3D-Coat 3.5 updates thread

[haikalle]

New smooth tool. Freaking amazing!

Only unwanted side effect is that smooth works even when smoothing = 0%.

[BeatKitano]

New smooth tool. Freaking amazing!

Only unwanted side effect is that smooth works even when smoothing = 0%.

What he said ! Just when I think it can't get any better you bring it to another level. Simply Awesome. Really, if all brushes could get the same level of attention that would be really awesome

Thanks for the shift fix too, I can work without watching my fingers now

[b33nine]

very cool update on the smooth tool. should probably be mentioned that going past 100% smoothing in volume mode still creates tons of artifacts.

Only complaint now is that shift modifier for smooth still holds the alpha of the active tool. Really kills workflow for me.

[philnolan3d]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, I tried smoothing with Smooth Boost on and off and I can't see any difference. But then I was pretty happy with smoothing before so maybe my CPU is fast enough that there isn't much difference.

[haikalle]

One thing is that when you set smoothing to 1000% it's great. Really fast. But I would not like to type it everytime when using it.

One propose could be to add smoothing to 200%. First 100% would be as it is right now but then 110% = 200%, 150% = 500%, 200% = 1000%.

Or something like that.

Or then just scale 0%-1000% smoothing into 0%-100%. Maybe this is not the best because then diffrence between one number is quite huge

in smoothing.

[BeatKitano]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, I tried smoothing with Smooth Boost on and off and I can't see any difference. But then I was pretty happy with smoothing before so maybe my CPU is fast enough that there isn't much difference.

I would think the contrary. You sure you've cuda installed properly ? The boost is quite impressive ona gtx 480, and my cpu is not weak at all.

I don't see much changes about the brush radius issue though but that never really bothered me...

[Garagarape]

Hello.

I tried last version.

There may be a problem with the grow tool.

Did someone noticed something wrong about it?

I often use "grow tool" inverted with the 11th shape to cut off

parts of primitive blocks.

This time I couldn't draw entirely the line to cut off shapes;

3dCoat started calculating before I stopped tracing the line.

It also seem to be slower than before.

That would be nice for other people to have a try on other pc to see

if there's a sensible difference. Could be network stuff interfering

here at work.

"Paint in cavity" is also different (still have kind of wireframe artifacts).

Good luck for testing and fixing issues. I'll try to test as much as possible.

[run]

You sure you've cuda installed properly ?

Hmm, this is something that comes up every so often and I'd like a clarification.

It's my understanding that currently you do NOT need to have CUDA and/or

the CUDA toolkit installed, everything required for CUDA acceleration comes with 3DC

and the standard NVidia graphics driver. Is this incorrect?

As to the new smoothing itself, for me any smoothing over 100% causes massive artifacts;

see attached image

Maybe this is an issue with not having a new enough graphics driver?

I know I haven't updated mine since last July.

I do recall reading about 3DC having problems with a recent NVidia driver; has that been

resolved? If it has I'll download the newest driver and see if that has any effect.

Also, the "Smooth back faces" in "E" panel toggle Andrew mentioned on

Twitter isn't there; just the previously available "Ignore back faces" toggle.

It doesn't seem like this one would be driver or CUDA related.

But, you never know.

Win7 64 bit

3DC w/CUDA DX & OGL

280M nvidia 258.96 from 7-9-2010

-Jeff

*UPDATE EDIT*

Ah I see, as Motkoko mentions below, the new smoothing

& E panel toggle are Voxel surface mode only things.

Edited April 5, 2011 by run

[motkoko]

I try lastest version 3.5.16e

the smooth brush with cuda is strong and speed but it only work nice on surface mode

In voxel mode over 100% smooth tool will make noise , it's also happen with clay tool in voxel and i guess clay tool have smooth behavior

[Spiraloid]

version 3.5.16E is unuseable for me on my win7 64bit machine with a GTX480 and the latest drivers.

after about 30 seconds. all interactivity gets a half second pause every second or so.

this means that the camera cannot be controlled smoothly and the brush cannot be moved across the surface without low FPS.

the odd thing is that when I'm actually pressing down on a brush stroke, the pause does not happen. odd.

[BurrMan]

version 3.5.16E is unuseable for me on my win7 64bit machine with a GTX480 and the latest drivers.

after about 30 seconds. all interactivity gets a half second pause every second or so.

this means that the camera cannot be controlled smoothly and the brush cannot be moved across the surface without low FPS.

the odd thing is that when I'm actually pressing down on a brush stroke, the pause does not happen. odd.

This sounds like a post that AbnRanger is just now starting to work with me on here:

http://www.3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7931

Theres a video of it happening in the thread.

Not nessasarily unusable, for me...Maybe the "latest drivers" that we both have???

[BeatKitano]

Are you guys running it on nvidia card in ogl version per chance ? Cause ANdrew stated some times ago that latest nv drivers are buggy and cause problesm in open gl version of 3dcoat.

@Run: you don't need the cuda toolkit anymore, it was true with older versiosn of 3dcoat, but they are now integrated in the standards nvidia drivers. As for the noise in voxel it's "normal" (not really normal as it's a bug), but it's expected for now. Andrew worked on the surface smooth not voxel smooth.

[Garagarape]

This may be related to Spiraloid problem:

New brushes are more powerful and work smoothly as long as voxel structure is X1 density.

With a X2 there's a lag and the brush often get "stuck" on the model.

On surface mode brush strokes moves are rather smooth and fast, but from certain angle

it is the same as voxel mode: Brush get stuck for a few seconds on the model.

I use last 3.5.16D (DX) 32 bit at work.

Didn't noticed the problem with 3.5.16D (DX) 64 bit at home.

Hope it helps.

[BeatKitano]

We are defeinetely not having the same experience, I wonder if this is hardware related.

[Garagarape]

What I mentioned in #1303 is different from what you can see

in BurrMan video. The lag happens only when using brushes.

No lag when rotating the camera.

To discrbe it more precisely, I'd say that it happens when

you take off pen from the tablet. As long as you continuously

draw, there's no lag. It is just a bit slow with a X2 density.

But when you release pressure by lifting up you hand form tablet,

then immidiately try to move pointer elswhere, it is stuck on the model

for a few seconds.

[Garagarape]

(Nvidia driver 3.5.16D (DX) 32 bit without Cuda at work.

Nvidia driver 3.5.16D (DX) 64 bit with Cuda at home.)

[BeatKitano]

Yeah, but dx or ogl ?And what driver version ? , just to see if there's common ground here. I'm using a quite old driver version, maybe that's why I'm not getting it (258.69).

[Garagarape]

Ge Force GT 220 here at work.

Don't remember precisely what I have at home (something like 260 I think).

Using DX (couldn't see the difference with Ogl on both pc)

Cheers!

[BurrMan]

Yeah, but dx or ogl ?And what driver version ? , just to see if there's common ground here. I'm using a quite old driver version, maybe that's why I'm not getting it (258.69).

I used to use dx exclusivly until I saw andrew create a note in the installer that the gl version should work better on Quadro cards... The issue I show is in either version... If this is the same as spiraloids, maybe he can join the other thread and we can see if we can find anything common... He did state he's on the latest drivers... Mine are 267.79. I did roll back to 266.45 with no change, but didnt try to go back any further..

[BurrMan]

Are you guys running it on nvidia card in ogl version per chance ? Cause ANdrew stated some times ago that latest nv drivers are buggy and cause problesm in open gl version of 3dcoat.

@Run: you don't need the cuda toolkit anymore, it was true with older versiosn of 3dcoat, but they are now integrated in the standards nvidia drivers. As for the noise in voxel it's "normal" (not really normal as it's a bug), but it's expected for now. Andrew worked on the surface smooth not voxel smooth.

OK, I take back what I just said... I would have swore that I DID run tests in both versions before posting... However, I cant re-create what I show in the video with the DX version!!!!!!!!!!

So, I believe here is my answer...

If anything changes for me on this, I'll post it in the other thread I started...

Thanks.

[kay_Eva]

I never thought the brushes would get this good!

[AbnRanger]

DO NOT USE OPEN GL VERSION WITH LATEST NVIDIA DRIVERS. Performance dropped through the floor in the last few Nvidia driver versions, and until Andrew states otherwise, use DX. That doesn't mean there won't be any performance issues with the application, but the OpenGL version will present it's own problems.

[haikalle]

One thing that surface mode still need is faster freeze lasso select. The compare is this:

zbrush = one hotkey

3d-coat = 1) select freeze 2) select right lasso type from e menu 3) If you continue with a stroke you need to change back from e menu.

There is way too much steps for simple freezing. I think myself that freeze is as important tool as smoothing. We really need faster way to use it.

[gbball]

One thing that surface mode still need is faster freeze lasso select. The compare is this:

zbrush = one hotkey

3d-coat = 1) select freeze 2) select right lasso type from e menu 3) If you continue with a stroke you need to change back from e menu.

There is way too much steps for simple freezing. I think myself that freeze is as important tool as smoothing. We really need faster way to use it.

Great point....

I agree

[BeatKitano]

I agree too, but one way to make that quicker (and make it benefit other area of workflow too) is a way to assign hotkeys to e-panel items.

offtopic: Andrew, did you add the save progress bar when autosaving ? I didn't see it in previous version. If you did, thank you, now when I temporary freeze I know why and I'm not worried

[gbball]

Been super busy lately so I haven't really had much of a chance to play around with the tools. But I spent some time with it today and I have to say WOW!

The new Rapid, Scratches and Smooth are all amazing. They behave in a very predictable way. As a result, I don't have to make further adjustments to the object after using them because they've made some weird changes that I didn't want. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I like the fact that they have no 'side effects'. They do exactly what I want them to do, nothing more, nothing less. They also function very quickly, even on my medium/high, 12 million polygon mesh.

I have to test it out some more, but I'm starting to feel more confident that I can start get more subtle details into my sculpts without worrying about the tools being and clumsy and messing up some of the stuff nearby.

Very happy and very excited about this development. When Liveclay is added, it's going to be amazing what 3D Coat can do.

I'm attaching a couple of pics of my test this morning. Very happy with the smooth tool, both in terms of speed and that it didn't erode the main volume of my forms, just the details.

[BeatKitano]

Yep new smooth is amazing, better than mud/zb one. Peer it with clay or any new "2" brush and you have almost no need for other tools (maybe extrude with small alpha for creases but that's all really).

Btw, since the smooth über upgrade, I agree with those saying the "1" version brushes should go. I know I was one of those (maybe the only one ?) wanting to keep it, but the rapid 1 usefulness (fill cavity and pre-smooth surface) has been replaced by the smooth " curve dynamic preservation "(it can fill small surface indentation cleanly and erode bumps on surfaces).

[haikalle]

I agree too, but one way to make that quicker (and make it benefit other area of workflow too) is a way to assign hotkeys to e-panel items.

That would be nice to have.

[3DArtist]

I agree too, but one way to make that quicker (and make it benefit other area of workflow too) is a way to assign hotkeys to e-panel items.

+1

I've been wanting that for a while.

[BeatKitano]

"You will be able to assign hotkey to any button in 'E' panel."

\o/ Thank you !