View Full Version : Fprime Gamma Corrected Preview?
Does anyone know of a way to get a preview of gamma correction with the Fprime previewer? I know that I could use G2, but I have no interest in buying it for this one purpose.
I'm actually trying to find a solution too! So far, no luck, and Worley don't plan to add any either sadly.
Adjusting my graphics card display gamma seems to work pretty decent. It washes out everything else on screen, but my previews behave close enough.
I guess I should mention that Rivatuner will allow you to apply a 2.2 gamma correction to your display. If anyone knows of other software that will I would be interested to hear.
Captain Obvious
12-20-2009, 08:33 AM
One method I use occasionally is to stick a flat polygon in front of the camera with a gamma correcting node shader on it. It does slow things down quite a bit, and breaks "visible to camera"-settings of course. But it does work, as far as gamma correcting your FPrime preview is concerned.
The node network is quite simple. Plug a refraction shader with an IOR of 1.0 into a node that lets you do gamma correction (there are several) and you'll be good to go.
I've tried several node flows based on your suggestion, but I can't figure it out. Could you be more specific on what plugs in where? Sounds like a useful trick. Thanks for posting.
Never mind, I figured it out. I was using an inappropriate gamma node. Here's a screen grab for those interested. I'm using the SG CCTools.
gristle
12-21-2009, 12:49 AM
Good question. I also asked about buffer exports (way way back it was on a list of future features for FPrime) but the last contact I had with them, they said no plans to include...
so why no from worley?
They said they wanted to keep FPrime really easy to use and adding that option would confuse users.
I disagree completely. Oh well.
It's too bad it's not included in Fprime. At least there are a few usable workarounds. I really hope Newtek makes their previewer and LCS workflow good enough that I could switch over to it.
Captain Obvious
12-21-2009, 10:36 AM
They said they wanted to keep FPrime really easy to use and adding that option would confuse users.
I disagree completely. Oh well.
If you can't figure out how to use passes or gamma correction, you have no business doing 3D in the first place. :thumbsdow
Boris Goreta
12-21-2009, 04:22 PM
Ah well, I bought G2 recently just for that. Tried the poly trick but it slowed down my renders.
Captain Obvious
12-21-2009, 05:25 PM
Ah well, I bought G2 recently just for that. Tried the poly trick but it slowed down my renders.
Oh, it totally does.
To be honest, I kind of stopped using FPrime for anything where the gamut matters. I still use it a lot for texturing work and the like, but final rendering is Kray all the way. Makes linear workflow a snap, and is an order of magnitude faster than FPrime.
Boris Goreta
12-21-2009, 05:32 PM
Does KRay support LW materials and shaders ?
Captain Obvious
12-21-2009, 05:48 PM
Does KRay support LW materials and shaders ?
Shaders, as in... the shader tab shaders? No, nothing except Lightwave's own renderer does.
Materials as in node-based materials? Uh, sort of, sometimes. There are plenty of things that don't work. Anything that requires a prepass doesn't work, so no fast skin. There are a few things that don't work, but there are plenty of things that do. And basically anything that FPrime supports, Kray supports. I did a test with one of my more complex node-based surfaces about a year ago. The node network weighed in at around 150 nodes. Quite a few of those were shaders, such as ambient occlusion. Kray, Lightwave and FPrime all produced exactly the same result. FPrime was a fair bit slower than Lightwave, and Kray was the fastest.
jwiede
12-21-2009, 08:42 PM
Was this before FPrime 3.5 had released? Given how much they were already dealing with at that point, it might just have been "one feature too many".
Just guessing, though. Every time I spoke with them, they always seemed very interested in how to make any of their products better.
jwiede
12-21-2009, 08:47 PM
Ah well, I bought G2 recently just for that. Tried the poly trick but it slowed down my renders.
Boris, what do you think of the skin shader in G2? How well does it perform compared to LW's SSS, etc.?
I've been eyeing G2 for a long time, but price is just high enough that I can't quite convince myself I need it. Likewise with Sas.
Lightwolf
12-22-2009, 04:29 AM
If you can't figure out how to use passes or gamma correction, you have no business doing 3D in the first place. :thumbsdow
That's the difference between what should be... and what is ;)
Cheers,
Mike
Boris Goreta
12-22-2009, 06:19 AM
LW's simple skin shader is much better IMO. It has way more tweakable options and also 2 layers of SSS and it gives better results. It also works very well with FPrime. G2 skin shader does not work the same way when used with native LW renderer. When used with FPrime it gives a different, better, more correct result. But then you can't use it if you want to render the character with LW renderer because it will look different.
I bought both G2 and Sasquatch because I needed them for several projects so it was justified. Try doing this with FiberFX:
http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102493&highlight=Erste
Currently I'm working on a project with lots of characters, white skin, black skin, animal skin. LW's simple skin is giving me great results, it is really amazing and you have the ability to connect it with other nodes where with G2 this is not possible.
Boris, what do you think of the skin shader in G2? How well does it perform compared to LW's SSS, etc.?
I've been eyeing G2 for a long time, but price is just high enough that I can't quite convince myself I need it. Likewise with Sas.
geo_n
12-22-2009, 06:07 PM
LW's simple skin shader is much better IMO. It has way more tweakable options and also 2 layers of SSS and it gives better results. It also works very well with FPrime. G2 skin shader does not work the same way when used with native LW renderer. When used with FPrime it gives a different, better, more correct result. But then you can't use it if you want to render the character with LW renderer because it will look different.
I bought both G2 and Sasquatch because I needed them for several projects so it was justified. Try doing this with FiberFX:
http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102493&highlight=Erste
Currently I'm working on a project with lots of characters, white skin, black skin, animal skin. LW's simple skin is giving me great results, it is really amazing and you have the ability to connect it with other nodes where with G2 this is not possible.
Thats a nice looking bear.
jwiede
12-31-2009, 06:52 AM
LW's simple skin shader is much better IMO. It has way more tweakable options and also 2 layers of SSS and it gives better results. It also works very well with FPrime. G2 skin shader does not work the same way when used with native LW renderer. When used with FPrime it gives a different, better, more correct result. But then you can't use it if you want to render the character with LW renderer because it will look different.
I bought both G2 and Sasquatch because I needed them for several projects so it was justified. Try doing this with FiberFX:
http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102493&highlight=Erste
Currently I'm working on a project with lots of characters, white skin, black skin, animal skin. LW's simple skin is giving me great results, it is really amazing and you have the ability to connect it with other nodes where with G2 this is not possible.
Very nice bear. I take it you didn't use G2 in this shot, just Sas?
One thing I've been experimenting with lately is to do all scenery in LW(+Kray, or Modo depending on grass needs), but generating the characters in C4D's AR so I can use C4D's hair and VReel's fast skin plugin for AR. Makes comping a bit complicated, but survivable.
Boris Goreta
12-31-2009, 06:20 PM
No, I didn't use G2 for this shot.
I use Sasquatch for grass. Check out this image, grass is Sas so you can do that too in Lightwave.
Why are you going through all this trouble using so many apps and plugins ? LW's simple skin shader is fantastic and it respects solid geometry under the sking to simulate skull and define the areas of soft tissue.
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