Cheetah 3D and 3D Coat

[bobzilla]

Anyone on here use Cheetah 3D along with 3D Coat?

 

Just bough Cheetah and also have 3D Coat. Cheetah uses a displacement modifier rather than as part of a material system and it seems to work differently than other apps.

 

I was wondering if anyone uses both with displacement maps. Or, are there any examples from 3D Coat around that I can download and test in Cheetah.

 

Thanks!

 

Bob

[Grimm]

I don't use Cheetah, but does it use an image for the displacement?  If so then you can just export a displacement image from 3D-Coat and use it in Cheetah.  That is how I use them in Octane.

 

Jason

[bobzilla]

Yeah, I can just use an image, but I was wondering more about settings. I know they are different in each application as far as getting optimal results from displacement.

 

Bob

[Grimm]

Ah, I understand.  This will depend on how Cheetah handles displacement maps.  I would try them all and see which one works best.  

 

"Zero level is grey"  This option builds the map with the zero level in the middle of the displacement image range.

"Zero level is Black, Not normalized"  This sets the zero level at black or 0, the range of numbers will be the full range that is allowed by the map (32bits I think?).

"Zero level is Black, Normalized"  This sets the zero level at 0 again but the range of numbers will be normalized so they fall between 0 and 1.

"Grey - Based, Not Normalized"  I'm not really sure what this means?  My best guess would be that the zero level is at 0 again, but the displacement values can be both positive and negative (the negative numbers fall below the zero level)? 

 

Hope that helps.  

 

Jason

[pegot]

Hey bobzilla, I use Cheetah 3D extensively but am currently learning and trying to wrap my head around 3D Coat.  Displacement does work but you just need to eyeball it in Cheetah and use very low levels (less that the default .05).  I generally use the 3D Coat option for "Zero level is Black, Not normalized."

 

I have had very unpredictable results using Ptex displacement exports though.  Either the displacements don't do anything, or they puff up the entire model.  Or in many cases it adds very bad triangular like artifacts. If using displacement from Ptex into Cheetah best option is probably to export the Ptex textures into a single file.  If you have multiple Ptex files there is a setting on export to use layer 0 for the displacement, so that would be the file you load into Cheetah's displacement modifer.

 

And Grimm - hello.  I recognize you from the Octane forums.  Quick question to you:  would exporting as "Zero level is Black, Not normalized" also be the best option for the upcoming Octane 3 (I believe they slightly changed how displacement works).

[bobzilla]

Thanks for the info, pegot! I'm not even sure Cheetah supports P-tex.

 

Looking forward to the new version of Cheetah, too. Hopefully it improves a few of its shortcomings.

 

Bob

[Grimm]

Hey bobzilla, I use Cheetah 3D extensively but am currently learning and trying to wrap my head around 3D Coat.  Displacement does work but you just need to eyeball it in Cheetah and use very low levels (less that the default .05).  I generally use the 3D Coat option for "Zero level is Black, Not normalized."

 

I have had very unpredictable results using Ptex displacement exports though.  Either the displacements don't do anything, or they puff up the entire model.  Or in many cases it adds very bad triangular like artifacts. If using displacement from Ptex into Cheetah best option is probably to export the Ptex textures into a single file.  If you have multiple Ptex files there is a setting on export to use layer 0 for the displacement, so that would be the file you load into Cheetah's displacement modifer.

 

And Grimm - hello.  I recognize you from the Octane forums.  Quick question to you:  would exporting as "Zero level is Black, Not normalized" also be the best option for the upcoming Octane 3 (I believe they slightly changed how displacement works).

 

Hi pegot,

 

I think with Octane version 2 the "Zero level is Black, Not normalized" works well, the normalized version too if I remember correctly.  With the new changes I think that the "Zero level is grey" option may work best, although I haven't tested it yet.  According to the Octane devs they changed it to "Replaced the "shift" parameter of the displacement node with "mid level", which is normalized to the [0, 1] range of the displacement texture."  Hopefully the 3D-Coat option is normalized?  

 

Jason

Edited January 22, 2016 by Grimm

[pegot]

 I'm not even sure Cheetah supports P-tex.

Cheetah doesn’t support native Ptex files.  But 3D Coat has functionality to export the painted textures so that any 3d program or rendering app can use them (I think they are called textile files).  And these work fine in Cheetah 3D.  Main drawback, of course, is that they can not be edited in a 2D painting app (I'm having some other issues as well but that's for a new post).

[bobzilla]

OK. Thanks!

 

Bob