Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

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mr 3.8 Options GeoshaderAuthor: Jonathan Baecker
This experimental geometry shader enables the hidden mental ray 3.8 progressive rendering option for Softimage.

Documentation and installation instruction is available in the si-community discussion. A sample scene is provided in this germanmentalray forum discussion

This shader by ctrl.studio for Max 2011 might or might not work using the sandboxing principle of Softimage 2011 (mi file intepretation). For help with installing mi files in SI 2011, Hirazi Blue has kindly written an article on -community. There are currently issues rendering strands with this shader.

Related plugins: ctrl_ghost_settings

local backup: mr3.8Options.zip

Discussions regarding Materials, Material-Compounds or Shaders, etc.
jb_alvarado
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Joined: 18 Apr 2010, 10:07

Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by jb_alvarado » 18 Apr 2010, 11:42

Hello All,
I am writing a geometry shader to activate the new options in mr 3.8. At the moment you can activate only the progressive render- mode, but in the next time I will implement the Importon / IP / FG mode.
When you have more ideas what is useful, you can tell me...

A 64 Bit DLL and a .mi-File you can find here:

http://www.germanmentalray.de/viewtopic ... &t=2311261

mi-File you can copy to:

*\Softimage2011\Application\phenolib\mi

DLL File:

*\Softimage2011\Application\bin\nt-x86-64

Addon and Interface will come at soon.

I hope you have fun with this :).

Best regards

jb_

(Moderator edit - the most recent download ATM can be found in this post from the aforementioned thread, this now includes a x32 version - HB)

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Hirazi Blue
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by Hirazi Blue » 18 Apr 2010, 12:08

To recap/clarify:
Unzip the download file
If you throw the files contained in the "bin64" folder into the
"*\Softimage2011\Application\bin\nt-x86-64" folder
and the "mi" file in the "*\Softimage2011\Application\phenolib\mi",
the geo shader should (after restarting SI) show up
in the "embedded preset manager" in the Render Tree.... ;)

Please also note that the workflow for using geometry shaders in SI2011 has changed:
User's Guide - Materials and Shaders > Geometry Shaders > Applying Geometry Shaders
Stay safe, sane & healthy!

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redmotion
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by redmotion » 18 Apr 2010, 12:21

Anyone getting this message?
// WARNING : RC 0.4 warn : progressive: cached framebuffer provided - this degrades performance for progressive rendering
Also in render region with a simple scene:
info : progressive: total rendering time was 10.33 seconds
<- with progressive
info : wallclock 0:00:01.44 for rendering
<-normal rendering speed

I think I'm missing the point somewhere! I thought progressive rendering would start with an extremely "blocky" image and slowly refine it. This just gives me non-anti-aliased view more slowly that normal rendering. I'm guessing it may have something to do with the warning message.
Last edited by redmotion on 18 Apr 2010, 12:30, edited 1 time in total.

jb_alvarado
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by jb_alvarado » 18 Apr 2010, 12:27

You can turn off the "On-Disk Framebuffer".

Also do o_cache_ray to 32 and o_cache_maxframe to 8. It have no effect but then you dont become warnings.

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redmotion
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by redmotion » 18 Apr 2010, 12:30

Ok, will try.

jb_alvarado
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by jb_alvarado » 18 Apr 2010, 12:41

Ok, with an little Trick I also can use IBL :). I Only have problems to implement it in the Shader GUI :(.

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origin
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by origin » 18 Apr 2010, 13:08

Hi, nice effort, but I got same result as redmotion. It outputs just an aliased image. I don't see anything that can be called 'progressive'

jb_alvarado
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by jb_alvarado » 18 Apr 2010, 14:48

Hier is an example Scene, also with IBL (you need a HDRI in the Env). For this you need the new shader from the Site. Also I add the src and 32 Bit dll.

When renderings is black turn the iblSample to 8, or back to 4... Also is good, when you open the Script Window, then you see the Progress
Attachments
progressive.zip
(104.65 KiB) Downloaded 310 times

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redmotion
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by redmotion » 18 Apr 2010, 16:14

Good stuff, it seems to work if you set anti-aliasing VERY low.

On my own scene, in the render region, with -4 and -2 set for min max AA, I get a time of 0:00:07.63 without progressive.
But with progressive I get 0:00:06.33 for rendering with a MUCH higher image quality (with max time =1 to get benchmark). (Get a warning with these low settings -2 and -1 works just as well)

Seeing as progressive rendering was present in 3.7. Is it not possible to do the same with a geoshader for Softimage 2010?

http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/20 ... rogressive

jb_alvarado
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by jb_alvarado » 18 Apr 2010, 16:44

redmotion wrote: Seeing as progressive rendering was present in 3.7. Is it not possible to do the same with a geoshader for Softimage 2010?
I think, this is not a problem (when the shader api is the same). All what we need is an spdl file.

The progressive max time is in second, when you do this to 1, they only make 1 (sub)frame.

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origin
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by origin » 18 Apr 2010, 16:45

For me sampling starts at 0x0 AA... I can't make it lower like in maya (from blocky to high quality image)

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redmotion
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by redmotion » 18 Apr 2010, 17:24

With the max time I tried setting it to 1 because it just seemed to render the region once rather than continuing to do more iterations. It was my intention to compare it with the speed of doing the same without progressive rendering. Doing that time it seemed significantly better as the detail of the image is much higher.

I tried making a spdl but it says it has syntax errors when I try to install it.
mrHiddenOptions.zip
(1.03 KiB) Downloaded 180 times
Do you think you might know what's wrong?

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redmotion
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by redmotion » 18 Apr 2010, 17:27

origin wrote:For me sampling starts at 0x0 AA... I can't make it lower like in maya (from blocky to high quality image)
I set my negative AA samples in the Rendering options not on the hiddenoptions shader. For all I know this could be a freak occurrence...

EDIT: The first prog render on opening a scene always seems much faster and then its as if some more options are turned on, it looks different and takes a lot longer.

EDIT: Think its the IBL (image based lighting)
Last edited by redmotion on 20 Apr 2010, 00:41, edited 1 time in total.

Kzin
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by Kzin » 18 Apr 2010, 18:25

i got some sampling problems with motion blur rendering, are there some add options for progressive rendering in mr regarding this?

Image

i get only rid of if i increase the min sampling value, but thats not an option. rendertime is great by the way for mb.

EDIT: a motion steps option would also be great if available. ;)

jb_alvarado
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by jb_alvarado » 18 Apr 2010, 21:08

Hm, how many sub frames they are render for this result?

I dont find any special Option for mb in the pregressive mode, and also in dont have this artefacts.

Gabba
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Re: Geometry Shader for the hidden Options in mr 3.8

Post by Gabba » 18 Apr 2010, 22:51

Hi all! I have a question, in this discussion (it's in italian, sorry) http://www.treddi.com/forum/topic/78865 ... __st__240? a user that someone will sure know, dagon, said that there will be some other options such a "subsampling" parameters. In the posted picture it's the maya UI. As we can see something it's really missing. It's possibile to get the same options exposed? Dagon said that this could be helpfull for "interactivity".

Image

(Moderator edit - please use the URL-tags, HB)

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