Quixel and Octane Surfacing Question

Mon Mar 21, 2016 2:58 pm

I did some testing with Quixel demo a while back. It's back on sale and I want to use it with Octane. It looks like there is now a LIVEDB material node that we can pull in and use inside Lightwave to get nearly the exact look of Quixel PBR textures inside Lightwave with Octane. (sorry for the mouthful there)

However there are some real limitations to using the LiveDB node in lightwave. Here are a few:
1. Changing the Projection method ie BOX not UV has to be done on each layer and not easily changed without digging in and twirling down the options for each layer.
2. The preview/IPR window is not updated when any changes are made inside the LiveDB material. so changes like above to the scale of the projection are not easy at all to tweak in real time. Must change, close LiveDB, refresh IPR see changes then go back and do again. OMG, no thank you

So I've attached an image that has the same 4 images plugged into the LiveDB node material as well as the same 4 images plugged into a glossy material through our normal LW methods. As you can see they are nowhere near the same look. Is there a way we can get the same look here? I'm guessing that there is much more behind the scenes going on in the LiveDB material node that isn't coming through with just a simple glossy material in LW.

Hope some of this makes sense...as combining Quixel or any other PBR texturer with Octane would be a great thing if it was more plug and play.

Mon Mar 21, 2016 3:25 pm

This kind of materials have a complex node tree inside. You can work with them in LightWave using the plugin LiveDB material node. With this node you can download any material from LiveDB and edit them inside the native Octane node editor to add the texture maps and so on, like in Standalone.

You could also try to rebuild the full material using the LightWave plugin native nodes, but it is not easy.

-Juanjo

Mon Mar 21, 2016 3:27 pm

I would be ok with that...if we had more dynamic working environment. The IPR does not update when working inside the LiveDB node editor. Can this be updated/enabled? Honestly this is a major drawback to working in the LiveDB node editor...I know there is a preview window at the top with box or sphere...

It was a great thing to have the LiveDB added for access. Now we just need it to be more fluid in our abilities to work with it.

Mon Mar 21, 2016 4:18 pm

Check this video, perhaps could be useful for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wAapKn ... e=youtu.be

-Juanjo

Mon Mar 21, 2016 4:27 pm

I wouldn't try to rebuild that material. I have tried, and the way standalone handles the gradient nodes is definitely not the same as the way the plugin does it. There is something very different about the gamma which I have not managed to figure out. Is this for textures from quixel?

Mon Mar 21, 2016 4:33 pm

gordonrobb wrote:I wouldn't try to rebuild that material. I have tried, and the way standalone handles the gradient nodes is definitely not the same as the way the plugin does it. There is something very different about the gamma which I have not managed to figure out. Is this for textures from quixel?

Gordonrobb....I think I saw some of your stuff on Facebook once. You were getting very close on some of those materials...but the node tree was insnae! jk.

Yea I just wish the IPR window would work while working inside the LiveDB material....I think that would solve most of my issue.