Hey guys, I'm facing the same problem here as Andreas Hackel
There are inconsistency of channel green up as well as red.
I tried render with tangent, local and world space, but they produce same results. No cage or projection used. I'm using 3ds Max 2014.
Honestly, unless you need to make like 100 very simple props in a short timeframe, I would not bother with this method. There are too many technical issues and too little control over the end result to merit the hassle of setting it up.
If this is way faster than using standard control loops/sub-d, you should probably practice your sub-d skills more.
Much of what is cool about this can be done with other, more flexible tricks, like floating object with soft intersections.
Naa, no uvs or texture/material tricks, just floating geometry.
However, after seeing some of the stuff Tor has been doing with the edge bevel shader thing, I'm going to retract my previous statement. Now that there is a viable way to do this in Modo I really need to play with it more :poly124: It seems like it bakes out of Modo without and fuss. You can bake out an object space map and then use XN or Handplane to convert to a tangent space map and bring it into pretty much any engine. So that solves a bunch of the technical concerns that lead me to say it wasn't a particularly viable method previously.
Though it still is an app-centric method, and if you need to send it off to Maya or Max to edit or bake, you're going to lose the smooth edge thing, so probably not a viable solution for studios that aren't heavily invested in Modo (or whichever particular app you set up the edge bevel material in). Or if you're freelancing for various studios who use various software and you need to send them editable scenes, I can see this workflow being an issue there as well.
Yeah the Modo solution looks a lot better than rounded corners in Maya/Max/XSI. The Modo one looks good enough to be actually used in a production pipeline where as I'd never do this in Max unless I needed to rush a normal bake for a very very imminent deadline.
Instead of using the script r_fletch_r provides, you could just "unlock" the Round_Corners_Bump Map and then select it from the Map Browser, just like applying a Noise map to the Bump slot (for Max that is).
Guide to unlock the Round_Corners_Bump Map for all Shaders in 3DS Max:
STEP 1:
- Go to <your max install dir>\mentalray\shaders_standard\include
- find architectural.mi and backup it!
- open it with notepad and scroll down till you find
# - Round corners bump shader
- below that you will find a line that says
declare shader vector "mia_roundcorners" (
-delete the "vector"
declare shader "mia_roundcorners" (
-save the file and close it
STEP 2:
-now find architectural_max.mi just below the architectural.mi and backup it too!
-open it with the notepad and scroll down till you find
STEP 3:
- launch Max
- pick a standart material in the Material Editor
- under the Maps rollout klick on the bump entity
- choose "Architectural: Round Corners Bump" from the top of the maps list
- adjust the radius (no clue what the other settings are good for)
DONE!
I guess the most of you already unlocked that, just wanted to finaly contribute something to Polycount too
Has anyone tried unlocking this in Max 2015? I can't seem to make it show up.
So in Maya this is working quite decently. But there are cases when mia_roundcorners does not create acceptable solutions.
Take for example two convex neighbouring faces - if their angle exceeds 90° degree there won't be any satisfying normal modifications. Instead you'll get the shading of the underlying low poly geometry.
Has anyone figured out if it is possible to increase the angle tolerance of the mia_roundcorners node? Increasing the radius does not solve this problem.
So in Maya this is working quite decently. But there are cases when mia_roundcorners does not create acceptable solutions.
Take for example two convex neighbouring faces - if their angle exceeds 90° degree there won't be any satisfying normal modifications. Instead you'll get the shading of the underlying low poly geometry.
Has anyone figured out if it is possible to increase the angle tolerance of the mia_roundcorners node? Increasing the radius does not solve this problem.
How did you solve the Render to texture/baking issues? I havent seen a good solution yet and i really would like to!
How did you solve the Render to texture/baking issues? I havent seen a good solution yet and i really would like to!
You can mitigate the artifacts/issues by cranking up the resolution (x and y) and the number of samples. You just have to know that you can insert way higher numbers than the sliders offer you.
Sent it through xNormal to convert from world space normal to tanget space normal and shrink the image at the very last step to your desired final resolution.
This works very well for us.
Edit: is there something similar to mia_roundcorners in Blender by the way?
You can mitigate the artifacts/issues by cranking up the resolution (x and y) and the number of samples. You just have to know that you can insert way higher numbers than the sliders offer you.
Sent it through xNormal to convert from world space normal to tanget space normal and shrink the image at the very last step to your desired final resolution.
This works very well for us.
Edit: is there something similar to mia_roundcorners in Blender by the way?
No I mean how did you even bake it in Maya in the first place? When I try to render to texture no normal detail gets baked.
Finally succeeded to bake the mia_round_corner effect into normal map
As you can see there are 2 remaining problems:
1/ minor artifacts on the cap edge of the cylinder which I can't solve...Edge padding that I need to change maybe ?
2/ As Polynaught stated :
"Take for example two convex neighbouring faces - if their angle exceeds 90° degree there won't be any satisfying normal modifications. Instead you'll get the shading of the underlying low poly geometry.
Has anyone figured out if it is possible to increase the angle tolerance of the mia_roundcorners node? Increasing the radius does not solve this problem."
I thinks it's the problem as we see the round edge normal fading out on the picture.
What do you think ? Has anyone solved that issue ?
Finally succeeded to bake the mia_round_corner effect into normal map
As you can see there are 2 remaining problems:
1/ minor artifacts on the cap edge of the cylinder which I can't solve...Edge padding that I need to change maybe ?
2/ As Polynaught stated :
"Take for example two convex neighbouring faces - if their angle exceeds 90° degree there won't be any satisfying normal modifications. Instead you'll get the shading of the underlying low poly geometry.
Has anyone figured out if it is possible to increase the angle tolerance of the mia_roundcorners node? Increasing the radius does not solve this problem."
I thinks it's the problem as we see the round edge normal fading out on the picture.
What do you think ? Has anyone solved that issue ?
Cheers
How did you get it to work? Tried months back but couldn't get anything.
I got this to work for me as well, I just needed to add lights in my scene However I experience the same issue as above. Also does not seem to work everywhere in some instances where I made a subtraction boolean, the cut out area is not affected by the shader at all!
Add me to the list of folks here wondering how to render normal information from a mental ray material using Maya?? WHAT SORCERY IS THIS!!! Is there a process outlined somewhere that doesn't list the baking portion as "step 3 bake your maps!"
I'm VERY interested in this. I've been watching the way Tor models and would love to use the same workflow but unfortunately I'm working in Maya. Recently I've been using the zbrush dynamesh+polish technique, but the feature maya has for creating bevels on intersecting geometry would be so useful for retopo after.
I'm VERY interested in this. I've been watching the way Tor models and would love to use the same workflow but unfortunately I'm working in Maya. Recently I've been using the zbrush dynamesh+polish technique, but the feature maya has for creating bevels on intersecting geometry would be so useful for retopo after.
Replies
There are inconsistency of channel green up as well as red.
I tried render with tangent, local and world space, but they produce same results. No cage or projection used. I'm using 3ds Max 2014.
How you getting that result without a seam?
That cylinder has it's own set of uv's I presume
However, after seeing some of the stuff Tor has been doing with the edge bevel shader thing, I'm going to retract my previous statement. Now that there is a viable way to do this in Modo I really need to play with it more :poly124: It seems like it bakes out of Modo without and fuss. You can bake out an object space map and then use XN or Handplane to convert to a tangent space map and bring it into pretty much any engine. So that solves a bunch of the technical concerns that lead me to say it wasn't a particularly viable method previously.
Though it still is an app-centric method, and if you need to send it off to Maya or Max to edit or bake, you're going to lose the smooth edge thing, so probably not a viable solution for studios that aren't heavily invested in Modo (or whichever particular app you set up the edge bevel material in). Or if you're freelancing for various studios who use various software and you need to send them editable scenes, I can see this workflow being an issue there as well.
Still, looks more and more promising these days.
Has anyone tried unlocking this in Max 2015? I can't seem to make it show up.
The shader is now located in:
3ds Max 2015\NVIDIA\shaders_standard\mentalray\include
You can still do this in 2015 but you do need to set the renderer to Mental Ray before it shows up.
Take for example two convex neighbouring faces - if their angle exceeds 90° degree there won't be any satisfying normal modifications. Instead you'll get the shading of the underlying low poly geometry.
Has anyone figured out if it is possible to increase the angle tolerance of the mia_roundcorners node? Increasing the radius does not solve this problem.
How did you solve the Render to texture/baking issues? I havent seen a good solution yet and i really would like to!
You can mitigate the artifacts/issues by cranking up the resolution (x and y) and the number of samples. You just have to know that you can insert way higher numbers than the sliders offer you.
Sent it through xNormal to convert from world space normal to tanget space normal and shrink the image at the very last step to your desired final resolution.
This works very well for us.
Edit: is there something similar to mia_roundcorners in Blender by the way?
not on april 1st man!
No I mean how did you even bake it in Maya in the first place? When I try to render to texture no normal detail gets baked.
Are you using the following method to bake your texture (see attached gif)?
edit: attachments seem to be somewhat broken... just click the link
As you can see there are 2 remaining problems:
1/ minor artifacts on the cap edge of the cylinder which I can't solve...Edge padding that I need to change maybe ?
2/ As Polynaught stated :
"Take for example two convex neighbouring faces - if their angle exceeds 90° degree there won't be any satisfying normal modifications. Instead you'll get the shading of the underlying low poly geometry.
Has anyone figured out if it is possible to increase the angle tolerance of the mia_roundcorners node? Increasing the radius does not solve this problem."
I thinks it's the problem as we see the round edge normal fading out on the picture.
What do you think ? Has anyone solved that issue ?
Cheers
How did you get it to work? Tried months back but couldn't get anything.
However I experience the same issue as above.
Also does not seem to work everywhere in some instances where I made a subtraction boolean, the cut out area is not affected by the shader at all!
WHAT SORCERY IS THIS!!!
Is there a process outlined somewhere that doesn't list the baking portion as "step 3 bake your maps!"
http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2547249/#Comment_2547249