gamma LUT settings 3dsmax
insane polycounter
I am really starting to get annoyed about this, do i actually need to have this enabled or not. If I render with out it enabled and with no exposure control, tnings seems much simpler.
Most times I just render out still image of WIP or stuff for my online folio
Most times I just render out still image of WIP or stuff for my online folio
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On the odd chance I need it turned on, that setting is saved into that particular max file and turns on when that scene loads.
They kind of screwed everything up by turning it on by default in max 2012... I guess if you don't have anything new just flip some defaults?
We had a lot of problems with Gamma/LUT settings not carrying over to BackBurner (Max's default render farm). It was a giant pain in the ass and we gave up on using it and went with other solutions instead, VRay.
I think they did it because it brightens scenes and fakes bounce lighting quite a bit without having to calculate it? Which you can also do by adjusting the ambient light level from pitch black to gray (rendering, environment, global light, ambient).
I am indeed using mental ray and am also trying to learn vray, but they take so long to set up and are very flakey when it comes to skin SSS.
settings never seem to carry across very well.
Nice tip re the amibient light Mark, will try that, but TBH i hate the overbirght look you get from vray and MR, everything just gets bleached out including the detail in your Normal Map
I guees it just a case of me not knowing enough yet to get the best out of these renderers.
Then there are all these extra controls for exposure which is another can of worms
http://jeffpatton.net/2010/12/mental-ray-faq/
http://jeffpatton.net/Blog-images/3dsMax_Gamma_JP.pdf
http://scripts.breidt.net/gamma_correct_v12.pdf
and try looking zap's stuff to he is the one beind the sss shader in mental ray
http://mentalraytips.blogspot.ca/
trying to understand how gamma is working is a key to a good render because its the starting point if your gamma is wrong everyting is wrong..i strongly discourage the use of the abiant option in the environement..at least if you are using mental ray. thath being said if your goal is in game render(directx shader) it doseent mater.
(sorry about my verry bad english)
I think they've fixed it in subsequent versions of max.
Or set input to 1 and override diffuse textures at 2.2...
As for the overbright thing in vray, you might want to learn about color mapping types, though correct gamma should already fix most problems.
http://wiki.polycount.com/Gamma
And yes, you have to override when importing normal maps with 1.0 gamma.
Acitone
If you adjusted your gamma on the monitor to 2.2 it would indeed look very bad.But it wouldn't cuase hardware failure....
I have Gamma at 1.8 as suggested. 2.2 is washed out indeed and takes too much of the color and shading out of the render. I noticed I still have to override when saving the render, at 1.8.
So we should import Normals at 1.0, what about Specular?
Normals should always be imported with override at 1.0 in a linear workflow using gamma correction.
I would override the spec and gloss maps if present. You don't really want them to be gamma corrected since they are only greyscale maps.
If your using vray heres a nice "how to making of" guide:
http://www.treddi.com/app/en/articoli/pagina/199-combine-apc-making-of
It talks of using 1.8 gamma.
the theory is that if you use logarithmic it applies it own internal gamma setting of 2.2 but its a bit borked, hence changing the gamma back to 1.62
if you use mental ray photographic exposure then it ok to leave it at 2.2 because max will disable the system gamma settings if you enable MR photographic exposure
seems there are too many permutations to say this the right way to do it.
I tend to use a MR area light and a skylight and it looks ok.
Physical lights can work well too, but it just depends what you are trying to achieve
I only use logarithmic because it make my renders look nicer for some reason:)
from max help file
Linear workflow is one of the most pain in the arse things to work with and it seems to confuse almost everyone:)
We are creating all of our textures as linear 16Bit EXR files and also render the final images out as EXR sequences. So you have full control over the colors during the whole process.
A lot of renders have washed out textures because the import settings are wrong. If you just import SRGB images and render them with gamma correction they get washed.
I guess in 3dsmax there is a global switch to set how to import images but this is only useful if you are sure all your images have the same colorspace.
yeah I get why gamma space 2.2 is required, ie for post production stuff,so you would export your renders with a gamma of 1.0 ,so you can make use of the full colour range of the image - you would then adjust the gamma in your compositing app
A gamma output of 1.0 would look dark in pshop for example
BUT for most of us we just need to render out our images for our folio on the web, so burning 2.2 or 1.8 gamma in to your render is normally sufficient.
So what colour space should games artists be working in ie in photoshop ?
Most of my textures seeem to be srgb. Do I just get rid of any colour profiles in pshop or just use monior colour.
sRGB
http://seblagarde.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/feeding-a-physical-based-lighting-mode/
I saw your name and said to myself "hmm, now where have I seen that name", then it dawns on me! - You have a 3ds Max shader that's pretty awesome. Do you have a working version for 2013/14 yet?
A question about viewport shaders - do they have effect on the render or just the viewport display of textures?
That's probably what happened. I think maybe it overheated one time too many and that's it for SLI on my machine.
Also, someone, what is "linear workflow" please?
linear workflow is the practice of using gamma correction in your textures inside your choice of 3d modeling software for rendering images and compositing those rendered images in photoshop, nuke after effects etc.
most peoples computer monitors are not calibrated for linear workflows and your 3d modeling program has to gamma correct that mismatch between what you see on your monitor and what your image actually does look like if that makes sence.
I think the "goal" of linear workflow in 3dsMax is the right goal, but too many ways to accidentally de-gamma textures like normal maps resulting in very poor shading (worse then not using linear space on your color textures)
That said, if you are very familiar with linear workflow, you can just use the 3dsMax build in tools for it. You just have to make sure that on the file dialog when browsing for textures you make the right choice.
This explains it pretty good http://www.workshop.mintviz.com/tutorials/gamma-correction-and-linear-workflow-explained/
You do need to be mindful of gamma when picking some textures especially normal maps, like shaderfx said. This is the only place that setting comes up inside of max.
It can be a bit maddening if you don't know about it but need to find it. Most people ignore it as just clutter.