I have 2questions regarding this shader, fantastic shader btw! that I cant figure out and id appreciate some help
Firstly shadows, im creating hair and I have numerous alpha laden polygons. The hair transparency works great on the actual polygon itself but I can only achieve shadows for the polygon as a hole instead of achieving shadows based off the alpha. Im using Max2010, is this possible? I have tried everything I can think off. edit - A friend has just told me this might not be possible as its a hardware shader. If this is the case ill have to re think my plans
My other problem is with the diffuse texture on the hair itself. As soon as I turn on 'Enable alpha channel' on the Diffuse, the alpha works great! but I get patchs of very bright, over saturated colour all over the still visible parts of my texture. Am I missing a setting or might this be my 3d card?
@Sevv
Q1 - I asked the same question in page 14 about the transparency shadow, and Xoliul has answered it. You might want to check that out. But note that I haven't tried it yet heheh..
Q2 - Picture!..well just my guess for now, do you have any other Xoliulshader on your material editor? if yes then, the setting of the previous one might carried over to the new one. And without you notice it, some checkbox might on, or spec setting too high (taken from the other Xoliulshader setting), etc.
That 2nd thing might be vertexcolors giving some grief, they haven't been tested extensively. A pic would be nice, as i think someone else that mailed me had this issue too.
Revel... from what I gather from your/ the post on page 14... please let me know if im wrong I should give my hair mesh a standard shader, alpha map etc and then my head mesh Xoliuls shader. I tried this, unfortunatly I cant seem to get a Standard shaded material to cast shadows on Xoliuls shader.
Regarding the diffuse texture, please see the attached picture. This is just my test texture just to learn the shader techniques.
There is only one XoliulShader in the scene, the one on the left is 'best' transparency and the right is 'simple'. Considering Max wont allow alpha shadows this problem might no longer be a problem However if this pic helps then great!
I also tried inside max 2012, but it doesn't work for me too. Actually, none of the shaders I used to use is working with the new nitrous viewport. I'm probably missing something
The Nitrous viewport causes lots of problems with FX shaders. I've been told that they're going to address them in a patch. For now, I'd recommend reverting to the d3d viewport if you're interested in using FX shaders with 2012. Even that has some issues, but it's better than Nitrous right now.
Nitrous is a code base, not a specific look. Nitrous supports (or is supposed to support) FX shaders just like the previous D3D driver does - so theoretically a shader should look the same when using D3D or Nitrous. That's not the case right now because of the bugs in Nitrous. The main advantage Nitrous has over D3D is speed.
doesn't work with nitrous, does work with direct3d but nothing changed about the buggy alpha display while using the ambient occlusion and shadows in the viewport sadly enough.
I can tell you straight away that won't be the case officially, it might work, but I have to cut support somewhere. All the new features i'm introducing are also very unstable in 2008, so you're recomended to get at least 2010.
Agrhhh
I'm using 2008 'cause most tools i need are totally unstable in higher versions, so i hope shader's unstable work of "new features" will not be so critical for getting high quality real-time screens
and one thing: i have small request about masks and coloring (by RGBA channels) in my post #387, but is it OK to talk about it right now?
All your tool authors still haven't updated their tools after 3-4 years? Sounds harsh
I'd really try and see if you can't get going with 2011, never had any problems with that one. 2012 has some really nice new UV tools too.
As for the masks: I know the feature, thing is it's hard to implement without messing other things up, features start to conflict a bit. A car modeler from Rockstar however has asked me the same thing, so I might do a little hack version for you guys then. But first the next version needs to be finished.
-go to Customize > Preferences
-pick Viewports tab, click Choose Driver at the bottom.
-Not sure what it looks like then, but just revert from Nitrous to Direct3D, Nitrous is pretty shitty and slow.
Hey Xoliul. First thing I'd like to say is I just started using this shader today and it looks wonderful. I'm running into this weird display issue in Maya 2011 with it though. Any ideas what could be causing it?
Is there any way to display normal maps and the like in Nitrous at the moment? I actually feel that it's quite a bit faster on heavy scenes than the previous Direct3D display driver, but the inability to display content for real time engines is just a numbingly stupid oversight on the part of autodesk..
Haha yep that fixed it. Except now my alphas are sorting funny (ignoring another piece of hair completely and showing the ear. I'll have to play around with it. Such a simple solution. Thank you.
Edit: Ok so separating the piece that isn't showing fixes the alpha problem but then the texture flies off again. Oh silly times.
Texture flying off, like "random geometry spikes" is usually a sign of graphics hardware overheating or dying. Not to freak you out, since this doesn't look too bad (this does: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/230/53910883bx1.jpg/sr=1), so I don't really think it's that.
I'm sorry I don't know too much about this stuff in Maya, just how to get a shader running relly, that's all.
Is there any way to display normal maps and the like in Nitrous at the moment? I actually feel that it's quite a bit faster on heavy scenes than the previous Direct3D display driver, but the inability to display content for real time engines is just a numbingly stupid oversight on the part of autodesk..
Really? I found it to be ridiculously slow and cumbersome, as in using F4 to switch display modes takes 2 seconds on a scene with 150 (highpoly) objects. Geometry also disappears randomly. As it is now, Nitrous just seems like a big useless joke to me...
Really? I found it to be ridiculously slow and cumbersome, as in using F4 to switch display modes takes 2 seconds on a scene with 150 (highpoly) objects. Geometry also disappears randomly. As it is now, Nitrous just seems like a big useless joke to me...
as it stands, i would agree. the various display shaders (ink etc.) are nice, but not really all that useful. performance-wise i felt it to be an improvement, however i didn't check fps stats or anything..
Replies
Firstly shadows, im creating hair and I have numerous alpha laden polygons. The hair transparency works great on the actual polygon itself but I can only achieve shadows for the polygon as a hole instead of achieving shadows based off the alpha. Im using Max2010, is this possible? I have tried everything I can think off. edit - A friend has just told me this might not be possible as its a hardware shader. If this is the case ill have to re think my plans
My other problem is with the diffuse texture on the hair itself. As soon as I turn on 'Enable alpha channel' on the Diffuse, the alpha works great! but I get patchs of very bright, over saturated colour all over the still visible parts of my texture. Am I missing a setting or might this be my 3d card?
Many Thanks
Q1 - I asked the same question in page 14 about the transparency shadow, and Xoliul has answered it. You might want to check that out. But note that I haven't tried it yet heheh..
Q2 - Picture!..well just my guess for now, do you have any other Xoliulshader on your material editor? if yes then, the setting of the previous one might carried over to the new one. And without you notice it, some checkbox might on, or spec setting too high (taken from the other Xoliulshader setting), etc.
_Revel
Revel... from what I gather from your/ the post on page 14... please let me know if im wrong
Regarding the diffuse texture, please see the attached picture. This is just my test texture just to learn the shader techniques.
There is only one XoliulShader in the scene, the one on the left is 'best' transparency and the right is 'simple'. Considering Max wont allow alpha shadows this problem might no longer be a problem
Problems solved combined with a redesigned hair style... many thanks
That would be awesome!
~t
Unacceptable!
In all seriousness, you are a champion man, love your shader and will continue to use it
doesn't work with nitrous, does work with direct3d but nothing changed about the buggy alpha display while using the ambient occlusion and shadows in the viewport sadly enough.
Hope 2008 max will be supported.
I'm using 2008 'cause most tools i need are totally unstable in higher versions, so i hope shader's unstable work of "new features" will not be so critical for getting high quality real-time screens
and one thing: i have small request about masks and coloring (by RGBA channels) in my post #387, but is it OK to talk about it right now?
I'd really try and see if you can't get going with 2011, never had any problems with that one. 2012 has some really nice new UV tools too.
As for the masks: I know the feature, thing is it's hard to implement without messing other things up, features start to conflict a bit. A car modeler from Rockstar however has asked me the same thing, so I might do a little hack version for you guys then. But first the next version needs to be finished.
I'll wait
I worked my ass of on that new version.
-go to Customize > Preferences
-pick Viewports tab, click Choose Driver at the bottom.
-Not sure what it looks like then, but just revert from Nitrous to Direct3D, Nitrous is pretty shitty and slow.
Also on the note of XoliulShader II: we fixed our hopefully last big error, release is getting closer!
!!!!
This will be huge!
The texture seems to be flying off of my geometry on the smaller tip. I've never seen anything like that before.
Edit: Ok so separating the piece that isn't showing fixes the alpha problem but then the texture flies off again. Oh silly times.
I'm sorry I don't know too much about this stuff in Maya, just how to get a shader running relly, that's all.
Really? I found it to be ridiculously slow and cumbersome, as in using F4 to switch display modes takes 2 seconds on a scene with 150 (highpoly) objects. Geometry also disappears randomly. As it is now, Nitrous just seems like a big useless joke to me...
as it stands, i would agree. the various display shaders (ink etc.) are nice, but not really all that useful. performance-wise i felt it to be an improvement, however i didn't check fps stats or anything..