Rodney Brett

Still can't import anything. "greyed out" bug. Maybe next update, I can try it.. I can only demo it at work where we have 32bit OS.

Ok, thank you. I will be able to fully test out the retopo features once I can import again. No rush. Make sure you get some sleep in between beta updates.

Yeah, that was an impressive demo. It seems that Mudbox 2009 is going all OpenGL and will probably require the same system stats as Maya. This will be good for Maya users and for my own work, since I'm running QuadroGL cards, however Dave Carwell also mentioned in the interview that it would run on an 8800 GTS. I still really appreciate the fact that Andrew added OpenGL version of 3d-coat. There are lots of 3d users that don't have gaming cards and one of the biggest issues right now is the split between high-end gaming GPUs and high-end workstation GPUs. It seems like Nvidia and Ati are both in a little conspiracy to "cripple" gaming cards performance in Maya. It's been a topic of grief here at my work.

Some interesting developments with my issue: I tried the beta on my laptop PC and I don't have that "greyed out" bug, so I don't know if it's something to do with Windows XP x64 bit or not.(my laptop is XP 32 bit) It's really strange because version 3.09 works perfectly on both machines. Could it be related to the app not recognizing file extensions? Every now and then, I run into a program that does this under the Windows x64 XP environment. Maybe this can be resolved by allowing 3dCoat to open any file type.

Unfortunately, it does the same even when resize. GL and DX have the same bug. Here's a shot of both. I am also missing "Save as" and "Save". I also tried .fbx and .lwo but same issue. Something else that's strange, is that even if I open the default "head" and save the file, it won't let me re-open it. Also the same "greyed out" bug.

That's what I thought at first, but I am using the newest serial from Andrew and my app is not in "demo mode", nor do I see any trial expiration notices. I even tried a reinstall with the newest serial on clipboard, but same results. I am running WindowsXP x64 bit edition with 8GB of Ram if that helps.

Ok, one other thing I noticed is that when I try and "uninstall" license or even if I uninstall the whole program and reinstall and enter my serial, my browser pops up with a "404 error"

Yes, it is strange because version 3.09 works fine with importing .obj/.fbx, but the new beta does not and it doesn't prompt me to register.

Thanks for the new Serial. It works, but my option for importing .obj/.fbx/.lwo is "greyed out" and I can't save files. Is this normal behavior for the beta or am I doing something wrong? Thanks, -Rodney

Do I use my 3.09 3d-Coat serial for this Beta? It doesn't seem to work. Do I need to request a new serial just for the beta? Thanks, -Rodney Brett

You probably already seen this, but here is some info on Ken Silverman's Voxlap "voxel" engine: http://advsys.net/ken/voxlap.htm It's currently being used on Voxelstein3d remake of Wolfenstein. http://voxelstein3d.sourceforge.net/

Interesting. How does the "marching cubes" algorithm factor in light information? Are shadows as accurate? Will the user still get access to light changes? Just curious.

It just makes a lot of sense to me right now, especially with the app you are developing. Rather than compete with Zbrush/Mudbox on a "poly" level, you can explore alternate, more efficient memory management solutions.(which you've already made strides in). It's not "brute force" poly power, but using polys where you need them and when you need them. I can foresee Mudbox 2 to be targeted at workstations, especially if they go the "poly" route. Simply because it's OpenGL tech, and the way consumer video cards are heading right now, there is a wider gap between the consumer/hobbyist cards and the workstation ones. To be able to sculpt on the Zbrush equivalent of 5-10 million polys with voxels on a modest laptop would turn many heads. Couple this technology with well-thought brushes and you have a recipe for Zbrush/Mudbox killer. One other thing I'd like to mention.. Good application development has a lot to do with taking things away as it does with adding new features. Silo is a good example of this methodology. Whatever you can streamline into one action instead of 3, get rid of redundancies, etc. Maya used to have "extrude edge" and "extrude face", now they just have "extrude". For the 3d-Coat 10 beta, I noticed you have Tweak vertices, Slide Edges, and Tweak with brush. You could consolidate this into simply "slide" or "tweak". Slide could slide verts/edges/faces on a multicomponent level. Tweak could be modified with a single keystroke or pulldown submenu to "tweak with brush". Sorry for going off-topic. It's just one of the reasons why Silo is easy to "blind use". You don't have to refer to the manual very much to learn the application. Maya's always had this problem for new users to learn. It has more to do with organization/cleanup of UI then the app itself. Lots of my new students forget where all the actions are simply because they are not in a very logical place. If you check out CHEETAH 3d for the Mac, it's another fine example of good UI design. Although it's an All-In-One app(Model, texture, rig, animate, render), similar to Maya, it feels "light" and simple. Martin Wegenmayer is another "one man show", just like you, my good sir! -Rod

Great exposure! While I was last in Japan, I saw many CG books on Blender and Metasequoia. Those smaller softwares seem to be very popular even with the big game companies like Namco.

Sorry, as far as suggestions go: 1. Claytools had the ability to connect the app to 3dsMax via a "host app", similar to what MESSIAH STUDIO does for Maya. This was how you were able to "retopo" the voxel mesh, once it was converted to polygons. 2. Since Voxel to Polygon conversion results in some ugly "scan data" type results, it would be good to implement a polygon decimation engine like PolyCrunch. 3. The ability to "fuse" primitive shapes, like "metaballs" or to sculpt and keep them seperate entities. Some kind of "threshold" slider would be pretty useful. I'm thinking if you were to place two spheres in close proximity, you'd get different results based off of a threashold slider -Rodney Brett Freelance Artist/Technical Director/Instructor Ex'pression College for Digital Arts rbrett@expression.edu

Wow, Andrew! If you could get voxel-based sculpt out the door that would be killer! I will see if I can get my hands on a Sensable device again. I've got a few contacts I can try. I know HIGH MOON STUDIOS has a few artist still using it. -Rod

Andrew, if you are interested in "voxel" based sculpt program for future R@D, I suggest looking into SenSABLE Claytools/Freeform modeling. I got a chance to test drive this program/device for a few days and it was really amazing. As far as I know, it was the only software of it's kind. As far as ZBRUSH is concerned, the beauty of the app is the speed. I don't know how they do it, but I'm often moving "chunks" of polys at 8million with no lag. It's the perfect application for pre-visualization. You can pretty much "sketch" model within the program. Here's one of my samples of doing just this: With the current 1.07 release of MUDBOX, I cannot do this. Strictly because of two factors.. Realtime drastically drops once the mesh is past 2 million on my machine, even though I've got 8GB of Ram(due to MB 32bit limit). The other factor is that jumping up and down subdivisions can take a long time, sometimes up to a minute. Zbrush can jump up/down subdivision levels at lightning speed. I see 3d-Coat as more of a "detailing" application. It's unbelievable for painting and adding small, intricate details without headaches. It's competing with applications like BODYPAINT more so than Zbrush/Mud. The simple fact that you can preserve your layer structure while projection painting is already enough to trump Zbrush's workflow right now for texturing. -Rod

Rapid-Retopo would work, but it would only serve to create a newer "usable" sculpt mesh and not one clean for animation. I understand your idea though, and it has potential. Say, for example that you displaced a "horn" far from it's original base mesh. Rapid-retopo would quickly make the mesh usable for further sculpt.

Like many other 3d modelers, retopology has become a pretty big part of my workflow. But I wanted to point out something that drastically speeds up the process and that's the ability to exploit "primitives" for retopo work. For example, basic "poly by poly" retopo goes extremely slow and the results are not as good as if you were to approach it like "box modeling" in reverse. If you were rebuilding something like a cylindrical tail, it's much easier to use a cylindrical "primitive" and constrain it to the surface and further tweak it. Now I know that 3d-coat is not a poly modeler per say, but just some simple "primitives" with basic cut poly tools would be useful if retopology is in the cards for future releases. It's one of the reasons why I go with dRaster's NEX over TOPOGUN or other "retopo" apps. You can see how I utilize "poly tools" in the retopology stage in the youTube videos below. It's very important for me to be able to control edgeflow with basic poly tools. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtSMQbv3uAE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJVaq8FA5aQ

You gotta be careful going the "ICON" route, because if the icons are not clear, it actually makes the app more confusing. Perfect example of this is TRUESPACE. Roman kinda went "icon crazy" with it. It's hard to tell what anything actually does until you hover over them to reveal their functions.

Thanks! This makes it so much easier! Great modeling of Ian also!

How did you import the displacement map? I couldn't find this in the docs in 3d-coat. Is it possible to import 32-bit FP displacement maps? Also, could you "mask out" areas of the displacement map within the 2d view? This feature would really serve me well as the current release of Mudbox only supports masking within 3d view. It would also be great if you could use 3d-coat to composite multiple displacement maps via layers and just mask out areas of one map that you didn't like and combine the 2 and export a cleaned up 32bit displacement. -Rod

Looking forward to that tutorial.