[EONA]

Hi!
I had a sea water material that I used to use with Maxwell 1. It used only some bumps and textures, and it looked quite good. With Maxwell 2, when I try to render this material it comes out a totally flat surface with flat reflections and the texture printed on it. The material wasn't changed at all.
I then tried to get some Sea Water materials on the Maxwell Render online library to see how they're done. I tried two materials, the "Water Ocean" by rdevos and the "Rough Sea" by louissva; And they all have the same problem as my material, when I render it comes out a flat surface with flat reflections and just a texture printed there.
Does anyone know what's going on? Is there another Maxwell 2 incompatibility with Maxwell 1 materials since all 3 materials tested were done for Maxwell 1?
Thanks.

[flower]

Hi EONA,

I've just tested the "Rough Sea" texture in V2 and it works fine for me.

Note this texture has displacement, so if you have turned off Displacement in your Render Options panel in Studio, that might explain why its coming out flat.

Also I opened the texture in MXED and saved it out again before using.

You will probably have to adjust the mapping size in the odject UVs to get the right look depending on the size of your yacht (no doubt a big one!) and also adjust the displacement size, so that is all looks 'right'.

For my yacht images I don't tend to use displacement - very slow, unless I'm doing a close up, and for images with the whole yacht in view, I can get away with bump maps only. I tend to make my own water textures to make sure I get the look I want.

If I can help in any other way, please get in touch, email and numbers are on my website. Would love to work with you guys.

Will test the Water Ocean texture next.

Best regards,
Bim Daser
http://www.fluid-future.com

[EONA]

Hi Flower,
Thanks for your reply.
We also do our sea materials here, but the problem is that it's not working!
So I tried to check how other materials are done for Maxwell 2.
I tried to open the Rough Sea with the MXED and saved it before using and also checked if the displacement was on on the Render Options tab, everything is ok, but when it renders, it comes the flat surface!
Does anyone has any idea!?
Thanks!

[Half Life]

If there is more than one displacement in the material you have to make sure it is set in MXED to use the correct one... that setting is found all the way at the top of the layer stack.

You also should check in Studio or your plugin that displacement is enabled as there is now a global switch for displacement, motion blur, and dispersion... the idea is to quickly switch off those render resource intensive features for all materials for test renders.

Best,
Jason.

[EONA]

Thanks Jason.
But the material has only one displacement, and the other material has no displacement, only bumps. And both look flat when I render.
Regarding the displament switch on the Render Options tab, it's on!
I tried to launch the Render directly from the Rhino Plugin or generating the MSX and launching it from the Maxwell Studio... Nothing changes!
Any other idea?
Thanks.

[flower]

Hi again,

Without seeing your mxs file its hard to suggest where that problem could be. You're welcome to email me the file - just the water - and I'll have a look at it.

I've emailed my test render to you (your companies general email address on the website) to prove that it does work.

Regards,
Bim
http://www.fluid-future.com

[Half Life]

What are your displacement settings and can we see a screen shot of the material in MXED? Also does the material preview look flat in MXED when rendered?

Best,
Jason.

[EONA]

Hi,

Bim, I just got the test render you sent. Thanks. Did you render it with Maxwell 2.1? The scene I'm using to test is just a cylinder with 20000000mm radius and 10000mm height.

Jason, one of the materials I'm using to test is from the Maxwell Render online material library, it's called Rough Sea, created by louissva, you can download it and test. I didn't change any setting. I just wanted to check if the same problem I had with my material would happen with another material too... And in fact it does.

Thanks!

[EONA]

P.S.: The camera positions I'm using are very close to the water, so the issue is not that I'm seeing a big object from far away.
And I use such a big cylinder to have the horizon on the good position...

[Half Life]

Rough Sea works fine on my system -- are you sure you have the latest version of Maxwell? I tested in MXED using the default scene and "rough sea simball" material... can you confirm this same setup works for you?

Best,
Jason.

[flower]

Hi Edwin,

Yes I did render it with 2.1

Have you tried subdividing your surface, - the greater the subdivisions the easier it is for maxwell to apply the displacement.

Shouldn't make any difference, but is your cylinder a solid or a surface?

Regards,
Bim

[EONA]

Hi,
Jason, I have the latest version of Maxwell. With MXED and the default scene it works fine. The problem is with "real" scenes, like the cylinder I'm testing for example.
Bim, my cylinder is a solid. If I split it won't it lose the continuity of the waves?
Thanks.

[flower]

Hi,

There is no problem with real scenes, it is just a matter of how you model your sea surface.

Here, I'm giving away my trade secrets now.

The sea surface can be just a surface (not a solid), and you can place another surface below it for your sea bed at the depth you want (your water will look different depending how deep you make it and at what angle the sun is and your viewing angle, and what you texture your sea bed with).

Depending how high your viewing angle is, you can calculate how far your horizon is and model only to that. If you want to be really pickie you can even model your sea surface as part of a sphere using the radius of the earth.

Splitting your surface, doesn't affect your wave continuity, it is the texture mapping that takes care of that. You definitely need to mesh/triangulate your surface, the denser the mesh the easier it is for Maxwell to calculate the displacement. Split your surface so that you can mesh more densely close to your boat, and the further away from your boat, you can mesh less densely and then even use the same texture but without the displacement. You have to make the judgement on where you split your surface, and mesh density relative to what you are going to view. You will probably have to change the scale of the texture to suit your scene.

It does works, just takes a little bit more than just doing a bit more than just a big disc or cylinder.

Hope you get it sorted.

Regards,
Bim
http://www.fluid-future.com

[EONA]

Hi Bim,
That's actually how we do the sea... A cylinder but replacing the top with a sphere part. We do the 2 surfaces option that you said when we want to show shallow water, so we assign a sand material to the bottom of the sea.
But the problem we're having now is that the sea is just coming out flat with a random texture mapping that doesn't follow anything! No matter the geometry or if it's a solid or a surface.
The materials only work when I click to preview them on the MXED.
I really don't know what can be wrong!
Thanks!

[Half Life]

At this point the only thing left that can be wrong is the UV mapping -- make sure the scale and type are set properly.

Best,
Jason.