3D-Coat 3.1 updates thread

[philnolan3d]

I gotta say, I don't like the new display method for the primitives. It makes it very difficult to see the edges while making adjustments to the shape. If it's going to be clear like this it needs a wireframe.

[Javis]

I gotta say, I don't like the new display method for the primitives. It makes it very difficult to see the edges while making adjustments to the shape. If it's going to be clear like this it needs a wireframe.

Completely agree. A wireframe would make it much better.

[philnolan3d]

Random tip: when rendering a high poly animation if it seems slow hit Alt+Enter to go into full screen mode before you render, it's a big speed up.

[Andrew Shpagin]

Updated to 3.1.18

Changes:

- Speed up of voxel sculpting in surface mode.

- At least we got rid of pose/move tool artifacts (sometimes long lines and dots appeared).

- Freeze tool in voxel surface mode, full support of rectangular selection mode in surface tools, all works very fast.

- I improved Flatten and Clay in surface tools, surface Fill done too. It makes set of surface tools much more full.

- I changed paradigm of surface tools (to test )- will it be better? Surface will be transformed to voxels not after stroke, but by request.It will give more predictable and less buggy result.

- Rapid brush has become much faster and gives smoother result.

- "Textures->Export depth layers" will work in microvertices too. It allows to transfer all layers structure between per-pixel and microverts.

- Fixed navigation problem in UV room when UV preview window is closed.

- I fixed crash in reduction tool that was mentioned in forum. It was not easy...

- Bug in Logo tool fixed - missing some vertical lines.

- Negative extrusion in VoxTree->Extrude tool is supported too.

- Separate qudrangulated objects will be merged as separate retopo layers.

- Also very useful feature for shadermakers - Options->Debug shader mode. It allows to see shader's errors in realtime.

- simple feature for shadermakers: bool and #define can be determined using Variables.xml. Look comments for shader TestBool.

[haikalle]

Nice update, but there is some problems with undo in surface tools

Speed is Amazing!!!

[philnolan3d]

Really nice update so far I'm very happy with the Freeze option. It would be great to see more on that in the future like Invert, Unfreeze, and Smooth with Shift key. I didn't see any Undo problems so far.

[haikalle]

I'm using 64 Cuda(DX) version. Which version you are using philnolan3d?

[kay_Eva]

brilliant development. I love it!

[artman]

Here is my little review of release 18 for you Andrew,

-I was not able to get any streaks or dots artifacts using any of the tools,

and Im able to make some appear really quickly in previous release.

No matter how far I push the pinching or flattening ,surface-to-voxel conversion is always superb.

-Speed improvement is very noticable also when working,I found it was already fast but now..its just crazy fast.

-New flatten behaviour is cool ,much more suited for hardsurface work than previous version because it doesnt add volume,

it feels like midway between scrape and surface smooth and I like it a lot.

-New extrude and absolute brush are not very good for sculpting but they are amazing to use with Stamp mode and alphas.I remember LJB saying it was hard to use stamp mode to add details from alphas ...well,not anymore!

-Rapid brush is really improved but I still like SfClay better...but I know some really like that brush.

-New surface fill is just exactly what I dreamed of,it works fast and very predictably.

-Freeze works perfect,all users crazy about having zbrushlike masking will be highly pleased I think.It even works with splines and all selection modes of the E panel (in Zb you got only rectangle,pen and freehand lasso)

....Wow! and now that I look at it ,all the brushes seems to support E panel selection modes!!!

(Oh.....a little thing, alot of the brushes are missing the invert tool action checkbox,there is no reasons why somebody should hold Ctrl for 2 hours.)

In all,I think this update is a gigantic step in voxel sculpting devellopment and toolset is very complete!

[haikalle]

Yeh....forget the undo problems....That was my mistake...

[kay_Eva]

Here is the one thing I would like to see... Will it be possible to bake all details from Surface Mode into normal maps and ambient occlusion for per-pixel paint?

I have to say it's quite awesome to see the same level of brush detail in 3dCoat viewport as Zbrush.

Right now I think Sculpt Voxels ---> Sculpt Surface ---> Retopo and Bake from Surface ---> Per Pixel Painting

The same way Zbrush has "Drop to Canvas" there can be a finalization of voxel sculpting where you "Drop to Surface Mode" or whatever you want to call it.

Really phenomonal but what I can see is that it is taking quite a while to convert my surface sculpting to voxels when I pressed enter. Which is why I think maybe there could be a point where you no longer want to go back to voxels but insead stay in surface mode and then retopo and bake from surface mode.

[haikalle]

I agree 100% with you kay_Eva. This is more artist friendly when it dosen't update after every stroke. Put if you don't press Enter often it will take forever to transfer it to

voxels when you press icon.

[Calabi]

I wouldnt say its artist friendly to have to think to remember to press enter every so often. And yeah it does take several minutes to convert the voxels and what if I forget to press enter after a while, and there is a lot of surface to change, and then it crashes or I think its crashed and force quit the program.

I prefer the immediate conversion, you dont have to think about it worry about it at all.

[kay_Eva]

I wouldnt say its artist friendly to have to think to remember to press enter every so often. And yeah it does take several minutes to convert the voxels and what if I forget to press enter after a while, and there is a lot of surface to change, and then it crashes or I think its crashed and force quit the program.

I prefer the immediate conversion, you dont have to think about it worry about it at all.

But I think immediate conversation slows it down. I personally absolutely love the new speed. I would just like to be able to bake the details directly from surface mode to low poly retopo mesh.

[cakeller]

I wouldnt say its artist friendly to have to think to remember to press enter every so often.

I prefer the immediate conversion, you dont have to think about it worry about it at all.

Sorry sir, but it's much more artist friendly.

what you're not realizing is that the time it takes to revoxelize after each stroke is the slow down. There's NO REASON AT ALL you HAVE to press enter, until you're ready to go back to voxel sculpting.

THIS IS FANTASTIC.

however, for those that don't like it, sure have an option - but for me this is 10000000000 times better than the immediate conversion because you don't have to pause between strokes to wait for conversion. AND when you have little fine details that might get lost in conversion (that happens) you can work with it until you're ready.

MHO

HAR!!! Jinx (I guess I was a little slower to respond)

[EDIT]

and the note referring to the icon, is not taling about the surface tools for voxel sculpting.... in fact it is suggesting that "If you want to use surface tools for a long time, it is probably better to convert to working in Surface mode by clicking the icon in the voxel tree, to temporarly switch to surface mode because the TOOLS ARE BETTER/MORE, and then switch back when you're done.

For the "on the fly" surface tools for voxel sculpting - the surface will convert back to voxels immediately upon switching to a voxel tool, so you don't EVER HAVE to remember to press enter. If you read the note that was presented it said IF YOU DONT LIKE HOW STRETCH THE SURFACE IS GETTING THEN press enter and it will re-voxel the surface, and then you can continue to "on the fly surface sculpt" on a new mesh.

this is SOOOO SOOO much better than the immediate conversion

HOWEVER I definitely think it should be an option - a little check box

convert to voxels after every strok []

a simple solution that gives best of both worlds.

I'm done, now I go play! I LOVE this update!

[Lucky_1]

Fantastic update Andrew !

Love the new surface mode/speed.

Small bug: freeze is'nt working with the move brush in surface mode.

[cakeller]

Pose Tool Select by pen!!! - Excellent

Move Tool (voxels) - wow... at first I thought it was slow, but it's NOT it updates smooth and fast, but the movement is very controlled... I LIKES THE RESULTS they feel very precise.

New Rapid improvements seem pretty good. FASTER AND SMOOTHER, is a good combination.

I was going to say something about the flatten brush, but it turns out it's great too! maybe it's a little bit finicky when the brush radius is lower than 10, but otherwise it's GREAT!

and clay is much ipmroved too

ok and my favorite new feature!!! so many favorites really, but .... SF FREEZE!!! YAHOO!!! and it works with masking ... ANDREW I AM SO VERY HAPPY ABOUT THIS!!!!

However in surface mode,

Even with 100% the Smooth tool feels lack-luster... doesn't smooth out artifacts created in surface mode very well.

[philnolan3d]

Fantastic update Andrew !

Love the new surface mode/speed.

Small bug: freeze is'nt working with the move brush in surface mode.

That works fine for me in DX64 CUDA. The only thing that was a little off for me was that a couple of times a big square of "no freeze" would appear in my freeze while I was switching SF tools. It was only graphical though, the freeze was still there.

[jacobo]

Absolutely awesome update... Andrew is definitely more than meets the eye

Wonderful release my dear sir!

With all my respect;

AJ

[haikalle]

More I play with this one, more I love it. This really could be like 3.5 or 4 version. I would pay to get these features. And Andrew is giving them only as a regular weekly update.

Just Amazing. My joy is full... Thanks Andrew!!

[cakeller]

More I play with this one, more I love it. This really could be like 3.5 or 4 version. I would pay to get these features. And Andrew is giving them only as a regular weekly update.

Just Amazing. My joy is full... Thanks Andrew!!

in truth this is a 2 week update imagine if he held back for 3 weeks... I think my head would explode.

haha very NICE update.

NOTE: Andrew, I can't find the TestBool shader... I'm using 64 bit, non-cuda.

[EDIT:] Shader Debug Mode is AWESOME!!!!! edit shader, retry, edit, retry, until it's fixed!!!! YES YES !!!! soooo cooool. THANK YOU!

[Monsoon]

All hail the Master!!!!!!

M

[jwiede]

Yep, another amazing update, Andrew! Thanks so much!

I agree strongly with the others that the last few updates taken together really comprise a 3.5 or such, and I'm concerned that you ought to be charging at least some kind of token upgrade cost (perhaps to obtain more stable internet access ). At the very least, mind if we make donations, for those of us who feel you deserve renumeration for all the hard work and excellent features you've added of late? Or would that make accounting/taxes/etc too complex to actually be helpful?

Again, thanks!

P.S. Any chance we'll ever see tree generator for Mac?

[Lucky_1]

That works fine for me in DX64 CUDA. The only thing that was a little off for me was that a couple of times a big square of "no freeze" would appear in my freeze while I was switching SF tools. It was only graphical though, the freeze was still there.

that's the 32 bit simple version

[mAXWELL]

please dont add a new pay with the "update_correction bugs" ...is enought!

[AbnRanger]

Does seem to be much faster, but after some work on a landscape, when clicking the icon in the voxel tree to revert back to voxels, I was sitting for 20-30 min waiting for something to happen and ended up having to nix 3DC in Windows Task Manager. That's the one thing I hate about this program...you don't know if it's hung or if it's still trying to calculate. I'm not aware of anyone having to wait 30 min+ for Mudbox or ZBrush to mull over a decision. That just kills the whole workflow when you have to go get a cup of coffee and come back and it's still not done....go use the John and it's still not done.

Can we not fix this?

[Frankie]

I'm having voxel rendering artifacts with this new version when sculpting voxels. Anyone else?

When reloading the file, everything is smooth again until sculpting again. So it's just visualization, yet it's annoying.

Tried two versions, same result:

3.1.18 DX CUDA 32 bits (8800 GTX)

3.1.18 DX CUDA 64 bits (GTX285)

[cuffins]

can't find the fill nor the freeze tool in surface mode...

[edit]

aaaaahhhh, you have to press the surface icon in Vox Tree to get this to work...thi scommand should also be visible in Voxel mode under surface tab...

Edited December 6, 2009 by cuffins

[artman]

I'm having voxel rendering artifacts with this new version when sculpting voxels. Anyone else?

When reloading the file, everything is smooth again until sculpting again. So it's just visualization, yet it's annoying.

Tried two versions, same result:

3.1.18 DX CUDA 32 bits (8800 GTX)

3.1.18 DX CUDA 64 bits (GTX285)

Problem is only with Cuda builds.

Also,a little tip for users

TOOTHPASTE+PEN No.1(the hard full white circle)

ARE AWESOME TOGETHER FOR QUICK HARDSURFACE SKETCHING!!

10 mins Doodle using this technique:

Also,a strange thing,I get a small punch hole at the end

of my strokes when using SF.Clay and Gum brush.

Maybe my pen is broken,can anyone try to see if its only me?

[cuffins]

Does seem to be much faster, but after some work on a landscape, when clicking the icon in the voxel tree to revert back to voxels, I was sitting for 20-30 min waiting for something to happen and ended up having to nix 3DC in Windows Task Manager. That's the one thing I hate about this program...you don't know if it's hung or if it's still trying to calculate. I'm not aware of anyone having to wait 30 min+ for Mudbox or ZBrush to mull over a decision. That just kills the whole workflow when you have to go get a cup of coffee and come back and it's still not done....go use the John and it's still not done.

Can we not fix this?

Yes I'm with AbnRanger...it's no benefit when you can sculpt high speed in surface mode and at the end you have to wait a long time 'til it's transferred to voxels...needs the same amount of time in summary...also a progress bar would be nice...