Messages

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[Max] General Discussion / Re: Looking for clarity on Color Management in 3ds Max 2025+ with Corona 13

« on: 2025-08-18, 16:51:52 »

We've managed to get this working, but only when VFB2 is used. Unfortunately not under VFB1 (which is preferred by some of our artists). Just something to be aware of. We really hope to see some good UI changes to VFB2 so we can fully move to it.

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[Max] General Discussion / Re: Looking for clarity on Color Management in 3ds Max 2025+ with Corona 13

« on: 2025-08-18, 10:22:03 »

Cheers! We're going to give this a try.

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[Max] General Discussion / Re: Looking for clarity on Color Management in 3ds Max 2025+ with Corona 13

« on: 2025-08-11, 10:22:33 »

Yes you're right, it might not actually be *more* cumbersome, but I guess our main issue at the moment is that we can't access the coronacamera's tonemapoverride via scripting, where we'd love to make a simple button script that will load in the 2 x LUTs required to get it working on the selected camera(s). We were hoping that had changed in corona 12/13 but I don't believe it has.

Can a Corona dev chime in on that maybe?

Not a dev, but I don't think this is currently possible. I have logged a feature request on your behalf at https://chaoscorona.ideas.aha.io/ideas/CMAX-I-223
(as usual, it won't be visible for some time, until Tom accepts it)

Cheers, thanks for doing that. Just for the sake of clarity, we're just looking for a really quick and simple way to load in custom ToneMapping setups, mostly just to get the AGX workflow going (which requires two LUTs to be loaded and other things to be present in the stack). But currently this isn't accessible via scripting. That's the goal - just a dead simple script button we can hit to whack a TM stack onto selected cams.

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[Max] General Discussion / Re: Looking for clarity on Color Management in 3ds Max 2025+ with Corona 13

« on: 2025-08-07, 16:10:38 »

Yes you're right, it might not actually be *more* cumbersome, but I guess our main issue at the moment is that we can't access the coronacamera's tonemapoverride via scripting, where we'd love to make a simple button script that will load in the 2 x LUTs required to get it working on the selected camera(s). We were hoping that had changed in corona 12/13 but I don't believe it has.

Can a Corona dev chime in on that maybe?

5

[Max] General Discussion / Re: Looking for clarity on Color Management in 3ds Max 2025+ with Corona 13

« on: 2025-08-07, 15:50:25 »

Yep, ACES/OCIO is the default in Max 2025 and newer.

Ah k.

So for us it was a case in 2026 of having to switch back to legacy Gamma 2.2 workflow so we continue using AGX and having consistency with old projects.

Im confused, you are using the Gamma Workflow with AGX? Have you tried @piotrus3333 upload of the ocio for Agx (by Troy Sobotka) ?
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-color-management-forum/alternative-ocio-config-for-max-and-maya-because-there-is-more/m-p/13192991#M27

not so far - just doing it the original old-school way with manually-loaded LUTS on cams. this looks great, cheers!

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[Max] Previews (Daily Builds) / Re: AI Material Generator Playground

« on: 2025-08-07, 15:47:48 »

This looks mega useful. Nice work.

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[Max] General Discussion / Re: Looking for clarity on Color Management in 3ds Max 2025+ with Corona 13

« on: 2025-08-07, 14:34:17 »

We've found AGX to be a better solution than ACES anyway. So for us it was a case in 2026 of having to switch back to legacy Gamma 2.2 workflow so we continue using AGX and having consistency with old projects. It's a shame AGX is more complex/cumbersome to work with, but the results are worth it.

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Jobs / Recent Spaces - Senior/Associate/Creative Director

« on: 2025-08-04, 12:38:38 »

Hi Coronauts.... (can we still call eachother this?? :) )

Are you an experienced London-based Senior/Associate-Level/Creative Director visualisation artist looking to join a very well-established and respected London studio with real passion and integrity? We are looking for a full-time artist to join our London studio to work in-house on some of the most creative and unique projects our industry has to offer, across architecture, interiors, products and more. We are looking for an individual who is experienced in managing teams, liaising with clients, running projects, and of course highly skilled artistically and technically in design visualisation with 3ds max and Corona. Experience in PhoenixFD/LiquiGen, Fusion/AE or other leading packages is also beneficial.

This is an in-house position in our London office - this is not a remote opportunity.
Some modest remote work flexibility is possible.
This position is open to London residents only, with the right to work in the UK.
Applicants must apply via jobs@recentspaces.com only.

Deadline for applications: 31st August 2025.

https://www.recentspaces.com/jobs

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[Max] I need help! / Re: Collecting Chaos Scans

« on: 2025-08-01, 16:38:15 »

I somehow didn't realise this! Thanks a lot.

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[Max] I need help! / Re: Collecting Chaos Scans

« on: 2025-08-01, 14:45:57 »

We're also struggling with vrscans in this exact same way. More and more Cosmos assets are using them, so we need to find a solid solution. We're also in tandem finding that Cosmos settings get reset sometimes and default back to the local C: for the library instead of our shared library on our network. The two things together are causing a headache.

I really hope the Relink Bitmaps guy updates his script because that's been a solid go-to for a while now. Connecter is also good but isn't really ideal since it's external to max. An internal solution would be preferable. That paid-for one looks decent but rather expensive en-mass.

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[Max] Previews (Daily Builds) / Re: Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2025-07-16, 17:17:43 »

Good to see this progress! I hope we can make the move to 13.x at some point in order to test it. But ultimately once there's 1:1 parity with the source resolution that's when I see this being fully viable, at least as an option.

Edit: also as we gave feedback directly recently, if this could all happen directly within the VFB rather than having to leave max and go to browser/cloud, that would be a huge benefit.

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[Max] Previews (Daily Builds) / Re: Camera Inside Volumes Playground!

« on: 2025-07-16, 14:31:27 »

Glad to see this align-with-camera is now working. But one issue remains that we ideally need the "camera" to be a rectangular cuboid i.e. ability to separately control it's 3 x dimensions. Because right now if you want to do this half-in-water effect you're forced to determine it with a cube, so if you want a close cut (say 10cm away from camera) it means you can still see the far faces of the cube in the render causing artifacts. We need to be able to make the width and height separate from the depth basically. As of right now I'm still having to overcome this by using a custom invisible box that I use as a coronaslicematerial to cut out of the water. Sorry no preview to share as it's under NDA.

Given the vast customization of the slicing volume with slicer material (custom shape, linking to camera, animating if needed), I don't think it is worth adding the same functionality (which will clutter the UI for a simple thing) into camera. Camera physical volume is intended for the general-use-case quick medium cuts aligned with the camera. I believe it does the same thing as slicer material under the hood, so good thinking on the workaround :)

I understand where you're coming from, but in my experience this tool as it stands isn't usable unless your FOV is so narrow that you don't see the "cage". Not sure what the point of the tool is if the only way to use it properly is to actually not use it at all and do it all manually using a slicer. Wouldn't it make more sense to fix the current implementation so it can achieve the desired result? As you say, that tool has basically one single purpose/use-case, so it makes sense to me to make it work for that use case without such an obvious limitation. I'm sure this could be achieved without bloating the UI. After all there is already a section there for it in the camera.

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[Max] Previews (Daily Builds) / Re: Are you still using the old VFB?

« on: 2025-07-01, 16:08:25 »

Only been using C12 for a week or two, so been trying to force myself to use the new VFB2, but I find unfortunately everything about it a step backwards so will most likely switch back to the old one. Everyone's given the reasons here already for me mainly its:

1) zooming seems to show "noise" for a second before it disappears (some kind of zoom antialiasing issue).
2) UI layout with the text on the right is a bit messy, unaligned and oversized. Needs alignments and line separators.
3) the icons in place of text buttons is just confusing. Can't seem to commit them to my brain and always have to read the tooltip.
4) flipping between elements seems to take longer than before (might be false, will test more).
5) the same dev time could (maybe should?) have been spent getting the material editor/corona materials/maps into QT where we spend like 80% of our time (and active work time, not just passive time like with the VFB).

In general I'm all for a new VFB UI as I'm aware it allows for other important new things to work like Colab etc, but as long as it's with the above things improved.

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[Max] Previews (Daily Builds) / Re: Chaos Corona 13 for 3ds Max - Daily Builds Discussion

« on: 2025-06-26, 12:53:49 »

Somehow it just missed us, this knowledge! Been using the default Corona HQ denoising + HQ filtering since... forever. One naturally assumes that anything native/Corona and "high quality" and which is also the default must be the best, for day-to-day use, and of course we've never had any issues with it, therefore no incentive/reason to try anything else. It's just this recent vid that caught our attention recently which caused us to change. But yes, the difference really is night-and-day. I wonder if the corona method simply needs to be improved if it's to remain the default... or just make Intel+Tent the default if better?

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[Max] Previews (Daily Builds) / Re: Camera Inside Volumes Playground!

« on: 2025-06-26, 11:30:47 »

Glad to see this align-with-camera is now working. But one issue remains that we ideally need the "camera" to be a rectangular cuboid i.e. ability to separately control it's 3 x dimensions. Because right now if you want to do this half-in-water effect you're forced to determine it with a cube, so if you want a close cut (say 10cm away from camera) it means you can still see the far faces of the cube in the render causing artifacts. We need to be able to make the width and height separate from the depth basically. As of right now I'm still having to overcome this by using a custom invisible box that I use as a coronaslicematerial to cut out of the water. Sorry no preview to share as it's under NDA.