i think all of these things can be setup with render layers. so if nothing else you only need one scene and to launch one render. check out “layer overrides”. any visibility parameter like cast shadows or primary visibility can be over ridden, and shaders and render settings can also be over ridden on a per layer basis. also if you dont include lights or objects in the layer they dont render in it so you can easily have totally different lighting setup or geometry for each layer, if the objects or the lights not in the layer it wont show up period.
ctrl_buffers
EmilP
#643
Hi,
I have a question related to the actual differences between the mix8layers in fb mode and the buffer_store shader. I would think if you used a mix8 and turned on the fb for individual layers (and leave them in normal mix mode) you’d get exactly what a buffer_store node produces. On the attached screenshot you’ll see two mix8 networks both used simply just to produce user buffer 1. The resoult is what I expected where transparency is involved inside my colour pass and the alpha is also working. Sweet. Now what I don’t understand is when I simply replace these mix8 with buffer_store nodes I’ll get a black render. The only way it works with buffer_stores if I use one single buffer_store connect everything by triple switch nodes to both buffer 1 and render buffer ports. I’d like to know this because this means that there are decisions to be made about when to use mix8 and when buffer_store for example when you need transparency like here.
Thanks
Emil
Scott212
#644
Let’s see if I got this right. I think the differnece that your refering to is the way they feed the primary buffer. The only thing that shows in the render view is the primary buffer. This is important because the primary buffer is also the channel MR derives it’s antialiasing decisions. The mix8 is compositing all of these framebuffers together to create the primary buffer while the buffer_store needs it explicitly. So, what I usually do is probably a little heavy handed: Connect my different shaders to the different user buffers of the buffer_store, then connect those same shaders to a mix8 or mix20 doing the compositing tasks without it storing to frame buffers, and connect that up to the primary buffer of the buffer_store. That way, you get your user buffers and something fairly close to your final image to be sampled.
Hope that helps
ctrl.studio
#645
I have a question related to the actual differences between the mix8layers in fb mode and the buffer_store shader.
Hi Emil, you're welcome.
I would think if you used a mix8 and turned on the fb for individual layers (and leave them in normal mix mode) you’d get exactly what a buffer_store node produces.
no. that actual does the mix of all the layers and put the result in the main buffer. while any individual layer other than the main one will be put into the respective buffer. if you want the mix8 to act as a buffer_store you’ll have to enable the ‘isolate’ slot. that prevents the layer to be layered down and only puts it into the buffer. there’s also a global options ‘only framebuffer’ (if I remember correctly) that automatically turns the mix8 into a buffer_store without having to ‘isolate’ each layer indipendently.
what I usually do is probably a little heavy handed: Connect my different shaders to the different user buffers of the buffer_store, then connect those same shaders to a mix8 or mix20 doing the compositing tasks without it storing to frame buffers, and connect that up to the primary buffer of the buffer_store. That way, you get your user buffers and something fairly close to your final image to be sampled.
Scoot, yes it's a bit heavy handed. :)
If you do it on a shader basis ,ie mix8, you do have the ‘isolate’ slot that should help you accomplish what you’re looking for. for example let’s say you’re layering a diffuse, specular and occlusion channels. if you plan to use only a mix8 the only problem you’ll get, trying to ‘visualize’ the result while also craming your layers into the framebuffers, is that the diffuse will have the result of the whole mix and not the actual ‘diffuse only’ contribution. well just plug the diffuse also into any free slot and enable ‘isolate’. you’ll have the result into the main buffer, the specular and the occlusion also in their respective buffers while the buffer isolated layer will be not part of the main result but will be just into its own buffer.
A global way is to use the ctrl.buffer v2.0 which comes with a global layering system embeded into the buffer.api. ie, while not using any mix8(or mix8 in ‘framebuffer only’ mode) you can still layer the whole contribution of any buffer you already filled up(ie, not in fg precomputing phase), so you can prototype your whole render output just with a couple of clicks. take a look and see if it’s what suits your needs if I understood you correctly.
max
jfcgi
#646
hello folks,
my first post here, warm greetings to you all, and espacialy to Francesca,
well, im using maya8 and have installed the ctrl buffers v2 r5, i was very happy to use tonemapper, but something is going wrong, maybe i make something
wrong and need your help.
i was making a scene that was over-burning.
then i have create a polygon primitive cube and assign buffer_api from mentalraynode/geometry to the geometry shader, just like i saw at tmap01.mov
thats it, i can change what i want, the only thing that works is makelrs, nothing else. any idea?
KIDI
#647
Hi, i think that u are doing great job thanks for that amazing shader
But i have one thing that i dont understand (maby it’s say that i dont understand nothing :sad: )
when i use the photoreceptor it let me to do the tune only once and after it render black (as before) whay is that ?
Sorry for my bad english
And allso some strange bugs in the textures
tryhard
#648
… anybody here who can post a small scene with the most common buffers setup, ready for render. i got the shaders installed but it´s hard to get started …
— >>> for 3ds max 9 !!!
Thanks
Klaus
toto5012
#650
Hi Everybody (sorry for my bad english)
I’m trying to get my head around that tonemapping thing for a while…
I hope some of you pros can help me outa here 
After I have seen what ctrl.buffers tonemapping could do in terms of Lightquality (not the speed).
I was thinking. WOW that is the VRay secret… (in my opinion)
And now we can do this with MentalRay. THX you so much ctrl.studio!!!
Ok here is my problem. What if I can’t render my scene with MentalRay, for what ever kind of reasen.
Or I want to tweak my Tonemapping later on in post.
There have been many people on this thread saying: You don’t need tonemapping at rendertime. Just do it in post.
The problem. Every compositingTool that I know can only do linear tonemapping (right?) wich is useless comparing to methods like “reinhard” or “photoreceptor”
I want this workflow:
-Render Out OpenEXR Imagesequences (or other floatingpoint)
-Import the sequences in to a PostApp.
-Do tonemapping on the sequenze with “reinhard” ,“photoreceptor” or other advanced methods and maybe key some parameter.
I know HDRshop (and some other Apps) can do tonemaping on a single Image but for animation this is doesn’t work.
So is there a solution like a plugin for a compositingtool or a commandlinetool that can handle sequences?
Thx for any help
toto
contrabass
#656
[left]Hi Francesca and all the Ctrl_Buffer users. I have followed this thread in search of a good tutorial for what is apparently a great MR Shader for Maya written by Francesca. Yet Francesca’s video tutorials have all expired. I am especially interested with the tonemapper tutorial, but also wish to understand the overall use of this shader. Can Francesca, or one of the Ctrl_Buffer users, please post a link to these Ctrl_Buffer’s tutorials. Are there any new updated tutorials? [/left]
[left][/left]
[left]Thank you in advance.
[/left]
[left][/left]
[left]All the best,[/left]
[left][/left]
Contrabass.
Sorath
#657
i’ve searched ctrl_buffers for a function to deactivate maya’s lights and default light - and activate other states in the Rendering Attributes, but i cannot find anything this way.
so you will get wrong results if you plug an ao pass in the ctrl buffers.
So you are not able to render more than one pass (for example just gi or just fg) - so the ctrl buffers do not make any sense.
instead of maya layering system - here you set a preset and it automatically deactivate the maya default lights and all other lights - for ao pass…
or am i doing something wrong?
contrabass
#659
[left]Hello Francesca, the good people of this thread, and Maya users at large. I wish to bother you yet again.[/left]
[left]I would be much obliged if someone could explain the difference between the Ctrl_Buffers and Maya 8 rendering layers. I would also like to repeat my previous request to please redirect me to the video tutorials that Francesca had posted on this thread. Unfortunately all the tutorials have expired. I am especially interested in the video tutorials from 6/19/06 (post #471 on this thread).[/left]
[left]After seeing Dagon’s overwhelming ability to create photorealistic renderings of interior architecture by utilizing the Ctrl_Buffer tonemapping and such features as ‘photoreceptor’, I think that we can all benefit from the above mentioned video tutorials.[/left]
[left]Hopefully someone out there will read my request.
[/left]
[left] [/left]
[left]All the best,[/left]
[left] [/left]
[left]Contrabass. [/left]
[left] [/left]
delarge
#660
read my mind.
could somebody share the video tutorials? I temporarily also could provide a ftp to host the video files… would be nice 
cheers
rob