DeepFish
02-19-2005, 05:52 AM
Hello.
Well first of all, before you all start posting Killeroo (http://www.headus.com/au/samples/disp-norm/index.html) links here, let me clarify something.
The wonderful shader that they created works only in Software Render Mode. Yes it does displace the geometry along the contour of a mesh, giving it a much detailed outline, for the fraction of rendering time, compared to rendingering a full object displacement. But again, it works ONLY in software mode. The other shader that they have posted on the site, for Mental Ray, does NOT have a displacement node attached to it, its purely Normal Mapping. (http://www.headus.com/au/samples/norm-MR/index.html (http://www.headus.com/au/samples/norm-MR/index.htmll))
In mental ray, it displaces the ENTIRE mesh, not just a contour. If you are skeptical about that, try a simple test. Create a black and white ramp, set its "Interpolation" to "None". Plug Facing ratio into its "Uv Coord" -> "V Coord" set that ramp to "Incandescence" of any lambert material. Tweak your Ramp so that you get a thin, white outline around your object. Now disconnect ramp from "Incandescence". In hypershade create a "Luminance" node, and plug your Ramp's color into its value. Then plug the "Luminance" out value into a displacement node of your shader.
Render your scene in Maya Software mode. You will definetely see that it displaces where
it should displace (based on facing ratio and your ramp).
Now switch to mental ray, and render again, your whole object will be bloated, meaning that it applied that white color from your ramp, as a displacement value to ENTIRE object.
It has this problem with Sub-D, NURBS as well as Polygons.
So, is it actually possible to displace just an edge of an object in Mental Ray?
Well first of all, before you all start posting Killeroo (http://www.headus.com/au/samples/disp-norm/index.html) links here, let me clarify something.
The wonderful shader that they created works only in Software Render Mode. Yes it does displace the geometry along the contour of a mesh, giving it a much detailed outline, for the fraction of rendering time, compared to rendingering a full object displacement. But again, it works ONLY in software mode. The other shader that they have posted on the site, for Mental Ray, does NOT have a displacement node attached to it, its purely Normal Mapping. (http://www.headus.com/au/samples/norm-MR/index.html (http://www.headus.com/au/samples/norm-MR/index.htmll))
In mental ray, it displaces the ENTIRE mesh, not just a contour. If you are skeptical about that, try a simple test. Create a black and white ramp, set its "Interpolation" to "None". Plug Facing ratio into its "Uv Coord" -> "V Coord" set that ramp to "Incandescence" of any lambert material. Tweak your Ramp so that you get a thin, white outline around your object. Now disconnect ramp from "Incandescence". In hypershade create a "Luminance" node, and plug your Ramp's color into its value. Then plug the "Luminance" out value into a displacement node of your shader.
Render your scene in Maya Software mode. You will definetely see that it displaces where
it should displace (based on facing ratio and your ramp).
Now switch to mental ray, and render again, your whole object will be bloated, meaning that it applied that white color from your ramp, as a displacement value to ENTIRE object.
It has this problem with Sub-D, NURBS as well as Polygons.
So, is it actually possible to displace just an edge of an object in Mental Ray?