Messages

136

[Max] General Discussion / Physically correct SSS light transport.

« on: 2018-02-21, 18:43:48 »

I'm wondering if there is an unbiased, physically correct subsurface light transport model in Corona.  I don't mind render times. I would like to use it to simulate different material densities and how light interacts with several objects as it moves through them.

Thanks!

137

Gallery / Re: polyget - we are live! :-)

« on: 2017-11-30, 02:31:32 »

Glad you got my point Johan. Also, I see they are only a 2 person team, not Evermotion....who knows how much time and sweat took them to do those models.
They will eventually see how sales go, and adjust accordingly. But, I am surprised how quickly everyone has smth to say about the price, instead of giving advice on the product itself.  Right?

Here is a bit of truth:

Price IS the product.

Nobody cares how much effort you put into your product, they will pay for how much benefit they can get, not how hard you worked.

The human brain is easy to trick, there are many ways to "lower" prices, without actually lowering prices.

Listen to initial reactions and don't be arrogant about opinions different than yours. If most people think your product is expensive, it is. Because perception is everything.

-

You have the great advantage on having created something that people want enough to be upset about the price.

Good luck

138

General CG Discussion / 3dsMax viewport unsuable

« on: 2017-11-11, 02:49:16 »

I'm not used to working with huge scenes, I do mostly product rendering, but my latest project requires using a client-provided model with about 2 million polis. The viewport is unusable at around 1fps even with the quality at the lowest setting. I think the viewport is all GPUs work, but Windows GPU monitor shows a mere 5% utilization. Same for CPU. 5-10% and about 30% ram. So my system does not seem to be overloaded in any way, and yet, the viewport is unusable.  I'm running a GTX1080 in case it helps to know, max 2017. 

I know the right thing to do would be to use proxies etc... but this is a client model and I need to work on it fast, no time to rebuild.

Thanks.

139

[Max] I need help! / Re: Shadow Catcher for compositing.

« on: 2017-11-06, 21:56:16 »

Hope to catch Ludvik's attention :)

140

[Max] I need help! / Re: Shadow Catcher for compositing.

« on: 2017-11-06, 19:08:31 »

Another problem I have is that using Always Solid makes the alpha unusable, because it's just a big white block.

141

[Max] I need help! / Re: Shadow Catcher for compositing.

« on: 2017-11-06, 18:57:09 »

Ok, maybe is the linearly part that I'm missing. Because I'm already using black override and the result is not the same.

There are 2 separate issues.

One is that shadows seem to be different for some reason, that is a problem.

The other problem is that Alpha does not seem to include any reflections/light bounces over shadow catcher, see the bottom right corner, there is no "bleed" into the ground, because the alpha channel does not include any.

I also tried to "recover" those reflections by rendering a reflection pass, but I can't find a pass where I get those reflections, maybe it's a bug ?

I think I'm getting slow results using "always solid" because I'm using that giant wall, but since background override does not work for this video, is there any other option ?

142

[Max] I need help! / Re: Shadow Catcher for compositing.

« on: 2017-11-06, 15:36:50 »

Well, I'm definitely missing something, here is the result of For compositing + Multiply I also tried all blending modes, none looked like Always solid.

The giant wall was just a workaround to get the always solid render to show the whole backplate since the visibility override was showing the video upside down/ split.

As I understand the correct setup should be:

Shadow catcher material with "for compositing" on big plane, corona sun and sky or HDR.

Should I render additional passes?

143

[Max] I need help! / Shadow Catcher for compositing.

« on: 2017-11-06, 07:04:57 »

Hello, I'm trying to find the best workflow for corona shadow catcher and compositing. I followed a couple of tutorials, but still can't get the result I'm looking for.

My setup is a giant ground plane, giant wall in the horizon, shadowcatcher material assigned to both, video backplate and corona sun + sky.

Attached is an image with my results for you to see, here is my problem:

If I render in Always solid mode, I get the best result (see shadows over buildings #1 , see reflections on the ground #2) However, the render is slow and I loose the flexibility to color correct in after effects independently from the background.

If I render in For compositing mode, I get all the flexibility, but when I add the alpha, shadows don't look as nice #1, and I loose reflections completely, #2 and #3)  In my mind, For compositing + alpha should look almost identical to the Always Solid render, right?

The third option is  Always solid + alpha, Shadows are a little better, maybe the best, but I loose reflections on the ground completely #3, also, render times are not optimal, because Always Solid pass is slow and I have to render alpha separately.

How can I more closely approach Always Solid result in for compositing mode?  I notice alpha does not include reflections, maybe I need to check something? Should I include more passes ? which ones ?

Thanks a lot

144

[Max] I need help! / Re: Brutal crash Corona 1.7 + threadripper

« on: 2017-10-31, 02:06:07 »

I updated to latest bios, I haven't seen a crash since, but it's only been a few hours.  It used to crash after only a few minutes, so I'm feeling good about this.

145

[Max] I need help! / Re: Brutal crash Corona 1.7 + threadripper

« on: 2017-10-30, 17:11:10 »

The reason I mention the network card is because windows crashed when I tried to use it, since I run on wire LAN, I didn't care, but if that issue was also fixed with firmware update, I would be more comfortable keeping the mobo.

146

[Max] I need help! / Re: Brutal crash Corona 1.7 + threadripper

« on: 2017-10-30, 16:58:10 »

Did you have issues with the network card too? were those fixed too?

147

[Max] I need help! / Re: Brutal crash Corona 1.7 + threadripper

« on: 2017-10-30, 16:42:19 »

YES! MSI x399 carbon.

So updating the firmware then might fix this, will look into that.

Did you also have problems with the included network card?

I'm leaning to returning the mobo and switching to the asus zenith (the only one carried at the same store, they only refund in store credit) but I would have to pay 200 usd extra. Are you happy with the motherboard otherwise, or would you switch if you were me?

148

[Max] I need help! / Re: Brutal crash Corona 1.7 + threadripper

« on: 2017-10-30, 16:03:10 »

I narrowed down the issue to using 2 ram sticks or more at the same time.

Here's what I did:

I tested each ram stick in each one of the slots and got no crashes, then started testing 2 sticks at a time and it appears that when I'm using more than one stick, the crash happens.

Tried to find something useful in the log, but it just stops at the time of the crash, in this case it looks like it crashed around 6:32 am.

I'm now 100% sure it's not corona's problem, I ran a ram test that boots from a USB drive, so no OS, no drivers, no corona... and it crashed in the same way.

However I cannot make it crash using any of the stress tests I found, probably because they are single focused? Maybe corona stresses the CPU and RAM at the same time ?

Does this sound like a RAM or Motherboard issue to you guys? I'm leaning towards Mobo but as I said, dont have much experience.

149

[Max] I need help! / Re: Brutal crash Corona 1.7 + threadripper

« on: 2017-10-30, 04:10:56 »

PSU is 1000w, doubt is the problem.

@sprayer, can you elaborate a little bit on event log? do you mean coronas? or windows? Tried googling but couldn't find something definitive under that name for windows.

I have stress tested the cpu for 12 hours and no crashes, i'm leaning towards RAM issue.

Will test sticks individually as agentdark45 suggested.

150

[Max] I need help! / Re: Brutal crash Corona 1.7 + threadripper

« on: 2017-10-29, 20:12:17 »

Thanks for your help, not much of a pc hardware person so I really appreciate the help.