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3D-Coat 3.7 updates thread


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  • Advanced Member

My brain has not been able to keep up since 2007... :shok:

Another great update Andrew...

Thank goodness it's not just me then, lol. More updates than a fresh install of Windows 7!!

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Have you tried to see how the import of vertex colors works in Max? Just apply a Vertex Color map and leave Nitrous enabled?

I sent Andrew the FBX files to create a 3D-Coat FBX exporter for Max.

Voxelpainting 3DCoat ==>MAX

Fbx file format for MAX:

I could export a vertexpainted sphere and a head (I baked diffuse texture into vertex color)

from 3DSMax 2012 SP2 as FBX with default options, then

1. imported the Fbx file into MAX with default options to see if it still has vertex color (VC)

2.To display VC in viewport: I selected the object --> pressed ALT+ENTER for Object Properties,

clicked Vertex Channel Display checkbox at bottom and below it set options to Vertex Color.

This makes vertex paint on the object visible in the viewport.

3. To render vertex color: I copied the map from the imported object into Material Editor with the Material Picker (Pen icon). In its empty diffuse slot I put the default Max map-type: Vertex Color.

I got this result on the image.

Rendering a subdivided vertex painted object with VRAY with or without displacement maps could look powerful!

This is a lowpoly head increased subdiv level by one, deleted the UVW-map to make Channel Info clearer.

3dsmaxw.jpg

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Bump painting is not possible now. But I am considering how to do that. It will be more than useful.

Indeed. This, just this, could make 3dc a real "state-of-the-art" app. Without competitors I mean. Let's think about this.

You know, this could alter the whole 3dc concept, the UI, everything.

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Beat, If I may, this changes the way we sculpt as well. Imagine this. High frequency details can be done by bumps. And be able to alter them as you sculpt, and apply some new ones again. Every other combination, I can't figure what the possibilities are.

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  • Advanced Member

The bump painting idea is a nice thought but voxel painting is a pixel per polygon so to paint bumps you would have to increase resolution anyway ,so might as well do sculpting .Sculpted details also have the advantage of being included in baking cavity/normal ( or if you are willing to wait a bit longer ,ambient occlusion).

An idea would be to have some way to store the model in memory or to a cache file before you do high frequency bump painting ,do your bump sculpting on a separate layer .When finished then the final models vertices could be projected onto the stored model which would then give 2 states with the same topology .Then you would be able to morph between the before and after state or even further or negatively to control the strength of the bumps.Also the morph could then be controled locally by painting areas as a mask.

And if a projection system is added to 3DC then it also solves the problem of going back to voxels as you can project back to the previous model.

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In both 3.7.03c and .03b, I get nothing when trying to test. I have "show beta tools" enabled and "show voxels in Paint room". I can see the voxel object in the paint room, but absolutely no ability to paint. I start with a sphere primitive and the default clay shader, switch it to surface mode, then go to the Paint room, add a layer and try to paint something. Nada, nothing. This has always been a problem with new features in 3D Coat. They get a mention in twitter and in this thread, but there is rarely any instructions or video example on the proper steps to make it work. It's always left up to the users to "figure it out." Then those who do, have to explain it in bits and pieces to those who haven't yet.

It is definitely outdated shaders problem.

Please try default shader first. Probably you are using modified shader.

Also try to go to MyDocs/3D-CoatV3/Shaders/Custom, backup all and then delete all there.

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In both 3.7.03c and .03b, I get nothing when trying to test. I have "show beta tools" enabled and "show voxels in Paint room". I can see the voxel object in the paint room, but absolutely no ability to paint. I start with a sphere primitive and the default clay shader, switch it to surface mode, then go to the Paint room, add a layer and try to paint something. Nada, nothing. This has always been a problem with new features in 3D Coat. They get a mention in twitter and in this thread, but there is rarely any instructions or video example on the proper steps to make it work. It's always left up to the users to "figure it out." Then those who do, have to explain it in bits and pieces to those who haven't yet.

I think a small rough video showing new feature is a good idea. It does not have to show it in detail.

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  • Applink Developer

I think that forum help is already very good. I'm not concerned about creating "how to guides" for beta features (Andrew's time is limited). But I do agree that all the features in official release should be documented

and they should be easy to understand and use...BTW blender applink vertex colors support almost done :)

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In both 3.7.03c and .03b, I get nothing when trying to test. I have "show beta tools" enabled and "show voxels in Paint room". I can see the voxel object in the paint room, but absolutely no ability to paint. I start with a sphere primitive and the default clay shader, switch it to surface mode, then go to the Paint room, add a layer and try to paint something. Nada, nothing. This has always been a problem with new features in 3D Coat. They get a mention in twitter and in this thread, but there is rarely any instructions or video example on the proper steps to make it work. It's always left up to the users to "figure it out." Then those who do, have to explain it in bits and pieces to those who haven't yet.

I also have "show beta tools" enabled but where is "show voxels in Paint room"?

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You have to figure it out or you are too dumb to use it, I guess. At least that is what is implied by providing no instructions whatsoever.

....seriously though, it's in the View menu. Only visible from the Paint Room.

Hehe..could be right the brain cells seem to disappear at an astonishing rate when you're over sixty.

Thanks, it turns out that it was already enabled as I was able to paint on a voxel sphere.

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The new layer tool is fantastic! I had been trying recently to get the effect it gives for some time using the freeze tool in surface mode and scaling a cloned layer slightly reduced in size to get the effect it can give. The new tool does a much better job a lot faster. I can't believe my luck having this new tool just pop up like that, have you been spying on me Andrew? He he! I think this tool will be very useful thank you, I am very happy. :D

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Andrew, voxel painting is amazing and you're turning out updates at an impressive speed. Just wanted to mention a few things I noticed with the latest update that don't seem to be working correctly. The first thing is that when I switch a voxel object over into the paint room the world grid draws over the object. Navagating the viewport makes the grid lines behave as they should but once I stop they render over the object again. Second, Having the voxel tree pop up in the paint room makes sense but it seems to be inconsistant and doesn't respect the customizations I've made to my work area. Also, changeing the voxel resolution with the increase object resolution button in the voxtree deletes any paint on the object, which makes sense, but isn't as user friendly as it could be. Especially since voxel painting is bound to the voxel resolution, when the artist needs more detail increasing the voxel resoluiton is probably going to be the first thing they try. These are all litlte annoyances but are there non the less so I figured I would point them out in case you hadn't noticed them yet. Great work so far, I can see this new feature leading to a much more powerful paint room and this makes 3d-Coat even more valuable for me.

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The paiting on voxels is great! Is there a way to have a texure map that is already on a model import into 3d coat directly to the voxel object. For example I deal with a lot of 3d scan data that has a texture map captured to the model during the scan. If I could open up the obj mesh in 3d coat and have it read the texture to the imported voxel conversion that would be great! This would save time from having to reproject paint the texture back on to the model.

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  • Reputable Contributor

How long until a method to increase tesselation through masks will be available ?

You can in surface mode, by selecting your mask and choosing a LC brush . Increase the detail sider to the amount of tesselation desired.

You might be talking about something else but added the info just to sure.

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Also deselect the showvoxelsinpaintroom under the view window in the paintroom. I had models disappearing from older 3DCoat files where I had already merged a retopo mesh. That fixed my problem.

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