render curves problems

[portnicki]

Hey all (Paul )

so here's the thing.

Render curves doesn't work very well for me.
First of all I can not get to render curves that were made in external software (illustrator) and then imported into modo. These render fine in modo, they don't appear in Octane.
Curves created in modo show up in Octane but they're not curves at all, they're all hard-corners shaped.

Check the screen below: the tree shaped curve is imported from illustrator, the curve inside the tree is drawn in modo, but as you can see in Octane preview it doesn't look like a curve very much.

Is this a bug or am I doin' smth wrong?

[riggles]

The Octane plugin doesn't support MODO's curve smoothing. You'd have to increase the curve segments physically to get a smooth result. Paul posted this somewhere, but I don't recall if this was an Octane limitation itself, or if was driven by a MODO API limitation.

[face_off]

The Octane hair rendering solution is really designed to render multiple hair fibers - it does not cater for the specific requirements of Modo curve rendering. As Riggles says, you can increase the curve segments, however for your specific situation, it may be better to convert the curve line to polygons (although I couldn't work out how to do this in Modo).

If you send me a scene with the curves created by Illustrator, I can take a look as to why it is not rendering.

Paul

[portnicki]

that would be very helpfull, here's the file:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/674030/curves.lxo

[face_off]

that would be very helpfull, here's the file:

I think this is happening because the plugin is only picking up the first strand (which is the Z shape in the middle). I have a new version about to be released, but I will hold off on it to see if this can be fixed.

EDIT: The above is NOT the case. It looks like when importing from Illustrator, Modo is tagging the polygons not as "LINE" or "CURV", but something else, so the plugin is not picking it up as a strand hair element.

EDIT2: Fixed in release 2.3.0.22 (uploading now).

Paul

[portnicki]

that would be very helpfull, here's the file:

I think this is happening because the plugin is only picking up the first strand (which is the Z shape in the middle). I have a new version about to be released, but I will hold off on it to see if this can be fixed.

EDIT: The above is NOT the case. It looks like when importing from Illustrator, Modo is tagging the polygons not as "LINE" or "CURV", but something else, so the plugin is not picking it up as a strand hair element.

Paul

ok Paul, thanks. Any ideas on how to 'fix' this?

[face_off]

Pls try the latest release - it should fix the issue of the plugin not picking up the Illustrator curves.

Paul

[portnicki]

Pls try the latest release - it should fix the issue of the plugin not picking up the Illustrator curves.

Paul

thx Paul. It's better, in a way that Octane now renders the curve ... but it's kind of a mess.
many joints on the curve have some kind of artifacts, smth like black polys dividing some sections of the line.
I guess this maybe isn't an issue with fur/hair, but I for example used to use the render curves option for things like cords, ropes, lines etc.
Is this a plugin issue or rather an Octane thing?

take a look: the one on the left is modo, the right one is Octane:

[face_off]

many joints on the curve have some kind of artifacts, smth like black polys dividing some sections of the line.

Yes - the Octane hair primitive is designed for hair/fur rendering - not pipes/curves. You will need to convert those spline curves to 3d geometry in order to render them in Octane.

Paul

[portnicki]

many joints on the curve have some kind of artifacts, smth like black polys dividing some sections of the line.

Yes - the Octane hair primitive is designed for hair/fur rendering - not pipes/curves. You will need to convert those spline curves to 3d geometry in order to render them in Octane.

Paul

ok, all is clear. Thanks for a fast response (as always) Paul!