okay, I understand - but, I do not get, how than to use the sta_vector_displacement correctly

I attached a picture to clearify what I mean.

greetings

you have 'normal' displacement

are you sure?

Use it wisely ;-)

yea, thats why I wonder about the Displacement.
I read on the SolidAngelSite, that it will be removed, the old displacement...

do I have to add a vector_state with Normal Vector to the tangent of the sta_vector_displacement? If I do not add the vector state, the displacement is becoming lean. It works, but wonder if that is the normal way to add a dispalcement :) Take a standard grid with no subD's, add the property with fo...

Thats a fantastic combo of tools.
just fighting trough the paypal stuff
ty!

very moody
and I can see secret signs ;)

quick answer to myself: change alpha map from .jpg to .tif (or another lossless format) and posterize that there are only 2 values, black and white. gave me up to 3 times faster renderings. :) i should have known that, i know ;). the white in the .jpg was not 100% white, so everything was a tiny bit...

@cacoman: have the same problem here. did you solve that?
maybe the topo pack does not get recognized?

when rendering a tree/forest and the leaves are cut out by alpha, its rendering amazingly slow compared to use real geometry only.
is there a cheap trick or something to speed that up?
or is trancparency general very slow?
thx!

yea, add them to the "Volume Shaders"-Tab.
The fog shader does not need to be specified by a light source, but the Volume Scattering needs a light source (spot or quad, Skydome and Distance Light will not work).

you have a fog shader thats actually quite easy to setup. in xsi just go to arnold/shaders/fog - guess maya is similar. for volume scattering you add the shader and specify a light to scatter. here https://support.solidangle.com/display/SItoAUG/Volume+Scattering and here https://support.solidangle.c...

was triying to build something like a street shader and got a result that is fine for what I need it. I also tried to get it to run under arnold, but as you can see on the image, there is that falloff. any idea how to fix that? I have noticed that in the ppg of the gradient, right at the border wher...

ah okay, I had a wrong understanding of segments - thought they keep same length they get emitted
will try that out.

Getting closer, thx alot! :) Its working for Strand Trails already. Using Scalar Attribute and set it to StrandAge, Value to 1 and input that into the gradient. For Strands itself i'll have to figure out how that works - seems to be bit more than just to nodes. Do you mean each strand segments lengt...

thats actually what im need, thx.
only problem is, that the gradient gets streched as longer the strand gets - so i guess, i need to get some more data from the strand to feed into the shader?
is it possible to calculate a fixed part on the strand and input that to the gradient?

is there a way, to color strands in arnold like in this video?







i heard, its only possible with a custom shader?

but if you wanna do it in ICE, create some randomize flakes, scatter them randomized in size and positon around a sphere by instance shape, and add the incidence node to specular or transulency or what ever to get that kinda microscope look.