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3DCoat 2024 development thread


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3 hours ago, AbnRanger said:

Are you talking about the FREEZE brush/button in the SURFACE BRUSHES section of the tool panel? If so, yes, you can use it, because when using Surface Brushes, 3DCoat temporarily suspends the voxelization process and the user is merely working on the outer mesh (that would normal adapt to changes in the voxel volume). Keep in mind, though, that once you create a mask (using the Surface brushes FREEZE tool), you will lose that mask IF you switch to a Voxel Brush. As long as you continue using Surface brushes, the mask will remain intact. This video will help explain a lot of that:

 

Wait! Wait! Wait!
Ok, first I was silly, I've just seen the Freeze is under the Surface Brushes, so I understand if Freeze mask goes away when switching to voxel brushes.
Still puzzles me why I can use surface brushes with voxels, I mean, it's ok, more brushes, more choice, until everything works and does not crash!
I will watch those videos, so thank you for them.

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23 hours ago, thinkinmonkey said:

Wait! Wait! Wait!
Ok, first I was silly, I've just seen the Freeze is under the Surface Brushes, so I understand if Freeze mask goes away when switching to voxel brushes.
Still puzzles me why I can use surface brushes with voxels, I mean, it's ok, more brushes, more choice, until everything works and does not crash!
I will watch those videos, so thank you for them.

you can still use freeze tool while using the voxel engine...
you just cant use the voxel tools...

 

you can use the surface tools etc

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I seem to be unable to paint with materials in Voxel Sculpt room while using a stencil. Just learning to texture here, so I'm a beginner and I don't know if this should be possible, but anyway it's kind of breaking my whole stencil functionality so I feel like there is a bug happening.

Actually the problem that I'm unable to solve is how to paint with a color while sculpting voxels holding CTRL to subtract.

Edited by z01ks
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17 hours ago, Elemeno said:

you can still use freeze tool while using the voxel engine...
you just cant use the voxel tools...

 

you can use the surface tools etc

Exactly that: I didn't know I could do that, now I know! ;)
Just watched the videos and got a better understanding, even if little, of 3DCoat and its philosophy.

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Hello,

I don't know if this is an option in the current versions, but I would like to suggest the following : having an option to sort all brushes (in the left panel, in all modes : paint, sculpt, and so on) in alphabetical order, and without any categories. And more specifically in Sculpt mode, having both Voxel *and* Surface brushes all listed, with the unavailable ones (for instance, Freeze when working on a voxel part) shown as greyed out. And when clicking on an unavailable/greyed out brush, having a warking popup with the to get the current part converted to the needed mode (with sampling options when going from Surface to Voxel). This would IMHO make the sculpting experience way more pleasant.

Also, some questions. I am using 4.9.74, so if any of this is covered in more rencent versions let me know
(I am aware that there is a questions sections in this forum, but it doesn't seem to be properly monitored by support, hence I thought I'd ask here).

- Is there any way to navigate the sculpt layers/list of parts without interacting with the SculptTree list with the mouse ? That is to say, going up and down the SculptTree with only the keyboard. If not, this would be a great option to have, for instance with a hotkey based on pageup/pagedown.

- Is there a way for the Quick Pick tool to cause a highlight even if one is picking on the currently active tool ? Not having any positive feedback on this action is very frustrating, as one cannot be sure that the current part is indeed selected.

Thanks.

Edited by pior
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Also in 4.9.74 (and perhaps in the newer versions too ?) when pressing a hotkey assigned to a certain brush (for instance, Sculpt Mode > Move) while the brush in question is already active, the previously used brush gets selected (for the sake of the example let's say Vox Hide).

This is incredibly frustrating, since this means that in many cases, pressing the hotkey assigned to a given brush can bring up something completely unrelated. I understand that this UX design may seem clever in theory, but in practice this is a big time waster because even though I may know that I am already in Move mode, I may still be pressing my usual Move hotkey out of habit/muscle memory ... and end up with Vox Hide.

How does one fully disable this behavior ? And if there is no option to do so, then I believe this should definitely be added, and probably enabled by default (by that I mean : the current behavior should be disabled ... or even completely removed).

Edited by pior
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Using the latest version (2022.54), I have encountered what seems to be a easy to reproduce bug. This has to do with custom primitives.

Following the recommended procedure, I...

  1. Create a named subfolder in the "ToolsPresets\FreeFormPrimitives\Volume" or "ToolsPresets\FreeFormPrimitives\Surface" path.
  2. Drop in the OBJ file into that new, named directory.
  3. Start up 3DCoat.

I then...

  1. Create a new scene
  2. Select the OBJECTS->PRIMITIVES button

That brings up the appropriate Primitives toolbar & tool options. Here's where the problem now occurs.

On that toolbar, alongside the pre-installed primitives, are blank buttons representing the custom primitives.

CLICK the blank icon representing that custom primitive. ... ... ... CRASH! Every time. No warning either.

Adding the object via IMPORT, however, works just fine.

Bug or am I missing something?


NB: There's nothing wrong with the OBJ file being added, btw. It imports in all other scenarios just fine. No holes. No ngons. No oddball intersections. It doesn't matter if I created the OBJ in 3DC, Blender, or Maya. The OBJ file format doesn't seem broken compared to the included (ie. working) primitives. 3DC just won't accept custom primitives in any situation on my end. Again, I can import the object to the object palette. Just not the toolbar.

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7 hours ago, cookepuss said:

Using the latest version (2022.54), I have encountered what seems to be a easy to reproduce bug. This has to do with custom primitives.

Following the recommended procedure, I...

  1. Create a named subfolder in the "ToolsPresets\FreeFormPrimitives\Volume" or "ToolsPresets\FreeFormPrimitives\Surface" path.
  2. Drop in the OBJ file into that new, named directory.
  3. Start up 3DCoat.

I then...

  1. Create a new scene
  2. Select the OBJECTS->PRIMITIVES button

That brings up the appropriate Primitives toolbar & tool options. Here's where the problem now occurs.

On that toolbar, alongside the pre-installed primitives, are blank buttons representing the custom primitives.

CLICK the blank icon representing that custom primitive. ... ... ... CRASH! Every time. No warning either.

Adding the object via IMPORT, however, works just fine.

Bug or am I missing something?


NB: There's nothing wrong with the OBJ file being added, btw. It imports in all other scenarios just fine. No holes. No ngons. No oddball intersections. It doesn't matter if I created the OBJ in 3DC, Blender, or Maya. The OBJ file format doesn't seem broken compared to the included (ie. working) primitives. 3DC just won't accept custom primitives in any situation on my end. Again, I can import the object to the object palette. Just not the toolbar.

I had a little problem that is somewhat related, but as it turns out, the OBJ chosen when the Primitive tool is active, was a bit too dense. The polycount on those need to be like 30k or less. It's largely because the Primitive tool wasn't designed to handle dense meshes and it has built in Free Form Lattice functionality. The same thing applies to repeating meshes along a path in the CURVES tool. The individual meshes need to be a lower density, in order to remain relatively interactive, when using the tool.

Can you try an OBJ mesh that is below 20k and test again? 

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Can you try an OBJ mesh that is below 20k and test again? 

Let me start by saying that the problem is not poly count, as I tested that early on. THAT SAID.... I found the problem. It's a combination of user error and bug.

USER ERROR... I didn't name the OBJ file "surface.obj"
BUG... There's no error handling to prevent a crash if you name the OBJ something other "surface.obj". Name the object something like, "nose.obj" and it hard crashes without warning or prompting the user to rename the OBJ to "surface.obj" instead. The "+"dialogue preemptively tells you to name the custom OBJ "surface.obj", but 3DCoat does nothing to step in and prevent the crash if you forget.

USER SIDE FIX... Just name the darn custom object properly to "surface.obj"
3DCOAT SIDE FIX... Verify that the object that the button is pointing to is named properly. Step in. Stop the object creation, preventing the crash. Warn the end user that it is named improperly. Attempt to fix the issue - if 3DCoat has that permission. Provide the end user a way to manually rename the custom OBJ - if 3DCoat doesn't have that permission.

Overall, even if the mistake is mine, 3DCoat has to be idiot proofed through better error handling. :p:

Edited by cookepuss
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Dear 3Dcoat Team!

About Vertextures  (ver.54):

-Opacity Slider is missing

-Could You make a function: Right Click in Smartmaterial Window: Convert to Vertexture. Use the same texture files, with absolute paths. 

-IMHO there is no need for Texture duplicates in the vertexture Folder,  just store the .facture files there

-There is no direct way from the online PBR Library to Vertexture.

-Usd export of factures has no materials and no vertex color attributes. 

-Fbx is working super.(tested with blender3.5)

 

I hope everybody is well!

Thank you for the Coat.

Edited by Ctc_nick
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Yeah. My curiosity is piqued now too. That Pilgway continues to churn out one amazing release after another, especially in this climate, is already enough of a pleasant surprise. Now with Carlosan teasing us... :D

(OT: See that you're a regular in this forum too, Elemeno. Just posted in your Modeler thread over on Steam; As robsanta74, incidentally.)

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1 hour ago, Elemeno said:

i dont have the unify surfaces option.....

Neither do I.  It looks cool and I was hoping to test it out.  How does it tie in with curves in 3D Coat?

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I don't see it either. Not in 55, 54, or 53 - the version used in the video. It's rather baffling and the video doesn't help; It assumes that the button is already there. I've been at it for 2 hours. Not in the menu, the rollouts, anything RMB, etc. Nothing with marking  edges, creating curve networks, or anything remotely like what's in the video. I checked the beta options too. Whatever the process, it's not obvious. I give up. :rofl:

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1 hour ago, Elemeno said:

any news on when we get this button?

I forgot to add the tool to the menu. I'm sorry.
Part of the functionality of this tool will be licensed as an extra module.

But viewing the mesh as a surface will be available from version 56.

image.png
 

image.png

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1 hour ago, Gorbatovsky said:

But viewing the mesh as a surface will be available from version 56.

@Gorbatovsky These type of nurbs surface tools are really exciting, thank you for your work! 

I really like the state of modeling tools in 3DCoat, and curve tools are probably the best I've worked with in any DCC package. If its not too early to say, it would be very interesting to hear about any prospect in 3DCoat of being able to, for example
1. convert mesh to NURBS
2. each occurrence of edge becomes curve
3. manipulate the object's shape by manipulating the curves
I think there's huge market for that type of tool even if it's not something so elaborate as rhino or pure CAD software

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2 hours ago, poeboi said:

@Gorbatovsky These type of nurbs surface tools are really exciting, thank you for your work! 

I really like the state of modeling tools in 3DCoat, and curve tools are probably the best I've worked with in any DCC package. If its not too early to say, it would be very interesting to hear about any prospect in 3DCoat of being able to, for example
1. convert mesh to NURBS
2. each occurrence of edge becomes curve
3. manipulate the object's shape by manipulating the curves
I think there's huge market for that type of tool even if it's not something so elaborate as rhino or pure CAD software

I think you might find this thread interesting.  https://3dcoat.com/forum/index.php?/topic/22207-new-curves-development-feedback/page/3/ 

There is a unique pathway opening up here that I've been excited about since 3D Coat introduced Curves.  This step further cements the foundation for an advanced pseudo polygon workflow using voxel objects and splines.  

 

GIF 2020-11-07 7-50-42 PM.gif

Edited by gbball
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Regarding recent developments in the sculpt resolution layer, I wonder if it is somehow possible:

Assume you have a sculpt with several layers, low res and maybe 1-3 levels to top level
1. Take copy of the lowest level, out of tree
2. Preserve vertex order and no. of points
3. Pose the sculpt, for example, send 1:1 to Blender, quickly rig to pose it, send back

would it be possible:
4. Somehow insert back into the multires, and get the higher sculpt detail back in higher levels

the usecase/need would be for posing the sculpt, optimally low res, but then getting the higher detail back and keeping pose

hope I'm making sense

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13 hours ago, poeboi said:

Regarding recent developments in the sculpt resolution layer, I wonder if it is somehow possible:

Assume you have a sculpt with several layers, low res and maybe 1-3 levels to top level
1. Take copy of the lowest level, out of tree
2. Preserve vertex order and no. of points
3. Pose the sculpt, for example, send 1:1 to Blender, quickly rig to pose it, send back

would it be possible:
4. Somehow insert back into the multires, and get the higher sculpt detail back in higher levels

the usecase/need would be for posing the sculpt, optimally low res, but then getting the higher detail back and keeping pose

hope I'm making sense

That would be cool...so like being able to continue sculpting on a mesh that's been posed in Blender then brought back in?

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