ScottC
12-05-2004, 08:24 AM
Hi all! I was wondering if anyone would like the chance to do some shilling for PMG. Im a LW/ frpime user, but have grown increasingly frustrated by rendering deficiencies. Fprime is great, or at least will be, whenever it eventually supports shaders, but LW has some native deficiencies that dont look like will be addressed anytime soon.
I work primarily for print, i.e., higher-end/high resolution, and LW has grown increasingly problematic for me in this area...there are problems saving out at high res that transfer over to Fprime as well. Also, I recently picked up Zbrush, and it has really changed the way I work, and I am now all about displacement, but displacement in LW is fairly useless, as you generally have to generate more polys to get the sds patches to display the maps accurately than you would be just importing the pure geometery. Oh, and not to mention the Fprimes need to have the display res match the render rez. So Messiahs Sub poly displacement is very attractive to me. I dont actually do much in terms of animation, though messiahs superior rigging would help me in character posing.
My questions are as follows, if anyone would be good enough to chime in on the matter:
1)Is the sub pixel displacement really the magic bullet it seems to be? I understand it doesnt increase the gemometry, but is there an equivilent trade off burden in complexity somewhere else that can bog down the renderer, and allow for failures at high res?
2) How do you think it would work for high resolution stills generation?... How print firendly is it?...does anyone use it thusly?
3) It boasts fast Global illumination, but has anyone who is also a lw user vouch for this? I dont expect it to be Fprime fast, but is it faster than LW? How about quality comparison? I havent actually hasd a lot of luck finding a satisfying amount of samples, particularly GI online, at least, not on the PMG site
4) and finally, I have a new nvidia 256mb 6800 GT vid card, which Im not likely to swap out any time soon. How severe are the reported problems with the 6 series line? Do I need to be really worried about this?
So, bottom line, for someone who doesnt do animation primarily, but would certainly benefit from better rigging than lw 7.5, but who is looking primarily for a more advance rendering solution than LW do well to pick this up?
I really appreciate anyone who is willing to take a stab at any of these questions, or point me to some exclusive Messiah galleries, beyond the scant content Ive found on the site and here in the forums.
Thanks!
I work primarily for print, i.e., higher-end/high resolution, and LW has grown increasingly problematic for me in this area...there are problems saving out at high res that transfer over to Fprime as well. Also, I recently picked up Zbrush, and it has really changed the way I work, and I am now all about displacement, but displacement in LW is fairly useless, as you generally have to generate more polys to get the sds patches to display the maps accurately than you would be just importing the pure geometery. Oh, and not to mention the Fprimes need to have the display res match the render rez. So Messiahs Sub poly displacement is very attractive to me. I dont actually do much in terms of animation, though messiahs superior rigging would help me in character posing.
My questions are as follows, if anyone would be good enough to chime in on the matter:
1)Is the sub pixel displacement really the magic bullet it seems to be? I understand it doesnt increase the gemometry, but is there an equivilent trade off burden in complexity somewhere else that can bog down the renderer, and allow for failures at high res?
2) How do you think it would work for high resolution stills generation?... How print firendly is it?...does anyone use it thusly?
3) It boasts fast Global illumination, but has anyone who is also a lw user vouch for this? I dont expect it to be Fprime fast, but is it faster than LW? How about quality comparison? I havent actually hasd a lot of luck finding a satisfying amount of samples, particularly GI online, at least, not on the PMG site
4) and finally, I have a new nvidia 256mb 6800 GT vid card, which Im not likely to swap out any time soon. How severe are the reported problems with the 6 series line? Do I need to be really worried about this?
So, bottom line, for someone who doesnt do animation primarily, but would certainly benefit from better rigging than lw 7.5, but who is looking primarily for a more advance rendering solution than LW do well to pick this up?
I really appreciate anyone who is willing to take a stab at any of these questions, or point me to some exclusive Messiah galleries, beyond the scant content Ive found on the site and here in the forums.
Thanks!