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Nice work! Yeah it feels good when you can simply delete the diffuse textures and it looks better:) I should use anisotropy more to create variations, tks for mentioning. Also a nice example of using the coat layer to add a touch of realism
So you made some changes to AO, or even introduced a new feature in the new dev build? I remember you mentioning something, but can't find the comment now. Except for aweHair, we discussed adding "depth" using AO, or something along those lines...
A fully working shadowcatcher would be nice. I'm grateful to @Mustakettu85 for taking the time and sharing her radiumcatcher, but it´s a bit wonky with catching HDRI light. Works nicely with arealights though.
Latest version of the Space Livingroom, with cranked up lights and further tweaked surfaces. Don't know what to do with those IMO weird floor leds, maybe simply hide them? Strange design decision...
That's why I wanted those features. Roughness, anisotropy, glossy Fresnel goes a lot of ways in breaking up specular highlights/reflection.
Use a colored coat and/or thin film to give a slight tint to reflection. Works on metal and non-metal alike. You'll have more direct control with the coat.
There's occlusion in the AWE Hair shader, if that's what you mean. Mostly to have darker shades near the root/scalp.
With occlusion enabled, you can basically boost the darkness of contact shadows a bit more. In that test render, it can generate shadows even from an emissive surface (the environment sphere). The only 'gotcha' is with metals. Since the data is generated when you enable raytracing/path traced area light, the generated occlusion is tied to roughness so mirrors have sharp reflection and vice versa. For non metals, the data will come from GI, so it will not have such sharp shadows.
Hence why I also wanted the feature for AWE Surface.
So I dug up a character I made with the first awe build, and decided to experiment with the things you mentioned. Also trying to make that old flightsuit work, but it's a tough one for sure:)) Placed her inside the Space Livingroom to test the lighting scenario. I use the coatlayer on the skin, but it's a rather subtle effect.
One thing that caught my attention were the reflections of the wall leds (with the area PT light shader) in those parallell mirrors. Each reflection gathers more noise, looks pretty bad. Roughness on the mirrors were 0%. Reflective strength was 85, slightly tinted/darkened. Still those reflections are overbright.
The set up I used for tuning the skin:
Hello there Sven. You do realise you have invoked me like you would invoke a demon?
Not that I plan to haunt this thread for long, but damn, isn't the whole HDR map business a bit wonky.
It should be gone with the next build. It's one of those scenarios that's pretty hard to pptimize for.
Let met check to be sure. Parallel mirrors with 0% roughness will give you that 'infinite' mirror scenario.
Yep. I think that's not a big problem anymore. Or do you really need that infinite mirror thing?
Yup...
...very nice of you to pop by, and you can stay as long as you want:))
I fully agree, I've more or less stopped using them as HDRI, except for the odd car render.
Tks, nah not that important, was just a bit surprised, not exactly what I had expected;)
This looks more plausible, I think.
Roughness 0%. You'll lose the effect with roughness higher than roughly 1%.
Attempting to convert Boundless Journey (then hopefully all the other traveller caravans and mat sets) to awe shaders
+ Managed to give the windows a little more glassness while keeping the orginal look.
- Metal surfaces still need a little work.
- Side windows - I kept the original frosted/whitewashed look, but it it's not appealing.
Updated image with MPC background & added V3 for ambiance
Your renders don't look like you were in need of supernatural aid :P
Hard to say for sure, small render, but at 0% roughness should be sharper IMO;)
Someone posed this in the forums, looks like you can DL GaribaldiExpress again. Just in case someone missed out:
https://www.garibaldiexpress.com/freeRegister.php
Hehe, but you've provided me with that for a long time already:) Well, just messing around with random stuff while wowie is doing the hard work.
Wow you're worse than me, this is truly ancient
. Don't have it but checked the promos and description;)
Maybe a little more reflective? I'd probably go the old school route and use opacity with "multiply reflections with opacity" disabled, no transmission. (for the side windows)
Not bad, still some harsh reflections on some details. Don't know if bumpmaps are included, you could try adding some bump to scatter some of the reflections a tad?
For frosted glass I'd definitely use transmission not opacity, probably set specular roughness to 0-1% and fiddle with transmission color absorbtion and roughness. And use a displacement map to create refraction.
You could probably up the Irradiance(shadow)samples on the wagon, for less noise, withouth much rendertime penalty;)
Oh and the golden ornaments need to pop a bit more, right? Don't know if they have their own mat zone, if not, use one specular lobe with a specular map, white for the gold and black for the rest. Tint the reflection using the gold preset setting. Could even try to use the same map in metalness...
Cheers for the tips. I've moved onto The Wrangler (I bought all the traveller wagons and mat sets), but I'll be revisiting Boundless Journey, and try to make the changes you mentioned - it'll need some bump maps created as it has none.
The Wrangler does have bumps (but i'm cautius about how high to set them).
I've applied some of your sugestions to the side windows, returned the diffuse images to the translucence as I couldn't manage to get the glass opaque enough - need more fiddlin time..
Wrangler so far - wood coming out darker than expected (tried using potato SSS setting this time).
For metals use rather small values like 10-20% with -0.01/0.01 min/max, as a starting point.
If you want colored glass, based on a diffuse map, use 100% transmission and no opacity. Use the map in transmission color, turn on thin glass, experiment with the absorbtion value, for a frosted look use transmission roughness (which also can be controlled by a map). For colored shadows turn on transmission shadow.
Looks cool! Btw, my nr 1 resource for PBR maps is Texture Haven, you can find useful roughness- specular- and height maps over there in various resolutions.
Cheers for the tips. I've moved onto The Wrangler (I bought all the traveller wagons and mat sets), but I'll be revisiting Boundless Journey, and try to make the changes you mentioned - it'll need some bump maps created as it has none.
The Wrangler does have bumps (but i'm cautius about how high to set them).
I've applied some of your sugestions to the side windows, returned the diffuse images to the translucence as I couldn't manage to get the glass opaque enough - need more fiddlin time..
Wrangler so far - wood coming out darker than expected (tried using potato SSS setting this time).
Wrangler has specular maps, I thought specular maps were old hat so never applied them.
On Boundless back window, I wasn't sure how to get the stained glass look, so I copied the iray method I knew of, and put the diffuse also in glossy (specular strength) which sort of worked - maybe more washed out looking than I'd hoped.
Only Travellors Joy mats to do for Boundless Journey before I move onto the World Traveller Caravan...
Depends on the map and how the surface is set up:) I use them all the time. Yeah they are basically a "hack", but a good one LOL.
So, as awe does not support specular color images, it was probably converted to grayscale internally, you could try to open it in the LIE and make a copy with gamma 1, for use as a specular map. The proper method would still be to use the transmission color channel;)
Looking forward...
Posting here an experiment that didn't quite turn out as expected. Decided to load a render onto a plane and use it as an emissive backdrop, in the process of testing the alien skin SS settings etc. So cranked up the light intensity real good and added a front fill. Kind of interesting, but had to set samples to 4096 adaptive and 8192 SS to get rid of most of the noise:)) Would probably work if doubled one more time...rendertime about 3h...now I should try the translucency boost
and maybe add an internal skeleton...
Travellers Joy by @Chohole (texture set for Boundless Journey) converted to Awe Shaders.
Probably could still stand a few surface setting tweaks.
The tudor leaded diamond windows I did the best I could with in bump map tweaks - really needs a displacement map I think.
I've not made much in the way of advancements on the metal, needs more roughness - maybe a little rust.
Windows could stand to be a little more grunged.
Not sure it's related or not.
I've been using the Multiplane Cyclorama (MPC) as a backdrop / floor. Awe env dome surface applied to it (there's also a Env dome as well, behind it).
Nice! Agree about the windows, just plop the bumpmap into the displacement slot, or try another grayscale pattern map. And paint some gray and white blobs on a black background as an opacity mask. While at it, you could then make an inverted copy to use as a specular map, because dust and dirt isn't very reflective:) The opacitymap could also possibly serve as a roughness map, white being the value you specify with the slider and black being 0% roughness.
I reversed the diffuse and desaturated it for the tudor lead window opacity mask. Possibly the map could do with sharpening perhaps thickening the lines some or just see what i can scrape off the net in tudor lead window style patterns...
Now on World Travels (the rounded canopy topped caravan). Will come back later to Boundless Journey and do some tweaks on the 3 mat sets.
Last tonight - I really need to sleep
For reasons I can't fathom, the back window pattern isn't showing up. The surface is identical to front door windows apart from the image map, and the front look ok. They're not showing inside the cabin either.
Perhaps I'll figure it out after some kip.
Probably a normal issue. Try enabling "use face forward" and possibly backside diffuse (hope that was right, rendering atm.) with the diffuse map inserted.
Quick conversion of AlKair. No opacity maps, much appreciated:)) Workflow: I set up the surfaces using HDRI lighting (by agent unawares, thank you). Then converted the hdr to png and added an emitter in the hotspot. Adjusted the polygonshape thingy to get a cirkle, adjusted intensity and temperature to match the HDRI light. Set the environment sphere visibility to camera only. Dublicated the env. sphere node. Used sphere nr 2 for reflections and ambience/indirect light with exposure cranked up to 2. Seems to work nicely, renders even faster than HDRI atleast in this scenario, looks cleaner, easier to control IMO. Yeah I like cheating:)
...and after making specular- and roughness maps for the floors...and reducing diffuse strength to avoid totally blown out textures:))
...and after making a set of displacementmaps for the floors...
Excellent !!!
Checked both settings individually and together - no joy.
Another oldie...The Ballroom (and expansion).
I think this one is going to require a little geometry editing to get a more optimal look.
+ Window tops need glass separated from window frame
+ Doors in the north need the glass separated from the door
+ Wall lights, the candles from the metal.
- Poor lighting at the momo - still struggling with awe lights can't seem to get enough welly out.
This is lit with an outside HDRI (which isn't contributing much due to the windows), the wall and chandlier candle points and 44 spheres randomly instanced near the ceiling - good enough for now while I locate problem surfaces.
Checked both settings individually and together - no joy.
Another oldie...The Ballroom (and expansion).
I think this one is going to require a little geometry editing to get a more optimal look.
+ Window tops need glass separated from window frame
+ Doors in the north need the glass separated from the door
+ Wall lights, the candles from the metal.
- Poor lighting at the momo - still struggling with awe lights can't seem to get enough welly out.
This is lit with an outside HDRI (which isn't contributing much due to the windows), the wall and chandlier candle points and 44 spheres randomly instanced near the ceiling - good enough for now while I locate problem surfaces.
'I find it annoying when the universe makes you work for your damnation. I prefer it just gave it to me, save me the effort'
- Klaus, Babylon 5: River of Souls
'cause, Eeek! your idea of 'cheating' sounds a lot of work. I lost you somewhere at the second sphere.
Looks good though.
Nah, it's actually quite simple. Use one sphere literally only as a backdrop and then another for the actual reflection/diffuse light.
Won't be needed anymore with the offset I've added. Also means there's no need to convert stuff from .hdr/.exr to .png or .jpg as well.
I think you can either edit the geometry or create a transmission/metalness mask for those. Either way should work.
The outside lighting generally needs a way to get inside. In this situation, the simplest way is to use the old trick of enabling opacity and turning it all the way down to 0. This makes diffuse rays actually able to get inside the room. To still get specular/reflection/refraction, simply turn off 'Multiply Specular with Opacity'. You do lose the specular ray from outside lighting though.
If the glass shares the same surface as the non-glass part, you will have to either edit the geometry or use an opacity mask. For metalness/transmission or opacity mask, it's best to only paint either 1 or 0. A little bit of feather near the edges is generally OK and can add a bit of occlusion to the glass. Be sure to add the feature to the glass part and not the non-glass areas.
The last released build on my AWE Surface thread allows for adaptive diffuse rays from the inside to 'see' outside lighting (when adaptive sampling is enabled). I've changed this behaviour in my dev build since then though. Now all direct lighting have the same ability. Hence, no more need to turn off adaptive sampling to get the same feature.
Low level of light is generally due to under exposure. Rather than adding lots of lights, you probably want to increase scene exposure instead. The 'old school way' would be to boost the level of ambient/indirect lighting, but keep direct light the same.
Oh yeah, almost forgot. The window pattern, you will need to check if the window part are made from a continous mesh or two planes placed closed together. If it's two planes, if the other plane isn't facing outward, you'll need to correct it via the geometry editor/modeller app. Enabling 'Use Face Forward' and/or Thin Glass won't fix such an issue.
The right model is a thin cube, while the ones on the left are two planes close together (with a gap between). The upper one has both side facing outward, while the one on the bottom is facing the same way.
Here's what it will look like from the other side. (cube on the left, planes on the right). The problems is because the second plane is facing the wrong way, the refraction rays aren't hitting the front plane (or hitting other objects behind it).
Alternatively, you can just delete the other plane and then 'Use Face Forward' so the main plane is your only geometry. But that means completely losing the back pattern.