Messages

1

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Some thoughts on Caustics

« on: 2019-06-13, 17:03:58 »

what about adding Caching option for caustics  ?
In VRay we used to calculate the caustics once then use the same cache for all other shots, when there is no animation of course .
is is possible to add in future?

Such caching would be extremely memory consuming. Corona caustics solver generates a new set of photons for each pass with each set having millions of photons. Let's say you render 100 passes per image, the cache would then contain photons from all the passes, so something around billion photons. This would hardly fit into memory.

2

General CG Discussion / Re: SSS pathtracing: maps or "bones"

« on: 2019-05-15, 09:40:35 »

I am not sure about the bones vs maps, but I agree that path tracing SSS is getting more attention.
It is especially useful on thin geometry or geometry with edges where the current fake solutions don't work that well.
Therefore path tracing SSS is definitely on our TODO list.

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[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Caustics playground!

« on: 2019-05-06, 16:04:57 »

Since caustics are the noisiest part of the image once turned on, naturally you would want to set some setting to number crunch caustics more than the rest of the image.
As I understand, caustics are calculated with the every pass.

So If you have noise from caustics, you should lower AA vs GI to get more Passes done in the same render time, just like with DOF and MoBlur.
I tested it and it seems to be the case. Both images had a 10 minute limit. GIvsAA = 4 managed 76 Passes and GIvsAA = 32 managed 31 Passes. GIvsAA 4 was cleaner than 32.

So noise from caustics = lower GIvsAA.
Is my notion correct? Makes me recall that Dynamic GIvsAA on the roadmap...

Yes, it is exactly like you say.

4

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Caustics playground!

« on: 2019-04-29, 13:16:05 »

Is this known limitation that when you use Volumetrics with caustics the render goes black as soon as caustics kick in?

This looks like a bug. Could you please provide a scene for us?

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[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Caustics playground!

« on: 2019-04-29, 13:15:43 »

I suppose another limitation is how it works with shadowcatcher?

I fear this is Pandora's Box. But yes, we would need a CausticCatcher or a consolidated matte material able to do both (and more).


Good Luck

What you mean by this? Currently caustics should be displayed on shadowcatcher? Is this something that you don't want? Or is it just not working?

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[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Caustics playground!

« on: 2019-04-29, 13:14:36 »

Update: it works now, but just for only one light in my scene, when I added a new light, the sun's caustic is off.

Could you perhaps share this scene (or maybe its simplified version where this issue still occurs)?

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[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Caustics playground!

« on: 2019-04-25, 16:45:09 »

Loving it- really adds another level to the game. I bet we are going to see a lot of images with extra photoshop boosted caustics element for some time now :D
I think I´ve found a limitation. I´m trying to use caustics in a pool. Everything works well until I unhide landscape which covers a very large area (few kilometres). It then won´t render caustics at all.

Yes, this is a current limitation of our caustics solver. If the scene is extremely large compared to the caustics, they will disappear.

Would it be possible, until this is properly solved of course, to allow caustics to work but only up to a certain distance from the camera/perspective view? So perhaps they could work up to 100m from camera in a sphere then disappear or something. Just to help get things working on normal every-day scenes?

We will try to do something about this issue

8

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Caustics playground!

« on: 2019-04-25, 15:53:26 »

Loving it- really adds another level to the game. I bet we are going to see a lot of images with extra photoshop boosted caustics element for some time now :D
I think I´ve found a limitation. I´m trying to use caustics in a pool. Everything works well until I unhide landscape which covers a very large area (few kilometres). It then won´t render caustics at all.

Yes, this is a current limitation of our caustics solver. If the scene is extremely large compared to the caustics, they will disappear.

9

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Caustics playground!

« on: 2019-04-25, 13:27:16 »

Hi guys,

just experimenting with the new caustics solver.

Same glass material is working in an empty scene but not in the scene file where it's from.

I would expect some caustics because of the strong sunlight. Am I wrong or doing it wrong?

Thanks for your feedback in advance.

Belle

Hi!
Do you have the same light sources in both scenes?
It the second scene much bigger than what we can actually see in the image?
Actually having the scene would really help us to solve this issue :)

10

[Max] Bug Reporting / Re: Vertex Normals Problem

« on: 2018-06-06, 10:57:27 »

This issue is caused by shadow terminators handling. Unfortunately, this is very difficult to fix.
So until we fix this issue, you can try to remove the problem by playing with terminator settings in Render Settings->Performance->Development/Experimental Stuff->Terminator handling.
I recommend increasing shadow shift value closer to 1 (default is 0)

11

[Max] Bug Reporting / Re: VDB - Shadow bug and emission question

« on: 2018-05-29, 16:23:40 »

We are working on an update of VolumeGrid. The newest version will scale temperature exported from PhoenixFD internally, so it can be easily used in both channel mapping mode and blackbody mode. Once the new version is out, you will want to set your (input) scale, temperature scale to default values (1 for input scale/scale and 3600 for temperature scale) in your old scenes (instead of the extreme values used previously).
Note that this change might not get to the next daily build, but rather to the following one.

12

[Max] Bug Reporting / Re: VDB - Shadow bug and emission question

« on: 2018-05-28, 08:01:20 »

PhoenixFD exports emission as temperature in Kelvins, so it recommended to set emission Mode to Blackbody, which automatically computes color from the temperature.

13

[Max] Bug Reporting / Re: VDB - Shadow bug and emission question

« on: 2018-05-23, 09:14:18 »

As for the missing shadow in the first image of this thread, this is an old Corona issue, which is related to all volumes (not only OpenVDB). This will be difficult to fix, unfortunately. For now, just make sure that objects don't intersect the volume grid bounding box (they either lie completely outside or completely inside the volume).

As for the PhoenixFD temperature, it is for some reason stored as very high numbers compared to temperature exported from other software (FumeFx or Blender etc..)
The only thing I can do about this is set the input scaling automatically when I somehow detect that the OpenVDB file was created by PhoenixFD.

14

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Daily builds version 2

« on: 2018-02-09, 16:03:34 »

thank4s for the reply and the information..
Which of these versions should I install?
(the foam support is scheduled in the upcoming version of the daily or is not scheduled at all in the version 2 ? )

It should not matter whether you install PhoenixFD for Vray 3.0 and 4.0, both version should work with Corona.
As for the Foam, we are not yet sure if we will be able to support it in 2.0. Unfortunately, it will require a lot of work for both Corona and PhoenixFD developers.

15

[Max] Daily Builds / Re: Daily builds version 2

« on: 2018-02-07, 11:40:26 »

hi, when i try to render the foam with phoenix fd appears this message and doesn't start to render.
i have installed the daily build 2018_02_05.
is this a bug?

Hi, in order to properly run Corona with PhoenixFD you should install the newest PhoenixFD nightly build: https://nightlies.chaosgroup.com/#/
However, please note that we still don't support any Foam effects.