[brodie_geers]

I'm also not quite sure I understand the difference between layers as opposed to using weightmaps. Can anyone explain the difference/advantages?

-Brodie

[Bubbaloo]

There seems to be another little easter egg under the Quality tab, page 7. I don't recall seeing that update on metal quality prior to this update.

I don't quite understand the HDRI updated page. Under version 1.7 after 15 minutes the HDR map turns out looking a lot like a starry night. After 15 minutes in version 2.0 it looks an awful lot like r2d2?

-Brodie

The hdr map is on the bottom of the page. The left (1.7) and right (2.0) renders show what you get after 15 minutes. The 1.7 render is quite laughable, no?

[ricardo]

Stacking layers Wow! Sounds interesting! Just to help me understand better in the image that showed the different layers Varnish, Rust,Wood I just want to know what is the relevance of the layer numbers 45,45,45 and 10,100 etc are these still percentages of each layer!? or does it work differently?

edit: - NL it would be good to also release a few of these new materials with V2 so we can play

ps Glad to see metal improvements are also present Nicely done NL!!! (see under quality tab page 7) - V2 is just getting better and better Thank you!

An example: Today if you want a part tha has paint, metal and rust you need to create matching clip maps with white areas for each one oh the materials.

With stacked layer you can set paint on the baack ground, metal with it's own clip map, and rust with another exclusice clip map. No need to match between maps. If you change the paint clip map, you won't need to mess with tho other two.

[brodie_geers]

AHA! Now I get it. I presumed that the hdr map was of space and the v1.7 was depicting that. Then I didn't understand where the r2d2 image fit in. So the HDR is a black image w/ a single small point of light, then the comparison is of r2d2 after 15 minutes in both images! Yowza that is a big difference.

I sort of wish we could see the whole scene setup though. It interesting how much softer the shadow is which falls on the background of the v2 image than the shadow coming from r2d2. With such a tiny point of light I'd expect all the shadows to be pretty sharp. After all the HDR example from page 6 has seems to be well lit from all around and the windows are producing some quite sharp shadows.

-Brodie

[Tea_Bag]

Ah I see that makes sense now Thanks ricardo - And I was just getting into the 1.7 material system! Oh well if its more flexible and easier to use...Stack on!!!

@Mike - Did you have to recreate the materials for the R2D2 for V2!?

[def4d]

The 1.7 render is quite laughable, no?

I should stop using it!

[mverta]

@Mike - Did you have to recreate the materials for the R2D2 for V2!?

I didn't HAVE to, I did. They're better. In that render, however, that's actually just 1.7 materials being rendered with 2.0. My 2.0 version hasn't debuted yet

There is a mistake in the announcement which says that Stacked Layers are controlled by weightmaps. This is incorrect. Stacked Layers are controlled by OPACITY masks; you can still do weightmap blending with multiple bsdfs just like in 1.7, only now those reside within a layer. You will quickly realize the benefits of abandoning that structure for a multiple layer structure, for tons of uses, however.


_Mike

[def4d]

Let say i want to make a terrain, with 3 elements : grass, water, road

I make a grass MXM, a water MXM, a road MXM, and just have to draw/modify 2 opacity maps to change roads and water on my terrain, on the fly!

Am i right?

[mverta]

Not exactly, you make a grass Layer, a water Layer, and a road Layer, all within one MXS. And yes, you just have to make two maps to determine where the road/water layers go. And those maps support full grayscale, of course. The stacking order matters: the layer on top is actually "on top," or "outermost." It's exactly like Photoshop and masks.

_Mike

[brodie_geers]

An example: Today if you want a part tha has paint, metal and rust you need to create matching clip maps with white areas for each one oh the materials.

With stacked layer you can set paint on the baack ground, metal with it's own clip map, and rust with another exclusice clip map. No need to match between maps. If you change the paint clip map, you won't need to mess with tho other two.

So it basically makes things easier, but is there anything that one couldn't do w/ weightmaps at all that layers will allow us to do?

One thing I'd be interested in for arch-viz would be to have the ability to use one map for my bricks, which will tile over the whole building, then use another map for specific grunge areas (at the coping, along the bottom, around windows, etc.) that would be much larger and cover the whole building - no tiling. I think that would essentially require 2 sets of UV's on the same object, one for the brick and one for the grunge. Any idea if this may be possible?

Currently I either have to settle for a general tileable grunge map and photoshop the specific areas in post-process or I'd have to make a ginormous texture at a huge resolution w/ all the brick and the specific grunge.

-Brodie

[mverta]

There are tons of things you can do with stacks that you can't do via any other method. It is NOT just an "easier" version of clipmap tricks. You will understand once you have it in hand.


_Mike

[def4d]

@Mverta : by saying "make a MXM" i was thinking make each MXM separately first, and import each one to stack them, is it possible?

[Bubbaloo]

@Mverta : by saying "make a MXM" i was thinking make each MXM separately first, and import each one to stack them, is it possible?

If I may answer: Yes.

[brodie_geers]

There are tons of things you can do with stacks that you can't do via any other method. It is NOT just an "easier" version of clipmap tricks. You will understand once you have it in hand.


_Mike

Can you explain any examples of things that can only be done with layers?

-Brodie

[Josephus Holt]

There are tons of things you can do with stacks that you can't do via any other method. It is NOT just an "easier" version of clipmap tricks. You will understand once you have it in hand.
_Mike

"in hand"....(Mister postman look and see) oh yeah
(If there's a letter in the bag for me)Please mister postman
(I've been waiting a long long time)oh, yeah

.....v2 looks BEAUTIFUL...I'm ready with the money