AbnRanger

I think Andrew needs to drop that long list menu when RMB a Smart Material. There is no need for all those folders to be shown. It doesn't really do anything and worst of all, it forces the user to reach way up to the top of the UI just to click the SMART MATERIAL EDITOR. That option needs to be right at your finger tips, but it can't due to that mile long list pushing it to the top of the UI. As for the Quick Access panel, I suspect Andrew hid the labels to minimize the amount of space that panel takes up. It's HUGE and often requires more effort to locate and select the tool you want, than the Tool Panel on the left. That's why I rarely use the Quick Access Panel. The very second you hover over the icon, the tool name appears...so again, I think Andrew probably removed the label for a good reason. If nothing else, it helps reduce the visual clutter in that panel.

I've never known a curve to bulge like that. Seems there would be another curve point in there, that isn't showing for some odd reason. I would try to redraw the curve or use other brushes...maybe Sphere brush in Voxel mode?....with the Spline Stroke Draw Mode from the E-Panel. Might give you more control and a cleaner result. I agree that Andrew really needs to overhaul the Curves Tool and I hope the Pose tool as well. Both are really powerful, but need some refinement. I just asked him today by email, if he would give us the same transform gizmo in the Curves tool, that we have in the Transform tool. The one in the current Curves tool is an old legacy gizmo, that's quite antiquated, IMO...and is not consistent with the other transform gizmos in the app. Nor is the one in the Tweak Room. I really hope he changes it so no matter where you are in the app, when you need to transform a mesh selection or Curve point, you have the same gizmo to work with.

There are also some droplist menu options in some of the Surface Mode brushes (in toolbar > EXTRUDE DIRECTION), such as EXTRUDE and ABSOLUTE, that let you extrude toward a specific axis, view direction or vertex normals.

The brush in 3D Coat isn't designed to alter it's angle the way you describe. 3D Coat has tools such as the PLANE brush in Voxel mode or many of the Surface mode brushes have the ON PLANE option in the toolbar (just above the viewport). There are several way to choose what angle you want to utilize.

Oh, no! I feel sorry for whoever is on the business end of the dreaded "Apocalypse Assault Caulking Rifle!"

Thanks a bunch, Styler. It is sorely needed.

Download the latest build (4.7.37) > delete all the config (.xml) files in your "MyDocs/3D Coat 4.7" folders > install the new build and see if that doesn't help. It shouldn't be doing that. By the way, when you say Retopo, do you mean you are running AUTO-RETOPO? If that is the case, it could be that you are trying to get it to spit out a game-ready, low poly mesh, and it can struggle mightily trying to apply under a few thousand polys when much more is needed. Auto-Retopo generates relatively even spaced quads, and isn't designed for generating a game-ready mesh. Try a simply object from the splash screen, like the human figure (not the mannequiin) or the bust. Give it at least 10k, and see if it's not working properly. Another thing that could be giving 3D Coat fits, and thus causing crashes, is having empty pockets in your sculpt objects. If you are trying to auto-retopo a single sided, open mesh, it will also struggle...as it needs some volume/thickness.

Andrew added an option (BAKE Menu, IIRC) to REPLACE PAINT MESH with RETOP MESH, to streamline that process. This way the user doesn't have to export outside the application.

Using Voxel brushes, you might notice a bit of difference, but probably very little.

It was OpenCL, but Carrots changed it to use the shading language (DX or GL)

Several years ago, CUDA made more of a difference than it does now, as it accelerates only the Voxel brushes. But the brushes are otherwise heavily CPU multi-threaded. Plus, CUDA implementation in 3D Coat hasn't been recompiled/updated, which would allow it to take advantage of some of the newer CUDA technologies. The main reason for that is Andrew doesn't think the benefit of doing so would be worth the cost in time spent in development. Surface mode sculpting is where 3D Coat really shines. Voxels are still really good for carefree and fast boolean operations. So, in short, CUDA really doesn't have much of an impact on performance in 3D Coat. A good CPU, with lots of cores/threads and fast RAM is where you want to invest your hardware $$$, if you want to get the most out of 3D Coat.

I was wondering how you were doing, as I knew you were close to the where the hurricane hit. Hurricanes are hard enough to get through, but then you have it sit in that region for days, dumping record levels of water on a state that is susceptible to flooding anyway...it's hard to imagine. In many areas of the world, that would have resulted in a catastrophic number of lives lost. You guys in Texas are doing a tremendous job, from the government level, to local churches and charities, down to the individual neighbors helping each other out, using their own boats, jet skis and 4x4 trucks, etc. I used to live in the Houston area back in the 90's, so I know how flat the area is and how prone it is to flooding.

If the previous shader pack file didn't work, try this one: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5zx7iMKxeu5QlF6WGU4V3Z5X2s/view?usp=sharing

This is one of those situations where Andrew would have to take a look at your scene file. I have 32GB of RAM, too and haven't really run into that situation, but 4k maps do tend to eat up a fair amount of RAM, if you have quite a few. I think some of that is the fact that each layer essentially has 4 channels, which are essentially 4 different maps per layer! You can see how it can start to get a bit crazy after you have several layers with multiple 4k UV maps. Can you upgrade to 64GB in the near future? That is starting to become the norm, lately.

Very welcome. I already sent the files to Andrew. We'll see if he adds them.