens? Vantage doesn't open? It does, but doesn't show a scene? There is an error message?

And similarly, when you follow the steps in

for exporting, what happens? No vrscene is written to disk? The scene is written to disk but doesn't load in Vantage? There is an error message? There is a .vrscene written to disk, but no .vantage written?

Thanks in advance for the extra info that will detail exactly what is going on for you!

15

[Max] General Discussion / Re: CShading_Lightmix Render Element Issue

« on: 2024-12-05, 17:12:31 »

The CIE is not updated to handle the latest changes in the VFB 2, such as having multiple functioning LightMix elements etc. I'm guessing that is what is going on here. For now, using the VFB to edit is the way to go (as that is now possible without having to have the scene loaded and redo at least one render pass - just drop the CXR into the history and hit the edit "pencil").