Another H11 feature I can't quite get working yet. The way I read the docs, I should create some geo, attach a material, create a geometry light, and the light will use that material.

Tried this and got a black frame. Enabling “render light geometry” showed my geometry with the material I'd chosen, but with no effective illumination of the scene. Removing the material results in a pure white geometry with an even scene illumination.

Attachment of non-working scene

Hi Rob,

I think Mantra looks for actual emission (export vector Ce) to use for the intensity of the illumination source. Your shader was only outputting Cf.
And I believe this applies to all engines (the need to export Ce, that is)… unless you select a texture map instead of an actual shader in the light UI, in which case I believe the texture's colors are interpreted as Ce behind the curtains for you (and mapped according to bound attribute “vector uv”)– but I'm not 100% certain on that.

Attached is your scene with PBR, and the reworked version of your file.

Cheers!

Thanks Mario! That did the trick beautifully!

Any clue why:
1) Ce isn't exposed in the material builder?
2) Auto-layout doesn't work in VOPs?

How's Toronto? I _still_ haven't managed to seize the opportunity to sneak back for some Burrito Boyz

rjpieke
Any clue why:
1) Ce isn't exposed in the material builder?

Ce was left as a user export during its inception in version 10… and has gradually become a more bona-fide (that is, “expected”) export as time's gone by. At this point, I agree there's probably a good argument for making it a standard shader export (at the same level of Cf, Af, F, etc.)… but there might be some reason that's holding that back; I dunno. <shrug>

rjpieke
2) Auto-layout doesn't work in VOPs?

This has come up during Alpha/Beta… I believe it's temporarily been put in hiatus while some kinks get fixed, and the intent is to bring it back once that's taken care of – but of course, I can only speculate
Mark?

rjpieke
How's Toronto? I _still_ haven't managed to seize the opportunity to sneak back for some Burrito Boyz

Hehe. BB as good as ever, and I'm thoroughly enjoying this non-stop heat wave we're having – trying to soak it all up before the Standard Issue “End of Days” Winter sends us back to the caves for another six months

Mario Marengo

rjpieke
Any clue why:
1) Ce isn't exposed in the material builder?

Ce was left as a user export during its inception in version 10… and has gradually become a more bona-fide (that is, “expected”) export as time's gone by. At this point, I agree there's probably a good argument for making it a standard shader export (at the same level of Cf, Af, F, etc.)… but there might be some reason that's holding that back; I dunno. <shrug>

Gah, I was hoping to dive straight into H11, but I suspect I've got some H10 (and possibly H9) reading still to do first. I've definitely got “what's the philosophy behind THAT decision?” questions arising (the wealth of rendering parameters it seems I have to keep adding to every object, for example) that are probably explained to death in the archives of this forum

FYI in 11 there are a lot more (but sadly, not all) rendering parameters exposed.

Hiding them in the first place was an unfortunate mistake, that is being corrected. I still don't know why they aren't all exposed though. I just discovered today that the Predicing isn't exposed for example, which is an important one.

Cheers,

Peter B

The reason cited was speed/optimization. I too share your sadness, this has been a real stickler for me. The process of exposing is simply too repetitive and time consuming. Custom versions are big decisions, not to be made lightly in a shared environment.

Cheers,

J.C.

Sorry, didn't mean to strike a nerve.

On the plus side, it's great to be “back” (even if it's just in my spare time) and see the same names on the forum as were there when I was at C.O.R.E.

pbowmar
I just discovered today that the Predicing isn't exposed for example, which is an important one.

Predicing should be exposed on the Dicing tab on the geometry object. Do you not see it there?

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Ah, yes, if you put down a new object. However, the Fur OTL objects don't have it (nor have it exposed) so that tricked me…

I think that's another thing that needs some addressing, which is when an object/cam/light changes, having some way to update it easily and automatically to add whatever changes were made. In H11 I was constantly rebuilding my .hip files to get the “latest” Mantra ROP/Object etc. I realise in Alpha/Beta that's legit, but I basically can't load and use an H10 .hip file without a _lot_ of work.

Cheers,

Peter B

Hey Mario, thanks for the file. One question though, I'm having problem to change a colour of the light. I tried to modify the parameter on the geolight node in the first place - no success, then realised to insert additional parameter in VOPs. Should I connect it to the light_output where a Light Color input is. This doesn't work either.

Thanks.


Edit:
Nevermind, I reread your post :roll: and plug colour to the Ce parameter.
need a coffe break