What's new?
mikclrk
Posts: 0
I'm an old Carrerra user - the latest copy I've got is 4.0. But I do like the way it works. Anyone able to comment on what's new between 4 and 8?
I'm mostly looking for a tool to do 3D modelling for a virtual world called cloud party - http://www.cloudparty.com
Anyone who's got Carrerra 8 tried it?
It'll probably need the Pro version - normal mapping, dae and FXB export and import. Anyone know how compatible they are?
It's either Carrara 8 Pro or try and forget it all and learn Blender. I'd like to stick with Carrerra, but thats only viable if it's goingt o work - and I don't have $300 to waste finding out it won't work.
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Since version 4 there are probably hundreds of improvements and new features: the biggest being 64bit, hair/fur, atmosphere, plant room, Poser native (no plugin), Bullet Physics (much faster), "god rays" through clouds, better rendernodes, lots of new model room tools including modeling in the assembly room, non-linear editing with NLA tracks and pose clips, better audio soundtrack, Multi-pass rendering (advanced G-buffers), Much larger textures in the 3D preview, better memory handling (C8.5), puppeteer control, hundreds of bug fixes, Advanced transparency shading (absorption, fresnel), SSS, improvements to Tweeners and Modifiers.....
The list is huge.... Without a doubt, you should upgrade. ;) But we are waiting on the final release of C8.5 (currently a free beta for C8 owners) which we have been told will involve some sort of fee - or they might just release C9, but we haven't heard in a long while...
I'm not able to get past the first screen at your link on my iPad, I'll try later on my Mac.
There are a lot of new features in 8 Pro over Carrara 4, Holly covered most of them, but here are a few more:
* Native support of "Poser" and DAZ content, you can pose the figures in Carrara now -no more Transposer (but this also means no more simple use of dynamic cloth from poser)
* Ambient Occlusion was added in C5
* There are a several additional features added to the vertex modeler (don't remember the details)
* Surface replicators have been added, along with many enhancements for landscapes
* As I recall, the tree modeler wasn't in C4, if so that is also new
* General improvements in render speed and quality, better GI
* Improved UV mapping
* The ability to edit models in the assembly room
* Sub Surface Scattering (SSS), Displacement, and some other enhancements to the Material Room that I don't remember specifics on
* Improvements to the native bone system
I'm sure there are a lot of other improvements that I have missed, there have been a lot of changes since C4. As to wheather it is better to go with C8 or Blender, you really need to look at what you want to do. If the use of pre-made content would be important to what you plan to do, then C8 is the obvious choice. If you would rather create and use primarily your own digital assets, then Blender may be a better option. Another factor to consider is that Carrara has specific tools for creating fantastic landscapes (see Howie Farkes here: http://www.daz3d.com/howiefarkes), and Blender doesn't.
Like most applications import/export of DAE and FBX is a bit hit or miss, depending on the other software application and what you want to import/export. I don't know anything about CloudParty, but I would guess that for creation of most of the assets Carrara would work very well, except for possibly the avatar figures.
It really depends on what your interests and goals are with 3D, C8 is a fantastic program, but so is Blender. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. Hopefully someone who knows more about CloudParty will chime in. Like Holly said, C4 to C8 is definitely worth the upgrade cost.
Ok, what I'm looking to do is to firstly make models to import into cloud party. I need Pro for normal maps and 3D painting - does it have a 'bake' ability like Maya? (Can I texture it however I want and then press a button to get a text, UV map and normal map?) Edit in assembly sounds good. Is it any better are respecting normals? A couple of Carrara 4 actions - Flip and 3D Boolean - end up turning objects inside out - which looks OK in Carrarra but makes them vanish in CloudParty as it doesn't paint back faces. Is it able to work with backfaces hidden? Can it do Vertex painting (painting colors onto the vortecies on an object rather than its faces)?
I know it can do animation - I'll need to work with the standard cloudparty rig (FXB or dae) - Carrera 4 won't even try and import it and last DAZ Studio I tried chokes on the dae (mind you, so does blender at the moment). There's also the possibility of being able to upload figures from Poser/Carrara - along with the clothing - into Cloudparty so you can use them as Avatars - but that'll be a lower priority project.
I can't help you with the modeling issues. I do know Carrara can export fbx animations as it's been discussed frequently here. I don't do it myself, but Wendy has quite a lot. She may be able to tell you the pitfalls and limitations.
Regarding putting figures in CloudParty, I gather from your questions you want to put the model itself in CloudParty? Aside from the high poly counts, if the 3D model is being used as an avatar and able to be moved and manipulated by members or players, then according to the standard EULAI don't think it would be allowed and you'd need to check with DAZ about a gaming license.
If you're building your own character from scratch, then the sky's the limit and you can do whatever you wish. If it's a 2D render of a DAZ figure, then according to the EULA you'd be pretty much free to do anything with that as well.
Inagoni.com sells a plugin called BAKER which bakes textures (even with lighting and GI), but it will not bake normal maps - at least not in the way you are describing. It can "render" a flat normal map from a scene (think: tiling brickwall texture made from displacement mesh)....
Carrara's UV unwrap is improved, but it is not something I'm an expert in...
Carrara does still sometimes fall prey to weird-facing normals, but there are tools to select and flip them which usually solves the issue.
FBX and Collada import is pretty good (better than LWO), but as stated before, these issues are often between two specific programs so YMMV...
There is a 3D Paint feature, but I do not understand what you are saying about vertice painting as opposed to facet painting... Carrara's 3D Paint is based on the UV maps. The model room has soft selection, maybe that is what you are talking about?
Wendy seems to use FBX the most here in the forums and, if I recall correctly, her advice if you run into FBX issues is to use Carrara's FBX 6 setting for export and then use the free Autodesk FBX tool to convert it to the FBX version you need.
C8 Pro is 171$ if you sign up for Paltinum Club membership, which costs 100$/year but gives 12x6$ coupons and lots of rebates.
There is a 30-day money back guarantee, bottom of the front page:
http://www.daz3d.com/
C6 Pro ships with this book, for 34$, six is better than four I guess:
http://www.amazon.com/Figures-Characters-Avatars-Official-Beautiful/dp/1598638165/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1357413682&sr=8-2&keywords=daz+studio
C8Pro news from the readme:
New Features -
Puppeteer for Carrara (New for 8.0!) - The same great node-based parameter control you enjoy in DAZ Studio comes to Carrara 8! Create animations, modify morphs, control parameters across time-lines, and even record your inputs as an animation time-line with this versatile and powerful tool.
Plant Editor (New for 8.0!) - Have more control than ever over plants, vegetation, and trees with the intuitive plant-editor tool. Mix leaves, add fruit, or even add your own custom flowers to any plant type. You can even control the shape of plants with spline-based tools. Save your creations as presets, and take control of your scenes like never before.
Inmproved Multi-Threading (New for 8.0!) - Carrara can take advantage of new CPUs and hardware with improved multi-threading support. Carrara's internal rendering engine has been completely overhauled to take advantage of multi-core CPUs, with multi-threaded support for rendering, lighting, and many other internal calculations. Watch your renders complete even faster than ever before, and take advantage of complete support for networked multi-core render farms.
Improved FBX Export (New for 8.0!) - Carrara supports export in FBX, and the export library underwent a complete review and rewrite. Export FBX animations, rigging, and many other parameters for a world of new options for moving content into game engines and other 3d applications.
God Rays (New for 8.0!) - Experience the power of nature as streams of light filter down from the skies above. God rays let you add drama and impact to your artwork with powerful options to create and control the shafts of light radiating from above.
64-Bit Mac Support (New for 8.0!) - The creative platform of choice for graphics professionals gets support for the 64-bit Mac. Have larger scenes, experience faster renders, and break the limits of what you imagined was possible.
Edit in Vertex Modeler (New for 8.0!) - Edit conformed clothing in-place inside the vertex modeler without having to zero the figure.
Network Rendering Improvements (New for 8.0!) - Carrara has been optimized heavily for multi-computer networked rendering environments, with support for multiple-CPUs out of the box. Add the optional "Grid" plug-in for support of render farms of up to 200 cores. The power of movie studios comes to your desktop, and render movies faster than ever before.
Negative Lights (New for 8.0!) - Utilize Carrara's incredibly powerful light tools in a whole new way with negative lights. Use lighting tools to strategically remove lights from your scene, create dramatic shadows at-will, and even create negative lights in color to remove hues from your lighting.
IES Lighting (New for 8.0!) - Download millions of free IES Lighting templates from lighting manufacturers around the world to use to control the shape, pattrern, and color of your lights. Use IES lighting with directional, area, and spot lights to take your scenes to the next level or realism and drama. Now, the actual look of real lights direct from the manufacturers is at your total control.
Normal Maps (New for 8.0!) - Create normal maps for your objects to enhance the detail and realism of your objects, while increaseing render and work speeds.
Bullet Physics (New for 8.0!) - Utilize the powerful Bullet Physics engine to create dramatic, stunning animations in real-time. Watch objects bounce, spin, drop, collide, and deform in real time. Creating physics-based animations was never faster, and using Carrara's lighting and rendering environment to render these animations in realistic (or even cartoony) glory! You have never had so much fun with real-world physics and animations until now.
3D Paint - Includes a new 3D Paint Tool that enables textures to be selected, edited and "painted" directly onto an object. The 3D paint tool provides a variety of painting modes including brushing with a variety of brushes, airbrushing, stamping, and support for lines, an eyedropper, and an eraser. Custom brush settings can be saved and later reused. 3D Paint also supports layers, image stamping, and tablet support. Real-time display of bump maps and specularity has also been added to the 3D paint tool.
UV Editing/Unfolding - Includes a new UV Editor that shows a 3D view of the polygon mesh, a 2D display of the UV values on the polygon mesh vertices, and a set of tools to manipulate them. You can choose from 4 different projection methods to use for custom mapping. The UV editor "Unfold" function allows you to define seams and pinpoints where the UV template will be unfolded and later stitched. The relax seam tool helps a you selectively reduce the dense areas of the UV for a more uniform map.
LOD support for Content Figures - Includes support for Content Figures that have multiple Levels of Detail (LOD). You can use lower resolution LOD figures in your viewport to enhance performance and then render with a higher resolution LOD figure for the best quality. If you have multiple figures in the scene you can enhance performance by reducing the mesh resolution on those figures that are further away from the camera and don't require as much detail. Carrara 8.0 provides advanced auto-switching capabilities that will automatically switch between higher and lower LOD figures based on distance from the camera. As the figure or the camera is moved within the scene, the system determines which figure to use based on user determined preference settings.
Vertex Modeling in Assembly Room - The Vertex Modeling capabilities that were previously only available in the "Modeling" room are now available in the "Assembly" room. This enhancement saves time by allowing you to perform modeling functions in the assembly room where other objects can also be seen.
Transparency Optimizations for Rendering - Time consuming and complex transparency rendering operations have been optimized in Carrara 8.0 to provide better and faster results.
Multi-pass Rendering - Provides the ability to render multiple passes and save these off to separate image files. These render passes or layers (multi-pass render layers) can be edited in another application like Photoshop to increase contrast in the rendered image, change a reflection color, make an edit to a shadow map, or even swap out a background color. This tool will make it faster to make changes to a rendering which if you needed to re-render to see the changes it could take hours and hours. The edits to layers can be changed in minutes.
Larger Textures in OpenGL Display - Provides the ability to increase the texture size that is displayed in the Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) or viewport. The settings are based on what texture size your graphics board will support and can be adjusted for performance or quality (up to 4096x4096).
Bump & Specularity in OpenGL Display - Provides the ability to view bump and specularity while in OpenGL display (if your video card supports these options).
NLA Track Groups - When using Carrara for creating animations, this new grouping tool provides an improved interface to create groups of tracks then collapse or expand the tracks in those groups. This new tool helps you optimize the screen space so you can focus on your animation.
COLLADA Export - Figures and scenes can now be exported in COLLADA format. Currently only available for PCs.
DAZ Studio Content Support Improvements - Includes enhanced the handling of .DAZ scene files being loaded into Carrara 8.0. Requires DAZ Studio Build 2.3.3.138 or higher.
Resolved Issues -
Sound clips and Mimic animation is limited to just over 24 seconds each.
Sound Track/Clips Delete using right click menu doesn't work.
Playing a 12/16 bit aiff on windows causes an error.
Importing some IGES files crashes Carrara.
Weight Painting display is broken on the Mac in some cases.
Image maps in leaves don't render at full resolution.
Feature size slider is inoperable on mountain filter.
Known Issues -
None
Yeah, I read the stuff on the web pages - most of its either not relevant or not detailed enough to answer my questions - so I thought I'd come ask some users.
Baker looks like it would be essential - it's web page says it can do Normal maps as well - and it's pretty cheap.
As long as the UV mapping works and is included in the Collada export I should be ok.
Guess I'd have to try it and see with the DAE and FXB import and export.
Normally when you paint an object you apply paint to the flat surfaces of an object. There's a Maya/Blender thing where colors are applied to the vertecies and blended across the faces. Makes for less data to paint an object - and less detail. Cloudparty uses it to hold 4 channel masks (R, G, B and Black) for applying 4 different textures to an object - bit like a mixer in a mutli-channel shader.
Started another thread in The Commons to ask about the uploading/licensing side of things.
Thanks for the feedback so far.