Megascan Hardware

ahmadabubaker

Hi,

First post here i believe, so i do apologies if i have posted in the wrong section.  So it has been a while since megascan has been released and I was wondering if anyone has figured what kind of hardware quixel is using to scan their textures. I have watched the youtube making of video multiple times and still have no idea what the machine actually does or how it is configured.

I did however find the something that might be similar  in use if not scale, to what quixel might be using for their textures....Have a look at the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmPvmrtsbrg

EarthQuake

Here is a short video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8alYZgkwClM

I know a bit about it but I'm not sure what I should say as it's all custom/proprietary tech that Quixel has developed. Basically, it's a box with a camera and a custom light rig. They have different sized boxes for different types of things. The reason it's in a box is to keep ambient light out.

ahmadabubaker

I wont tell anyone, I swear.

I am guessing they are using the LEDs to make the Lightning is as defused as possible to avoid or minimize shadows also photographing with the LEDs in closed environment in the dark is to further that very purpose? I assumed they had a scanner but it seems they Actually photographing the subjects rather than scanning them.

Synaesthesia

>The reason it's in a box is to keep ambient light out.

Also to keep prying eyes out. Shhh, it's a secret!

Joe is basically correct. It's a box with a camera attached to it. The basics behind photogrammetry apply - what differs is how we compile the scans together to produce the final result, plus stuff I can't talk about because I like my job and would prefer to keep it.

ahmadabubaker

Know then all I have to do is find you compilation method which is probably a direct result of the hardware design, I guess.

Guess i will have to buy a subscription until i can find an engineer who will work for food, lol.

EarthQuake

Quixel does a lot of magical things both on the hardware and software side, where even if it was explained in great detail it would not likely be feasible without a dedicated team of mechanical and software engineers to implement something similar.

If you want to learn more about this stuff in general, check out Paul Debevec's work: http://www.pauldebevec.com/

For the average artist looking to do some home brew scanning, the best advice would be to get a decent camera that shoots in raw, shoot on an overcast day, and get a circular polarizer to limit specular reflections. There's some more information in this thread: http://polycount.com/discussion/154735/photography-tutorial-for-textures

Synaesthesia

Circular polarizing filters are a miracle of photography. Everyone should have one.

MeshMagnet

EarthQuake said:

Quixel does a lot of magical things both on the hardware and software side, where even if it was explained in great detail it would not likely be feasible without a dedicated team of mechanical and software engineers to implement something similar.

If you want to learn more about this stuff in general, check out Paul Debevec's work: http://www.pauldebevec.com/

For the average artist looking to do some home brew scanning, the best advice would be to get a decent camera that shoots in raw, shoot on an overcast day, and get a circular polarizer to limit specular reflections. There's some more information in this thread: http://polycount.com/discussion/154735/photography-tutorial-for-textures

What about capturing true PBR textures?  Is that what the QuixelMegaBox scanner thing is capable of doing? 

Would the average artist be able to capture true PBR textures with a digital camera?  Or would that require special lenses/setup?

EarthQuake

Yes, Quixel's setup is designed to capture extremely accurate materials, meant for modern PBR systems.

Anything your average artist would put together would be significantly less accurate, ie, baked in lighting that would be troublesome to remove, difficulty calibrating the actual values, and of course capturing spec/gloss maps is not really feasible with a basic setup.

Now, that's not to say homebrew capture is pointless, but just don't expect Megascans quality out of it.

jovcem

You can find some info here, basically its a box with lights and a camera, different lights are turned on and multiple pictures are taken, after that those pictures are processed to create a texture