James: Subdivisions won't help as i'v already lost forms, subidiving won't give me those shapes back, maybe scaling the voxel will help, its worth a shot, but i kinda doubt it. But maybe overall i expect too much and would have to retope large portions anyways. But maybe 3dcoat gives me the quick start i expected after all, i doubt i can get around without working on it at all

Pior: sure, do you have zbrush3.5r3? because the file is way smaller as a .ztl then in an obj, oh and do you have some sort of messenger? would be a bit easier to talk about that, but don't want to bother you ^^

Neox: Sorry I meant subdividing the mesh from the retopology tools... it should stick to the voxel mesh underneath as you rez it up, and soak up details from that mesh. The more you subdivide it the more it resembles the voxel sculpt... though 3dcoat doesn't do so hot with higher density polygon meshes... at least on the machines I work with. You should still be able to get 2 or 3 subdivisions out of it though - enough to get your forms back.

AutopsySoldier: My experience is that 3dC only applies the padding once you export your texture, so while you've got a visible seam currently, that may change when you save out that texture.

Yes, padding is only added at export in fact Andrew just improved the algorithm for that, I haven't even had a chance to see the difference yet.

Yeah, I'm really impressed with 3d coat, but it runs really poorly on my computer. My computer is really powerful as well, so its incredibly annoying that I have performance issues. For example if I use the sphere tool to make voxel spheres on the fly, if I simply sketch across the screen in lags or completely freezes the program up.
I have a 285gtx graphic card, 16 gigs of ram, 3.0 quad core processor, and I'm running windows 7 64 bit.
I have read that 3d Coat does not support hyperthreading, therefore, multicore systems are actually a bad thing. Could this be causing my problems?
I watched some tutorials out there, and it seemed that the people running the tutorials had way better performance than I currently have. Anyways, anyone else have similar issues?

Wow that's a shame to hear. My PC isn't quite as powerful as yours but it handles voxels like warm butter, same on my laptop. I'm running a Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz 64 bit CPU, 6GB ram with an older 8800GTS card. Are you using the CUDA version? Your card should be compatible. If you're using the Direct X version try the Open GL one or vice-versa.

Perhaps your brush size is too big. Here's a little video example, while I have a 10 million triangle object open the Sphere tool works great with smaller sized brushes but it does lag a bit at larger sizes.

http://screencast.com/t/ZTEyMDgwYT

BTW version 3.2.05 was released today. It would be awesome if game engines started to handle Ptex, it would mean no more UV mapping.

I bought 3dcoat in its 3.0 beta stage, thinking it could make me forget zbrush in the near future.

Except its retopo and paint tools that have pretty much everything i want, i'm still waiting to have a "clay feeling" with the brush engine. Even sculptris is more what i want and its only alpha 3.

A shame that Andrew is working on "cool-but-absolutely-not-needed-ptex" and not on the vox sculpt capabilities of the program...

Well ptex is like 95% done now. Personally I love how the brushes feel. I've been playing with sculptris since it was first released and I'm sorry to say, while it's a cool idea and I wish him luck with it, it feels like sculpting on a water balloon to me at this stage.

I guess the idea with Ptex is that it will allow Andrew to finally get some kind of multiple resolutions going for voxel sculpting, like Zbrush's subdivisions. Also some proper masking tools would be welcome. Its pretty darn hard to sculpt without that. Cutting and pasting vox objects to work around its inability to mask is a massive pain in the ass. Also the constant artifacts I get while sculpting make it more of a chore to work with than any of the other sculpting solutions I've used.

That said...I'm still only using it for retopo, uv's and occasional diffuse painting. I'm kinda ticked that he's, so far, completely ignored the multiple requests for full color per pixel spec w/ gloss control. Without that, its not a fully functional next-gen asset painter. I thought that was supposed to be its core competency...

I don't see how Ptex would help multi-res sculpting, it has nothing to do with it. Besides, the base code for multi-res is already there in the voxel room (Surface mode). I personally don't see the real need for it, but I may find a use for it occasionally.

I've never seen those requests. I doubt he's "ignoring" anything. He said a few times in the past that his method of working is that he'll get inspired to work on something and that's what he'll work on for a while. Right now that's Ptex. Feature requests are probably where he gets much of that inspiration since quite a few of my requests have been implemented.

Originally Posted by philnolan3d

I don't see how Ptex would help multi-res sculpting, it has nothing to do with it. Besides, the base code for multi-res is already there in the voxel room (Surface mode). I personally don't see the real need for it, but I may find a use for it occasionally.

I've never seen those requests. I doubt he's "ignoring" anything. He said a few times in the past that his method of working is that he'll get inspired to work on something and that's what he'll work on for a while. Right now that's Ptex. Feature requests are probably where he gets much of that inspiration since quite a few of my requests have been implemented.

Phil there are a few threads about coloured spec on the 3dcoat forums eg http://www.3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3561 which Im also curious to see get more attention as its actually a useful feature right now not like some of the other features which are more experimental.

Hmm OK I think I actually have seen that thread I probably just didn't remember it because I've never needed that feature. Ptex on the other hand I'm really happy to have, I wish I had it when I was doing the orc in my avatar.

but in the end you have to unwrap some mesh anyway if you want to bake it and use it for real time graphics.
Ptex will start to get interesting when more tools support it and it becomes a viable option in the asset workflow or pipeline.
Photoshop for example could use a serious update into the digital CG corner like a better 3D support, navigation and perhaps even a support for the Ptex format.

Kinda sad that 3dcoat is the only 3rd party app that adopted this new tech so fast.

Wow that's a shame to hear. My PC isn't quite as powerful as yours but it handles voxels like warm butter, same on my laptop. I'm running a Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz 64 bit CPU, 6GB ram with an older 8800GTS card. Are you using the CUDA version? Your card should be compatible. If you're using the Direct X version try the Open GL one or vice-versa.

Well, I believe you were correct, it was because I was using too large of brushes. Using small brushes is very fluid and I don't have the problem mentioned earlier at all. I still would sort of expect a little better performance than what I get, but perhaps I don't fully realize what is happening with these voxels.

Anyways, I am using the 64 bit version, but not the CUDA 64 bit version. I tried to install CUDA a while back and shortly after my computer started getting blue screen errors. It might have simply been by coincidence and not had anything to do with CUDA at all. But I can't really risk it, since I make a living off my computer, and I need it working at all times.

My review on 3d Coat:
I still prefer using good old mudbox for my sculpts. Mainly because I believe that working with subdivisions is a bonus actually, as it lets you refine every sub-d more and more. And if done correctly actually gives you more control. However, I think Voxels are ideal for creating base meshes on which to sculpt, and general 3d concepting. Also, certain things that would be a huge pain to create hardsurface wise in 3ds max, would be ridiculously easy in 3d coat by just joining objects or using the booleans.

Plus, I really like the retopo tools, and I'm going to have to give em a go sometime to see if I prefer it over 3ds max 2010 tools. Painting wise, I prefer bodypaint for sure, I'm just used to it and it has everything I need. Mudbox is actually quite nice at times as well painting wise, because you can view your normals real time while you work.

But there are certainly enough things happening with 3d coat that I am convinced that it will help me out. I'll probably pickup a copy when my trial period runs out.

Originally Posted by renderhjs

but in the end you have to unwrap some mesh anyway if you want to bake it and use it for real time graphics.
Ptex will start to get interesting when more tools support it and it becomes a viable option in the asset workflow or pipeline.
Photoshop for example could use a serious update into the digital CG corner like a better 3D support, navigation and perhaps even a support for the Ptex format.

Kinda sad that 3dcoat is the only 3rd party app that adopted this new tech so fast.

I agree that it would be great to see more packages using Ptex. Not sure what unwrapping you mean though. I haven't tried using any Ptex exports in a game engine yet but I understand it works well.

BTW Brad you should start with a very low voxel resolution then you probably won't have that issue with the large brush, for example starting with the smallest of the sample spheres.

Edit: BTW I just uploaded a video of my current 3DC WIP if anyone's interested. I'll use Ptex to texture him and render in LightWave.

You Tube

Phil: I detect the slightest whiff of defensiveness re: 3DC. Thats really not necessary. My understanding was that Andrew was coming up with some novel combination of quadrangulate, ptex and voxel multi-res to enable smooth transitions back and forth between low and high detail vox resolutions. Also, if you can auto quadrangulate the model, ptex it to address texture coordinates, that might be a first step towards proper masking.

As for "never needing it" re: colored spec...try doing some real work for a next-gen game or high end off-line rendering and then tell us how unimportant colorization of your specular values are...or per-pixel gloss control.

Well that's why I specified that I personally have never needed the coloured spec, obviously some other people are interested in it. As for the multi-res maybe that's true, I just haven't heard it before. I do understand there may be some trouble with mipmapping in game engines, but I haven't tried it so I'm not sure how bad that is.