3DCoat 2024 development thread

[liok]

Ah ok the technique currently is to rename with like a "TEMP" suffix the instal and documents fodler, and if there is an issue just delete/rename the new ones and remove the suffix on the old ones ?

[Carlosan]

No, just rename both folders and you can open one version or the another.

[Elemeno]

would 3d coat ever use zbrush way of sculpting??

so we would be able to use alot more polygons in our models and bakes etc..

[Elemeno]

also i know theres probably a technical reason behind this ... but why can i have 20*20 million polygon meshes but not a single mesh with 400 million? every though im clearly looking at 400 million polygons just seperate

what if we had a way to isolate what you was sculpting and freeze the rest of the mesh and a degrade in polys when youre panning or rotating would be nice to speed up the movement

[liok]

I've been trying to make displacement work in Coat for years, I still can't figure out how to make even a sphere with displacement.
What I understand is the mesh needs to be quads, because Coat cannot display subdivided/tesselated triangle/decimated mesh.
And once you bake with normal map, it's over, baking the displacement is not possible anymore unless you're willing to delete all the work done in paint room.
So you need to bake displacement from the start, but "Flat displacement" creates these issues like the topology appears in the displacement:

And the Per pixel painting w/ displacement seems to work even if it bakes the displacement in each sculpt object layer instead of in a displacement layer, but it's clearly written in the tooltip to not use it.. for.. reasons.

I think all this baking menu should be scrapped and remade properly, with kinda just one option, "bake", and then it just bakes, the depth, in a normal map layer, that will be useful for small details, and in a displacement layer, that you can toggle on if you want tesselation in Coat and displacement in your render engine..
I'm art directing a series adapted from a video game, I would love to convince the production to use Coat, but if even after years of research I can't manage to do the simplest thing like having displacement, it's really discouraging.

So I guess to do a film asset, instead of baking with normal map, you "Bake w/per Pixel Painting w/ Displacement" (that's a way too long name) and you don't care about the tooltip stating "It does not work well", because it seems to work, as opposed to Flat displacement that has this topology artifacts no matter what you do.

If that's the official way to make a non game asset, I really think this button should be named something like "BAKE WITH DISPLACEMENT + NORMAL" and the tooltip should be erased, removed.

Or like really ideally having just one single bake button, and be able to toggle OFF displacement if you don't need it and if it slows down baking time.. but this baking menu has always been so extremely confusing and over crowded with words. It seems it's all residues and bits that stayed there since 2006 or something, and that it should have long been cleaned and simplified into one or tow buttons, normal or disp.

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by liok

[Carlosan]

Hi liok

To keep thread order, please open a new one if you need to ask about 3DC tools.
Leave this to questions and bug reports related to 3DC development.

Please copy your question about displacement into this thread.

Thanks

[Ctc_nick]

Hi! I just made first successful USD export with more then 0 Bytes! I don't really get what is usd completly, but this could mean alot in case of scene traversal and Applink progress, right?

[rubeos]

I report many malfunctions and strange behavior regarding the hotkeys in general e in hotkeys mapping.

Last one I found: I wanted to map  two curve tools, indicated by the red arrows in the picture. ((IMHO, when drawing curves these are the two most important tools and in photoshop they are mainly mapped to alt ctrl, for quick access)).

 

I tried these combination:
alt+A for the first and alt+S for the second: it doesn't work.

then I tried alt+space and ctrl+space: it doesn't work.

then I tried alt+1 and alt+2: it doesn't work

Another very annoying thing is this: switching from one tool to another via hokey doesn't work always and in every condition.

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by rubeos

[kenmo]

On 4/22/2022 at 4:09 PM, Carlosan said:

But latest version is 2022.21 

Did you test it ?

I too thought 2022.16 is the latest as that is what your website seems to indicate.

So why the discrepancy?

Cheers & many thanks...

[kenmo]

With version 2022.16 and now version 2022.21 I've been having this perplexing issue with autoretopo option on this particular 3D scan of a lion. I do not have this issue with 3DC 2021 as I tried it several times today in 3DC 2021.

The issue I've having is autoretopo is constantly creating a symmetric retop'd model despite the fact I have symmetry turned off. This happens in both 2022.16 and now 2022.21 which I just installed. It does not happen when I choose InstantMeshes option in 2022.16 or 2022.21. Only in 2022.16 and 2022.21 when I choose autorepto with 3DC's native autoretopo option.

3DC 2021  does not have this issue.

 

 

[kenmo]

3DC 2021 autoretopo with 3DC native option.

I DO NOT have this issue.

This is NOT InstantMeshes.

Edited April 29, 2022 by kenmo

[kenmo]

3DC 2022.21 - I still have this issue.

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by kenmo

[kenmo]

Other then this issue the autoretopo option is fantastic. And many thanks to Andrew and the 3DC team for the improvements. 

I can only imagine the HELL you guys are going through in Ukraine and fully understand this 3DC issue I'm having is very tiny when compared to the daily strife you are going through.

Take care of yourselves and family first and foremost.

God Bless and keep up the fight against tyranny.

[kenmo]

I thought I would try the old style quad option in 3DC 2022.21 and it did produce a non symmetric model.

But the topology is nowhere as good as the native option.

[Arvart]

Hello, may I ask where is CUDA options in the latest version of 3DCoat, can't find it in the "Geometry" where it was early.