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JD

Mate except for exploding all these roof tiles they wont render correct from Studio.

Top direct from SU
Bot rendered from Studio

Could you send me a (SketchUp) model (jeremy at nextlimit dot com)? Preferably one with just the roof tiles, where the issue is still observable.

Hey mate was sending as you posted.

Thanks, I'll take a look.

Cheers mate! Something weird happening there!

Sure some sloppy modelling as it has been taxed from other scenes but new problem since 2112.

The problem in the file appears to be related to the same issue of negatively-scaled components which has been seen before -- you should find that they are not missing from your MXS file, but rather that they are mis-rotated when the file is opened in Studio. Did you create them by hand, or did you use a script? If a script, could you tell me what it was?

JDHill wrote:The problem in the file appears to be related to the same issue of negatively-scaled components which has been seen before -- you should find that they are not missing from your MXS file, but rather that they are mis-rotated when the file is opened in Studio. Did you create them by hand, or did you use a script? If a script, could you tell me what it was?

No mate they were done by hand, fairly shit job at that too! I might take about rebuilding them and certainly in light of your previous other posted instancing comments!

Out of curiousity richard what method are you using for your roofs these days? I'll be rendering my first asphalt shingle roof for work soon. I've used a 3d mesh for clay tiles before but for asphalt shingles would you recommend displacement? I seem to recall a thread a long time ago, maybe on SketchUcation where you talked a bit about displacement mapping for your roof and included some displacement maps you made thru SU. Am I remembering that right?

-Brodie

Yes mate I did a lot of testing but just stuck with tried and tested meshes! That said as soon as time permits I want to go back and get the ball rolling there! Mapping is so much easier than dealing with polys even with the need to subdivide the roof planes.

Mate here is a recent (low baked) test of a corrugated roof, this is just mapped with the capping modelled. I pulled the capping just up off the sheeting to help by dragging the texture under the cap. I used a high level of bump and in the MXM used the bump map in the diffuse channel of one BSDF which I weighted very low to get just a bit showing through. Visually it is not perfect close up but in full scene I'd probably be stuffed to pick the difference between this and full poly or displacement, yet it is light and fast infact given then you have more control on how much of the "bump in the diffuse channel" shows through it probably holds up better to describe the roof finish.

BTW the roof screws are mapped too, the whole roof was lifted 5mm and a new MXM applied that clips out the screws.

This is an example of where the request to JD for MXM's to be carried by the geo not the mapping would come in handy! The mapping simply carrying the uv's. I have a fairly simple work around for such though - bring the texture in as an image not as a texture, then scale the images gometry on a vertical plane, rotate/copy through 90 and project these onto the roof then it is just the case of doing the same for the screw map with planes set the same as the sheeting for projections. This workaround helps a lot to get and keep the screws in the correct locations.

brodie_geers wrote:I seem to recall a thread a long time ago, maybe on SketchUcation where you talked a bit about displacement mapping for your roof and included some displacement maps you made thru SU. Am I remembering that right?

Actually mate the maps were made with PS just using gradients, the easier option is to model a section of the tiles on the flat and apply a gradient map projected across all from the side and then export an image looking down on the tile model. I'd probably even scale the whole geo vertically from the flat to ensure you get a better spread of the gradient.

You could do the same using z depth in MR to generate the map but then you have the issue of a non parallel camera.

One tip - on the leading edge of the tile be sure to make this lean backward slightly so that you get some of your texture on the leading edge otherwise it will have vertical lines down that face from the displacement. Exporting a map from SU with a texture to the same tiles will also help overcome this.

For the ridge tiles in the tests I did I wanted a defined grout layer under the tile so the sides of the tile disp map had a narrow splay so the texture would show to that edge rather than adopting the tile only texture as the edge projected down.

Actually now I look at this image, shit I've got to get back into getting this working. I was having trouble at the top and end of the capping where the cap has to turn down so got stuck there!

BTW I also put a slight darker area at the rear end of the tile so that it pushed a little bit down to visually break the continuity at the lap, otherwise all seemed quite flat.