Please support 3ds Max "Sun Positioner"

[Frood]

The standard daylight system is already referred to as "legacy" meanwhile. The sun positioner (since Max2017) is a real improvement, simplifying things a lot. Read more about it here:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/getting-started/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2019/ENU/3DSMax-Lighting-Shading/files/GUID-53783CF5-7EBF-4E8C-ACC2-BCA5CD9AD8EB-htm.html

Another essential difference to the daylight system is, that we finally got proper max script access to the date values (still cannot belive it but yes!). Here is the MaxScript documentation:

http://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2018/ENU/?guid=__files_GUID_6CCF1D3D_772E_4520_A4F6_055C9A51DC72_htm

Reading or setting date/time via script and piping it into Corona renderstamp, a text object or whatever is no problem any more. It's a decades old max issue which is resolved here, finally making it possible to fully automate sun/shadow studies.

Please support it.


Good Luck

[alexyork]

Does it still not have seconds control? I seem to remember it didn't, which makes it useless in some specific instances.

[Frood]

Not exposed in the UI it seems. The track for time of day is the time in seconds since midnight. You are right, seconds would be nice to have sometimes. I wonder what reasons they had for skipping them.

Edit: Had a closer look and it seems like that darn thing (the sunpositioner itself) has a 1 minute resolution in its movement built in. Despite having a seconds track and looping the seconds from 0 to 120, sun position leaps from one full minute position to the next. Another you-know-who-company gift...

But I still would sacrifice the seconds for the ease of use and proper maxscript access.


Good Luck

[bohus.brecka]

Hi,

are you interested only in the support of the Sun Positioner data in the Corona renderstamp or also something else regarding the Sun Positioner? According to our tests it works properly without our support when Render Setup > Scene > Scene Environment > "Use 3ds Max settings (Environment tab)" is selected. Is that sufficient?

PS: I am part of the Corona Team, I just do not have the profile settings done yet.

Bohus

[Frood]

Amazing, wasn't aware of the fact that Corona is able to render that "physical Sun&Sky" map and that sun as well? What "sun" and "sky" is this now? Corona sun in disguise? Even caustics are working with it.

Basically I'm not looking for support for the render stamp directly at all, this is easily doable by script. The problem with the legacy daylight system is, that you cannot access the date correctly.

So I was hoping to get a replacement for the daylight system working like one in every aspect, but easier to handle and with proper script access. What I get now when using the sunpositioner is a sun which does not show up in any light lister (because it's only there at render time?), cannot be added to a lightselect element (meaning isolated, the sun is always part of environment) and does not offer Corona sun/sky specific properties. Probably the concept of that sun positioner is so different (combining sun + sky to "environment") that it's not fitting well into traditional treatment of a scene, even from a renderers point of view?


Good Luck

[sevecek]

Hi Frood,
the physical sun&sky map is just a procedural environment map, it has nothing to do with Corona Sun and Sky.
Unfortunately, this also means that it is a black box for us, so we cannot split it to separate LightSelect elements.
The only way to do that would be to make our own sun positioner.
In any case, we cannot support this more than we already do.

[Rhodesy]

Any chance this could be looked at again? Or perhaps the making of Coronas own sun positioner if its not possible to use the Max one as suggested? Its a really useful feature.

[maru]

Any chance this could be looked at again? Or perhaps the making of Coronas own sun positioner if its not possible to use the Max one as suggested? Its a really useful feature.

Sorry for the delay. I will need some more info here:

What is the main point here? To have the 3ds Max "Sun Positioner" object fully support all Corona features like the Corona Sun and the Corona Sky?

If so, how is it better than the 3ds Max "Daylight System", which already does support Corona Sun and Corona Sky, and also allows for setting the sun position based on real world location?

If we were to develop our own Corona Sun Positioner, what would be the features that you need?

[nauticus25]

The Max Daylight System works great, but it always takes a few extra steps to get the Corona stuff plugged in. It would be nice to have it default to the Corona Sun, no skylight, and Coronasky environment when you create it.

[Frood]

but it always takes a few extra steps to get the Corona stuff plugged in.

That could be done by a macroscript which creates a sun and sky system with a Corona sun and disabled skylight with one click. Maybe something useful for the Corona toolbar?

Alternatively yes, a start could be a "CoronaDaylight" (in create panel -> systems), just derived from the standard daylight but using a Corona sun as default. But I see no reason for a dedicated Corona sun and sky system - except for reasonable script access. I think that's not worth all the effort.


Good Luck