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Author Topic: VrayMultiSubTex support  (Read 4756 times)

gimik

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VrayMultiSubTex support
« on: November 19, 2011, 01:22:36 AM »
vray's "VrayMultiSubTex" texture is really handy for handling material adjustments inside of a single material instead of duplicating across multiple materials in a Multi/Sub-Object material.  for example, a single leaf material with 4 or 5 sub textures nested in a VrayMultiSubTex allows you to vary the material but control common parameters easily.

unfortunately, this makes a material incompatible with forestPack since a mutli/sub material is generated on the fly that changes the material ids of the original object.. this means that if a VrayMultiSubTex was applied using specific material ids, they no longer match with the geometry they are applied to.

since the forest system is changing ids anyway, it seems that it would be possible to synchronize the vrayMultiSubTex ids as well... is this something that could be supported easily?

thanks,
greg

iToo

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Re: VrayMultiSubTex support
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2011, 10:05:33 AM »

For this purpose we have developed Forest Color. It includes up to 10 random sub-textures, random tint, and can even detect automatically the leafs in a tree:

http://localweb/forestpack/reference/color.php

If you are missing some specific feature or need help to use it, please tell us.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

gimik

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Re: VrayMultiSubTex support
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2011, 10:20:08 PM »
i don't have extensive experience with forest pack or forest color so correct me if i'm wrong, but it doesn't seem that the forest color texture works outside of a forest pack system..   the point of a vrayMultiSubTex is not necessarily for variation across multiple objects in a system, but rather a way to control a single material with different texture maps for different ids.  this makes it very valuable no matter how objects are being used (whether they are used in a forest pack system or not).

there are also other incompatibilities, such as the fact that vrayMultiSubTex supports 20 textures (probably more in the future) as well as ObjectID support (whereas Forest Color only supports 10 textures and only material or "element" id).

if the forest color texture worked outside of forest pack, that would help the situation, but vrayMultiSubTex also has the advantage of being part of the renderer package as opposed to a separate plugin, so if an asset and its material are built using it they are guaranteed to work regardless of whether the user is working with forest pack or not.   (although forest pack is a valuable tool, it is not as significant a part of a pipeline as the renderer).    i understand the developer advantage for a separate texture (as well as being able to add cool features like the "Tint" variation in forest color), but from a user stand point it seems that support for the renderer would be even more desirable.

is support for the vrayMultiSubTex something difficult to incorporate?




iToo

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Re: VrayMultiSubTex support
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2011, 02:22:15 PM »

The support for VrayMultiSubTex is problematic, because we would modify the IDs returned by Forest, but not the values expected by VrayMultiSubTex. And in any case, the IDs generated by Forest must match with the assigned material.

Anyways, i add your suggestion to the wishlist. We will look if there is any way to support it.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software