how to render a 360° panorama

[Eugen]

Hi,
I'd like to render a complete 360° (latlong) panorama of a scene with mental ray.
Tried the ootb. 'Panoramic' shader - does nothing... what am I missing?
The 'latlong_lens' shader from Andrew Hazelden is not working, too. Maybe it needs a re-compile against 2014SP2?
Anything else to try?
Thanks a lot!
Eugen

[NNois]

hi,
I'm thinking about 2 solutions...

- try the buildin shader "wraparound" http://download.autodesk.com/global/doc ... d30e730913
this output a environment map, but with tools like hdrshop you can tranform it to wathever format

-try a rendermap. you can put a uv mapped cylindre in place of your camera, put a 100%reflecting material on it (the reflection shader) then render map it ;-)

[Daniel Brassard]

On Windows the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64) is required for the latlong shader. Can you check if you have it?

Contact him on his blog if you need a recompile.

http://www.andrewhazelden.com/blog/

[Hirazi Blue]

You might want to install the Maya 2014 DLL and mi-file using his most recent installer (this I tried, no need for Maya) and use them in Softimage (maybe even using the provided Softimage spdl).
;)

[Rork]

if all fails, render cubefaces and stitch them together.

is the old lume panoramic one not working anymore?

sorry, not using mr these days....

[Eugen]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies!

Tried the 'WrapAround' shader. Does nothing, as the 'LatLong' and 'Panoramic' shader. Am I stupid? I simply plugged it to the lens shader port of the camera. Is there anything else to do?

Tried the RenderMap (good idea btw) on a sphere with UVs , and what do I get? Renders just a black image. Grrr... always some bloody button you can overlook...
I'm under some time pressure and cannot play with this stuff forever, could some kind soul throw some working testscene together, please?

Softimage 2014SP1, Windows 8.1 here, which includes the aforementioned VC redistro. It cannot be installed, because there's a newer version present.

I contacted Andrew Hazelden already on his blog, but no answer so far.

Cheers!
Eugen

[Eugen]

if all fails, render cubefaces and stitch them together.

is the old lume panoramic one not working anymore?

sorry, not using mr these days....

I rendered 3 cameras with 120° FOV already, and stitched them together in Photoshop. Kind of works, but the problem with that is that you get visible edges - each camera renders a 'hard' perspective, whereas it would need to render a distorted one for this to work perfectly.

[NNois]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies!

Tried the 'WrapAround' shader. Does nothing, as the 'LatLong' and 'Panoramic' shader. Am I stupid? I simply plugged it to the lens shader port of the camera. Is there anything else to do?

Tried the RenderMap (good idea btw) on a sphere with UVs , and what do I get? Renders just a black image. Grrr... always some bloody button you can overlook...
I'm under some time pressure and cannot play with this stuff forever, could some kind soul throw some working testscene together, please?

Softimage 2014SP1, Windows 8.1 here, which includes the aforementioned VC redistro. It cannot be installed, because there's a newer version present.

I contacted Andrew Hazelden already on his blog, but no answer so far.

Cheers!
Eugen

well wraparound AND panoramic shaders are working here on 2014sp2, and with mental ray all sahders are barely compatibles only few rare exception exists, so please check on a simple scene

[Eugen]

well wraparound AND panoramic shaders are working here on 2014sp2, and with mental ray all sahders are barely compatibles only few rare exception exists, so please check on a simple scene

That's what I did of course, and they seem not to work, meaning I get the same result as if they weren't plugged in.
Can you send me your scene, please?
Thanks!!
Eugen

[Eugen]

Allright... got the pass shader settings wrong. It works now! All three of them...
Sometimes...

Thanks, guys!
*crawling back into my hole*

[NNois]

here is it

[Eugen]

Thank you, NNois!!
That was 10 minutes after I figured I had the render pass camera shader settings wrong.
Such things happen to me when I'm in an unfocused hurry...
Sorry for the noise!
Best,
Eugen

[Hirazi Blue]

I contacted Andrew Hazelden already on his blog, but no answer so far.

If you actually do get in touch with him, you can tell him using the Maya 2014 dll and the old Softimage spdl (and re-registering them) does seem to work (just tested it). It doesn't crash & it gives a result - if it's the right result, I dare not say. That way he could simply repackage the stuff, to avoid confusion for us Softimage users...
;)

[Eugen]

Ok.
Does the Softimage version not work for you? It does for me (now...).

[Hirazi Blue]

The old one (the xsiaddon "pure") kept crashing on me (or throwing "unexpected failures") in 2014SP1, re-registering the spdls with the Maya 2014 dll stopped the crashes (for now, after only a couple of quick tests)...

[AndrewHazelden]

Hi. I wanted to mention that I have updated and repackaged a version of the LatLong panoramic shader for Softimage. I've created a new custom toolbar that makes it easier to use the latlong shader with a 1 click button.

This new LatLong version is distributed as part of the Domemaster3D shader tool which includes the "fulldome" angular fisheye shaders: domeAFL_FOV, domeAFL_WxH, and domeAFL_FOV_Stereo which allows for stereoscopic angular fisheye rendering.

You can download the shader here:
http://www.andrewhazelden.com/blog/2014 ... e-updated/

Regards,
Andrew Hazelden