Messages

16

[C4D] Daily Builds / Re: Can't resize cosmos assets

« on: 2023-05-11, 14:01:35 »

Sorry to drop in this late, but

Can you not put the proxy inside a null and then instance the Null (pressing ALt+G to match the proxy coordinates)?
Then when you rescale the proxy (preferably with the scale tool in object mode), the instances also follow, keeping their individual scale settings (p.e. when you applied random scaling with the c4d randomize objects tool...?

We work like this since... well, ever...
in fact it has become an unwritten rule here in our office :-D

it also provides possibility for other quick adaptations to all instances for offset moving /rotating the instances and adding suick details such as ground spots for trees to name one...

17

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

« on: 2023-04-14, 20:25:36 »

hi Tom, no need for apologies ! ;-)
I will test some more on other projects and see if I get different/faster results...

18

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

« on: 2023-04-14, 17:21:04 »

@frv
It's my opinion that with active scatters (large scale) and booleans it will slow down the viewport by a lot. That's why we made an extensive xpresso-driven switchboard in our project template file to enable/disable certain groups of objects (UI0.jpg) and thus keep the viewport fast and tidy. With projectfiles up to 7GB, it's still lightning fast...

@TomG

You could also try the "Force path tracing" option if time to first pixel is an issue,

did a quicktest on an current project for time to first pixel 1min16 and with force pathe tracing 1min20, so maybe not in all cases faster? Is there a guideline in which situation this should be faster, or when not?
(AMD 3990X TR)

@Stefan-L
I have grown fond of asset browser too, although I do the standard integration and store the images in asset browser, then when using the objects or materials I relink them to absoluth path on mediadrive (must do that for renderfarm anyhow), but can you store in the asset browser with the links integrity kept absolute to the disc???? I did not manage to do that so far so far and the textures are always linked to asset browser path...

PS:Do you already use the functionality to drag assets from the aset browser directly into the UI toolbars? (ANY asset such as objects/studio environmets/scatters/materials/preferences/render settings preset/...) I just LOVE that feature so much, and made multiple toolbars for even quicker access of stuff I use constantly (UI2 & UI3.jpg)

19

[C4D] Daily Builds / Re: Render performance problem ... ( Threadripper 3970x )

« on: 2023-04-14, 14:34:32 »

because only in this scene, I think it is related to the scene and not the cpu. I have one for a colleague and it runs impeccable.
But after over 20 minutes of rendering, I think it is unsusual to still have so much bright white noise.
I sometimes have the same when some elements have excessive bump/displacement and/or scenes don't have enough light.

here are just some ideas to try and see their effect:
- Sometimes when I convert max objects to c4d, the bump is 100% multipled giving 3000% instead of 30%, so check converted elements to test.
- see if the walls have serious bump and reduce to test
- try giving your scene more daylight. Eventually turn of curtains that block daylight to see if it helps or check the transparent curtains for ump/displacement
- disable adaptive light solver in corona render settings/perfomance tab
- do you have the same result when turning of the wall lamps?
- check for blurry refractions

20

[C4D] I need help! / Corona pattern overlap

« on: 2023-04-11, 08:24:16 »

Hi, is it possible to use corona pattern with overlap of the pattern object?
Let's say on a uvw tiling of 20x20cm, to have a 5cm overlap of the object at the top?
p.e. roof tiles that have a specific tiling but a visible overlap. When I tried to, the roof tile was cut of and didn't give a good impression.

I understand that I can make the cutt-off part as a part of the pattern object, but then I couldn't use random texturing with a variation shader on the tiles, right?

21

[C4D] General Discussion / Re: Corona or C4D Issue?

« on: 2023-03-31, 17:20:59 »

It may seem obvious, but I would suggest:
- verifying the filename's capitals both name and extension) in comparison to what they are supposed to be in the asset inspector. This was an issue with me in the past, when p.e. the textures had 'specular' and the asset inspector 'Specular'. The trick was then to relink the texture to the corresponding folder in combination with find/replace feature in the bottom right of the asset inspector (_Specular to _specular).
- compare the material structure from the grass to the other materials in the node editor, and see where it differs. See if p.e. removing the bitmap shader inside the mixture shader helps.
- place the textures in the tex folder of your project file, then localize filenames and see if that helps if not already the case
- check actual path to not exceed 120 characters
- and you never know... make sure the location of the textures is allowed to everyone (rights issue)

22

[C4D] General Discussion / Re: Affordable Render Farm Services

« on: 2023-03-20, 14:45:39 »

I use Ranchcomputing since several years. Good results and good service too.

It works with a checker-plugin to make/send a project archive with textures to the farm, and alerts you for the most common errors and warnings. Some testing is required though and some rules to put on your checklist before sending, in order to get an expected result without missing textures etc. .
There is also quite good support for plugins on different C4D versions.

The main reason I switched from rebus to ranchcomputing is the feature for corona to render with a noise treshold and/or time limit, so which reaches first... (I'm not sure if rebus supports this feature these days. I also admit that I was very pleased with Rebus support and follow progress on mobile app!)
e.g. my renders mostly render on 4000px width, noise 3.8 or a maximum of 1.5h of rendering (on the farm). The 1.5 hours rendering is aproximately 5 euros per image then (depending on the extra preparation time, but the time limit is a good guard for budgetcontrol)
there are besides standardnodes with 128GB also 256Gb RAM for large scale projects and it offers different rates for the number of nodes and priority you require.

PS: You can get volume discount throughout the year but my personal tip is to buy annual renderpoints on black friday, to get even more complemetary points ;-)

23

[C4D] Daily Builds / Re: v9 More Interactive Crashes

« on: 2022-12-13, 10:17:10 »

I also had at least 15-20 crashes a day with v9. I had my autosave set on 5 min and IR crashed for many reasons I recognize above.
But I can honestly say that I  (3990X-256GB-win10-R25) and my colleague (3970X-128GB-win10-R25) experience significant improvement with the hotfix v9.1 !

I can now use the interactive renderer without crashing while renaming, splitting geometry off, duplicating instances and instanced lights, modifying geometry in polygon/point mode for instanced elements, fastly swapping cameras in the stage object, stop IR....

Sometimes I even think to myself 'oh, I should not have done that, it will surely crash now', but no, very stable again for long periods...

What a relief ! I hope everyone has the same experience now?!

thanks guys!

24

[C4D] I need help! / Re: distance shader & active camera

« on: 2022-11-29, 13:51:09 »

hi Tom and Bengamin,

sorry some of my message hasn't posted well...

I'm working on a large scale project (a house with a few hectares of field/vineyard around it) and I'm trying to do the grass fields with scatters.
There is actually no need to scatter them too far away because my final image will be only 4000 pixels wide and the scatters themselves wouild not be visible.
Therefore I want to see if I can use the near/far clippin in the scatter object to limit the clones, but the soil is actually brown, so when I clip the scatter, in the distance my surface is still brown whereas it should be greenish.

Thus, I would like to limit the scatter p.e. at 10.000cm, and change the soil from brown to grass shader with a distance shader around that same distance (matching the green colour of the scattered elements).

In my project I  have about 50 cameras throughout the terrain, in a stgae object. I can use a specific camera as the distance shader object, but not the keyframed (active camera) in the stage object.

25

[C4D] I need help! / distance shader & active camera

« on: 2022-11-29, 11:28:46 »

can you use the distance shader with the active camera as the 'from object' ?

I have a really large scale sc

26

[C4D] I need help! / Re: Frontal reflection on sky stays too shiny on matte materials

« on: 2022-09-12, 21:43:52 »

Thank you for your response Romullus, but I must say I disagree...
it is crucially important to support frontal mapping on the corona sky. Besides, it is listed in the dropdown options in the corona sky object, so it should work as expected.
As frontal background, it works just fine, it is just as seperate reflection that it is incorrect for reflections, if you see the results or explore the file, you should agree the result is not expected

Of course I wish I had availability for spherical 360° drone shots, it would simplify the entire project, but at this moment I don't have them or the extra budget.

I also thought about the plane as reflection, but it is pretty difficult to cover all reflective materials, because they are in different angles to the camera. The plane would be too large and thus cast unrealistic large scaled reflection
and also, I have 40 cameras for stills, so it would be a huge work to adapt the planes, and find the right size for every camera...

27

[C4D] I need help! / Frontal reflection on sky stays too shiny on matte materials

« on: 2022-09-12, 12:27:09 »

Hi
I'm including a testscene so you can test, but I'm experiencing too shiny reflections on matte materials when using a frontal mapping on a sky, in the case where I have a seperate reflection object.

To clarify the use in my current project.
I have a building to visualize and received high level drone shots in all directions. So I'm using these drone shots as a background. Because I want the 'correct' reflection in the large glass facade, I'm using a different sky object for only reflections, and using a photo in opposite direction for that. This gives me more or less a good impression of the reality.

However when using the frontal mapping on the sky, the reflections not only show up on the shiny glass, but also on the window frame (which is a relatively matte <> satinated material) as shown in the printscreen image below. Also when making it really matte material teh sharp reflections stay

Am I doing something wrong or is there another way/workaround to do this besides using a very large plane object.

Thanks, Koen
 

28

[C4D] I need help! / Re: background

« on: 2022-09-07, 12:14:38 »

I would suggest using a tonemapped image for the backround (tif/jpg/png) instead of using a HDR or EXR file...

29

[Scatter] I need help! / Clean grass edge near pool border

« on: 2022-07-03, 12:45:42 »

Hi everyone,

Is it possible, using chaos scatter, to get a cleaner result near the pool border, just by using the scatter?

I added the pool border as a apline in the spline exclude field with 12-14cm  and scale and density at 100%. The scale doenst seem to have much effect with this thin border?
When I change the seed, it can get a bit better but never clean enough.

I can only make it better by using a linear cloner to make a straight finish.

I'm attaching images with and without the linear cloner to illustrate

PS: as a side question, is it possible to change the size for an individual scattered object when they are proxies from the cosmos browser?

Thanks,

30

[C4D] General Discussion / Re: Corona UI a bit ... lengthy since v8

« on: 2022-05-06, 13:10:04 »

+1