artman

Wow,you're really trying different things. They are very good experiments. I'm pretty sure we'll soon see alot more environment work in the future. It has huge potential.

You can always save a displacement map from Voxels without having to retopologize it but you still need a lowpoly mesh with UVs to receive that displacement map,no uvs= no maps. So,if you don't want to retopologize you just need to use quandrangulate function so it creates a mesh with automatic uvs for you to export along with your displacement map. Now,back to your question about Andrew's changes: He just changed the way 3DCoat bake for perpixelpainting, now the baking process use a normal map instead of a displacement map which results in a much better quality looking bake(he could probably tell you why it looks better but I can't).Previous method wasn't giving good results.This is not something you need to be concerned of. In fact,he completely replaced the quadrangulate for perpixel option with this new method so it not something you need to choose. Also,I stumbled about a question you asked a few days ago asking for mesh extraction feature in 3DCoat. Well,you"ll be happy to know that they are already there and they are far better than Zbrush mesh extract(which is awfull for sharp angles). You got plenty of choices: 1-You can create a new voxel layer and use the copy brush which will litterally extract from all visible layers.After you can use the transform to manually place the extract where you want it. 2-You can use CutnClone feature with all lasso tools( my favorite way) 3-Or you can use Cloth feature to turn retopo patches into extruded voxels(it is the best way to make accessories with maximum precison)

New surface smooth is really a sculpting tool in itself,like a sort of microscrape. The more I use it the more I find uses to it. . Thanx for implementing this, it is a very welcomed addition.Especialy for hardsurface work. EDIT: also,I think I found out how you could make voxel based multiresolution.It is very funny. The principle is based on the idea that going into a lower resolution would only be used as a simulation to record brush actions and that would after be reproduced to the hires voxel level through an operation without display onscreen . example: let's say I have a voxel sphere hitting 60000 polys ,I sculpt a little then...I increase resolution using actual "increase res" function to make some finner details .Now I'm at level 2(let's call it level2) and I make some finer details.I do my thing,I'm happy then...I decide to go back to previous level to use the MOVE brush with a big radius and all. Here is how it works: As soon as I press the degrade button 3DCoat make an usual degrade function (But it automatically save the file to a temp .3b file before). At this point when the user is now working on the degraded model ,3DCoat automatically starts recording the camera moves and the brush strokes.The user make changes with the move brush and when he's done and press the "increase res" button again,3DCoat close the file,reopen the temp .3b and replays all the brushes actions on the higher resolution model.Of course the replays of the brushes actions are done without display on screen ,as an invisible process.Of course this operation will create a delay ,but there is also a delay when you skip resolutions in ZB.And since no display on screen is involved you can probably make this a fast operation.At least, I think .Anyway,I hope it dont sound too stupid,it was very funny to think of.

Would it be possible for you to create a new "surface Fill" brush with much more cavity detection? (that would be able to fill large holes for example) also,now that 3DCoat generates very good looking normal maps from voxel-to DP the only missing element is occlusion from voxel-to dp.That would be very complete. ( I posted about that somewhere else,sorry to be redundant ) also I noticed that hardness option in voxel curves is fixed,I don't know when you fixed it (maybe you didn't) but it now works without twisting the curve on itself. Now about branching it would be great that when user select a point to start a new branch the drawing of the curve keep working from the NEXT POINT and so on,right now it always start back at the FIRST POINT selected for branching. It is keeping voxel curves drawing from half of it's potential. Thanx

For one thing, it allows smoothing of thin surfaces without creating holes,which was really important. Also I think it is much faster than previous work with surface tools because voxel-surface transfer is done prior and after sculpting instead of after each strokes.When I use surface tools with older way there always was a small delay after each strokes even if I got a pretty good machine.But now,in new surface mode,when I use sf.clay brush it is much faster and responsive. Hope that helps.

Same here.I use different smoothing values for each brushes I use. note to Andrew: merge for perpixel with normal map is superb, I get crisp and smooth normal maps from quadrangulated models with default settings,barely no artifacts resulting from automapping seams .It is a tremendous improvement over previous method and I get better results(less artifacts) than microvertex baking. Congratulation! Now you got something less to think about. (it work well on a sphere on my side too,I don't know what could be Phil's problem.) Also could you explain the different use of the new local space normalisation settings? (with examples of why I would need to change setting)

While in retopo room you can use TAB to move the symmetry plane where you want it. (I asked Andrew a long time ago to make voxel symmetry planes (even for rotated objects) the sames as retopo room symmetry plane and he said it was not so easy to do) Very nice start btw,workflow plan is solidand should work ok. It is a very good concept art choice ,but challenging because it has both symmetrical and unsymmetrical parts and is still very continuous.

I like your work a lot!Keep posting stuff! You seem also very open minded ,I think you'll get the most of the soft as it grows with this attitude. On my side ,the problem about performance is mainly for large (and even medium) brush sizes. With small brushes it is very fast even at very high resolution. Going up and down in resolution is not essential for me but, being able to use the move brush with large brushes would be satisfying enough for my workflow.

a cool feature request here: occlusion from voxel to DP

Just be careful which layer is selected (but ,as Tony found out hiding prevent this issue)

Very good brushes behaviour demonstration. Thanx for taking time doing it.

Directx10 only comes bundled with windows vista, so right now, most of 3d softwares still rely on dx9 (sometimes you get to choose between dx10 or 9) but more importantly ,you need to know that: you can install dx9 without any problems,even if you got dx10 (there won't be any conflict or overwriting)

You need to test it on game models to see problems not on a sphere with noise. Full-Fledged Bodies with some details. It works very good on a sphere on my side too. on my side(I dont know for Kay Eva) issues are : 1 DP-the whole uvs are visible in the baking(like an occlusion map made out of uvs) 2-MICROVERT-the smaller automapping chunks that are isolated generates artifacts in the baking

Yeah,I noticed.I don't know if Andrew can fix that. The truth is I haven't succeeded in even one single bake with all of my models. I already sent him test files.Maybe it works ok on his side,I really don't know. Maybe it is a problem with our graphic cards because nobody seems to complain about this except us (or maybe not a lot of people are trying baking yet...) note to Andrew: -undo/redo works fine on my side -switching to voxel room on startup still cause 3DC to crash -undo of voxel-surface switch creates holes in model that can only be restored using "smooth all" (I know it is useless to undo voxel-surf switch because we can already use the switch icon you created but if a user accidently undo it he will encounter this "holes" issue)

Is it lamblight for the wax? It comes out pretty good.

Welcome to freedomland dude I'm a fan of your work ,btw (very cool first voxel step....I fear less sleep for you now hehe )

I really like this system, smoothing on thin surface works superb also,would it be possible for you to create a "ignore backface" option for the flatten brush,it is still hard not to do holes in thin surfaces. also there is something very important you must know,i talked about this previously: using a few non-uniform scaling with pose/transform makes the flatten brush(and scrape) erratic and wiggly. here is the default sphere streched a little for you to see problem in action: but smoothing thin surface works like a charm. It was a very needed feature and..it's already there.

the action of switching to the voxel room cause 3DCoat to crash. (crash report sent)

Tree321 I think this has nothing to do with the Christian aspect of the Eula,but mainly the religious aspect of the Eula.It would have been the same with jewish or muslim codes. The core of the problem is this idea that a software has to be something cold like a pencil. It is culturally somehow imprinted in most CG people that a software is a tool,a tool to do art and that art is absolute. But a software can also be art,emotionnal and personnal. I`m glad that Andrew is breaking that taboo,it is a big step for programmers,to be seen as artists with opinions and beliefs and not just coders working for shareholders.

MOI3D is great,very powerfull and an ideal companion to 3DCoat voxels. Because it generates really crisp quality .obj but they have too much triangles to be used in zb/mb while with 3DC voxels triangles aren't a problem at all.The network option to create objects is really intuitive and fast,you can also create loft objects using splines with different vertex count,something I always felt was holding back loft objects creation when using polygonal modeling. The price is also cool.

Very nice skull!! Extrude brush is very good to add fine details like pores and scratches...

It's already there in fill menu (the paint bucket icon) you have to choose "add custom" in modulation type then, a new powermenu will appear. There in "mapping type"you can change cube-mapping to uv-mapping.

You can use export highpoly option and merge it back in voxels.I use this process a lot when working on thin surfaces like wings.

Most exciting event in 3D this year!! :brush: Thanx for hard dedication and energy...and have well earned quality time for yourself and your family

yeah,i noticed and I wrote about this a long time ago...it makes branching really hard.It could be SO much powerful with this problem fixed and "hardness" fixed.I think Voxel curves will be very powerfull in the future.