Chaos Corona Forum

General Category => General CG Discussion => Topic started by: subpixelsk on 2016-08-25, 11:54:30

Title: Quixel Megascans
Post by: subpixelsk on 2016-08-25, 11:54:30
I started to play around with new release of megascans but am not getting desired results - for example https://megascans.se/assets/pftoo0 looks this flat when opened in megascans studio. Could anybody point out what am I doing wrong?

(https://s3.postimg.org/9patfvdhv/Untitled_1.jpg)
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: johan belmans on 2016-08-25, 13:08:53
I cannot help you, but I find it quite expensive.
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: Jadefox on 2016-08-25, 13:11:44
Hi There

I am having exactly the same problem. The free scan of the cracked ground I managed to look good
but yes the vegetation is very flat to me as well even when the displacement is set to 15 cm inside corona displacement.

Hopefully, somebody could shed some light with a little tutorial.

Another question is when I slot in the specular and gloss maps do I keep the levels on 1 ? I understand that the fresnel should be in accordance, but
how do I know what those spec and gloss levels need to be ?
Eyeball ?
Another question , when do I invert the gloss map and why ?


and Yes at 15 points and at a limit of 2000 pix at my package I am wondering if it is really worth it

Hope to hear from you guys

Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: maru on 2016-08-25, 13:46:22
I started to play around with new release of megascans but am not getting desired results - for example https://megascans.se/assets/pftoo0 looks this flat when opened in megascans studio. Could anybody point out what am I doing wrong?
Are you sure that your result is really different than the one of their website? Maybe it's just different lighting? I can see that in your screenshot there is some height variation too.
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: agentdark45 on 2016-08-25, 14:16:21
I like the idea of the megascans, but for things like grass and foliage wouldn't the detailed displacement cause massive memory consumption and make the final render slower than just using scattered + instanced grass? Not to mention the issue of the scans not looking all that good at grazing angles.
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: subpixelsk on 2016-08-25, 14:30:36
belly - I don´t know - the textures are very good, as well as the scans. I just can not make the grass work like in their preview, be it because of low displ. detail or whatever

Jadefox - gloss and specular should be 1 - glossiness amount is controled directly by gloss map

maru - my results are horrible when rendered - on their clay preview you can clearly see nice 3D mesh but I do not know how to achieve that

agentdark45 - maybe you are right, however when foliage would be real 3D thing for scattering even if scanned it would be great
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: maru on 2016-08-25, 15:02:34
maru - my results are horrible when rendered - on their clay preview you can clearly see nice 3D mesh but I do not know how to achieve that
With Max and Corona? Are you loading greyscale stuff like bump maps and displacement with gamma set to 1? (gamma override in the load bitmap window)
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: johan belmans on 2016-08-25, 15:52:34
belly - I don´t know - the textures are very good, as well as the scans. I just can not make the grass work like in their preview, be it because of low displ. detail or whatever

Maybe my post wasn't that well formulated?
I just mean that I did not play with Megascans so I cannot help you with your problem.
But I find it rather an expensive service for small studios. I hope someone else can help you.
Good luck!
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: subpixelsk on 2016-08-25, 16:15:46
Maru - thanks for pointing out - so should I override gamma each time I am loading greyscale texture?

belly - thanks a lot

I tested grass a bit and this is the most I could make out of it - on very densely tesselated mesh.

(https://s4.postimg.org/ib949kbvh/test.jpg)

I am not sure how to correctly set up displacement - as it does not look good by just using deisplacement map - here I mixed it with ambient occlusion to add more detail
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: Jadefox on 2016-08-25, 16:22:27
That looks good in all honesty..
Just to add to your question? Should bump,normal and
displacement maps always be set to gamma 1.0
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: maru on 2016-08-25, 16:46:33
The render looks good. When I played with Quixel materials, here is what I did:

diffuse: Corona Mix with a mix of diffuse map (albedo) and AO map (multiply or overlay, I don't remember :S )
reflection: specular map (with gamma 1.0)
glossiness: gloss map (with gamma 1.0)
bump: bump map (with gamma 1.0)
displacement: displacement map (with gamma 1.0)
Then I adjusted reflection amount and fresnel IOR to make it look more or less ok.
I also adjusted displacement height to make it look good.

You can then play with displacement quality in render setup, but usually the default value of 2px should work fine.

That looks good in all honesty..
Just to add to your question? Should bump,normal and
displacement maps always be set to gamma 1.0
No. It depends on the file. You should either use what looks good, or what looks correct. :)

Here is an example:
Max scene:
(https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=12932.0;attach=51274;image)

Results:
(https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=12932.0;attach=51276;image)
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: Jadefox on 2016-08-25, 17:00:54
Here is my take on it.... Will retry with Maru's settings
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: Ricky Johnson on 2016-08-25, 17:22:04
I don't think you're supposed to use the Specular maps at all with the CoronaMtl as it exists presently. It's a value for head on reflectivity for PBR set ups that don't specify an IOR value. I think.

Aside from the material settings, is the example of the cut grass from their site supposed to be achievable with displacement?
It seems as though there are gaps underneath the blades of grass. With displacement on a plane I'd expect it to look more like the tests that have been posted. Don't know if I'm missing something.

Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: Rhodesy on 2016-08-25, 18:01:55
Have you guys got Quixel accounts already? I have downloaded some scans in the free section but no idea how to access the studio for free. The only way it would seem to create a quixel account is to subscribe is that right?
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: subpixelsk on 2016-08-25, 21:02:32
Ricky how else would you achieve that other than with maps that are available for download ?
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: Juraj on 2016-08-25, 21:11:05
I don't think you're supposed to use the Specular maps at all with the CoronaMtl as it exists presently. It's a value for head on reflectivity for PBR set ups that don't specify an IOR value. I think.

Aside from the material settings, is the example of the cut grass from their site supposed to be achievable with displacement?
It seems as though there are gaps underneath the blades of grass. With displacement on a plane I'd expect it to look more like the tests that have been posted. Don't know if I'm missing something.

I've seen few comments like this, your eyes are just deceiving you ;- ) Those preview renders are basic teselation in 3DO, there is no vector displacement going on. The fact the basic real-time tesellation looks better than resources-hungry Corona displacement is second thing :- ) But I've heard this got better in 1.5.

For full quality disp, use the .exr file, loaded with gamma 1.0 of course. Not rocket science is going on.
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: dubcat on 2016-08-25, 21:28:04
I made a Specular to IOR LUT during Closed Beta.
The LUT will only work from IOR 1.0 to IOR 2.0.
Apply the LUT in 16bit to a Specular map.
Load the IOR map with a gamma of 1.0 in Max.
I made the LUT for materials that fake depth, like grass materials. But you can use it on everything.
I noticed that most of the Specular maps had a 32 bit base value of 0.035 = 3.5 Reflectivity = 1.46 IOR. So that's where I got the whole LUT idea.

You can get the LUT here, my google drive also include a bunch of exporters that will ship with the next Bridge update.
The Corona exporter that shipped with Bridge 1.0 is my first revision of the exporter, I recommend that you download the latest version.

How to Install
Copy the .ms files into "Megascans Bridge\Bridge_Data\Support\Scripts\Max"

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B10mLXqqmNkidk0yOFdGWXBPSmc&usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B10mLXqqmNkidk0yOFdGWXBPSmc&usp=sharing)

Test picture from Beta.

(http://i.imgur.com/TvStcuI.jpg)

For displacement, I recommend that you start with these settings.

(http://i.imgur.com/iC6vJjY.jpg)
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: philippelamoureux on 2016-08-26, 06:56:11
Have you guys got Quixel accounts already? I have downloaded some scans in the free section but no idea how to access the studio for free. The only way it would seem to create a quixel account is to subscribe is that right?

Took me a while to find it too, click the ''character'' icon on the top right corner of the site and go in ''my profile'', you'll see the download links there. I'm pretty sure you need a megascans account tho.
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: philippelamoureux on 2016-08-26, 07:02:18
Have you guys got Quixel accounts already? I have downloaded some scans in the free section but no idea how to access the studio for free. The only way it would seem to create a quixel account is to subscribe is that right?

Took me a while to find it too, the download links are hidden in the ''my profile'' section. So I suppose you need an account. When you start the Studio or Bridge you also have to login anyway, with a  megascans account and not a Quixel account. They're separate.
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: Ricky Johnson on 2016-08-26, 11:27:23
Ricky how else would you achieve that other than with maps that are available for download ?

I thought they might offer some scattered objects to use as part of that asset or be using vector displacement but, as Juraj has confirmed, the quality of the result was fooling me!
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: Juraj on 2016-08-26, 12:51:50
Ricky how else would you achieve that other than with maps that are available for download ?

I thought they might offer some scattered objects to use as part of that asset or be using vector displacement but, as Juraj has confirmed, the quality of the result was fooling me!

They plan to offer some models with the Atlases eventually. Currently it's up to user how to use them.
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: maru on 2016-08-26, 16:50:35
Just a note: I asked Quixel guys about the license for the free objects/textures, because I didn't find any info on this, and here is their answer:

Quote
Hello Marcin,

Thank you for getting in touch.

There's no license for free samples :) Yes, you are free to use them in any way you want.
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: subpixelsk on 2016-08-30, 08:23:47
Guys don´t you know why this is happening? My Bridge is stuck forever when importing downloaded zip files :(

(https://s22.postimg.org/4tge2rej5/image.jpg)
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: subpixelsk on 2016-08-30, 08:55:13
Also I am getting another error when starting max - unable to convert: undefined to type: FileName

(https://s10.postimg.org/54in6qodl/image.jpg)

would be grateful for any advice
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: maru on 2016-09-01, 09:58:06
Have you seen this?

I remember some opinions that their subscription is pricey. But imagine how much work was put into this. It's just amazing...
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: philippelamoureux on 2016-09-06, 05:35:00
Yeah it's nice, a baby could do a good looking material now hehe!
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: Ricky Johnson on 2016-09-06, 13:57:59
Yeah it's nice, a baby could do a good looking material now hehe!

As long as the baby has a credit card :)
Title: Re: Quixel Megascans
Post by: Jpjapers on 2016-09-07, 22:40:36
Are you trying to get real blades of grass from a texture? you know that megascans combines the ground textures with actual 3d assets for foliage? Its not just displacement...Sorry if thats obvious but from the amount youre cranking up the displacement its as if thats what you're going for.