Topics

16

[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / Max 2019 Fluids - add rendering mode like Arnold Surface

« on: 2018-05-18, 15:13:30 »

So after playing with Fluids in Max a bit it's obvious that the current meshing solution takes a lot of time to generate and display and eats up HD space. There's a mode that sends the particles directly to Arnold without having to generate and cache the mesh.
Would it be possible to have something similar for Corona, so if you choose to render Arnold Surfaces Corona would be able to pick up the particle data and generate the mesh at rendertime?

17

[Max] Feature Requests / Mask Render Element - add an option to specify current scene Layer(s)

« on: 2018-05-02, 17:31:30 »

A really useful addition to the Mask RE would be the option to specify a scene's layer, so any object added to that layer would automatically be added to the specified mask. This would help to keep the scene masks dynamic and would make it less tedious to set up masks.
I'm not sure how the layer selection process would be - it could be 'Pick a layer from the Scene Explorer' or open a list of currently present layers and pick one (or multiple) layers from the list... not sure what's technically possible.

Still, I'm quite certain many users would find that option really useful.

18

[Max] Feature Requests / Fixes and improvements to exclude/include lists

« on: 2018-05-02, 17:05:32 »

I remember having posted this before but for some reason can't find the threads.

In general, Corona's exclude/include lists still lack some options that would make them more convenient to work with. In addition, except for the list dialog, they have different options:

- in the Distance Map, we have a "+" and a "-" button, and the RMB 'clear list' command
- in the CoronaCam and the Mask render element Mask, we have a "+" button and the RMB 'clear list' command - for some reason, there's no "-" button here

Please can you make sure they all have the same functionalities across the entire range of Corona features and objects?

And please can you make the 'Clear List' command a bit more obvious to the user? It doesn't make sense it's available as an RMB command on the "+" button but not on the "-" button. How about introducing a "X" button, so it's quickly visible for beginners for example?

Also, if you want to check what's included in a RE Mask's list, for example, there's no way to quickly select all objects. When the list contains 1500+ objects the only way to find out is to open the list and wait... wait... wait... for larger scenes and then go through a list of thousand of names and try to find the one you're looking for.
A good solution would be to add either icons or an option when you RMB click the list which would let you:
- select objects in that list
- create a selection set based on the objects in the list (named 'exclude list selection x', for example)

Exclude/Include lists and their limited options have been a topic multiple times, I really think it's about time to make sure they finally feel complete in v2. Thank you!

19

[Max] Resolved Bugs / Sharpen & Blur produces image artifacts

« on: 2018-02-22, 20:19:49 »

I've seen this happen very early when S&B was introduced but couldn't nail it down and thought it was an alpha problem. I had a strange dark banding around my objects but somehow worked around it. It's probably safer to stay away from S&B until it's fixed since it corrupts image data. It's particularly bad in compositing apps where working in 32bits is pretty common. I'm surprised no one else has seen this, though.

The issue is probably present with any other color channel, too. Happens in both the plugin (Max in my case) and CIE. Sharpen&Blur is referred to as S&B further in the text.

You can reproduce this with a simple scene, and you even don't have to save 32bits formats. The only thing is to use S&B, and use some level correction in PS to display the problem.

Attached a few images:

• Photoshop_levels_result___without_sharpen&blur_32bits_EXR.PNG - framebuffer saved to EXR without S&B, opened in PS, edit > levels > set gamma to 5 - no problem
• Photoshop_levels_result___with_sharpen&blur_32bits_EXR.PNG - framebuffer saved to EXR with S&B, opened in PS, edit > levels > set gamma to 5 - suddenly these ugly lines appear
• Photoshop_levels_result___with_sharpen&blur_16bits_TIF.PNG - framebuffer saved to 16b TIF with S&B, opened in PS, edit > levels > set gamma to 5 - not a 32b problem it seems, also present in a 16bits TIF
• After_Effects_Inverted_Alpha___without_sharpen&blur.PNG - the EXR without S&B in a After Effect comp (32b) with the gamma channel inverted - no problem
• After_Effects_Inverted_Alpha___with_sharpen&blur.PNG - the EXR with S&B in a After Effect comp (32b) with the gamma channel inverted - it gets bad again

The strange thing is - this does NOT happen in the frame buffer, it seems to happen only for saved output.

I've attached both EXRs - one with S&B and another without - so you can open in PS and check for yourself. A Max 2016 scene is attached, too.

PS. sorry for the disgusting example, got carried away with the material :P

20

About this Forum / Gallery images loading soooo slow

« on: 2017-07-17, 20:58:13 »

I'm not browsing the gallery very often but when I do it's so slow that I stop after two or three threads because the images load super slow for me. It's strange because the forum load times seem to be fine, it's just the images. Is there anything you can do to make it faster?

21

[Max] Resolved Bugs / Max 2017 ShapeMap - Exception Error

« on: 2017-02-01, 13:29:50 »

The ShapeMap that ships with Max 2017 will throw an exception when used in a scene. Tested with Corona 1.5.2.

The situation is exactly the same like with the TextMap (see https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php/topic,14790.0.html)

If you start with a fresh scene, create an object and a material that uses this map and the shape to control the map, it will not render and throw an exception instead.
But if you load the attached scene, it will render fine the first time but throw an exception when rendering again after that.

Please make sure the map works fine. It's a great addition to the texturing toolset and needs to work with Corona.

22

[Max] I need help! / How to safely shut down DR server?

« on: 2017-01-24, 18:20:21 »

I have some renders that will take a bit longer to render and some of the DR servers will be needed for working during the days.

What's the safe way to shut down a DR server? Close the server window or rather the CMD window? Which one to close first? I guess what I'd like to know is how to make sure all rendered tiles will be transmitted to the DR master and nothing's going to be lost?

23

[Max] Bug Reporting / LUTs and CoronaOutput map - please correct how LUTs are applied

« on: 2016-12-06, 13:28:36 »

Let's say you happen to render against a backplate (or example a photograph) and nest the backplate in a CoronaOutput map with 'Affect by tone mapping' set to off to compensate for postproduction settings AND use a LUT. Now if you stop the render and rerender, funny things happen to the backplate because it tries to compensate LUT as well. I think this is absolutely wrong. LUT should always be considered a final grading and should not be considered by CoronaOutput map at all. The current behaviour forces me to switch LUT off when starting a render and enable it only after the rendering has started.

Let me know if you need image examples, it'll make very clear why I think it's wrong.

24

[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / Add GBuffer ID visibility options to LightMtl

« on: 2016-11-24, 15:22:22 »

I'm facing a situation where I need to assign GBuffer IDs to LightMtl objects but there's no way to do it, it seems? After all it's geometry that may be visible directly so having a way to control GBuffer visibility would be very welcome.

25

[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / Ability to disable alpha contribution for CoronaVolumeMtl

« on: 2016-11-23, 18:07:11 »

It looks like using a CoronaVolumeMtl will also affect alpha channel, there's no way to disable it and it can get problematic when used and global volume material... Could we get a checkbox to disable alpha contribution in this material?

EDIT: Also, using a CoronaMtl as global volume material will also affect alpha in exactly the same way, even when alpha mode is set to black. Not sure if to post this as a bug since this should not happen...?

26

[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / Possible to auto-disable Autosave in IR mode?

« on: 2016-11-16, 18:46:50 »

As the title says... requesting this on behalf of my escape key :D

27

General CG Discussion / 2017 Product Update 1 is here!

« on: 2016-11-16, 11:21:15 »

Just a heads up, 2017 PU1 has been released yesterday and it includes Blended Box Mapping (BBM) which works in Corona as well. Another addition was the Data Channel modifier, great addition too. Other than that lots of bug fixes, hopefully 2017 will be more stable now.

28

[Max] I need help! / 1.5.1 and Fault Tolerant Heap - sudden occurrence on two nodes

« on: 2016-11-14, 13:03:33 »

I've read about the FTH 'feature' before here and have never seen it on my machines but now two of my nodes started to show this when rendering as DR nodes with 1.5.1 and I'm not sure why. Rendering takes 10GB of 64GB available so it doesn't look like memory is the problem. These are Win7 machines and for some reason they refuse to even list available Windows Updates but Corona installed fine on both. Also, the FTH warning doesn't come up every time.

Now I'm not sure why Corona would trigger this at all. I haven't even heard of FTH before and I wonder why it's the only program that will cause FTH to kick in.

29

[Max] Resolved Bugs / Bloom and Glare - black with NaN pixels

« on: 2016-11-08, 11:23:57 »

So I may have a scene that I'm using for testing that seems to render NaN pixels occasionally. Bloom and Glare will turn completely black even if only one NaN pixel is present in the VFB.

Where/how to upload?

30

[Max] I need help! / Bloom and Glare not matching between different PCs

« on: 2016-10-09, 20:37:15 »

I'm seeing big differences in how Bloom and Glare looks when I render previews on my workstation and how it looks when rendered on a render node - why is this? Is their size based on screen pixels, final resolution or what exactly? Does it happen because I render a cropped region for my previews and size is calculated differently when rendering the whole resolution?

Whatever it is, it really needs to be consistent so we can be sure it'll render as desired.
Btw, this is with 1.5 RC4.