Corona 12 and Vantage

[maru]

Hello, I am starting this thread as a place to ask questions, report issues, showcase renders, and anything else related to Corona + Vantage!
As a reminder, if you wish to request a new feature, please see this forum thread.

As the first step, be sure to check out our Corona for 3ds Max + Vantage tutorial:

We also have text guide with simple step-by-step instructions at https://support.chaos.com/hc/en-us/articles/26409440770961-How-to-Export-and-Render-Scenes-in-Vantage-with-Corona-12-for-3ds-Max

[Digital Esthetics]

Nice, Ive tested it a little bit so far. I like the animated trees and such in Vantage (wish we had it in 3DsMax)
However one thing that I have noticed is Complex materials with Corona Layered, with AO mask etcetera, is not working, so I would consider baking the materials if you can before you transfer over.
And a huge annoying thing is that you can't delete something and then click Ctrl Z.

[cecofuli]

From what I see, Corona doesn't support "thin shell".
.
Since "translucency" is not supported by Vantage, the only way to render foliage and curtains is through Refraction and "Think shell".

But, after many tests, I understad that "Think shell" is not supported.
Look at the screenshot.
This is a big problem, since curtains and tree are everywhere in arch-viz.
What we really need is this feature and the possibility to export animated cameras.

[maru]

Hi Francesco, translucency is supported. Please enable both "thin shell" and translucency:

[TomG]

Exporting animation is not planned at the moment, but for the meantime that's where the upcoming Live Link comes in, allowing you to render through Vantage from the DCC which should let you render animations set up in the DCC through Vantage.

[mancdan]

I'm sure I read somewhere that Live link is not on the table.

Are you saying that 3ds Max -> Corona -> Vantage (live link) is work in progress? This is a future upcoming feature?

[TomG]

Live Link was always on the table, something we definitely wanted to do, just not going to be in for Corona 12. But it should be in Corona 12 Update 1, the next release later this year :) And for both C4D and Max. It's working and being bug fixed internally.

[mancdan]

That's great to hear. We are thinking of switching to Corona from V-ray but not having Vantage live link has put us off thus far.

Thanks for the update

[TomG]

You're welcome! Keep an eye out and try out the daily once it makes it in there - this will be out initial implementation, with another round of improvements to come in the future, so you can check the daily to see if it supports everything you need from it (and let us know what it doesn't do that you need, if anything :) ).

[danio1011]

That's awesome news, Tom!  I'm guessing Live Link will let us bake out test animations using existing animated Corona Cameras?

Also curious if Vantage does\will support coronapattern.  I've started to use it for practically everything, couldn't live without it these days.

Thanks!
Dan

[TomG]

That is the plan regarding cameras (in effect using Vantage as your render engine from within your DCC), though since it is still in testing / debugging, and is the initial implementation, we can't say for sure what features will work properly this time around - same applies for things like Pattern. One thing we can say, if V-Ray currently doesn't support it, we won't either (as that means it is unsupported in Vantage itself).

[lupaz]

Hi Francesco, translucency is supported. Please enable both "thin shell" and translucency:

This link would need to be updated then, no?
https://docs.chaos.com/display/LAV/Corona+for+3ds+Max+Features

Regarding translucency: I noticed that the conversion from Max to Vantage is not 1:1. A 0.1 translucency gives a darker result in vantage than in Max as far as I can tell.
I'm thinking on using a linear float controller to control several translucency values before exporting to vantage.
Do you think that's a good workflow?
Thanks.

[maru]

Good catch, fixed, thanks! For some reason I cannot connect controllers to Corona Physical Mtl properties, not sure why, I think they worked in the past. As a workaround, you can use Corona Color with white color and adjust its output multiplier.