VDB import not rendering

#1

Hey Ive opened a .vdb volumetric cloud file. Put it in the volume mesher and the volume builder to smooth it out but now it wont render. What am i missing? R20
TIA

#2

Is it an SDF or a Fog volume? SDF is interpreted as mesh while Fog needs volume rendering. In R21 you can do that with ProRender.

#3

its SDF…So can it be rendered in R20? what do i have to use in Pro render to see it? The default settings nothing still shows up

#4

The volume mesher will create a polygon surface for an SDF, this can be rendered with any renderer.
Is a mesh being created? Do you actually use the volume mesher or are you only looking at the volumetric preview, which can’t be rendered?

#5

This is what i have. How do i get this to render as is? i dont care if i have to convert it whatever. I want this so i can map a cloud texture onto it and make it look like a cloud.

pic
pic.jpg2536x1311 597 KB

btw i put a plain material on it and it didnt help

#6

Swap mesher and builder :slight_smile:

#7

YES
It completely screws up my setting but i will fix that. This order makes no sense to me though. You would think the builder would parent the mesher because it is smoothing
Thanks

#8

It’s not so much about the smoothing.
It’s more about how C4D inherently works. Parametric objects are so called generators. They take their child (or children) as input and provide internally a “cache” (a polygonal version) of whatever it generates from the inputs.

With this, the builder first builds a volume and provides it as cache to the input of its parent. This volume can then be taken as input by the parent mesher to generate the polygonal representation.