AB 4 - first impressions and issues :)

[Filip Kaczorek]

So I played a bit with it and, WOW. The new shadow system is really fast - congrats!!!
The new parameter placement in rollouts is very intuitive, thanks.

Object clipping is great but I managed to get one issue with it. Basicaly the AB gets clipped properly, but there is an issue with the shadows that it projects. Some of the shadows "get through" the walls. I get dark spots - see the image below:

Try changing the shader to Octane and it gets even worse. tried playing with the Bias % of the shadow and the one next to Clip geometry option too. No luck
It is funny since I can't get it from the supplied scene with the tube. Mine is also simple - just a box with the top wall pushed inwards to form an open box and a PCloud inside.
Here's the scene ( Max 2008 unfortunately ):
http://uploaded.to/?id=qw8ci6

Any ideas?

Last thing - Final Render compatibility:
- caustics work again )
- can't get GI to work on AB
( Calculate Self GI On for particles and frImage as the engine - anything else I forgot? )

- and the BIG one: FR and the new AB shadow map - 100% times it freezes on the first bucket with AB - now that is really sad

Please please make feel really silly and tell me it works fine, and I just messed something up

Vista 64, Max 2008 64, FR R2, AB 4.

[Rif]

"- and the BIG one: FR and the new AB shadow map - 100% times it freezes on the first bucket with AB - now that is really sad "

I cannot reproduce this ! the buck will hang to Start Processing IM ( illumination map) but then should kick back in ! is that Alwayd doing that on Any scene on your side ?

can you share me 1 if thats the case ?

thanks

[Filip Kaczorek]

Sure:
http://uploaded.to/?id=fi2nsg

Just a simple PCloud and one Spotlight

As to the other scene, I found that if I import the box to the supplied scene with the tube, I also get issues with shadows. It must be something with this geometry, but it's really simple so I don't know what it could be

Rif can you confirm the dark spots on the front side of the box in my first scene?

[Rif]

Shit i dont have max 2008

you have it in max 9 ?

[Filip Kaczorek]

Unfortunately not
Maybe it's a Max 2008 issue

Just tell me:
create a PCloud with 5 - 10 particles, add AB, size the particles so they intersect and form one blob, check cast, recieve and self shadows, put a spotlight, AB shadowmap and render. Should nice and quick. Change the renderer to FR.
Now all other shadows render fine with Atmospheric shadows selected - even fr shadows.
( actually Advanced raytraced give a black image for me , but that's a different thing )

But when the shadow type is set to AB shadowmap, the rendering freezes on the first bucket intersecting AB

New tests: hypersolids and Octane shader render fine

[Rif]

k as far as i know , its all working fine here.. hum.. anyone else see this issue happening ? can you check my file ? is it still happening in this ?

[Filip Kaczorek]

OK, I checked on a few other systems and it's ok - it must be my machine specific Figures

But the shadow issue still stays.
Rif take your scene, make a box for your cloud, edit poly, select the top wall, inset it to have some wall width, and extrude it inwards. Now place it so that it encompasses the cloud and render it with clip geometry on. No matter which renderer

I was able to build that scene from scratch on every system, and the result was always the same - dark spots on the side walls - I'm guessing they're from shadows.

[Rif]

again i dont see a probleme here..

edit mesh , with a shell modifier .. Fr

[sitnisati]

Hello Filip,

Thank you!
Speed gains can be really amazing with new AB map - no more long renderings .

That Geom. Clipping artifact is unfortunate when using AB Shadw Map because it's a
precalculated map and it does not contain information about that geometry.
We will look into this for next minor update.

Thanks

Kresimir

[Filip Kaczorek]

Rif you didn't enable geometry clipping

Kresimir: ok, good to know I'm not crazy, at least too much