Linear Work flow Vray - Maya: Affects Swatches

#1

Hallo every body,
now I understood almost everything about the LWF in vray and Maya besides the option
Affect swatches…
An this link (http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/maya/150R1/render_params_colormapping.htm), at the bottom, we can read:
Affect swatches - this option controls whether or not the color corrections will be applied to the material swatches in the Hypershade and the Attribute Editor.
First question is: what does it mean for “material swatches”?
I thing not textured material, as a sphere red colored by Diffuse Color in VRyMtl Editi Attribute. Is it right?
Anyway, I noticed that you can correct Gamma for your not textured material (material swatches…?) only applying a Gamma corrector (.454), cause if I set “on” Affect swatches, but I don’t apply a Gamma Corrector, my not textured material (Swatches) stay wash out and doesn’t receive automatically Gamma correction, just as it would be expected using the option Affect swatches. Therefore, it looks like a useless option…

#2

If you have set up LWF correctly (not using the LWF button). Your swatches will need to be gamma corrected as well as your textures. If you check “Affect swatches” and “refresh” your scene (try to close the hypershade or reload the scene or something). You should notice if you create a default Vray mtl. that it is much brighter, because it has not been gamma corrected.

So that means whenever you use the color wheel to pick a color, that the actual color you pick will need a .454 gamma node inserted otherwise it will be much brighter.

#3

Thanks Kyron!

I made so…
Shortly - if I have right understand - if I’m sure about what have I to correct, I shouldn’t use LWF button and correct gamma manually. Is it right?

Many thanks!

#4

My LWF setup in Vray under color mapping:

Type: linear multiply
Dark/bright multiplier: 1
Gamma: 2.2
Affect BG: ON
Subpixel mapping: OFF in most cases
Don´t affect colors: ON
Linear workflow:OFF
Clamp output:OFF by default but if you get superbrights you can type in a value (5 is usually a good start)
Affect swatches: ON

All textures that contribute to color in some way: go to the file node and in the attribute editor, under attributes > vray> texture input gamma.

All straight colors I create a gamma node with .454 in the RGB channels.

#5

Thanks Kyrio,
I use the same setup but with Affects Swatches: OFF.
And manually correct texture and swatches with Gamma Corrector node (.454) cause I have more control: in fact I notice that is better to use Gamma Corrector node, instead attributes > vray> texture input gamma, if you want apply f.e. a ramp or e procedural or fratcal noise to original texture or swartches color, cause “texture input gamma” doesn’t correct Gamma on procedural, fratcal… materials.

Soon!

#6

Affect swatches dosen´t actually do any color corrections, it´s just a visual indicator (unless I´m completely mistaken).

And yes you are right, anything that contributes to color needs to have some sort of gamma correction textures, procedurals, colors etc.

#7

I personally keep the linear workflow checked. It’s not difficult to see which textures are corrected and which one needs your attention :slight_smile: It does exactly as stated in the doc - for backward compatibility. So as you might have guessed, new materials such as car paint and hair are the ones that won’t get corrected.

It’s very convenient for the most part. Especially if you use lots of ramps. Gamma correcting ramps is really… annoying.

#8

I also heard the dreaded “LWF” button should be getting some attention in future releases.

Maybe I´m just being oldschool, but I just don´t trust it enough to use it yet :wink:
Not so much because I want everything to be 100% correct, but more because I don´t want to end up in a situation where I don´t know what´s doing what :slight_smile:

#9

In Chaosgroup documentation, LWF checked is only for old materials or somethings so… therefore I uncheck it.

Many thanks!

#10

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