User avatar
By RonB
#169684
Hey,
Isn't anyone working with V1.1?? Haven't seen much of anything posted by Lightwavers...It seems way better than V1.0, for me anyway. The plugin is much improved from what I can tell. Let's get somethings going and some images up. I have some questions regarding texture maps that I can't get answered on the general forum. Here's a car I have been messing with. Cheers, Ron

Image
By WillMartin
#169901
I'm messing with v1.1, which is the first version I loaded/tried since the beta (all of the forum-posted struggles with the RC's and even 1.0 LW plug-in kept me away from upgrades until now). I'm not a pro CG person or anything, and don't have anything cool to show now/yet, but v1.1 is doing me right so far in my fiddling around, not a glitch or crash in sight (since I started keeping an eye on my memory usage!).

-Will
User avatar
By RonB
#169991
Here's a re-render after rebuilding the background texture, as suggested in another thread, and a slight body color change...
I am liking V1.1 and am having no crashes. I was also able to do something I couldn't in V1.0, create a multi-leveled object with different textures on each level. Although I don't notice any rendering speed difference, it does seem to crank out the MXS files much faster from Layout. Cheers, Ron

Image
By WillMartin
#170131
Your image is cool, but there was something a little off that I couldn't quite put my finger on. However, it has finally clicked: with the scale between the brick wall and the car, the wall looks a little too small...but seeing what you're trying to do, I imagine you were/are hesitant to make the wall bigger (which would mean pulling the camera back to keep all of the artwork in frame, and that would mess up the composition -- at least that's my guess :)). Still, a kick-butt image! :) I hope I'll be able to get results like this pretty soon. I'm not having the easiest right now. I'm wanting to do everything with just LW and the plug-in (and MW Material Editor of course) and avoid MWStudio for the time being. Rob, did you use MWStudio for this image or did you use only LW and the plug-in?
User avatar
By RonB
#170165
Hi Will, Thanks for your comments. The bricks actually are to scale, I sized them according to the wheel base measurement of the Beamer...something I could use as a known factor. I don't know why they appear farther away...maybe the camera lens or something...but I know what you mean about the look of them...oh, well, it's a WIP and I'll work on it.

I use Studio for everything, I really dig it and recommend you get into using it. There are lots of benefits over just LW and the plugin. I set up my scene in LW, create basic texture MXM files and save out the MXS file through the plugin then go to studio, bring in the MXS, tweak the scene and final the surfaces in the Material editor then render.

It takes some getting used to and I'm very new to it myself but give it a chance, it's very powerful.

Cheers, Ron
User avatar
By thxraph
#170186
some comments if you dont mind ;)

the tyre are a lot too shiny & need a bump map ;)
the carpaint if too diffuse, you may want to download some very good one here :

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... 9&start=45

look the overhall image is a bit overexposed or have to high gamma value

the model is nice, the wall too, nothing to say about the ground ;)

thxraph
By WillMartin
#170206
Edit: Just found out one thing, stated below in blue.

In regards to using studio, I got stuck with one kind of cumbersome thing before, which is why I decided to just use LW for the time being for scene setup. But since I'm here with people who are cruising along with Studio okay, how do you move the camera in Studio? I'm trying everything (with the manual open in another window with the supposed specifics) and the thing will not move. As far as I can tell it should be moving when I pull the axis handles (they turn yellow when you grab them), right? This isn't working. Perhaps I've hit a bug? Or maybe I'm missing a step that you all can clue me in on...although 1) highlight camera 2) click the "translate" icon and 3) grab/highlight and pull the axis handles really does seem like it should do the trick according to intuitive logic here and even what the manual states. If it's indeed something wrong with my set-up, does anyone have any ideas as to what it could be? Thanks! :)

Edit: Alright, I figured out that you can move the camera while looking through the viewfinder instead of the exterior camera like in LW, and this is cool. Still, that little handles-not-working thing was really throwing me off.
User avatar
By RonB
#170361
thxraph -
Thank you for your comments.
I agree about the tires, but I don't about the car's finish. I originally tried Larson's material and I do like it. But prefer this one from the Car Paints coming with Maxwell materials. I think it just doesn't have enough to reflect. The image was rendered at default gamma of 2.2 after Tom's comment that Maxwell is coded to render properly at the default...But, the texture map of the backwall and ground may be too saturated. I was having problems with it fading and may have over compensated when I rebuilt it. Thanks again.

Will -
Yeah, the camera gave me fits too, I still don't feel comfortable with it but I'm getting more used to it little by little. I am not sure how to create other cameras and save views etc yet though. But it is cool switching back and forth from the camera to the Perspective icons for looking around the scene. I do that constantly in LW. Matter of fact I set up my camera views in LW with the Perspective view and replace it with the camera at a mouse click using an Lscript that copies the Perspective view to the camera...Very handy, then all you have to do is tweak your camera settings a little.

Cheers, Ron
By WillMartin
#170570
More fiddling in studio, and I am tempted to report the handles-not-working thing as a bug. First though, some lighter stuff...
I think it just doesn't have enough to reflect.
Yeah, there are some kind of big spots of uninterrupted grey that don't quite look natural (given the background) now that you mention it. Maybe you can throw togethe a rudamentary basketball court to put in front of the car. :) And the tires, yeah, but I figured those were just still being worked on as they don't have any tread on them. Looking forward to your next update.

Going back to the little studio issues, not only are the little handles for the camera inconsistent, but I can't get them to work with the projectors or anything else either. Does this work for any of you?: Top view, select a projector (a sphere or cubic) try to move/translate its position, scale it, etc. For me, despite the handles lighting up, the projector doesn't move and the corresponding numbers for the projector's position don't change. This holds true for objects as well for me.

But to keep from sounding like too much of a complainer I am cruising along okay otherwise and must say that in general I really like M~R v1.1! :) The engine is really powerful obviously and all is relatively easy to use and figure out (despite the current glitches here and there) with plenty of room for much betterness as time goes on (imagine what the materials library will be like in a couple of years! :)). The only crashes are ones that reveal a problem with some problem on my side. If I hadn't used the Beta I'd probably be a little more frustrated, but since I know well some of the rules for using LW+MW I'm good. :) But right now...

Do you all think I should report this problem with the viewport moving/scaling/rotating as a bug or is it more just my set-up (my missing or misunderstanding something)?
User avatar
By RonB
#171183
Will - I don't know if that's a bug or not...I'd go ahead and tell them about it and see what they say. The one consistent thing I have found is all of my new materials using texture maps come in washed out by about 20-30%. I have to delete them in Studio and completely rebuild them...a hassle when there are 30 or so.

Here's another Beamer...thread on the tires, more reflections. I tried your suggestion Will, building a reflection box...I used a big cylinder. Problem was I am using sun and physical sky and the cylinder created a wall that cast the scene in shadow. Instead I used an HDR map in the reflections slot and sun for illumination...that works pretty good. Have to learn the parameters for the settings though, I used a strength of 25 for the reflections. Have to experiment with a lot of settings to get a better hand on them...hard to take the time. Cheers, Ron
Image
By WillMartin
#171281
It's getting pretty darned close to pure photographic realism! :) In its getting closer, something else just jumped out at me: lack of shadows on the ground from the car (left side ground). If you can get those working I think that would be the last big hurdle crossed.
I tried your suggestion Will, building a reflection box
Actually, I wasn't suggesting a reflection box, but was more suggesting you build some actual (very primative) meshes of basketball court type stuff (backboard, a number of poles, some easily-made fences...) to plop generally in front of the car, near or far, solely for reflection purposes. They could be very low poly -- of little hit to the render time -- and they would be something you could easily control (move around) to see what works best, what area(s) of the uninterupted grey they are enhancing. But the HDRI that you have is working pretty nicely. :) Still, maybe these additional meshes in addition to the HDRI would be an improvement of some sort. Or not. It was just a half-silly suggestion on my part anyway. :)

Regarding reporting the bug, I'll decide after the next time I try Studio. I want to make sure I'm not just being an idiot in not noticing something. :)
User avatar
By RonB
#171345
Hey Will,

The lack of shadows has totally to do with the angle of the sun. At this latest setting it's coming from perfectly quarter on up off the front left corner of the car. From the camera point of view you can't see the shadows. I'll have to adjust the sun a tad so it throws some shadows on the ground.

Your low poly fences, poles & stuff is a great idea...I'll give that a try.

Thanks, Ron

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