3DCoat 2024 development thread

[Boozer]

5 minutes ago, Oleg_Shapo said:

Scroll the toolbar up or down.
Or use hotkey E.

I know. Still could use a fix.

[SERGYI]

On 7/19/2023 at 4:46 AM, artofcomputing said:

I would appreciate the heads up to install Python before installing 3DCoat itself, either in the requirements page, or in a installation guide shown just after downloading the software.

Thank you for your constructive input. After tedious hassling, I was able to include Python in "3DCoat 2023.25" for macOS:
https://pilgway.com/~sergyi/links-macOS.html
Since "3DCoat 2023.25" for macOS, you can remove the folder "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework" in case you have installed Python from the official site specifically for "3DCoat 2023.23". To quickly test the Python script, you can select "3DCoat > Scripts > Run Script > "/Applications/3DCoat-2023.25/UserPrefs/PythonAPI/Templates/py_Primitives/HelloWorld3D.py" or any other py-file from that folder (but not pyi-files).

[omniripple]

Andrew, the latest trial license isn't expiring when it says it should. It still has full features enabled days after. you might want to check that and remove it.

edit: also in the license file there is a word Sequrity
i think it is meant to be security, maybe this is what is causing it.....meh....just a guess lol

Edited August 3, 2023 by omniripple

[cookepuss]

7 hours ago, omniripple said:

edit: also in the license file there is a word Sequrity
i think it is meant to be security, maybe this is what is causing it.....meh....just a guess lol

It would be hilarious if that were the case, but I don't think so. That misspelling has been in the license file for years now. It's probably something else.

[Carlosan]

17 hours ago, omniripple said:

Andrew, the latest trial license isn't expiring when it says it should. It still has full features enabled days after. you might want to check that and remove it.

edit: also in the license file there is a word Sequrity
i think it is meant to be security, maybe this is what is causing it.....meh....just a guess lol

The finished license acts for 5-6 days.
It will be update.

[Mihu83]

Hey guys, don't know if it is a bug or something have been done under the hood, but 2023.25 doesn't install/load 3dpacks - I've tried it only with custom shader pack and it doesn't do a thing. It works in 2023.22 - haven't tested other releases, so I don't know when it went south.

[DMG]

Just checking this is an intentional change in behaviour... (I'm on 2023.25)

When I use Pick & Paste, the red target doesn't centre on my cursor, but the closest edge of the target circle does. Tool otherwise works exactly as expected.

Derek

[Henry Townshend]

Hello! I have a question about using Multi Res with the Pose Tool.

I have an 8mio mesh, just re-sampled from 4mio to 8mio, so the structure is clean and even in Surface mode. From this I created seven lower Multi Res levels. There are two things that are unexpected and not working for me:

• I can not smooth Pose Tool selection on lower levels. The smoothing of the pose selection works again on higher levels, but:
• When I transform the Pose Selection, even if smoothed, it doesn't have a smooth transition, as I'm used to, it simply gives a noisy distorted transition.

I thought the pose tool is supposed to work with Multi-Res flawlessly? On any Mutli-Res level? It seems there is no way to get smooth deformations for me when using Multi-Res.

I re-watched this video. However @AbnRanger only shows a very subtle deformation, which probably wouldn't show this problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxh4SsaYgVA

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong, I would really love to use the Pose Tool with Multi-Res. Just getting used to use Multi Res and liking it a lot to have it alongside 3D Coat's other amazing tools. But without the ability to use the Pose Tool properly, its not as useful. I'd appreciate any help.

Please have a look at this video to see what happens:

Edited August 9, 2023 by Henry Townshend
refactor

[Henry Townshend]

Regarding the "Decimate > Auto-UV Map > Export" option, is anyone else experiencing that this is only working occasionally, but will get stuck and freeze a lot of times?

So far, I had a lot of trouble using this function. Sometimes it works for me, but more often than not it gets just stuck and freezes, depending on the model. I assume it happens during baking process bot not sure. But, seemingly after setting the scan depth step, seems to be a constant.

I export for UE5.

I tried painted surface and voxels, makes no difference for me.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Henry Townshend
clarify

[Oleg Shapov]

3 hours ago, Henry Townshend said:

depending on the model

Could you share such a model or scene, as well as the settings for this window?

[DMG]

There is an option that I would find incredibly useful in the Undercuts tool: My work involves creating moulds which will be milled on a CNC machine, so the top will be sculpted/detailed, but the bottom needs to be flat.

The Undercuts tool at the moment (unless I'm missing something) only seems to create two sides of a mould.  If the initial object has vertical sides, then draft angles are created from both top and bottom, and meet halfway up. If there was an option to only create draft angles from the top, and fill in the object so that the base is flat, that would be great. 

At the moment, I have to do extra work to make the Undercut tool do what I need.

Derek 

Edited August 10, 2023 by DMG

[Andrew Shpagin]

6 hours ago, DMG said:

Just checking this is an intentional change in behaviour... (I'm on 2023.25)

When I use Pick & Paste, the red target doesn't centre on my cursor, but the closest edge of the target circle does. Tool otherwise works exactly as expected.

Derek

Looks like this is Relax algorithm problem. I improved it in 27 (soon), now it works definitely better.

[Andrew Shpagin]

34 minutes ago, DMG said:

There is an option that I would find incredibly useful in the Undercuts tool: My work involved creating moulds which will be milled on a CNC machine, so the top will be sculpted/detailed, but the bottom needs to be flat.

The Undercuts tool at the moment (unless I'm missing something) only seems to create two sides of a mould.  If the initial object has vertical sides, then draft angles are created from both top and bottom, and meet halfway up. If there was an option to only create draft angles from the top, and fill in the object so that the base is flat, that would be great. 

At the moment, I have to do extra work to make the Undercut tool do what I need.

Derek 

What you tell is Bas-relief!

[DMG]

1 hour ago, Andrew Shpagin said:

What you tell is Bas-relief!

Ha ha.

Now I feel really dumb.  I thought 'Undercuts' had behaved like that in the past, and then changed.  I must have used bas-relief at some point before it ended up in my blind spot.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious!

Derek

[Henry Townshend]

@Oleg_Shapo Certainly! Thanks for the reply.

Here is the affected files and a screenshot of my current settings. I tried it yesterday again with a starter model, the cute low poly monster from the start menu. I subdivided it a lot, added smart materials, sculpted on it, with 10mio tris. It took a bit to export, but it worked fine in unreal!

However, most of my custom experiments, like in this folder, I have trouble with. I noticed that the baking cages seem to be broken when at the stage of scanning, at least with the file "vTest.3b".

Hope this will be useful: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/29mk4fjyj96ke0u0c2ff2/h?rlkey=5p4hjt6dwtld6y9aj3m9g1cxz&dl=0

And I'm sorry if I might be doing something wrong on my end, that's why I first asked if any other users might share the experience before wanting to take any of the devs time. Thanks much for looking into it. And this feature, if working, is really amazing.

[MVIC]

Hi, I’m not sure if this is a mistake or this is normal? I created clusters on my model in the UV room just to create quick islands. When I unwrap the model, the UV islands are still stuck to each other and have not separated in the UV preview window like in a normal unwrap. I have attached a video to show you. Also, the Autopo doesn’t work straight away. It took me three attempts to get Autopo to work. Have I done something wrong?

[Andrew Shpagin]

13 hours ago, MVIC said:

Hi, I’m not sure if this is a mistake or this is normal? I created clusters on my model in the UV room just to create quick islands. When I unwrap the model, the UV islands are still stuck to each other and have not separated in the UV preview window like in a normal unwrap. I have attached a video to show you. Also, the Autopo doesn’t work straight away. It took me three attempts to get Autopo to work. Have I done something wrong?

3dCoatTest.wmv

200K as result is too much for autopo. It is better to use lower value and subdivide if need. 

After setting clusters you need to press UNWRAP, not just Pack UV because pack UP packs existing islands.

[ebitz]

On linux. Clicking the + icon in the shaders menu and running thru following menus does not generate a shader. It fails. The files are created in the Userprefs but no shader appears in the shader menu. Constructing a new shader from an existing one using the right click menu works.

[MVIC]

Hi  @Andrew Shpagin,

Thanks for the quick response. It’s been very helpful. I now attach another video. As you can see, lowering the topology to 20,000 worked first time. Thanks

However, if I merely UNWRAP UV, there is still the same problem (the islands are not separated with any margin). I have also noticed that the seams created by the clusters are faded, not as bright as existing seems. For example at 1.37 into the video the seams under his armpits are brightly coloured.

 

[ebitz]

On Linux. OS: Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS x86_64
Host: X570 AORUS ELITE WIFI -CF
Kernel: 6.4.6-76060406-generic
Packages: 2355 (dpkg), 33 (flatpak)
Shell: bash 5.1.16
DE: GNOME 42.5
WM: Mutter
Terminal: gnome-terminal
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (24) @ 3.700GH
GPU: AMD ATI RX7900 XTX
Memory: 6122MiB / 32027MiB
AMD Driver 23.1.3

The Render room is rendering objects with black artifacts that cover the models. The pbr shader is being used. This effects all pbr shaders.

Edited August 17, 2023 by ebitz

[kritskiy.001]

I'm having an issue with a simple Python script with the latest beta (haven't tried the previous versions): the inputs seem to be correct, there are no errors but what I expect to happen (parents change) simply doesn't happen. I posted on Scripting subforum but I don't think a lot of people go there, could you please tell me what am I missing?

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by kritskiy.001

[Boozer]

When I select UV Map Mesh on the splash screen to import a mesh for UV mapping, it goes to the Paint Room...Why?

Happens to meshes with or without UVs. My goal was to edit existing UVs not painting.

edit: Also when I import half of a model to UV work on it and export, 3dcoat changes its position to the center and it cannot be mirrored properly. I wonder why? 

Edited August 22, 2023 by Boozer
another question

[Gorbatovsky]

3 hours ago, Boozer said:

When I select UV Map Mesh on the splash screen to import a mesh for UV mapping, it goes to the Paint Room...Why?

The Tweak room and the UV room are companion workspaces to the paint workspace in the sense that they work exclusively on paint objects.

[Boozer]

3 minutes ago, Gorbatovsky said:

The Tweak room and the UV room are companion workspaces to the paint workspace in the sense that they work exclusively on paint objects.

So you are saying that the splash screen directing me to the Paint Room when I'm trying to edit UV is correct?

I give up.

Hey Carlos or Don Nash you can ban me again. Its me Koray

[Carlosan]

To import a mesh for UV mapping import to Retopo Room.

And yes, you are right. Paint, Tweak and UV room must be merged on the same Room.

It is a long time request.

[Elemeno]

that honestly would save so much time ! 

[AbnRanger]

7 hours ago, Boozer said:

So you are saying that the splash screen directing me to the Paint Room when I'm trying to edit UV is correct?

I give up.

Hey Carlos or Don Nash you can ban me again. Its me Koray

No. It should go straight to the UV workspace. I will pass it on to Andrew. Thank you for reporting it.

[zf3d]

Agree. For drawing ready-made models and changing the mesh midway, we do not want to export or import them. Moreover, multiple objects are difficult to operate, and we need to seamlessly modify polygons and UVs. That's what makes 3dcoat powerful, and it can be wildly used. Currently, it is not intuitive enough

Edited August 23, 2023 by zf3d

[Henry Townshend]

Hello. In regards to my problems with "Decimate-AutoMap_Export" option often being stuck and not completing. @Oleg_Shapo I'd like to share another file where it's impossible for me to use the function without it getting stuck. Sometimes during "Optimizing". stage, albeit the certain object has barely over 1mio.

For instance, if you try to decimate auto map export only his yellow-orange west in this file, I can not get it work. Soon after the scan depth process is done and it starts "Optimizing", then it will get stuck, even though I chose a reduction percentage of 0%.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ay3qlf439a739wx/greifs_Pose_Anger_049.3b?dl=0

What worked for me finally, was to export each individual object as "Regular Export" as FBX. But using USD or USDZ seems to get stuck for me for some reason. Maybe I'm too impatient, I think this is very complex and is expected to take some time. However, if a single object would take so much time like let's say half an hour, this makes at much less viable. Of course it's nothing compared to days of manual retopo and mapping I understand. But I  would like to use the option for quick 3d concepting in engine.

So I hope this file might be further helpful for inspection. I would really love to use this function more fluidly and reliably.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Henry Townshend
update link

[Henry Townshend]

I wanted to ask for long time:

Is there a particular reason why we have two different export dialogue modals, depending on if we export meshes or if we export textures? When I export meshes with 3D Coat, it opens the Windows Explorer window as used to. When exporting textures, it opens an entirely different, somewhat disjointed window.

I find this very flow breaking when having to export to have to re-navigate an entirely different window without the ability even to paste in a path as string.

It would be way more efficient for users if we simply can export with the exact same regular Explorer usage when exporting textures as well.