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nDo2 BETA

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  • xXm0RpH3usXx
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    xXm0RpH3usXx polycounter lvl 13
    i know, i know, it might be a bit redundant, but how about renaming the active layer in the ndo window?
    like, the title of the window is the active layer. just click that name and make it editable??

    edit: yeah, didnt need to register, too...
  • RictusGrin
    Teddy, just a note that ndo2 works on my work PC.

    PS CS5
    Note: this is the non Extended edition, I'm wondering if the Extended edition is the culprit?

    Also when sharing this on FB from the Quixel front page; it'd be more effective to get a Ndo2 name with a Ndo2 thumbnail image. Currently there's a Quixel thumbnail. Sell the product now, sell the company later ;)
  • Skillmister
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    Skillmister polycounter lvl 11
  • Noors
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    Noors greentooth
    btw, the confirmation mail was in the spam folder on gmail so check it ppl.
  • RictusGrin
    Teddy, well so far I love nDo2, but just out of curiosity, is nDo2 using multicore processing? Feels a bit chuggy.
  • TheQiwiMan
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    TheQiwiMan polycounter lvl 12
    Its not letting me activate my license, I guess I'll have to "continue trial" as its not recognizing my internet connection. I'm most definitely connected to the internet, but we've been having some weird connectivity issues lately here at work. Maybe thats what's preventing it from seeing the internet connection.


    ---Trying to run it in trial mode: keeps crashing. Tried to load up a normal map I created, it says its loaded up but there is no change to the cube. Same with diffuse.

    If I go to File>New Normal Map it crashes.

    If I load up my normal map to the correct slot, and, even though the cube doesn't display anything differently, if I go to Convert>Normal to Occlusion it crashes.

    I'll try to run this on my home computer when I get a chance. Looks amazing!
  • MeintevdS
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    MeintevdS keyframe
    RictusGrin wrote: »
    Teddy, just a note that ndo2 works on my work PC.
    PS CS5
    Note: this is the non Extended edition, I'm wondering if the Extended edition is the culprit?

    I'm using PhotoShop CS5 64x Extended and I have no problems with nDo2 so far, so I'm afraid it's not Extended being a pain :(
  • Minos
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    Minos polycounter lvl 16
    Teddy: Could you clarify how the licenses work a bit? Can I do freelance work from home using the "non-commercial" version? 299 for that seems like a very steep price.

    Another question: Is the commercial license per set or for a whole studio?

    Grats on releasing this!!
  • whats_true
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    whats_true polycounter lvl 15
    Your web site breaks in Internet Explorer when i try to generate my licence key for the beta. I had to use Firefox to get the thing to work properly. Either get it fix or put a disclaimer on your page about that.
  • biofrost
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    biofrost polycounter lvl 12
    I feel like I may be missing something obvious but I cant for the life of me get the previewer open so I can select a mesh.
    edit: Seems I have the same problem as Mike, also CS5 64
  • Perfectblue
    Do you intend on releasing tutorials for NDO2, similar to what was developed for the original NDO with Phillip and other artists?
  • Quack!
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    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    Hrm, how do you open the previewer? I read your tut, but it doesn't say how to open it. All I have is the Normal Map Editor Pane.

    CS4 64bit
  • teddybergsman
    Perfectblue,
    I can't believe I forgot to link to the tutorial! You'll find it HERE. I'll add it to the main post.

    Quack!
    The reason why it doesn't say is because the previewer should open automatically when launching nDo2. That it doesn't open indicates it has crashed, and we've gotten quite a few such reports now - we're working urgently on finding the cause for this. Thank you for reporting. I'll add this as a warning in both the tutorial installation instructions, to minimize confusion while this issue still is to-be-resolved.

    Minotaur0,
    Thank you!

    We're currently working on setting up the store, my apologies for the lacking licensing information at this moment. Unfortunately the non-commercial license does not cover freelancing which is a commercial undertaking. nDo1 is however entirely free for freelancers, and will always be. A single-user commercial license is $299, and will also be available in discounted volume licensing form for companies.

    whats_true,
    Thanks for notifying us. Our web wiz will is currently taking a look at it. Which version if IE are you using? Thanks!
  • whats_true
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    whats_true polycounter lvl 15
    Im using version 9. When i clicked generate, it brought me to a broken page.
  • Zipfinator
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    Zipfinator polycounter lvl 9

    Zipfinator,
    Really solid feedback. Practically all of the points you bring up are all planned for and noted in my backlog.

    Regarding Presets, it is indeed a hassle to first have to convert your photo into an (in this case) unusable normal, then apply the preset. I'll see what I can do about this for the next release. I will also add a bunch of new presets -- there are currently not many at all available. I've already started working on this.

    You are correct, currently the AO is not tiling, however I have a very near-future fix planned -- it will most likely be part of the next version.

    I'll add in a copy to clipboard function. Small PS tip: in your AO document, try Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Shift+C -- this will copy the entire document to clipboard, and you can simply paste it into your diffuse file as a single layer.

    Glad to hear all of that. Also I tried just copying the entire canvas while editing the AO but because of all of the different layers that it has set up and I can only copy one at a time copying didn't work. I think if I had used the Zip feature it would have been possible to select and copy everything but the Zip It button disappeared for me last time. I'll look around and figure it out though.
  • Mike_Carlyle
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    Mike_Carlyle polycounter lvl 17
    @Teddy

    Thanks for the info, I messed with it some more, and it just seems like it's not starting like you said (3D Viewer).

    Also, I think I have the same situation as Divi, xXm0RpH3usXx and perhaps TheQiwiMan ( though I think he's seeing more than I have seen ). I never had a prompt or don't see a spot to put in the Beta / Trial License # that was generated and given to me on your site when I signed up. It just works. I also don't know if I am missing something there, hehe.

    Can't wait for the fixes! Keep up the awesome work guys!
  • Computron
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    Computron polycounter lvl 7
    I see you need localiztion, I know russian, Perhaps we could work something out?
  • Steppenwolf
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    Steppenwolf polycounter lvl 15
    I would really love to purchase this tool and support you guys but 299$ that's just too much money for me. I'm not exactly swimming in money as a freelancer. And it's questionable if the new features justify this price tag for me when i can still use nDo 1 and haven't even touched its full potential yet.

    Perhaps you can come up with a differing price model for freelancers/small indie studios compared to big studios?
  • Quack!
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    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    Thanks for the response teddy.

    Here is more info if it helps.

    Vista 64, 8800gt, Photoshop Extended CS4 64bit. I restarted my computer to make sure it wasn't windows update screwing with things, but that didn't work.
    I have no options under "Presets" and the "Help" button is grayed out also. When I make a new map I also don't have the "No Edge Bevel" and "Is tileable" checkboxes, they just aren't there, just the big "Convert" box.

    Hope that helps.
  • Cathodeus
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    Cathodeus polycounter lvl 14
    Ndo 2 is on the good path to success but here are my first feedbacks :

    1. If we change the objects order directly inside photoshop or hide an object the 3D preview is not updated --> maybe a force refresh 3dpreview button will be nice. I found a turn arround by changing the blending mode. (But the refresh should work when we hide/unhide a layer, change the order of them, etc ...). A small refresh 3d preview button is definitely the easier solution for you developers (easier to be done and not that boring for users).


    2.I think the preview is really small (i’d like to double the size or change the size like a normal windows) is it possible ?
    Edit : Teddy just sent me a mail we can scale the preview by using the scroll wheel or pressing +/- on the keyboard (not the numpad +/- though, support is missing as of yet).


    3.Still missing an invert y axis option (as i told you) few months ago, lot of engines are using -Y as G channel.
    Edit : Teddy told here how to do that http://quixel.se/forum/index.php?topic=29.0
    --> But even with this tips i think we need an option into the preferences, and the 3d preview need to be able to work with -Y normals.

    4.The commercial price is really expensive i think, it's still really hard to convince a company to pay a new software for each employee so 300 dollars is really expensive even if Ndo is really really good. I think lot of persons will buy a personal version thant use it as Commercial :-(

    5.I preffered the old good GUI --> Wasn't beautifull but was faster.

    6.I'd like to move the 3d preview cube like in crazy bump.

    7.The clay cube uvs are not okay resulting into a cropped texture.

    8.With Ndo1 the focus was still good but now because of the exe we still need to click on the ndo window to keep the focus an getting ndo refreshed.

    If i could give you a friend advice, because i really want you to succeed and because i really love your work that will be something like that :

    --> Keep your time Teddy before the final commercial version there's lot of thing to be done if you want to really succeed with this commercial version for a such price.
  • sltrOlsson
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    sltrOlsson polycounter lvl 14
    I just want to say that this is great! I've played with it for an hour or something like that and right of the bat you realize the power of this tool.

    Crazybump should have it's credits and it's a great tool, but you got so much more control with nDo. In some cases, almost to much. There's allot of sliders! :P

    Stuff that I think would help the program is a function to step up levels with just one step at the time. The sliders ain't that precise. Maybe not the scroll, but something as simple.

    Maybe it's just me, but i think the shader is to dark in the shadows. It's pitch black allot of the times.

    I've managed to close the 3D previewer a cuople of times of times under this first hour of testing. Maybe it's just me being not used to the program, but a "show/hide 3D viewer"-button would be nice.

    The "AO" is just amazing. With some photoshoping it makes a great height map to!

    I'll be back with more feedback after some more work! :)
  • teddybergsman
    Cathodeus,
    Thank you for your thorough feedback, we're processing it all. You are completely right, there is still a great deal left on nDo2 before we feel comfortable releasing it. This is where great people like yourself and the beta come in -- your feedback helps us focus on the features and fixes that matter.

    Quack!
    Your specs are highly appreciated. As for:
    I have no options under "Presets" and the "Help" button is grayed out also. When I make a new map I also don't have the "No Edge Bevel" and "Is tileable" checkboxes, they just aren't there, just the big "Convert" box.
    The help button is my bad -- I forgot to enable it in this latest build. For now, pressing F1 will take you to the tutorial. The rest are actually not bugs, rather they are context specific options -- you for instance only get the "tile" and "dilate" checkboxes when generating normals from a photograph, and the "Presets" menu is only available once you have selected a normal.

    Zipfinator,
    Try again! Remember it's Ctrl+Shift+C. This should copy the entire document for you, regardless of which layer you have selected in your PSD.

    Also, as a general remark: we've now added warning texts on the website alerting users to check spam filters, and warning about the IE specific license generation bug. Thanks for making notes of these things guys, you're really helping every newcomer with your feedback!
  • Zipfinator
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    Zipfinator polycounter lvl 9
    Ahhh, I ignored the shift... Didn't know about that function. Thanks.
  • Ruz
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    Ruz polycount lvl 666
    bit buggy so far, lots of crashes
  • moose
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    moose polycount sponsor
    ooo. Want to give this a go with the updated interface! Was a little too slow for my workflow with the first version.

    The long list of additional program requirements is a pretty big turn off though, wish there was an installer to handle all of that crap for me. updating .net failed, and ndo2 never runs. Will give it another go when I have more time, but the prereqs for installing seemed like a lot of extra steps to get it running I shouldn't need to worry about, that other similar apps do not require.
  • keres
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    keres polycounter lvl 12
    I love this! Very impressive, it is! I'm almost certain I will buy it. A+!
  • teddybergsman
    moose,
    Yes, I'm sorry about this, the installer was one of the things we didn't manage to get up and running before beta release. I realize a great deal of crashes could have be minimized by having the installer ready from day one. It's not far from finished now and we'll try hard to push it out before the weekend, together with the next patched-up release.
  • Millenia
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    Millenia polycount sponsor
    Seems excellent, I preordered even though I don't really need it per se atm..

    Just too cool to pass!
  • OBlastradiusO
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    OBlastradiusO polycounter lvl 11
    Can't download the beta. Getting a server error.
  • MrTwoVideoCards
  • Outbreak107
    It appears the authentication server is down as of a few hours ago
  • MrTwoVideoCards
    It's like this for at least 24 hours now, I wasn't able to download the beta since yesterday.
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    it seems like ndo2 isn't closing properly i have to manually kill it's process after closing the application.
  • Skillmister
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    Skillmister polycounter lvl 11
    Not managed to get the 3d previewer to open yet. Running CS3 extended. Also it seems nDo doesnt stop running when its closed, have to manually end process.

    edit: for some reason the 3d decided to work just after posting this. weird.
  • teddybergsman
    Okay listen up everybody!

    We're experiencing massive server issues right now, though that does not mean you cannot try out the nDo2 beta!

    GET NDO2 INSTANTLY, NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED

    We've made it possible so that if you cannot activate your license, you will still be able to run nDo2 in trial mode -- this trial is valid for 8 days (we're bumping it up to 30 in the next release), hopefully enough for us to remedy the bulk of our issues.

    THE PROBLEM
    So we have bumped into quite a few issues the last 24 hours. I just got back from some sleep after 43 hours of non-stop adrenaline-fueled work. I'm truly sorry for not being able to respond to your feedback and reports during the human down-time time.

    Yesterday 97% of all registered users had successfully activated their license, today that number is down to 50%. Our servers went down due to huge pressure, and no new users can at the moment register their license. We're truly and deeply sorry about this.

    We've had such a large number of registrations and traffic (100 GB in one day, holy moley) our servers have gotten completely overwhelmed, we're not 100% sure yet what the problem is, we're working really hard now trying to find the cause and get it all up and running ASAP again.

    WHAT WE'RE DOING
    Apart from individually answering each one of your hundreds of mails and posts, we're working very hard trying to solve the following things:
    • Re-establishing the license authentication server
    • Getting the user verification system back on-line
    • 3D Previewer crash
    • Start-up crash
    • Crash/failure/disappearing of nDo2 license activation window
    • Installer
    • Keeping the verification mail from being sent to spam
    THANK YOU
    The response we've gotten has been out of this world, we never expected it to be this big, and I'd just like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude for the immense help and support you're providing us with.
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Every time I try to sign in it takes me to a blank white page. Tried it with firefox and internet explorer. Is the performance issue fixed, we wanted to use nDo at our studio, but it was just too slow. The plugin died if you give it a 1024x1024 with more than one layer which defeated the purpose of using the tool. Also the modal windows where quite frustrating. Our artists tried it for a week and gave up due to the performance issues, they went back to Crazybump citing that it was faster even though they had to output a flattened normal map.
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    @malcolm i haven't been having performance problems on a pretty modest setup and im working in 2048x2048. what functions were you mainly using of the app
  • teddybergsman
    malcolm,
    This has been our main goal with nDo2, significantly improving performance and speed, while making it completely non-modal for a more seamless nDo/Photoshop experience.
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    teddybergsman, I've been messing around with it for the last hour seems like a great improvement. I've sent it off to our guys here to try out as well. The big feature for me is the crazybump style preset of fine/medium/large that speeds up the process of creating non hero normal maps and let's you focus in on quality where you need it. Looking good so far. I had a question about using the overlay feature for layered normal maps. Aren't we supposed to half the blue channel when we use this trick, does the tool take care of this?
  • maze
    looks amazing, I was hoping for something like this in PS. I have a question though, does ndo2, create displacement maps as well? or solely normal maps?
  • teddybergsman
    malcom,
    I'm so happy you have found the tool improved! Regarding Overlaying -- yes, nDo2 provides a mathematically correct blending between normals, not only for the regular overlay, but also for the soft-light, hard-light, vivid-light and linear-light blending modes.

    maze,
    Yes, nDo2 creates displacement maps from your normal maps. This works best for hard-surface normals as of yet, but is still not final for photo-generated normals in this version of the beta. You can also review this displacement directly in the 3D previewer:

    displacement.png
  • maze
    good to know Teddy, props for the hard work! I am using more displacement-based workflow lately. So I find that feature very important. So I guess it will be, creating a normal from a photo source, then creating a high quality displacement from that normal generated. Ok I understand it is still a beta as well. Thanks for the fast answer!
  • OBlastradiusO
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    OBlastradiusO polycounter lvl 11
    Great product but can't install. Keeps crashing :(
  • teddybergsman
    OBlastradiusO,
    I'm sorry you're experiencing these issues. Where in the process does it crash for you -- during download, license verification or startup? If it crashed for you when trying to download, we've now solved all registration, verification and license activation related issues. FYI, we're making a new build within 24 hours with a whole bunch of new fixes, and new features based on feature requests. Hopefully we've caught your issue by then!
  • snoops3d
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    snoops3d polycounter lvl 12
    Hey teddybergsman this software looks awesome!!!I have the beta, here at the studio I work for, but we are still on CS2 do you know when and if there will be support for cs2.
  • teddybergsman
    snoops3d,
    Thank you for your interest! We're hoping to have CS2 fully supported within the next two weeks.
  • snoops3d
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    snoops3d polycounter lvl 12
    Oh awesome I cant wait!!
  • teddybergsman
    Hey everyone! There's now a bunch of fixes and feature additions for nDo2 based on all your fantastic feedback!

    Get the latest version here!

    Don't have a beta license yet? Register here!

    What's been fixed/added:
    • (user request) Tileable Ambient Occlusion
    • (user request) Extended texture file format support for previewer: dds, png, hdr, jpg, bmp, pfm, ppm, dib
    • (user request) Copy document to clipboard feature
    • Added 2 new photo2normal presets -- "Smooth Stone" & "Megavolume Cliff" -- the latter one is quite complex, you have been warned!
    • nDo2 should no longer crash when pressing “New normal”
    • Fixed all registration/user verification/license authentication issues, site is now fully stabilized!
    • Fixed license activation window crashing/not showing up
    • An extensive error logging system which lets us know exactly where it breaks, also analyzing your device specs to make the error tracking minimally painful for the user
    • New helpful message boxes with tips on how to solve the current issue (+ links to customer support upon critical failure, with easy-to-copy error messages)
    • A help menu with quick-links to the online tutorials, nDo2 site, and legal information

    Some statistics!
    • There are now over 1,000 active participants in the nDo2 beta
    • Prebooking slots cross 500, 1000 in total
    • The nDo2 site generated over 100GB of traffic in just 2 days, yikes!
    • You guys are awesome! (perhaps not a statistic per se, but a fact nonetheless!)

    smoothstone.png
    megavolume_cliff.pngmegavolume_cliff_ui.png

    Also, the preset saving/loading system is getting a complete visual overhaul. Expect it in a release not far away!

    - Teddy & the Quixel team
  • Zipfinator
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    Zipfinator polycounter lvl 9
    Looks great! I will try out them nice new presets in a bit.
  • PhilipK
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    PhilipK polycounter lvl 10
    If I didn't already reply here. Congrats again Teddy and the team :) You've created something really, really awesome here!
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