[seghier]

this is not the problem
when you select hdr in illumination it goes black because there is no hdr
what i mean when i select the hdr used as background in gpu the render always black
i checked again with gpu ; only sky lighting work
the hdr always black
and this is the full message in console :
Reflection/Refraction passes are still not supported in the GPU engine and will be disabled for rendering.
also when i disabled all hdr settings gpu used the sky for illumination unlike cpu which detect there is no lighting

[seghier]

i think that what happened
gpu ignore hdr lighting and because the sky is disabled the render become black
i tried with hemisphere with hdr emitter and gpu ignore the hdr emitter and render it as transparent

[luis.hijarrubia]

I don't really understand. you are right, that was black because i selected hdr and didn't select any file. But everything is working fine. I mean it iluminates with whatever I select on GPU. The only thing is that if I disable everything it seems to be taking sky by default not to show a black image.

[seghier]

I don't know maybe the problem with the quadro card or nvidia driver ?
I don't understand why hdr and gpu don't work

[Half Life]

Im curious to why you would remove additive layers, are they so hard to develop or port? Is that the only reason or there is something else, like not efficent?

Also, sorry for the question but are you guys sure you can complete this GPU porting? Im wondering if it was better to just stick to CPU and improve that with embree and other technologies instead of going on GPU..considering what it looks like.

It's more a philosophical position than technical. I think Additive layers are a trick more than a good approximation of how materials are, or at least the auto-energy compensation to avoid materials reflecting more light than it received. And yes, they are slower than usual brdf weighing or layer opacity.

And yes, we are sure about this new engine. It's a technical challenge, but we are on a good way. You will see versions really soon where image is very very similar between GPU and CPU (at least with supported features). And I think we will complete all the features in less time than many other engines had needed.

Coming back to Additive layers, your concern is taking really serious, and priority is likely to change.

My stance has always been that coatings with roughness (and opacity masking, which would actually be thickness of zero) makes much more sense as a way forward. From a real-world point of view this is how most non-metal shiny materials are manufactured. Note when I say "coatings" I am not necessarily referring to the current Maxwell implementation -- I am referring to reproducing the way coatings exist in the real world (actual thickness layered on top of the substrate).

I too think additive materials are a problematic approach -- however until they are replaced with something "more real" they are the best option for a huge range of materials.

[luis.hijarrubia]

My stance has always been that coatings with roughness (and opacity masking, which would actually be thickness of zero) makes much more sense as a way forward. From a real-world point of view this is how most non-metal shiny materials are manufactured. Note when I say "coatings" I am not necessarily referring to the current Maxwell implementation -- I am referring to reproducing the way coatings exist in the real world (actual thickness layered on top of the substrate).

I too think additive materials are a problematic approach -- however until they are replaced with something "more real" they are the best option for a huge range of materials.

You have the exactly same vision as Tom xd.

[Mihai]

Yeah, just to make it clear - I didn't mean additives and nothing else. It's just that currently it's the most practical solution we have available to us to mimic dielectrics which don't necessarily need SSS. If down the road it would be much less of a headache for the devs to remove additives altogether and improve the coating functionality, or in fact have two sorts of coatings, one just for thin film effects like the current one, and a second one to mimic "regular", thicker coatings which sit on top of a base and has a roughness control - I'm all for that. Would simplify also the material creation process. Easier to explain to people and more connected to the real world.

[T0M0]

Current plans ?
New updates/fixes for Maxwell V4 ?
New early builds ?
When the new dev of Maya plugin will be announced ?

[luis.hijarrubia]

Current plans ?
New updates/fixes for Maxwell V4 ?
New early builds ?
When the new dev of Maya plugin will be announced ?

Well, 4.0.0.9 is built, going through test and should be on Early build soon. Working hard on 4.0.1, where all issues having differences between CPU and GPU should be fixed.
Not only fixes but some features have been added. Not from the main list tough.

The new Maya dev is actually working. I would tell him that the forum wants to know him.

[T0M0]

Thank you Luis for quick and direct answers. Much appreciated!

[seghier]

i update nvidia driver and the gpu work fine now except devignetting is more dark

[seghier]

comparison

[gloomer]

what are these colorful artefacts? I found very similar ones on GPU render of gold and aluminium on dark parts - gold became burned red and aluminium became blue.

[seghier]

GPU improved but still a little difference in brightness/contrast and noise (white points)

[T0M0]

Testing same scene like seghier.



GPU version have some ray depth limits lower than CPU version ? e.g darker glass in some parts, darker room corner,...