3D-Coat 3.0 ALPHA

[Crusoe]

You can map the keys on the Wacom ( Intuous ) to any commands in any program you want.

Unlike Zbrush, 3D Coat is heavily dependent on 3D hardware. I am suprised the UMPC can run it at all, and if it does, would be slow as hell. UMPC favor battery life and efficiency over raw processing power. And I doubt any of them have 'real' 3D accelerators. I think you are fighting a lost cause.

[bobzilla]

Are you using Wacom pen? Does strength of bump depends on pressure?

No. Just using a mouse.

Here's a screen shot. The stroke looks blurry, too, for some reason.

[Psmith]

Crusoe:

Yes, my UMPC actually runs ZBrush in a usable fashion - quite amazing. Even navigation with a stylus is supported fairly well. I know ZBrush uses virtual memory a lot. Ofer seemed to have the little guy in mind when he initially designed the program.

Psmith

[paulrus]

I'm unable to get the Alpha to work. 2.10 and 2.10 beta work fine, but 3.0 reports I'm missing my license. When I click "Register" it pops up a browser window for a second and then goes back to the program and tells me my copy is not registered.

Also in the bar above "Buy" it has an email address that I had copied and pasted into an email I was sending today - so for some reason it's grabbing it from the clipboard.

So right now it's totally unusable.

Paul

[Andrew Shpagin]

Crusoe:

Yes, my UMPC actually runs ZBrush in a usable fashion - quite amazing. Even navigation with a stylus is supported fairly well. I know ZBrush uses virtual memory a lot. Ofer seemed to have the little guy in mind when he initially designed the program.

Psmith

ZBrush uses software rendering, so it is absolutely independent on video card. 3DC uses video card, so it is important. 3DC works on GMA cards, but not quickly. I plan to make one optimisation to make rendering faster, so maybe it will help, but I am not sure. The essence of optimisation is to render only changed geometry to texture. But it reqiures some time to implement this. But I plan it.

Of course, I am using virtual memory.

[Andrew Shpagin]

I'm unable to get the Alpha to work. 2.10 and 2.10 beta work fine, but 3.0 reports I'm missing my license. When I click "Register" it pops up a browser window for a second and then goes back to the program and tells me my copy is not registered.

Also in the bar above "Buy" it has an email address that I had copied and pasted into an email I was sending today - so for some reason it's grabbing it from the clipboard.

So right now it's totally unusable.

Paul

Please check if file License.txt is in installation folder of 3.0 ALPHA.

e-mail appears in line because all is copied from clipboard tosimplify registration.

Also, are you sure that you are entering valid SN - without extra symbols?

[3dioot]

No. Just using a mouse.

Here's a screen shot. The stroke looks blurry, too, for some reason.

The clay brush is a little messy in its current state. Its purpose is to add volume in a smooth way by not paying too much attention to existing surface detail. As you pointed out though, the stroke itself isnt clean. I -think- this is because it still uses an older system. The carve brush has had some more tweaking done to it, try that one perhaps you like it better. Over the coming days the carve brush will be further refined and hopefully the clay brush gets an update aswell.

3dioot

[paulrus]

Thanks - I think you meant License.dat - and that fixed it.

My suggestion would be to install License.dat in a common folder instead of putting it in the program folder.

Paul

[PoopaScoop]

ZBrush uses software rendering, so it is absolutely independent on video card. 3DC uses video card, so it is important. 3DC works on GMA cards, but not quickly. I plan to make one optimisation to make rendering faster, so maybe it will help, but I am not sure. The essence of optimisation is to render only changed geometry to texture. But it reqiures some time to implement this. But I plan it.

Of course, I am using virtual memory.

That sounds like it could be a huge improvement in performance!

[tildee]

Would it be possible to have a "right click and drag" stylus shortcut for resizing the pen and other sculpting tools - at least while hovering over the voxel sculpt in the workspace - a kind of selectively activated stylus gesture?

Psmith

That's a very good suggestion. I have a Wacom and it would be very nice to change the scale of the brush also with the pen. There I have no scroll wheel integrated.

Because nearly every third stroke I change the size.

[Andrew Shpagin]

Excuse for long delay in forum working.

There was database error, but now everything recovered and works fine.

[philnolan3d]

Yay the forum's back up! I was checking every hour or so. :lol:

[Frenchy Pilou]

Does new betas 3.0 are updated on the post #1 ?

[3dioot]

@ psmith and tildee

Id love a sticky key for that (i.e. hold a key and move your pen to change radius) but i would prefer it to be a hotkey. In other words; if you want to make it rightclick thats cool. But ill be able to make it "s" (or whatever). Ofcourse id want that functionality for strenght and fallof as well.

@ Frenchy Pilou

Yes, the first executable is constantly updated. When a new release is out i just rename it when i save the file so i dont get confused and can check back on versions if i feel like a new bug has been introduced that wasnt there before.

And im glad the forum is back up!

3dioot

[BluEgo]

ZBrush uses software rendering, so it is absolutely independent on video card. 3DC uses video card, so it is important. 3DC works on GMA cards, but not quickly. I plan to make one optimisation to make rendering faster, so maybe it will help, but I am not sure. The essence of optimisation is to render only changed geometry to texture. But it reqiures some time to implement this. But I plan it.

Of course, I am using virtual memory.

Yes I think that performance is more important than having thousand of tools.

I hope the optimization will occur before the realse of 3.0

Glad to hear you planned it

[PoopaScoop]

Yes I think that performance is more important than having thousand of tools.

I hope the optimization will occur before the realse of 3.0

Glad to hear you planned it

When is Version 3 planned btw?

[Andrew Shpagin]

When is Version 3 planned btw?

I plan to release 3.0 in December 2008. Of course it are approximate plans.

[Mantis]

That's a very good suggestion. I have a Wacom and it would be very nice to change the scale of the brush also with the pen. There I have no scroll wheel integrated.

Because nearly every third stroke I change the size.

What would be good is an exhaustive hotkey customisation menu like in Mudbox.

In mudbox you can custom every hotkey with all the possible combination so everyone can stick with their favorites hotkeys.

Btw the current version is really exciting, the brush engine need to be refined and we will be able to have a lot of fun with it.

[maggot]

Are there going to be any more updates to 3d Coat 2.1 before the release of 3d Coat 3 in December?

[3dioot]

What would be good is an exhaustive hotkey customisation menu like in Mudbox.

In mudbox you can custom every hotkey with all the possible combination so everyone can stick with their favorites hotkeys.

Btw the current version is really exciting, the brush engine need to be refined and we will be able to have a lot of fun with it.

Yeah i agree. Andrew had some more work to the brush engine planned so i hope its all going well. While sculpting ive noticed a few other brush related things.

Facetting of fast strokes. This is something mudbox1 also suffered heavily from. Its fixable because zbrush doesnt have this problem and neither does the new mudbox. I dont mind my system getting a little slow and laggy when i ask too much of it. But deterioration of your strokes should never happen. Here is a movie. The first stroke is done slowly and is almost perfect (lagged a bit because of my screencapture program), the second stroke was done too fast for 3dcoat to do it realtime so it deteriorates the stroke. This really should not happen.

http://screencast.com/t/5RzQt9E85

Also i have the idea that the smooth brush always average's towards the positive instead of really averaging. I.e. if i hatch an elevation or dent into the surface and then use smooth (even at low values) i have the feeling it raises the surface considerably. More so then it should. Perhaps you could look into this andrew? Its just a feeling i have.

3dioot

[Andrew Shpagin]

Are there going to be any more updates to 3d Coat 2.1 before the release of 3d Coat 3 in December?

Only minor bugfixing updates, some urgent features can be add there too.

[Andrew Shpagin]

Yeah i agree. Andrew had some more work to the brush engine planned so i hope its all going well. While sculpting ive noticed a few other brush related things.

Facetting of fast strokes. This is something mudbox1 also suffered heavily from. Its fixable because zbrush doesnt have this problem and neither does the new mudbox. I dont mind my system getting a little slow and laggy when i ask too much of it. But deterioration of your strokes should never happen. Here is a movie. The first stroke is done slowly and is almost perfect (lagged a bit because of my screencapture program), the second stroke was done too fast for 3dcoat to do it realtime so it deteriorates the stroke. This really should not happen.

http://screencast.com/t/5RzQt9E85

Also i have the idea that the smooth brush always average's towards the positive instead of really averaging. I.e. if i hatch an elevation or dent into the surface and then use smooth (even at low values) i have the feeling it raises the surface considerably. More so then it should. Perhaps you could look into this andrew? Its just a feeling i have.

3dioot

Faceted strokes will be fixed of course.

I have idea about carve - make it like snake tool with profile and less smoothed. It will be faster x10 and very smooth.

[3dioot]

Faceted strokes will be fixed of course.

I have idea about carve - make it like snake tool with profile and less smoothed. It will be faster x10 and very smooth.

Nononono!

I dont know why you've gotten that idea but its a normal brush. I use it to sculpt. Dont turn it into a a lofted profile cutter. That would be a nice tool on its own but not as a replacement. Please. Just spend some more time on the brush engine. All brushes will benefit. Please do not do this!

3dioot

[Andrew Shpagin]

Nononono!

I dont know why you've gotten that idea but its a normal brush. I use it to sculpt. Dont turn it into a a lofted profile cutter. That would be a nice tool on its own but not as a replacement. Please. Just spend some more time on the brush engine. All brushes will benefit. Please do not do this!

3dioot

ok ok. Don't worry

[3dioot]

Pfew.

Look im all for creative (new) tools (like spray its really good). But there are some basic tools that just need to work. Clay is good for building up volume. Standard brush (or carve as you call it) is good for refining of the shapes and fine details. These are bead and butter brushes. They may be simple in what they do but hard to get perfectly right. But its really important that gets done. Im relieved but also startled. Glad your fixing facetted strokes. Question; do you sculpt yourself in mudbox or zbrush? Just out of interest.

3dioot

[Andrew Shpagin]

Pfew.

Look im all for creative (new) tools (like spray its really good). But there are some basic tools that just need to work. Clay is good for building up volume. Standard brush (or carve as you call it) is good for refining of the shapes and fine details. These are bead and butter brushes. They may be simple in what they do but hard to get perfectly right. But its really important that gets done. Im relieved but also startled. Glad your fixing facetted strokes. Question; do you sculpt yourself in mudbox or zbrush? Just out of interest.

3dioot

I used ZB & MB demo versions, but I never sculpted professionally

[Ztreem]

Just tested the new clay and spray tools and all I can say is that they rock. Great work Andrew!

[BluEgo]

Yeah i agree. Andrew had some more work to the brush engine planned so i hope its all going well. While sculpting ive noticed a few other brush related things.

Facetting of fast strokes. This is something mudbox1 also suffered heavily from. Its fixable because zbrush doesnt have this problem and neither does the new mudbox. I dont mind my system getting a little slow and laggy when i ask too much of it. But deterioration of your strokes should never happen. Here is a movie. The first stroke is done slowly and is almost perfect (lagged a bit because of my screencapture program), the second stroke was done too fast for 3dcoat to do it realtime so it deteriorates the stroke. This really should not happen.

http://screencast.com/t/5RzQt9E85

Yes I agree. I already reported this behaviour, and is very important to fix it to give us the right "artistic" feeling when sculpting.

[3dioot]

I used ZB & MB demo versions, but I never sculpted professionally

Ok, i was just curious what your experience was with current digital sculpting solutions. Not implying in any way that you should just copycat them but its good to know your familiar with whats "out there". My current sculpt is taking alot longer then planned. I wish it was finished so i could show you (its not a masterpiece but not ugly either i hope).

It feels great to sculpt with voxels though. Ive been digging holes and doing stuff i really, really cant do with zbrush or mudbox. Its also incredible performance efficient. The skull im sculpting right now has a skin of 1 million polygons (roughly) and it started from a sphere. Its still very responsive (even after one increase in resolution) and easy to navigate around and sculpt on. If i would have tried the same in zbrush from a sphere, without retopo i would have been sitting at 3 million at least. Laggy performance and still facetting and mesh problems. I know its the voxel sculpt thats most heavy on the system (and not the skin) but for this model it seems its definately faster/easier to do in voxels then in zbrush.

This is another big pro compared to mesh sculpting which im really starting to feel. The sculpt behaves much more predictable. There is no surface where you have to worry about how the mesh is bunched up and facetted and while that may sound like a small thing it isnt really. Everything feels equally "dense". Every part is equally responsive to carve or smooth. It is altogether a very different feeling (even more different then i anticipated). Its very, very good. (another reason why i still hope we get voxel flatten and voxel pinch)

Also the navigation system is superb! It took me a while before i noticed it (before i just used it intuitively i think) but its great. How the viewport navigation focus centers on your sculpt where your brush is the moment you press alt. It is by far the best navigation system ive used. In fact in zbrush you have an option to have the navigation focus on the place you last sculpted. And the way i navigated in there was by making a very small (not noticable) brush stroke on the point i wanted to rotate around! :lol:

Thought you'd like to hear some good stuff too for a change.

3dioot

PS

@ BluEgo

Now that you mention it. I remember seeing a post about a colorstroke suffering form the same problem. I gues that was yours then.

[bobzilla]

I noticed that the Draw with Pen in the Voxel paint works like the one in Sculpt mode. The longer you press the mouse button, the higher the sculpt becomes.

Is there anyway to fix that? I can't imagine anyone wanting that.

Also, on my Mac, I brought in the dino sample at 2 million polies, painted one stroke and got an out of memory message. Never got one in version 2.