Member fneill Posted September 30, 2012 Member Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Been working on this forever it seems and tried googling and searching all the forums. PTEX is included in 3d-coat but hardly a word on how to use it. Since Maya 2013 in its hardware render mode can render ptex I thought be nice to export a voxel from 3d-coat to Maya with ptex textures. I first AUTOTOPED WITH PTEX then exported it as an obj (also tried fbx). Then in the paint room I exported a PTEX COLOR TEXTURE. In Maya went the HD RENDER VIEWER imported obj (and tried fbx) and then applied the Ptex to the color channel. Just cant get it to work correctly. I have tried a million different things. ANY advice on this would be so appreciated. I love the hardware 2.0 render in Maya and use it all the time. It would be a dream to be able to use PTEX (no uv's! hurray) models from 3d-Coat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member fneill Posted October 5, 2012 Author Member Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 Wow, disappointing that there are 80 views so far and no comments on my post I have spent hours on this. Can anybody PLEASE help? All I need to know is why I can not view my PTEX exports from 3d Coat to Maya in Mayas 2.0 render view? PTEX exports from "Mudbox" works beautifully in to Mayas viewport 2.0. But I want to use 3d Coat. Just a brief quick step by step PTEX workflow from 3d Coat to Maya Viewport 2.0 p.s. I have tried flipping ptex quads on export and everything else I can think of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlosan Posted October 5, 2012 Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 im not Maya user but... this help ? http://polygonspixelsandpaint.tumblr.com/post/988352372 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member fneill Posted October 5, 2012 Author Member Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 Thank you Carlosa for trying to help. UNFORTUNATELY both those dont work with Maya 2003 MAYA VIEWPORT 2.0 RENDER. What I export from 3D COAT is a TEXTURE "PTEX" file. I import that in to Maya and it should be viewable with MAYA VIEWPORT 2.0. The link you included was getting PTEX in to Mayas "VRAY" renderer. Which is different than Mayas 2003 VIEWPORT 2.0 RENDER. Mayas Viewport 2.0 Renderer renders PTEX files (I do it with Mudbox PTEX export all the time) but for some reason I can not get it to work with 3D Coat PTEX export to Maya Viewport 2.0. So PLEASE if there is ANYBODY out there who is using Maya 2013s VIEWPORT 2.0 and trying to view .PTEX exports from 3d Coat please let us know. I know there is somebody out there that knows about this. Thanks im not Maya user but... this help ? http://polygonspixel.../post/988352372 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reputable Contributor AbnRanger Posted October 5, 2012 Reputable Contributor Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 Thank you Carlosa for trying to help. UNFORTUNATELY both those dont work with Maya 2003 MAYA VIEWPORT 2.0 RENDER. What I export from 3D COAT is a TEXTURE "PTEX" file. I import that in to Maya and it should be viewable with MAYA VIEWPORT 2.0. The link you included was getting PTEX in to Mayas "VRAY" renderer. Which is different than Mayas 2003 VIEWPORT 2.0 RENDER. Mayas Viewport 2.0 Renderer renders PTEX files (I do it with Mudbox PTEX export all the time) but for some reason I can not get it to work with 3D Coat PTEX export to Maya Viewport 2.0. So PLEASE if there is ANYBODY out there who is using Maya 2013s VIEWPORT 2.0 and trying to view .PTEX exports from 3d Coat please let us know. I know there is somebody out there that knows about this. Thanks I'd like to help, but I don't own a copy of Maya 2013. Maybe the guy who wrote the 3DC <> Maya Applink can look into it for you.http://3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=6886&st=80 I sent him a message on Skype, so hopefully he sees it and can chime in here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member fneill Posted October 7, 2012 Author Member Report Share Posted October 7, 2012 Still hoping someone can help me with this. I hate to be a pest but here is why this is important to me (and maybe others too). I do previs work on Maya. I can render thousands of frames of animation with Maya 2013's SUPER FAST stunning VIEWPORT 2.0 renderer I can render them in minutes (instead of hours or days of rendering). Even does ambient occlusion at that speed. Maya's VIEWPORT 2.0 RENDERER also renders PTEX texturing. When I saw that 3d-Coat exports PTEX (no more UV's!!) I knew I must have it. I could make my Characters in 3d-Coat and export them with their Ptex textures in to Maya 2013 and render thousands of frames of animations in minutes in Mayas 2.0 Viewport renderer. Can you imagine never worrying about UV's and rendering thousands of frames of animation in minutes ... wow!!..BUT I cant still get ptex to work from 3d Coat. I have no problem exporting PTEX textures from Mudbox in to Maya. So I do know how to use PTEX texturing in Maya. In Mudbox I was skulpting my Characters with PTEX textures and never worried about UV's and UV's are not needed with PTEX rendering (thank you DISNEY!). It may not be a bug in 3d Coat but just something Iam not doing correctly. So if anybody has Maya 2013 (free 30 day no restriction trial at Autodesk...really is amazing) and would like to try exporting a 3d Coat model with PTEX textures applied (what you want is to export the PTEX file (not a jpg or image file ... example you would export mymodelstexture.ptx ) and see if you can get it to work in Maya. Once you are in to Maya and have imported your 3d Coat model then you turn on VIEWPORT 2.0 RENDER VIEW to be able to view and render the PTEX texturing. If you can get it to work let me know. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reputable Contributor AbnRanger Posted October 7, 2012 Reputable Contributor Report Share Posted October 7, 2012 Still hoping someone can help me with this. I hate to be a pest but here is why this is important to me (and maybe others too). I do previs work on Maya. I can render thousands of frames of animation with Maya 2013's SUPER FAST stunning VIEWPORT 2.0 renderer I can render them in minutes (instead of hours or days of rendering). Even does ambient occlusion at that speed. Maya's VIEWPORT 2.0 RENDERER also renders PTEX texturing. When I saw that 3d-Coat exports PTEX (no more UV's!!) I knew I must have it. I could make my Characters in 3d-Coat and export them with their Ptex textures in to Maya 2013 and render thousands of frames of animations in minutes in Mayas 2.0 Viewport renderer. Can you imagine never worrying about UV's and rendering thousands of frames of animation in minutes ... wow!!..BUT I cant still get ptex to work from 3d Coat. I have no problem exporting PTEX textures from Mudbox in to Maya. So I do know how to use PTEX texturing in Maya. In Mudbox I was skulpting my Characters with PTEX textures and never worried about UV's and UV's are not needed with PTEX rendering (thank you DISNEY!). It may not be a bug in 3d Coat but just something Iam not doing correctly. So if anybody has Maya 2013 (free 30 day no restriction trial at Autodesk...really is amazing) and would like to try exporting a 3d Coat model with PTEX textures applied (what you want is to export the PTEX file (not a jpg or image file ... example you would export mymodelstexture.ptx ) and see if you can get it to work in Maya. Once you are in to Maya and have imported your 3d Coat model then you turn on VIEWPORT 2.0 RENDER VIEW to be able to view and render the PTEX texturing. If you can get it to work let me know. Thank you. Can you do a screen capture (video preferably) of the process you are using to link up the Ptex files? Seems like it's just one missing step along the way, somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contributor TimmyZDesign Posted October 8, 2012 Contributor Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Can you get the 3D-Coat Ptex file to render in mental ray in Maya? Will it render in Mudbox? If you can determine that the Ptex file generated from 3D-Coat is rendering properly elsewhere besides the Viewport 2.0, then you will know that there is nothing wrong with the 3D-Coat file itself. If it does not render elsewhere, then it is possible that the Ptex file that 3D-Coat generates is a different format than what Mudbox generates. Also, you should look at what your nodes look like in the Hypershade with a Ptex Mudbox model that renders properly (map all of the connections and examine them closely). Then compare those nodes to the 3D-Coat file. Is there a difference? Try to match the setup that Mudbox generates. I assume you were using the "Send to Mudbox" and "Send to Maya" functionality before? Or were you doing the transfer manually? My guess is that if you can get the Ptex to work with mental ray, then it will probably work with Viewport 2.0 Also try the workflow shown by Javis in the following video: If you can get the Ptex to work with UVs (as he shows in the video), then it will probably give you insight on how to do it without UVs, or by simply using speedy automatic UVs as a workaround. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reputable Contributor AbnRanger Posted October 8, 2012 Reputable Contributor Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 That's right. Plus...remember, you do NOT need to export Ptex format files in 3D Coat. In Mudbox, you DO. 3D Coat has built-in conversion for Ptex work, so it can output to any renderer...not just those who support Ptex. That's actually one of the features that separates 3D Coat's implementation of Ptex from others. The only real benefit of exporting the Ptex format file is that it can store the texture maps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member fneill Posted October 8, 2012 Author Member Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Thank you guys so much for your input. AbnRanger I think you hit it on the head! as you say 3d Coat exports ptex files differently than Mudbox. Now I think Iam getting somewhere. Just seems strange that I would not use the actual ptex file in Maya but will be happy just to get it to work. By the way Mental Ray does not render ptex from what I have learned But since I only render with Mayas VIEWPORT 2.0 Hardware Render ( I just rendered a 10000 frame animation WITH ambient occlusion and WITH high anti aliasing and WITH motion blur in just 15 minutes ...and it looks great). Anyway I will get back to testing and see how it works and will give update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member fneill Posted October 8, 2012 Author Member Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Hi All, still not having much luck. But I feel I will eventually get this figured out (how to view and render exported ptex in Maya 2013 VIEWPORT 2.0 mode). Below are current steps just trying this time . 1. in the voxel mode sculpt a model. Add a texture. Go to paint mode and do some painting. Then in voxel room do a AUTOPO WITH PTEX. When done go back to paint room. 2. In paint room EXPORT the MODEL via FBX. 3. In addition to the main FBX file there are "8" files exported ... testobject_PtexPlane1_specular.tga testobject_PtexPlane1_color.tga testobject_PtexPlane0_nmap.tga testobject_PtexPlane0_specular.tga testobject_PtexPlane0_color.tga testobject_Volume4_Default_nmap.tga testobject_Volume4_Default_specular.tga testobjec_Volume4_Default_color.tga 4. In Maya 2013 I import the main FBX file. I then turn on the VIEWPORT 2.0 RENDER DISPLAY MODE. 5. I then try applying as a test each of those different color, nmap, and specular, files to the appropriate color, specular, bump, material nodes. Nothing works. Previously I was trying exporting just the .PTEX and applying that but thought I would try this time those tga files. When I use Mudbox that is different of course. I just export my model and it exports a real PTEX file and that works great in VIEWPORT 2.0 mode. 6. Will keep trying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contributor TimmyZDesign Posted October 8, 2012 Contributor Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Ok, you've gotten me interested in this problem! I'll try a few things out and get back to you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contributor TimmyZDesign Posted October 8, 2012 Contributor Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 I got it to work. I quickly sculpted a head in the voxel room, then Autopo for Ptex. Made 3 different levels of polygon resolution on top of the head. Painted words on the top of the head to demonstrate the different resolution sections. Exported the model with a diffuse map. Imported into Maya 2012 as OBJ. (I currently have a student version of Maya 2012 on my machine. I'm sorry but I didn't have time to wait for Maya 2013 to download today. I can test this again with 2013 later on...) Applied the diffuse map to the model. Turned on Viewport 2.0 The result is in the first two attached images below. The last image shows what the actual Ptex file from 3D-Coat looks like in Mudbox 2012. There appears to be some seams on it. Not sure if this is 3D-Coat or Mudbox problem. Maybe Mudbox 2013 imports it better? Also it is supposedly possible to render ptex files in mental ray in Maya 2013. I takes a bit of work, but supposedly it is possible. I have not tried it, but here are some threads about it: http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-1045919.html and http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autodesk-maya/autodesk-maya-2013/ptex-in-maya-with-mr/ Hope this helps. I will try to do more tests later on when I have time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Solution fneill Posted October 8, 2012 Author Member Solution Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 UPDATE TO EVERYONE! Thanks for all you help. I have had success. TimmyZDesign got me thinking with his post here and I thought well he got it to work. So what I did instead of trying older Maya version 2012 I thought I would try the newer 3d Coat 4.0 BETA ..... and .... success! Everything works perfectly. Iam a happy camper rendering my 3d Coat PTEX Models in Maya 2013. What a dream .... having a tremendous sculpting program like 3d Coat and using PTEX and not using UV's is a dream come true. And using Mayas VIEWPORT 2.0 Rendering lets me render my thousands of frames of animation in literally minutes. Hopefully I will get much better at 3d Coat and be able to help others in this forum as you have helped me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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