Vertex level control over Displacement ???

#1

Vertex level control over Displacement ???

I want to be able to take a mesh and assign weights to each vertex in order to control the amount of affect a given shader has on the underlying mesh.

I do this all the time with my own RIB exporter plugins for various apps … but I’d rather get involved with something commercial, canned, professional.

How many procedural shaders can be used in Vue D’esprit ??? Is it extendable ??? Are there lots of nice shaders ??? Would not happen to have a RenderMan-ish scripting component to it ???

#2

Vue doesn’t understand vertices, only polygons, and has no weighting capabilities. Displacements in Vue are done with procedural functions or displacment maps for imported meshs with UV coordinates.
There are many, many possibilities to create shaders in Vue using the power of the function editor. Displacement, bump, colour, reflectivity, refraction, shorelines, animated oceans, ecosystem population, terrain generation, new layering system for additive materials, etc, etc, basic modelling ( boolean operations, metablob and text), dynamic subdivision, and python scripting amongst other features.
This is Vue Infinite, Esprit doesn’t have all these features.

#3

OK … if no vertex control …

How about just polygon by polygon masking for an object. Which parts get displacement shader and which don’t ???

Can I get that level of control ???

Or is it constant level per object ???

#4

Procedural displacement is applied to the polygon normals, and that’s about all I can tell you, sorry.

#5

If you are importing your own models into Vue, obviously you could assign a different material to each polygon (or polygon groups) when assigning material areas within your modeller, which Vue would recognise. The problem will come when you would want to blend materials (with accuracy) of two adjacent poly groups within Vue…to be honest, it would be a right royal pain in the arse.
It’s easier to just throw up your arms in disgust and accept that Vue only recognises control at object level, and maybe bang your head against the keyboard…something I have done more than once ;0)

Weight maps to drive textures would be a fantastic idea to give the artist extra control, but I can remember suggesting basic point/edge/polgon editing (push, pulling) way back in version 3 or 4, (about 5 or 6 years ago)!! To be honest it’s just easier to purchase Xstream and a compatible modelling program…even when taking cost into consideration. Certainly would save your forehead from bruises!! ;0)

#6

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.