3D-Coat 3.2 updates thread.

[Andrew Shpagin]

First thing I saw was a couple simple text problems in the measurement tool:

In the first sentence density is spelled wrong, everywhere else it's correct. Also "some object" really should be "an object". I see that a lot with native Russian speakers. Actually I would just change that whole part of the sentence to say "if you merge an object into the scene"

I'm not really understanding how this tool works to be honest.

Thanks!

The general meaning of that tool:

- you are specifying initial voxels per inch(or other) density (and you can change it any moment)

- all units in all tools will be changed since this moment -

• Pen radius
  
• All sizes in primitive tools
  
• Coordinates hint in right bottom corner
  

- All coordinates and scale that you see in scene you will get in exported object.

[philnolan3d]

One thing I still don't undrstand is "voxels per unit" I can't see a voxel, so how do I know how big it is. For example, I want to sculpt a character's head and I know that a head is roughly 1 foot tall. How do I know how many voxels to put in that one foot?

[Andrew Shpagin]

One thing I still don't undrstand is "voxels per unit" I can't see a voxel, so how do I know how big it is. For example, I want to sculpt a character's head and I know that a head is roughly 1 foot tall. How do I know how many voxels to put in that one foot?

Voxel is well visible if you will press 'W' button. This density is like DPI for printers.

What about 1 inch head - set some initial density like 40 voxels per inch. Then create sphere with radius 1. If resolution is not enough use Inc Res.

[Andrew Shpagin]

One thing I still don't undrstand is "voxels per unit" I can't see a voxel, so how do I know how big it is. For example, I want to sculpt a character's head and I know that a head is roughly 1 foot tall. How do I know how many voxels to put in that one foot?

Voxel is well visible if you will press 'W' button. This density is like DPI for printers.

What about 1 inch head - set some initial density like 40 voxels per inch. Then create sphere with radius 1. If resolution is not enough use Inc Res.

[Calabi]

The best way to get the sizes would be using the grid would it not?

On my 2mil model I cant count how many voxels wide it is.

Just have one grid square, equal to 1 inch, centimetre, nanometre or whatever.

[philnolan3d]

Yes I like the grid idea too, though there would have to be a way to change the number of squares in the grid. Like if I have it set to 1 meter for each square that's a lot of empty space if I'm working on a 1 inch area. Perhaps something like the way LightWave works where the grid changes it's number as you zoom in.

When I hold W I see the wirefrme of the mesh, the voxels are still invisible inside.

[3DArtist]

Andrew, may I suggest that a dialog box pops up after selecting the 3dcpack file to install, showing the text from the pack.txt file and two buttons to confirm install or cancel? This would be very informative and I like to know what I am installing with an option to cancel it.

And a big thank you to Oliver Thornton for supplying this pack!

[stevecullum]

since installing the latest update, 3DC has become really unstable. I can only work for 10 or 15 mins with voxels before a crash. Anyone else got trouble?

I'm on win 64 cuda version.

[ifxs]

3.2.09 works fine for OSX here

[jasonwf]

Anyone notice any slight random delay when sculpting? Usually only with faster brush movements. Didn't notice this with 3.2.08.

On Cuda 64 Windows 7

[LJB]

Ok So Shaders/Lights don't appear fixed at all :-( Not at all. Appologies for not testing this out sooner but ive been busy with other things. Lighting is still massively bright (In Paint room) even at low settings when trying to colour match in the paint room. This really needs to be fixed.

In this shot I take a default shader (in Voxel Room) and remove the ambient lighting completely (Zero value) then set the primary light to a modest 70 and this is what i get in the paint room. Its not so much having the colours from the voxel shaders match thats the problem, its the actual colours when painted on the model. To Quote from the other thread where i first brought this up, People are not using the tool to paint textures for this reason. If i take a mid blue or a mid flesh tone and paint the model I dont expect it to appear UBER bright, I find in order to get a match, Pallette wise, i have to drop the Primary scource to at least 45, and gradually bring up the ambience (Depending on how flat i want the shading) but then things are too dark in Voxel room to work ? So if the only way the colour match to pallette can be achieved then please offset the lighting in the paint room to compensate (Or give us seperate lighting settings that stick from room to room), Cos juggling the lights is really counter productive.

Here is the Test I propose you use. Having a White Colour set in the Paint room colours the Default shader (Yes use the paint room pallete to change the default shader colour) to white (I Believe, I could be wrong on exact specifics of the default shader but it changes the colour here anyhow) if we retop and merge for painting and with the paint colour still set to white (255,255,255) flood the model. This is the Ideal setup to balance things. For texture painting I (and thios is completely my opinion, Feel free to voice your own) would say that even if i paint something white I should still be able to at least see the details and form of the subject, Currently if i paint something white all i can see is a bunch of brightness (Dont confuse it with High Specular, this is not Specular brightness) compared to the definition of the voxel room.

Maybe the solution is not to balance the lighting but balance the shaders diffuse lighting I switch out shaders all the time when i sculpt and using the simple no ambient light set up I need to set the primary light to 100 to get the pictmat Clay shader working nicely. yet now the Default shader is too bright and if I switch to the paintroom Oh Boy . Id be incredibly greatful if others would post there thoughts on this back in thread i started in the bugs section. HERE

Sorry to be so negative.

Other problem I have currently is old 3b files and some new one I create in current version, do not merge pTex to the lowest sub Divsion they divide then merge which screws up the order if you want the low res mesh? This does seem quite random as i can get it to work for some things and not others with no real reason i can think of preventing it?

[Andrew Shpagin]

Updated to 3.2.10 [beta] (Only Win, Mac+Linux - tomorrow if nothing critical will be in Win version)

Changes:

- measurement tool in voxels.

- I improved 3D grid essentially. It can be customized to work with real units. 3D-Coat will be ready much better for precise works.

- Voxel primitives will follow grid points while moved with SHIFT (use CTRL, CTRL+SHIFT for smaller step of movement)

- There was problem with scale of quadrangulation in recent build. It is fixed.

[Calabi]

Would it not be good/possible to be able to texture in the paint room with no lighting at all. I mean like photoshop. With that you know what you are painting are the colours they are because there is no distortion from lighting. Personally I'm going to have enough trouble texturing anyway, without being uncertain of the accuracy of the viewport renderer.

[Lawless]

Hello Andrew,

It update is still 9, not 10, on the first page of this thread.

[mwgrafx]

Would it not be good/possible to be able to texture in the paint room with no lighting at all. I mean like photoshop. With that you know what you are painting are the colours they are because there is no distortion from lighting. Personally I'm going to have enough trouble texturing anyway, without being uncertain of the accuracy of the viewport renderer.

I believe so go to the menu panel View>Flat Shade.

[philnolan3d]

Would it not be good/possible to be able to texture in the paint room with no lighting at all. I mean like photoshop. With that you know what you are painting are the colours they are because there is no distortion from lighting. Personally I'm going to have enough trouble texturing anyway, without being uncertain of the accuracy of the viewport renderer.

Switch to Flat Shade in the View menu or the 2 key.

[artman]

Both scale export problem and lamblight/default shader baking problem are still there...

Go see in Critical section I added more specific info and screenshots for both issues..

[philnolan3d]

Where is this new grid option for scale? I see the new Grid Density option, but nothing about measurements. I still find the measurement thing very confusing.

I set the measurements to say one Unit is one inch. then measured out a corner with the new measure tool. It said about 30, so I assume that means my corner is about 30 inches long. OK so I changed the options to say one unity is one foot and measured it again. It still said about 30.

[LJB]

@Calabi, Flat shade is not really very useful for painting your model as it removes any shape or diffuse lighting. meaning you will see no detail at all everything will essentially be Flat (One solid colour) Not very helpful. I Guess it depends on what your painting though you might get away with using flat shade if your rpojecting a material over your mesh but its still questionable. as that projection will never accurately fit the details of the mesh as you simply wont see them.

That's my two pence on Flat shade.

Currently the best option for texturing to palette match is to set your Ambient to zero and set your primary to 45 (ish this will depend on your monitor i think) then gradually raise your ambient (you should not need to go too high it will soon become quite usable) to flatten out the lighting. This will keep details visible but give a flatter diffuse base to work on. Hope that helps.

[LJB]

Try Primary = 45, Ambient = 9 Thats pretty darn close.

[Calabi]

I did try the flat shade but your right LJB it was really wierd.

Those settings work thanks, I have to have the ambient at about ten, then I can see the light flesh tone colour. The trouble is then the baked in clay shader shows up as black. I guess it doesnt really matter as I'll be painting over it anyway.

[digman]

LJB, I would be very interested in your feedback on this method of lighting in the paintroom.

http://www.3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5497

[LJB]

LJB, I would be very interested in your feedback on this method of lighting in the paintroom.

http://www.3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5497

Right Thanks for time digiman, Interesting results. but you have to admit that solution does require change of light settings from room to room. That is not ideal solution. Andrew is looking into this and I think we find the solution for consistent look and feel throughout vox and paint that holds detail on the model. Finger crossed.

[Andrew Shpagin]

OSX & Linux builds uploaded

[ifxs]

thanks for the update fix Andrew! :-)

[Marc Wakefield]

Thanks Andrew,

I can not wait to give the Linux version a whirl.

Will have to wait for the weekend though.... Busy, Busy, Busy....

[Scott]

I believe Cuda 3.0 is only available on Firmi cards anyway, unless I'm wrong.

Yes you are incorrect. Cuda 3.0 is compatible with G80 and above, as were previous versions.

[Digital777]

For update 3.2.09 it says info about app linking for programmers would be posted. I have looked on the forum but cannot find any info in the SDK, Plugins and Programming forum etc so im wondering if this has not happened yet?

[philnolan3d]

For update 3.2.09 it says info about app linking for programmers would be posted. I have looked on the forum but cannot find any info in the SDK, Plugins and Programming forum etc so im wondering if this has not happened yet?

That confused me as well, apparently it was only given to specific people.

[haikalle]

I'm also waiting more info about this feature. Because if there is no blender programmer already doing this, I'm going

to try it.