I know the Wiki can’t do everything, but what can we do?
It is a Web based technology. I am kind of assuming we will be able to browse material thumbnails, do searches by attributes (name, scale, category, keyword, etc.), and have a nice info page for each material that could include detailed instructions on using the material.
I like the inner sphere a lot. I’m not sure about the the outer gray ring. As design idea, I love it. It doesn’t let you see what happens through the sphere though, the grid is obfuscated. If it where the same texture as the sphere, it might work for me.
I’ve tried out the Cube/Sphere idea again, with the sphere a bit smaller. Here there is no GI. I still like the design refinement of Gianluca’s sphere bases and the inner sphere much better.
I’m wondering for the sake of simplicity, ie, only one project to render, if this direction (with Gianluca’s design sense) would be better. I like the grid design you guys came up with, and I’m noticing finally that it reflects the object… nice. These images render in about a minute. With GI it can be a half hour.
Another concern would be the number if faces. If someone has a cool displacement map, it may not displace, unless the object is diced. Should we dice it, or leave that up to them and the read me to sort it out? Maybe the WIKI article should have a spot for notes as well, to include if the project is altered. I’m sure the block texture would appear differently if I diced the object…
Hey Yon,
I think your Cube/ Sphere looks great.
I just sent you an updated Grid setup to try out.
Gianluca and I talked about shapes- he had developed a number of alternatives.
We basically settled on the original 3 he has shown before:
1) Sphere& Partial Ring (now with interior sphere)
2) Cube
3) Cloth over a Sphere
Gianluca also has a square “plane” object that may be included (it actually has some thickness).
This may be good for architectural windowglass, or perhaps good to show displacements.
Perhaps your Cube&Sphere;combo could be another alternate (I really like it)?
We don’t need 10 separate objects for the initial release, but some shapes will show off a material’s properties better than others, and this is an important aspect of the material preview.
Basically, I think people are going to need some choice here, and may not follow the “rules” when rendering the material preview, they may slightly alter the setup (like turning off the interior sphere or the ring in Gianluca’s model that you mentioned, or running a shape through dicer to get a tighter mesh for displacements)
This is not necessarily a bad thing, This project is going to evolve over time. We are just creating a starting point. I actually hope that this starts some people thinking and we get more people developing improved versions of these material objects.
Speaking of rendertimes....
30 minutes ain’t that bad....
I’ve been playing with the Maxwell Demo a little bit.
This is just a 500x500 preview of their standard material scene.
OVER 24 HOURS JUST FOR THIS LOW RES PREVIEW!
Actually, it wasn’t even finished… I cut it off at about 85% completion.
HA HA! It just makes me laugh!
Ok, I have update shapes. New cube shape with inner and color grid SSS effect.
I accept comment also for new position of camera, first image are most “bird” view.
The version number is helpful, as not all shaders work between versions. Some of the textures created for 6.5 won’t import into 6.6 for example, even though the shader has been ported.
Yon
There isn’t. I think Yon is referring to the Noise Factory shader whose settings do not transfer from 6.5 to 6.6 (this is because Noise Factory was updated for 6.6).
Ian,
Thanks for the clarifying. Would you also chime in on the version number thing, maybe it’s overkill, and only a note in the description is needed.
So, I’d keep some form of signage there, though I personally would take off the version number, this could, as you say, just be a note in the description.
Ian
PS. Gianluca, I really like the inner cube on the SSS example.