feature request specific to maya

[xtrm3d]

hi ,
would it be possible to implement following maya specific feature ?

subdivion freeze at voxelisation time ?
example :
my geo is low in maya and subdivided in the viewport
right now if i send to octane .. it render the low poly cage

could it be made to freeze my subdivision before rendering ?

thx for considering it

[JimStar]

It was already discussed a lot of times... And some Maya professionals proved that it is not needed in this plugin and this approach will even have some drawbacks...
Try to search the last discussion about it in Maya threads... Or try to ask TBFX about it...

[TBFX]

Hi xtrm3d,

Below are my thoughts on this that I believe JimStar was referring to above.

For what it's worth here are my thoughts on smooth mesh display settings being used as render settings. I know many here have been asking for the plugin to recognize the poly smooth display level set by pressing the 1, 2, or 3 keys. I know other renderers such as renderman, mentalRay etc. do this but they have subdivision algorithms inside the renderer itself so it is almost safe for them to assume that if you have hit 3 in the interface it should treat that object as a subdivision surface at render time, but even then I'm not that happy about them assuming this and here is why.

I know a lot of users of Octane are one or two person bands (including myself at the moment) and to them it may seem perfectly logical to respect the display settings for an object but speaking as someone who has overseen several pipelines for creating animation and effects the last thing you want is the renderer to change how it will render an object based on what one artist may have pressed while they were working on a shot as a display option. That's what the interactive smoothing is, it's a display option. For rendering you should always have explicit control over your geometry detail through smooth nodes (which if applied after the shaders will respect shader assignment) Octane is for now at least a polygonal renderer, not a subD renderer and I want to control what level of smoothing I send to the GPU.

I'm happy for this feature to be added so long as it's an option that can be disabled but personally it sounds like a bit of work for JimStar that he could spend adding other features and I truley believe it is better to use smooth nodes and have a script to turn them on or connect them all to a single control attribute for render if needed.

T.

[xtrm3d]

yes i understand .. it make sense in a big pipeline to not do it ..

but in my case i really .. really miss that option ..
here is my first octane in maya render ..
and working with that frozen mesh is not fun .. since this is a render test .. i would have to reassign all my shaders to my cage mesh .. when time come to pose and finalize

i really think .. that it's should be an option ..
actually it would be a very big advantage over using the stand alone

can we have this option ..
please... pretty plllleeeaaaase

[xtrm3d]

I'm happy for this feature to be added so long as it's an option that can be disabled but personally it sounds like a bit of work for JimStar that he could spend adding other features and I truley believe it is better to use smooth nodes and have a script to turn them on or connect them all to a single control attribute for render if needed.

agree that it should be an option .. as for doing it trough a script .. i am fine either way .. do you have one ?
ideally it would :
look at any geo that is in subdi preview ..
assign a poly smooth modifier with may be a dialog that ask for a global subdivison lvl .. ( probably 3 by default )
create locator / control object with the on /off switch for the whole scene

we would then turn the switch on before hitting preview ..
and off when animation or working on the object

[TBFX]

agree that it should be an option .. as for doing it trough a script .. i am fine either way .. do you have one ? ideally it would : look at any geo that is in subdi preview .. assign a poly smooth modifier with may be a dialog that ask for a global subdivison lvl .. ( probably 3 by default )create locator / control object with the on /off switch for the whole scene

Hi xtrm3d,

No I don't have a script at the ready as I'm just freelancing it right now and don't script much for myself. As a workaround for now though, if you are happy with a global smooth level, you can select all the geometry and smooth them all at once, this will work so long as you don't have any objects parented directly under other geometry (which is a bad idea at any time in Maya) If you do have geo parented under other geo then without a script you will need to smooth these objects by selecting their shape nodes.

After that you can just use a wild card in the text entry field on the top tool bar to select all polySmooth nodes and then set all of them at once in the channel box. Make sure the function is set to select by name and type in polySmooth* and press enter then go to the channel box and set the Divisions to the desired level.

T.

[xtrm3d]

Cool,
Thank you.. That would do it for no w:-)