quixel and Corona problems

[Dkha]

First of all, I'm sorry for my english.

I'm learning how to use 3ds max to create scenarios and recently i started using Quixel Bridge to help compose the scenarios. My problem is when I'm going to render the scene. For some reason, the assets appear completely deformed in the render.

In 3DS max, assets appear normally, but when I render it gets weird.

I don't know how to solve it. I'm newbie in this world.

I use 3DS Max 2021 and Corona Renderer 6.

In 3ds
https://uploaddeimagens.com.br/imagens/VmNMcd8

In Corona
https://uploaddeimagens.com.br/imagens/Sn_5vcM

[romullus]

I think it's incorrect displacement strength. AFAIK every asset from Quixel comes with accompanying json file which among other things has height range information written in it. Find it and use that info to set your displacement strength to correct value. Also make sure to use both, min and max level in displacement. For example, if you'll find that certain asset has 10 cm height range, its displacement strength min level be set to -5 cm and max level to 5 cm.

[maru]

Yes, definitely the displacement in the imported material has incorrect height here. Last time I used Quixel I remember having to fix this manually, I am not sure if there is some other way. Perhaps contacting Quixel support would be the best idea?

[Nejc Kilar]

I think it's incorrect displacement strength. AFAIK every asset from Quixel comes with accompanying json file which among other things has height range information written in it. Find it and use that info to set your displacement strength to correct value. Also make sure to use both, min and max level in displacement. For example, if you'll find that certain asset has 10 cm height range, its displacement strength min level be set to -5 cm and max level to 5 cm.

I'm curious about this myself so I hope you don't mind me asking but how do you come up with the "correct values" out of the Json file?

Here's two parameters that are probably relevant: "minIntensity": 172,"maxIntensity": 215.

If I understand you correctly you'd then get 43cm by substracting the above values? And then that gets split into min 21.5 and max 21.5 displacement?

I'm wondering because I've yet to find a consistent way to apply displacement to Quixel assets in Corona. Right now its eye balling ftw :)

[John.McWaters]

There should be a Corona Displacement modifier that you can adjust to get the correct displacement height. In my experience, it is always too high, and I'm not sure what is the correct value besides just using my eye.

Also, I'm not sure if this is an issue for anyone else, but the default bump value is set to 99 on Quixel materials...I usually adjust that back down to 1.

I've also noticed that the format of displacement maps from Quixel isn't great because they don't use full values from white to black, so I often plug them into a gradient ramp to adjust the levels so I can get the full range. This gives me much better control of the displacement.

Another issue I have, and I'm just throwing this out there to see if anyone else has any input, is that I often find Quixel metal material to be wildly inaccurate when compared to their shader ball example.

[romullus]

I just search the file for "height" keyword. Usually it comes like this:

Code: [Select]

"key": "height",
      "name": "Height",
      "value": "0.06m"
So it's a matter of converting to your working units and dividing by 2. I mostly work in centimeters, so for me it's -3cm and 3cm. I hope that helps.

P.S. i didn't touch Megascan assets for a while, so i don't know, maybe they changed structure of their json files?

[Nejc Kilar]

I just search the file for "height" keyword. Usually it comes like this:

Code: [Select]

"key": "height",
      "name": "Height",
      "value": "0.06m"
So it's a matter of converting to your working units and dividing by 2. I mostly work in centimeters, so for me it's -3cm and 3cm. I hope that helps.

P.S. i didn't touch Megascan assets for a while, so i don't know, maybe they changed structure of their json files?

Eh, I don't know why I over complicated things so much in my previous post. Yeah, they are still keeping the Height parameters in the JSon files - at least from what I can tell.

This info might be golden for me so I'm going to give it a shot and see how it works. I was searching for some sort of "real world" / consistent scale numbers and with the height number I think I'm getting just that.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share this stuff!

[Dkha]

Hello everyone again =)

Thank you very much to everyone who responded.

It really exists a problem with the displacement from quixel assets. When I removed it from material configurations, it appeared "normally" on the render.

I think it's incorrect displacement strength. AFAIK every asset from Quixel comes with accompanying json file which among other things has height range information written in it. Find it and use that info to set your displacement strength to correct value. Also make sure to use both, min and max level in displacement. For example, if you'll find that certain asset has 10 cm height range, its displacement strength min level be set to -5 cm and max level to 5 cm.

Romullus, then I did what you've told me about going on the .json file and see the height value. I've divided by 2 and put the negative and positive value; it looked really consistent. Although I cant have a parameter of how the texture really is. I hope that quixel fix this error as soon as possible.

[romullus]

@Nejc Kilar, you're welcome!

@Dkha, it looks like your object is getting displaced, but not subdivided. I have no idea why it's happening, because subdivision should happen automatically. It might be some simple mistake in your material, or scene setup, but it's hard to tell without seeing the scene. I suggest you to upload the problematic scene to Corona uploader, so someone from the support team could take a look at it and find what's going on. https://corona-renderer.com/upload

You may even want to open support ticket, to make sure that your request won't be overlooked. https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/tickets/new

[Dkha]

I don't know what happened. I deleted the plane and created another

[maru]

Update:
Quixel team has just provided a Corona displacement fix, which most likely will be built-in into the new versions of Bridge.
To use it, please download the attached file and unpack it. There is a readme file inside explaining how to apply the fix.
From my tests, it seems that the too strong displacement issue is completely resolved now. Please test it and let me know how it works for you.

[Dkha]

I am very happy to have helped in some way =)

Thank you all so much for your help.

[John.McWaters]

Update:
Quixel team has just provided a Corona displacement fix, which most likely will be built-in into the new versions of Bridge.
To use it, please download the attached file and unpack it. There is a readme file inside explaining how to apply the fix.
From my tests, it seems that the too strong displacement issue is completely resolved now. Please test it and let me know how it works for you.

If I don't have the 5.0 folder, should I drop it in the most recent folder (for me, it's 4.15)?

[Dkha]

Hello there. First of all, I'm sorry for my english.

I went back to using Corona Renderer again, But the displacement problems have also returned. I downloaded the folder and put it in its place, but nothing has changed.

I don't know what else to do.

Thank you so much for everything.

[John.McWaters]

Hello there. First of all, I'm sorry for my english.

I went back to using Corona Renderer again, But the displacement problems have also returned. I downloaded the folder and put it in its place, but nothing has changed.

I don't know what else to do.

Thank you so much for everything.

I end up editing displacement maps from Quixel so that they utilize the entire range between pure black and pure white. I then adjust the displacement distance myself until it looks the way I want it. The default displacement values are too large for me to even make sense of them.

The images I've attached are looking at the displacement map for a stucco texture from Quixel. The default range of values isn't great as you can see the spike in the middle of the histogram. I simply adjust the levels so that the entire range from black to white is used. I find this gives me much better control of the displacement of the texture.

I've uploaded two additional images showing the results with the default Quixel displacement and my method. As you can see, they are nearly identical, however, I like having a bit more control on how much the displacement is occuring. The default Quixel material had a displacement of -1 54/64" to 1 54/64". However, that's not actually how much the texture is being displaced...it's actually only being displaced about a quarter of that amount. Using my method, I set the displacement to -40/64" to 40/64", and I know that the absolute lowest point of the displacement is -40/64" and highest is 40/64".