Herbert123

I do not post very often here, but the layer panel in 3dCoat could benefit from some improvements, I think. As for ideas for an improved layer stack, I would strongly suggest anyone to check out how Photoline handles layer masks and instanced layers. In contrast to Photoshop, layer masks in Photoline behave like regular layers, and can be grouped together easily to create stackable layer masks. Even layer effects and non-destructive adjustment layers can be applied to layer masks and layer mask groups. Even better, any layer or group (including layer masks) can be cloned as "virtual layers", which update in real-time when the source layer is edited: incredibly handy, and far more flexible and elegant compared to smart objects and clipping masks in Photoshop. Krita supports similar virtual cloned layers. In Photoline these clones can be part of other layer masks again. It is an incredibly flexible and efficient layer stack. Add in the option to have a -200 up to +200 layer opacity, and you have a layer stack system which allows for a quite interesting workflow. Having a layer stack such as Photoline's would be great in 3DC.

You misunderstand me - my intention was not to bash 3dCoat. I have been using the demo for some time now to get a feel for the program, and I think the sculpting is much more developed and more convenient than Blender's - I would compare it to ZBrush. I was just concerned that the performance seemed to be lacking. Anyway, I figured it out: I was using an older demo version with CUDA disabled (non-cuda version?). I did what you suggested, and I can easily sculpt at 20million and more, and add details in voxel mode now. And I realize now I am really comparing apples and pears. Both have completely different workflows: for example, in Blender sculpting works best with a limited base mesh, and upping it through the multi-res modifier. In 3dCoat no need for that. The layers are great. Upping the level to 92 million tris takes a long, long time, though. We are talking about 10 minutes. After that it works.But this is all theoretical - for real work I would never require that much resolution anyway. In both apps it depends on the approach taken. Thanks, I will keep testing and doodling.

Just a quick question regarding the sculpting performance in 3d-Coat. When I sculpt in Blender, and can go up to 50 million polygons (100 million triangles) sculpting an object. Now, orbiting becomes very laggy, but the "fast navigate" option solves that. The point is, at that (granted ridiculous) resolution I can still sculpt for the most part smoothly with all tools, including masking. Going down to 20 million or less polygons gives me a smooth sculpting experience in Blender's sculpt mode. Now, in 3D-Coat (DX) I have an object with about 20 million triangles (10 million polygons), and while orbiting is still good, sculpting is rather laggy and does not keep up with my strokes I make with the Wacom at all - it works smooth with a normal airbrush at a smaller brush size, but becomes extremely laggy with a textured brush. Especially slightly larger brushes with a texture start smooth for the first split second, but are very difficult to control when I keep dragging. I am a bit confused why 3D-Coat is having performance difficulties on my system: i7 920@3.6GHZ, 48GB RAM, AMD 7970 3GB (to drive three screens), Nvidia GTX590 (for CUDA stuff only). So, sculpting a 10 million polygon object is rather difficult in 3D-Coat on my system. I would expect me to be able to go much higher than that? Or are my expectations too high?