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DigitalSoapbox
Total Posts: 71
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While I'm learning to live with the fact that it looks like we'll never get the layered shaders I'd hoped we'd have in VRay, it seems that the shaders we DO have aren't really working as it seems they should.
I'm trying to render out a product shot for one of my clients - a very simple branded soda can - and, in theory, I SHOULD be able to achieve a match to the real-world can's label using the wrapped phong shader. Notice I said should, not that I'm able to, because while I can use images to control each shader attribute, VRay (1.0 AND 1.5) ignore the maps in a number of the channels. On top of that, if you overcrank the numbers in the new sidebar material editor (overcranking = putting the numbers higher than their official "max" values, which is a fairly standard feature in most higher-end render engines like Vray), these overcranked values render correctly in the material preview, but are completely ignored by VRay at render time.
Try applying an image map to the reflection, exponent, and diffuse attributes. Now, remove the image from the diffuse channel, or try overcranking the value. You can see these changes in the material preview, but VRay does not render them.
So, some questions:
1. Is this a bug in the material editor and materal preview?
2. If VRay is going to ignore the overcranked values, why can I overcrank them?
3. If I can overcrank values, and they preview correctly, why isn't VRay rendering them?
4. Are these known issues? Does Caligari have any plans to fix them? I know things are being done a bit piecemeal after the initial 7.5 release, and many problems were handled by Caligari with 7.51...so maybe this is something that can be taken care of reasonably soon in another minor point release?
And an unrelated, but equally important question:
WHY oh WHY can we not render w/ alpha channels when using VRay?
I should add that this exact same object was rendered using VRay in another 3D application, and the issues I'm running into with a mapped phone shader not working correctly, and overcranking not working correctly, was not present. So, I know I can handle this project in another 3D application, but I thought it would be a good project on which to become more familiar w/ tS7.51's animation tools because of the simplicity of the project's animation. So, while I could use 7.51's tools to animate the object, if the final visuals I'm trying to achieve aren't possible...why would I? I wish there were more people trying to apply tS to non-hobby uses on the beta team so more of these issues could be found earlier before end-users run into them. |
