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V4.5 BETA (experimental)


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That generally seems to be the case.

There's still a lot that can be done with materials and the viewport (realtime SSS, post effects, etc.), so maybe we'll be seeing some further enhancements there?

I'm hoping SSS will be part of the 4.5 release, but Andrew may be planning on handling that afterwards. Who knows? Seems to be a lot of small additions I haven't seen on here or Mantis/Trello

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4.5 BETA12

- Important!! AntiBump smoothing method done (see smoothing dropdown list). It allows to achieve ideally smooth surface even if some high - frequency details drawn.

- Fill tool parameters extended in gradient mode. Numerical input, xyz aligning, swapping, flipping - http://bit.ly/1J7eDKN

- Invert mirror works correctly in retopo room

- Panorama manager included into navi panel

- Fixed set of instabilities related to UI

- Tapering angle in Undercuts/bas-relief

- Size of SPACE menu decreased twice.

- Unnecessary and cluttering hotheys in left menu hidden.

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4.5 BETA12

- Important!! AntiBump smoothing method done (see smoothing dropdown list). It allows to achieve ideally smooth surface even if some high - frequency details drawn.

- Fill tool parameters extended in gradient mode. Numerical input, xyz aligning, swapping, flipping - http://bit.ly/1J7eDKN

- Invert mirror works correctly in retopo room

- Panorama manager included into navi panel

- Fixed set of instabilities related to UI

- Tapering angle in Undercuts/bas-relief

- Size of SPACE menu decreased twice.

- Unnecessary and cluttering hotheys in left menu hidden.

thanx!!

 

note; there is a bug in build12 where splines (e-panel) are drawn away from the clicked points.

it is strange it does not happen always, here is screenshot (bug is not specific to build12 it happens in earlier builds too it seem)

post-1195-0-16637300-1423854116_thumb.jp

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4.5 BETA12

- Important!! AntiBump smoothing method done (see smoothing dropdown list). It allows to achieve ideally smooth surface even if some high - frequency details drawn.

- Fill tool parameters extended in gradient mode. Numerical input, xyz aligning, swapping, flipping - http://bit.ly/1J7eDKN

- Invert mirror works correctly in retopo room

- Panorama manager included into navi panel

- Fixed set of instabilities related to UI

- Tapering angle in Undercuts/bas-relief

- Size of SPACE menu decreased twice.

- Unnecessary and cluttering hotheys in left menu hidden.

Thank you for the AntiBump smoothing... Loving it!!

Edited by digman
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thanx!!

 

note; there is a bug in build12 where splines (e-panel) are drawn away from the clicked points.

it is strange it does not happen always, here is screenshot (bug is not specific to build12 it happens in earlier builds too it seem)

attachicon.gifspline.jpg

It's an old bug. Detaching the spline from surface helps, IIRC.

Edited by ajz3d
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Collectible guys are gonna love antibump smoothing...   :)

 

Oh and changing panoramas is superfast now. weird.

 

[Edit]We'll see how it goes, but for me antibump is making "smoother" tool obsolete, and I don't think I'll ever use standard smooth again.

As far as I'm concerned those could go without notice I wouldn't care ;)

There was nothing you could do about the surface "artefacts" at transition areas between high density and lower density, rendering surface mode a pain-in-the-you-know-where to get clean even surface. Now it's not a problem.

It's even better: you can make bold "detail" strokes and slowly fade them into the surface, hinting subtle surface changes, that's super useful.

 

In short, me and 3dcoat now:

3DBF_tjhm.jpg

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4.5 BETA12

- Important!! AntiBump smoothing method done (see smoothing dropdown list). It allows to achieve ideally smooth surface even if some high - frequency details drawn.

 

Could we get smoothing for large areas working correctly in the Paint room too?: http://3d-coat.com/mantis/view.php?id=1502

Retopo rooms smooth/relax could also use work: http://3d-coat.com/mantis/view.php?id=1572

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4.5 BETA12

- Important!! AntiBump smoothing method done (see smoothing dropdown list). It allows to achieve ideally smooth surface even if some high - frequency details drawn.

- Fill tool parameters extended in gradient mode. Numerical input, xyz aligning, swapping, flipping - http://bit.ly/1J7eDKN

- Invert mirror works correctly in retopo room

- Panorama manager included into navi panel

- Fixed set of instabilities related to UI

- Tapering angle in Undercuts/bas-relief

- Size of SPACE menu decreased twice.

- Unnecessary and cluttering hotheys in left menu hidden.

Thanks, Andrew. By the way, the size of the Space Bar Menu is not reduced x2. It doesn't appear noticeably smaller. I deleted the Options.xml and Options_Windows.xml files, and it's not much of a difference, if at all. It is still H-U-G-E. For that reason alone, I never use it.

 

Beta 11:

 

142387764788.jpg

 

Beta 12:

 

142387837699.jpg

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I must say, I'm excited about the new smoothing algorithm.  I literally was just thinking that's one of the biggest issues in the sculpting portion of 3d coat making it very difficult to edit a mesh once it's gone beyond a certain point.  I was strongly considering picking up zbrush to be honest. But then I said, let me wait and see what's in store for 3DC.

 

It's funny that this has been in the works I didn't even know.  And yet, I don't think it's a coincidence, but I'll keep my beliefs to myself here.

 

This is the second time I've felt like the app has hit a 'wall' in terms of sculpting and I was considering making the switch to zbrush, last time it was brush responsiveness, which was more than fixed when Andrew and Artman reworked the surface brushes and Artman developed his presets.

 

In short, I have yet to try it out for myself, but I feel more and more convicted that team developing this app is doing something special and we're all lucky to be somehow involved.  

Andrew, I'll keep pulling for you and the team.  And hopefully I'll be able to contribute more and use the app in more meaningful ways going forward.

 

Cheers,

G

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Yep. At this stage I'm no longer compeled to get into zbrush after a certain stage just to clean up.

I don't know how much Andrew considers that a change, but for us it's a huge one.

With the confidence to be able to "melt away" bad decision during early (or later) stage of a sculpt it makes 3dcoat actually superior to zbrush if you consider freeform sculpting.

This makes sculpting a totaly different playground: You don't have to go big to small, you can do whatever you want, make a huge mass there, then crease a subtle ridge there etc...

In short: Experiment, and find new way to build your models. 

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If smooth seems to harsh for some, at this point, consider increasing the resolution of the mesh once or twice.  That's always been the case, but now it's a lot better.  I still think that at 7k polys smooth shouldn't be quite so abrupt, but this is definitely better than it was.

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Actually it's the other way around alvordr.

Smooth was weak. So weak you couldn't get rid of bumps on the surface in density transitional areas.

Antibump smooth is averaging and relaxing the surface with energy curve conservation in mind: it adapts the transitional areas to the surrounding areas: rendering bumps invisible.

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Actually it's the other way around alvordr.

Smooth was weak. So weak you couldn't get rid of bumps on the surface in density transitional areas.

Antibump smooth is averaging and relaxing the surface with energy curve conservation in mind: it adapts the transitional areas to the surrounding areas: rendering bumps invisible.

Amen brother, Amen! 

The difference is night and day... Now you can smooth out troublesome areas. or generally just keep the surface smooth as you work up... Like Beat said too, a gradual transition from smooth to higher detail. I hope that Andrew can incorporate some of this ability (averaging / relaxing) into the brushes. What I mean is that the brushes will produce less tiny bumps when sculpting in surface mode...

Edited by digman
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After trying the new smooth algorithm  I think it's a huge step in the right direction.

 

I like that it seems to work based on the size of the brush.  If I have a large brush size it will soften and smooth your forms without wiping out the details like the TSsmoothing - strong setting does.  While when you make it smaller, it will smooth out all the surface irregularities and create a smooth/polished surface... Something that was nearly impossible to do before.  This is seriously a game changer.  Although, I think it's not quite there yet.  I've only tried it on my laptop so far, so that might be the reason why, since it's not that powerful.  But the original smooth tool feels painfully slow by comparison.

 

Not sure what you did Andrew, or if this is related to the work that Raul was doing.  But it's definitely on the right track.  It'd be nice to be able to replace the default smooth with this, as currently I cannot make the power curve go beyond 100% with the mouse button drag, because it's only set for use with my smooth modifier hotkeys.

 

All that being said.  I know the focus right now is on PBR, but this is very encouraging because it helps to fill in a gap in the program that required creative workarounds.  Perhaps someone like Artman can work his magic again, this time for some good smoothing brushes.

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 Perhaps someone like Artman can work his magic again, this time for some good smoothing brushes.

there is no setting to it,....also even if it is set as the default shift smoothing if you selct smooth brush ,the brush itself does not pick up the new way and act as the old smooth (at least its my impression....) so there is  no way to tweak it or even make a preset out of it. Anyway, it already work perfect on its own I just wish it could go up to I dont know 500% in strength equivalent....its really slow on my puny rig, on 1-2 mil mesh I really need to massage the mesh  thoroughly to properly smooth some parts and sometimes I just dont have that patience...

 

I already made a few smooth presets based on TangentSmooth strong-tweaked a little...but if you dont  like the TS-Strong you won't really like them .

Anyway after more testing I really think Antibump feels better but its just really too weak on my side ...I mean I need to wait for it to start smoothing.Maybe its time for some hardware upgrades :)

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Collectible guys are gonna love antibump smoothing...   :)

 

Oh and changing panoramas is superfast now. weird.

 

[Edit]We'll see how it goes, but for me antibump is making "smoother" tool obsolete, and I don't think I'll ever use standard smooth again.

As far as I'm concerned those could go without notice I wouldn't care ;)

There was nothing you could do about the surface "artefacts" at transition areas between high density and lower density, rendering surface mode a pain-in-the-you-know-where to get clean even surface. Now it's not a problem.

It's even better: you can make bold "detail" strokes and slowly fade them into the surface, hinting subtle surface changes, that's super useful.

 

In short, me and 3dcoat now:

Thanks to you and all community that you like Anti bump!

Actually it is most complex brush in 3D-Coat in technical aspect. Even if it was done just for less than 1 day there was more than year of slow thinking about algorithm.

For deep understanding - there are several layers of action in the tool

1) Tangent smooth

2) Regular smooth

3) Interpolation of surface flow from the edges to the center

Relative weight of (1) and (3) grows with pen pressure, weight of (2) decreases with pen pressure.

It tries to keep surface shape in general and fade all small details.

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Thanks to you and all community that you like Anti bump!

Actually it is most complex brush in 3D-Coat in technical aspect. Even if it was done just for less than 1 day there was more than year of slow thinking about algorithm.

For deep understanding - there are several layers of action in the tool

1) Tangent smooth

2) Regular smooth

3) Interpolation of surface flow from the edges to the center

Relative weight of (1) and (3) grows with pen pressure, weight of (2) decreases with pen pressure.

It tries to keep surface shape in general and fade all small details.

is it affected by Cuda  boost?  

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Agreed with Carlosan,

 

Antibump should replace the smooth tool, so that we can go above 100% on the strength.  And the multitreading really makes a difference.  Even though the strength isn't that fast on my laptop, the multithreading makes a huge difference, the framerate on the brush is constant and smooth, I don't get any chugging as I do with some of the other smooth brush.  I really think you've hit on some magic formula here, and I would love to see it applied in other areas of the program.

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Actually it's the other way around alvordr.

Smooth was weak. So weak you couldn't get rid of bumps on the surface in density transitional areas.

Antibump smooth is averaging and relaxing the surface with energy curve conservation in mind: it adapts the transitional areas to the surrounding areas: rendering bumps invisible.

 

Perhaps your using the usual LC?  I'm using Voxel mode.  What I see is that the smooth was too strong for my taste and now it's more gradual, for me.

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