tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55289465705751062742024-03-13T10:06:44.034-07:00FrostSoftGame Artist // Plugin MakerTundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-16751932816940829882020-11-12T03:08:00.003-08:002020-11-12T03:08:56.759-08:00VNT updated for r23VNT have been updated to support C4D r23<br />
<br />
<b>The latest VNT release is v105.</b><br />
<i>Updated to python3 for r23+.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
The store has been updated with the latest versions and vip members can also download the latest versions from there members download area.Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-26575551512394233722019-12-17T06:16:00.001-08:002019-12-17T06:17:35.298-08:00Plugins updated for r21 compatibilityBoth Pixelberg ans VNT have been updated to support C4D r21<br />
<br />
<b>The latest VNT release is v104.</b><br />
<i>Fixed bug in 21 - bug garbage info long and nan can come from data provided by maxon - incorrect values can be presented for mouse move. work around implemented.</i><br />
<br />
<b>The latest PB release is 1.9c. </b><br />
<i>Added r21 build </i><br />
<i>Fixed bug in r20 AO being inverted </i><br />
<i>Fixed bug in r20 Watermark not showing custom images.</i><br />
<br />
The store has been updated with the latest versions and vip members can also download the latest versions from there members download area.Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-19853914293493679282018-10-22T13:55:00.004-07:002018-10-22T13:55:36.019-07:00Pixelberg updated for r20 compatibilityJust a quick post to let you know pixelberg has been updated to be compatible with r20. The shop has the latest version for new customers and the vip members area files have also been updated to include a r20 build.
Any issues or bugs found with the r20 build please let me know.
Installation of plugins for r20 differs from previous versions as plugins can now be installed anywhere as long as that location is in or added to the c4D->Edit->Preferances->Plugins->SearchPath setting. For simplicity though i would recommend just creating a plugin folder in the c4d main directory and placing it there (by default there is no plugin folder created in r20 release). Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-71244825644642212972016-09-20T14:25:00.001-07:002016-09-24T03:32:20.241-07:00PIXELBERG 1.9 OUT NOW AND THE FUTUREPixelBerg has been updated to 1.9 and is available to buy and download now.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEino_qzg7oBOWKBAAyftrvad1H9BvYV6aEbGebkIfAYIGHb9NQWuRsGTtK90pBYoyO5XO4_YTFrBGCG60KI5KiqQ50bi8erpYweqISsw5AciWuvLoekalWOnOq2SDum0KkLZ_4hLPRV9w7v/s1600/shaderballs.png"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEino_qzg7oBOWKBAAyftrvad1H9BvYV6aEbGebkIfAYIGHb9NQWuRsGTtK90pBYoyO5XO4_YTFrBGCG60KI5KiqQ50bi8erpYweqISsw5AciWuvLoekalWOnOq2SDum0KkLZ_4hLPRV9w7v/s640/shaderballs.png" width="100%" /></a><br />
<br />
I am pleased to announce that version 1.9 of PixelBerg is finally available.<br />
<br />
If you are a VIP member you will find PB 1.9 in your VIP members download area. It has a few changes and fixes over the last prerelease which are detailed bellow.<br />
<br />
If you made a purchase of PB in the last 14 days you will receive a link via email to download the latest release. (If you don’t receive the email with 48hrs please let me know with your original order number.)<br />
<br />
For other or new users the store has been updated with the latest version and you can purchase and download it from there.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>WHATS NEW</b></span><br />
<br />
<b>Highlights</b><br />
<br />
<b>New Sky system</b><br />
<br />
The sky system has been overhauled and the sky creation tab removed. There is now a single input for a lat/long image file and PB does the rest on the fly in real-time. This not only means a better workflow as you no longer have to bother with the conversion step but also improves the quality of the lighting from the sky as certain optimizations and approximations that were needed on the CPU for speed are no longer necessary.<br />
<br />
The sky system also features another handy addition in the form of the ability to set a sky object as the “default sky”. When a sky is toggled as a default sky any materials etc. without a sky link will use the default sky. Again this improves workflow by saving you the step of assigning a specific sky to a material however that option remains if needed for certain circumstances. <br />
<br />
<b>Render Improvements</b><br />
<br />
When using the standard render Post effects are now done on the GPU meaning lighting fast renders and a massive speed up over previous versions when using the standard renderer. Pre 1.9 post effects were done on the gpu and took up most the rendering time now that they are on the GPU they are virtually instantaneous depending of course on the output size.<br />
<br />
<b>Improved AA options</b><br />
<br />
When using the Hardware render a new SuperSampling Antialiasing method has been added. SuperSampling can be enabled from the Antialiasing post FX tab and you can choose either 1.5x or 2x ss for the Hardware render.<br />
<br />
You can also choose to enable 2x ss for the viewport although in my opinion it is best used in the final render.<br />
<br />
SuperSampling is a brute force AA method and basically internally renders the wholes scene at a larger scale then filters it down to the desired size which improves aliased artifacts. With that in mind It should be used with care as depending on the output size it can be a resource/memory hog due to actually being render at twice the size and requires a fairly powerful GPU.<br />
<br />
This is the first step on improved AA and currently limited to 2x so expect further improvements to AA in the future. <br />
<br />
<b>Full list:</b><br />
<i><br />Changes over 1.8 and 1.9 PR4</i><br />
<ul>
<li>Fixed Stability issue on Mac OSX with texture loading causing crashes.</li>
<li>Fixed issue with sky shadow density not working properly.</li>
<li>Fixed shadows appearing on backfacing polys.</li>
<li>Added an option for POM bump mapping to generate normals.</li>
</ul>
<i>Changes over 1.8</i><br />
<ul>
<li>Fix Bug Crashing on sky creating with high end nvidia GPUs.</li>
<li>Added default Sky option (Setting a sky to default means that any materials without a sky link will use the default sky).</li>
<li> Added Sharpen post FX.</li>
<li>Standard render post FX now done on GPU (massive speed up)</li>
<li>Sky calculations improved providing better quality</li>
<li>Removed Sky Creation Tab as the sky maps are now created in realtime from a LatLong input map. Fixed graphic issue with older GPUs (hopefully Iris gpu too).</li>
<li>Standard render now replaces original alpha channel as this is used for data during post fx calculation.</li>
<li>SuperSampling AA added to Hardware render (use with care as renders at twice resolution and scales down) and viewport.</li>
<li>Filmic Tonemapping Added and now default.</li>
<li>Fixed bug with mapping (Tile,seamless) so viewport matches standard render.</li>
<li>Added basic material converter PB<>C4d (not perfect because C4D materials are very flexible but should get you about 90% there in most cases). </li>
<li>Tweaked watermark so it can be set as a scale to the output imagesize. </li>
<li>Various other minor fixes and tweaks.</li>
<li>R18 build added (*Removed R15 build due to R18 and plan to support last 3 C4D releases this may change if there is enough call for a R15 build).</li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>THE FUTURE</b></span><br />
<br />
PB 1.9 took a bit longer than I expected because I was obviously aware of the improvements to the C4D viewport that Maxon had made in r18 and wanted to take a bit of time to reflect on how this would affect the future of PixelBerg. While the enhancements in R18 are not as feature rich as PixelBerg it does indicate that Maxon are putting more focus into this area. <br />
<br />
Obviously PixelBerg occupies a different space and appeal than c4d standard work flow, materials etc. being a real time render system that is perfect for real-time artists (especially those who use other PBS/PBR based programs like ndo, substance suite, unity, unreal ...) while flexible enough to be used in a variety of other projects.<br />
<br />
After taking about a week to think about it and examine Maxons changes I came to the conclusion that this is only a good thing for a number of reasons. The most obvious being that PB is tightly integrated into C4D so any improvements to the underlying Opengl systems by Maxon only helps PB which “mostly” uses those systems giving further opportunity to improve, expand and make PixelBerg even more powerful.<br />
<br />
One example of this is painting, Maxon have announced that they are making improvements to Body paint to support Opengl painting within the r18 release cycle. I have been holding off on painting tools for PB trying to decide if I should just implement my own but with this improvement to Bodypaint I plan to make PB materials support painting in bodypaint which would be awesome (probably with some extras like defining materials to paint similar to substance painter).<br />
<br />
So in short PixelBerg’s future with your help and support looks bright and there is still lots and lots of new things to add and improve.Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-23297481551114016752016-08-12T09:08:00.002-07:002016-09-20T14:41:30.338-07:00PixelBerg 1.9 pre release available for download now (VIP members)Just a quick note to give you a heads up.<br />
<br />
I will make another post on 1.9 closer to official release which now will be around the release of C4D r18 (as r18 is so close it makes sense to hold off a bit and include an r18 build). I will also give some more information on what i have been up to, why there has been a bit of delay between 1.8-1.9 and future direction and new features of PixelBerg. You will also notice the website get a fresh look and some new features in the next few weeks.<br />
<br />
Pixelberg 1.9 pr 3 is available to download now for <b>VIP members</b> (Those who paid the RRP for any plugin)<br />
<br />
- You will find it in "<i>VIP Members Area/PixelBerg C4D/pre releases</i>" folder in your vip download area.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
Feel free to download it and give it a whirl and let me know what you think and if you find any bugs. (To report bugs you can use the new bug reporting form available from the pixelberg plugin menu).<br />
<br />
Pre releases are something I intend to do more of so when each new feature is added I will upload a pre release for VIP members inbetween official releases.<br />
<br />
PixelBerg 1.9 release notes:<br />
<br />
<b>#1.9 pr3 :</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Added Sharpen post FX.</li>
<li>Standard render post FX now done on GPU (massive speed up).</li>
<li>Sky calculations improved providing better quality.</li>
<li>Removed Sky Creation Tab as the sky maps are now ceated in realtime from a LatLong input map.</li>
<li>Fixed graphic issue with older GPUs (hopefully Iris gpu too).</li>
<li>Standard render now replaces original alpha channel as this is used for data during post fx calculation.</li>
<li>SuperSampling AA added to Hardware render and viewport.(use with care as renders at twice resolution and scales down)</li>
<li>Filmic Tonemapping Added and now default.</li>
<li>Fixed bug with mapping (Tile,seemless) so viewport matches standard render.</li>
<li>Added basic material converter PB<>C4d (not perfect because C4D materials are very flexible but should get you about 90% there in most cases).</li>
<li>Tweaked watermark so it can be set as a scale to the output imagesize.</li>
<li>Various other minor fixes and tweaks.</li>
<li>(*Removed R15 build due to upcomming R18 and plan to support last 3 C4D releases this may change if there is enough call for a R15 build).</li>
</ul>
<br />Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-14235631079384689982016-01-09T08:29:00.002-08:002016-09-19T14:36:48.756-07:00PIXELBERG UPDATE RELEASE 1.8bPixelBerg has been updated to v1.8b and is available to <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/p/plugins.html">purchase now</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_9tKcsFGzlj9WtLHXxIipu0BBzyWxSQay8Zpmh9BB3WU3XvGcOLpBT0Qop548F4X_BhoGPfH8UYXcPpqbQRcjWKkLWPZLO0z9AN3MJIx4J4s_hC2DyNjjBMriPdm8gTF2A5tgj7A39WP/s1600/18f.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_9tKcsFGzlj9WtLHXxIipu0BBzyWxSQay8Zpmh9BB3WU3XvGcOLpBT0Qop548F4X_BhoGPfH8UYXcPpqbQRcjWKkLWPZLO0z9AN3MJIx4J4s_hC2DyNjjBMriPdm8gTF2A5tgj7A39WP/s640/18f.png" width="600" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<b>WHATS NEW HIGHLIGHTS:</b><br />
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: bold;"><b>C4D STANDARD RENDER SUPPORT</b></li>
<li><b>NEW SHADOW DENSITY OPTION</b></li>
<li><b>NEW LENS DISTORTION POSTFX</b></li>
<li><b>NEW BONUS "PB ENVIRONMENT RENDER FX"SPHERICAL CAMERA</b></li>
</ul>
<h3 style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">
<div style="background-color: #ff9900; padding-bottom: 5; padding-left: 5; padding-top: 5;">
<b>VIP MEMBER ACCESS INFORMATION</b></div>
</h3>
<br />
As a way to say thank you to those who pay the recommended price and to try and encourage more to do so Now when you pay the <b>suggested price</b> ($30 USD) or more you will gain <b>12 month access to the VIP download</b> area where you can download all of Frostsofts current and future plugins including any updates for free for 12 months.<i> </i><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<form action="http://sites.fastspring.com/frostsoft/product/pixelberg" method="POST" target="_top">
<input type="submit" value="Pay What You Want and Download Now" /></form>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br />
<b><u>HOW DO I GET THE LATEST VERSION?:</u></b><br />
Because i have moved to a pay what you want pricing scale i can not provide free updates (as stated <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/pay-what-you-want-pricing.html#more">here</a>) like i did on a traditional pricing model so the way it works is as follows:<br />
<br />
If you made a purchase of Pixelberg in the last 14 days you will receive new download links via email (If you dont recieve an email within 24hrs then please contact me with your original order details). However if you are outside that timescale you will need to purchase again at whatever price you see fit for the latest version.<br />
<br />
If you have VIP member access you can download the latest version at any time from the VIP meber area links provided with your original order.<br />
<i>(As Vip Member access has just been launched and i dont think people who have purchased recently should miss out. If you have made a purchase of $30usd or more in the last 14 days prior to this post you will receive your 12 months VIP member access links via email-If you don't receive an email within 24hrs then please contact me with your original order details) . </i><br />
<br />
<u><b>C4D STANDARD RENDER SUPPORT</b></u><br />
<u><b><br /></b></u>PixelBerg v1.8b is finaly available and adds full Support for the C4D standard render that means PB material , sky and all PB's postFXs.<br />
<br />
While for many the Hardware render option will still be preferable due to speed supporting the standard render means that it also supports C4D's anti-aliasing together with a host of other stuff like procedural textures in the final render and makes PB a more viable all round render solution.<br />
<u><br /></u>
<br />
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZwf16LxWz6UMBw_Wv1uOFgwSoflW0zEOr6rWnyjPN61pU20ehXtzpaY8eAYrufnXQTM60G0YtOhFpd5NT9hXKshLZbHHEjYtVx1XVCKut8nGt5Ek2qBlyFFcn5_edyFU9JFgJQciuVnF/s1600/3xrenderf.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZwf16LxWz6UMBw_Wv1uOFgwSoflW0zEOr6rWnyjPN61pU20ehXtzpaY8eAYrufnXQTM60G0YtOhFpd5NT9hXKshLZbHHEjYtVx1XVCKut8nGt5Ek2qBlyFFcn5_edyFU9JFgJQciuVnF/s400/3xrenderf.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PB 1.8 continues support for hardware render and adds support for C4D's standard renderer </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<u><b></b></u><br />
<div>
The rendered output from the standard render should be a 99% match to the view port and while obviously slower than the hardware renderer it does benefit from all the goodies of the offline renderer like better AA, higher quality shadows, procedural textures etc..</div>
I have also added support for multi-pass layers in the standard render which supports all the normal ones you would expect plus new PB material layers for each input together with some post effects like SSAO, Vignette, Bloom.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEIjQpsrwAT_raZDFVhhO6Dvn4hnXgjHw-4t0lAj9JCarzPI6yrrT7os4rKaZrDz-mBO-GTy2nCYgtRBomxD0JqKMFiTMRLXtX4nc87fwD2cYZfMA1_Ja4qktM4LNdntQnxCG3P4mxyA9D/s1600/Untitled-2f.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEIjQpsrwAT_raZDFVhhO6Dvn4hnXgjHw-4t0lAj9JCarzPI6yrrT7os4rKaZrDz-mBO-GTy2nCYgtRBomxD0JqKMFiTMRLXtX4nc87fwD2cYZfMA1_Ja4qktM4LNdntQnxCG3P4mxyA9D/s400/Untitled-2f.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PB 1.8 Supports Multipass layers output with the standard renderer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Together with the standard and PB multipass layers PB 1.8 includes a proper depth pass output of the scene(works with standard c4d materials). One thing to remember about this depth pass though is it is controlled by the cameras near/far clipping planes so for better resolution of the depth buffer it is advisable to enable the far clipping plane of the C4D camera(which is off by default).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATQeRYTy3GyiSLXcH8_p3IqEyfAsP616t18bxFov1AR2gxhyphenhyphenC2aDrk_LdRoA8MfAqSgEupdr0iHrhaD3gQj8okY6XTy9_2Me2fm1ufZhUBJBEtqHoMnbJmR9X9xECbqBzVoWkOvVn6rN1/s1600/Untitled-5f.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATQeRYTy3GyiSLXcH8_p3IqEyfAsP616t18bxFov1AR2gxhyphenhyphenC2aDrk_LdRoA8MfAqSgEupdr0iHrhaD3gQj8okY6XTy9_2Me2fm1ufZhUBJBEtqHoMnbJmR9X9xECbqBzVoWkOvVn6rN1/s320/Untitled-5f.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Proper Depth Multipass Layer support in PB1.8</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Currently PB fully supports the C4D Standard render that mean all PB materials,objects and posts are supported. It also has basic support for C4D's physical render meaning that PB materials will work but not the POST FX.(The sky object can be displayed by assigning a PB sky material to a C4D sky object). Expect full support for the physical renderer in future. <br />
<br />
<u>Some notes on using PB with the standard renderer and mixing it with standard materials and PostFX</u><br />
<br />
Currently you should be aware of the following two things when using PB post and the standard render. These are down to the way C4D currently process things(hopefully this will change in future).<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>PixelBerg Post FXs requires both C4Ds multi-pass render setting to be enabled and c4d post-effects pass to be added to it in order for PB post to function correctly. If either of this are not done you will notice a button appear in PB post FX dialog to do it for you now.</li>
<li>Please bear in mind PixelBerg requires 32bit post buffers for it to function correctly and will try to force this itself unless you have specifically chosen to save the multi-pass image(not the actual image but the multipass) in a different bit depth.(If you do select a bit depth other than 32bit and enter a save filename PB will work but image quality may be affected and certain fxs like bloom wont be visible) </li>
</ol>
<u>Mixing PB and standard Materials in a scene</u><br />
<br />
PB materials use an approximation of global lighting where as C4D calculates it during render. Bellow you can see how the two compare the left sphere is a PB material(plain white medium reflectance and roughness) using lit by a PB sky, the right is a C4D material(plain white with GGX reflection layer medium brightness and medium roughness) lit by GI provided from a C4D sky object with a PB sky material assigned(you could also use the original hdr map/standard material on the sky with same results).<br />
<br />
As you can see from the result PB approximates basic GI fairly convincingly when compared to C4D's solution. Obviously with a more advanced set up with light bounces etc that PB does not support the difference would be greater.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdYUZDylm4-FO5TKT_p6r-pGyyOGpbWTeizgQZSLxPt6qgQyb5v1idgizg_XSingde_3_jWUh04Chc9F6RSZpEx7C4jkQNwOtjA4rPAoDSERy9nY10NGMFjaSCfZdfTzF7xTg_or3qza_j/s1600/Untitled-6af.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdYUZDylm4-FO5TKT_p6r-pGyyOGpbWTeizgQZSLxPt6qgQyb5v1idgizg_XSingde_3_jWUh04Chc9F6RSZpEx7C4jkQNwOtjA4rPAoDSERy9nY10NGMFjaSCfZdfTzF7xTg_or3qza_j/s320/Untitled-6af.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Comparison of how well PB approximates its lighting </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
PB materials will not react to C4Ds GI solution and standard materials will obviously not react to PBs GI approximations. If you need to mix the two standard materials can be lit by standard GI and if you use a C4D sky object as the source for the GI with a PB sky material assigned the results can be fairly convincing. </div>
<div>
<u><br /></u></div>
<div>
<u>Mixing PB Post and standard Post in a scene </u><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAMIJAT0xmYZ3TLgWLuMUQcQmV7FxlGtBRxLeZPv0n7ImAgJF5BLEyTKpJMP5oHf3NCFR6HcEe9cfqZ9vXrzZkdlOy2tofqnvCMLNRX_QKJKlSiFenxH_EeVWkR_Nuv8cJRFbv3KTLwF0M/s1600/Untitled8f.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAMIJAT0xmYZ3TLgWLuMUQcQmV7FxlGtBRxLeZPv0n7ImAgJF5BLEyTKpJMP5oHf3NCFR6HcEe9cfqZ9vXrzZkdlOy2tofqnvCMLNRX_QKJKlSiFenxH_EeVWkR_Nuv8cJRFbv3KTLwF0M/s640/Untitled8f.png" width="610" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mixing PB with C4D Post FX in this case AO with PB AA and Tonemapping</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
PB post FXs will work on standard materials and C4D post Fx will work on PB materials however bear in mind when mixing both C4D and PB post Fxs in a single render certain limitations are currently in place. Any C4D post fx that alters normals or position like C4D motion blur or depth of field will cause PBs own DOF and SSAO not to function correctly. So for example if you are using C4Ds motion blur then turn off PBs SSAO and DOF.(You are free of course to then use C4Ds AO too).<br />
<br />
However most of C4D's common postFX like AO will work with PB post without issue.<br />
<br />
<b><u>NEW BONUS "PB ENVIRONMENT RENDER FX" (SPHERICAL CAMERA)</u></b></div>
<div>
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizVM4juC6bjp0j76oZ23-aDOkX-UGbmUTVJDYXRWUQqmkxOwQeABgpp-7tu-tDcb1TRTvch4CUAjkkxEqiV4THVPWylBRPkuFNYQgQLLMsBH8Pbo-VxLf0seJo0NzUiJTcU4JSVM8MaK7r/s1600/Untitled-7f.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizVM4juC6bjp0j76oZ23-aDOkX-UGbmUTVJDYXRWUQqmkxOwQeABgpp-7tu-tDcb1TRTvch4CUAjkkxEqiV4THVPWylBRPkuFNYQgQLLMsBH8Pbo-VxLf0seJo0NzUiJTcU4JSVM8MaK7r/s400/Untitled-7f.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New PB Enviroment Renderer(Spherical camera) to create your own environment maps</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
PB 1.8 includes a new post FX renderer called "PB Environment Renderer" that acts as a spherical camera just add this post fx and create your own environment maps that can then either be feed into the PB sky creation for a complete lighting solution or used for your own purposes.<br />
<br />
The settings for this post FX allows you to define the world center, world axis and rotation although most of the time the defaults will suffice.<br />
<br />
An example is included with PB1.8 for you to look at normally you will be using c4d standard materials and GI with this post fx then taking the resulting render and feeding it into a PB sky object which then approximates the lighting solution.<br />
<br />
<b><u>NEW LENS DISTORTION POSTFX</u></b></div>
<div>
<b><u></u></b><br />
<div>
<b><u></u></b><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHEK3ejmfni1Jx_AtIM2RDtr5UBpt7GhVsf-TSSlqchi_V6E6DJ9BDk5WsJXAwWX_jPg_AGOfFZUpA1aqx7Ne2P6DKZGluvoBn3gzDdyMD-6t-7qRfa4dSNySYsHdNtn1Vx_nX1ixn0eOq/s1600/Untitled-3f.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHEK3ejmfni1Jx_AtIM2RDtr5UBpt7GhVsf-TSSlqchi_V6E6DJ9BDk5WsJXAwWX_jPg_AGOfFZUpA1aqx7Ne2P6DKZGluvoBn3gzDdyMD-6t-7qRfa4dSNySYsHdNtn1Vx_nX1ixn0eOq/s400/Untitled-3f.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
A new Lens Distortion PostFX has been added to PB1.8.<br />
Settings:<br />
k: The lens distortion effect is based on sythneyes original algorithm and this k is the constant distortion coefficient. Normally you can just leave this setting as is.<br />
Distortion: The amount of cubic distortion.<br />
Invert: Inverts the effect<br />
Dispersion: chromatic dispersion effect<br />
Scale: As this is a post effect we only have the information in the image to work with when the image is distorted this means that pixels at the edge become stretched(as we don't have any data beyond this boundary). Scale just scales the output allowing you to hide these stretched pixels.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<b><u>NEW SHADOW DENSITY OPTION</u></b><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsUjl5YQ3X7QW4PlmxnRXFEMnHAjSqVW5Sj7FNQl5AkzfJg542ets8wp6S_iOIaOfSaz-3ytig0rO1pb6Y7Y4Eu1ApOcUuOUJAvfsqmf1QNiVMyx_OyJbN7F7RGLEhOliquffKGcLWoZCZ/s1600/Untitled-1f.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsUjl5YQ3X7QW4PlmxnRXFEMnHAjSqVW5Sj7FNQl5AkzfJg542ets8wp6S_iOIaOfSaz-3ytig0rO1pb6Y7Y4Eu1ApOcUuOUJAvfsqmf1QNiVMyx_OyJbN7F7RGLEhOliquffKGcLWoZCZ/s400/Untitled-1f.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
As of v1.8 the sky object has a new setting called shadow density this basically controls how much environment ambient + specular lighting is included in the shadows(remember that environment lighting in PB is approximate lighting from all directions). Setting to 0% effectually turns it off and is what you got pre 1.8 as the amount is increased less environment ambient and specular lighting is included in the shadowed areas making them darker and more pronounced leading to a more dramatic render. A value of between 40-50% is suitable for most scenes with a strong directional light source.<br />
<b><u><br /></u></b><b><u>ADDED STICK NORMALS AND BACKFACE CULLING MATERIAL OPTION</u></b><br />
<br />
<i>Both of these are per material options found in Basic tab of PB materials.</i><br />
<b>Stick normals</b> will stick the vertex normals to the direction you have set. This is only really applicable when dealing with alpha planes where you have set the vertex normals using VNT for example.<br />
<br />
"When you render an object in c4d it deals with the back-facing polygons by flipping the polygon normal so that the polygon is visible from both sides however it also flips the vertex normals which in certain situations is often not desirable. An example of this is lowpoly grass using alpha planes where the vertex normals have been set to point in the positive Y direction, however because the grass will be visable from both sides by default the backfacing polygons vertex normals are flipped and now face in the negative Y direction which causes the overall lighting to be incorrect."<br />
<br />
<b>Backface Culling offline render only</b> - This is not really culling anything just setting back facing polygons to be fully transparent during final render. It may be handy in some situations and is there if you need it. <i>*This is a render only setting as the viewport has its own backface culling options. </i><br />
<br />
<b><u>PB SKY MATERIAL</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>PB sky plane material is now simply PB Sky material it works the same but has a toggle to turn off shadow catching. This allows you to assign it to a C4D sky object for various different uses like GI lighting/ reflection on standard materials or simply just as a different method of showing the sky in the background.<br />
<br />
<b><u>GENERAL FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS</u></b><br />
<br />
Here are a few of the more general improvements that were done.<br />
<ul>
<li>Fixed stability cash issue with hardware render.</li>
<li>Fixed crash issue where PB would adversely effect the IRR render even if no PB objects/materials were in the scene.(Sorry about this as it was not caught in testing or reported i only discovered it when i was browsing a forum where someone had mentioned it- So please if you do find any errors/bugs/issue let me know)</li>
<li>Fixed issue with DOF target object not updating correctly.</li>
<li>Fixed/Added Task system support</li>
<li>Fixed issue with PBsky display jumping around when you zoomed out far enough.</li>
<li>Fixed various minor issues with PBsky not updating preview.</li>
<li>Fixed issue with PB sky not updating light colors under its control in certain circumstances</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div>
<br />
<div>
<u><b>WHATS UP NEXT</b></u></div>
<div>
<u><b></b></u><br />
<div>
As people always ask whats planned for the next update i thought i would make a note here of what i have planned next. Next up will probably be motion blur, supersampling a more specialized car paint option and the ability to convert<basic channels="" etc="" mapping="" of="" settings=""> a c4d material to a PB one and vice versa. </basic></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Version History<br />
#1.8 : C4D Standard Render initial support Full including all PB objects,materials,Post FXs, Multipass output etc.. , Physical render partial support (No post FX yet), Fixed stability issue with Hardware renderer, Added new shadow density option, SkyPlane Material now just Sky Material(can be added to c4d sky object for standard material GI and reflections), Added new lens distortion Post FX, Fixed issue with DOF target object not updating, Fixed minor issues with PB sky not updating preview, Task system support added, Added per material stick normal and ignore backface options, Added new simple environment render post (spherical camera to render out hdri maps for use with PB),Fixed issue with PB adversely affecting IRR render, Various other fixes and tweaks<br />
#1.77 : Fixed Bug on NVidia where the sky object would show only ambient regardless of input, Removed console output left over from debugging.<br />
#1.76 : Fixed Bug with Sky Lights Control redraw blocking material texture loads.<br />
#1.75 : R17 New Build Added, Major tweaks and fixes for r17, New Texture loading routines, Fixed threading issue, Fixed layer shader issue, Substance plugin compatibility improvements(substance plugin 1.1+), Transpareny fixed in r17 by maxon(no more work around needed).<br />
#1.7 : MAC version added. Minor tweaks and fixes, initial substance plugin support, basic parralax occlusion mapping added.<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-29120848881211846832015-12-18T03:38:00.002-08:002016-09-19T14:20:56.900-07:00VERTEX NORMAL TOOL v1.03 UPDATE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj665shdYVkSGrhVJtsaUhVbnb_hkWiA7guFKBfed9dl4LI0yli88jVAs61vF_WCMnzz_VIG8RL3YGdSDhFIc5Tb4qa3igEv7C_5s3Ne9Qn97-7noWTmDYh94hpq4SuZL7RTvoLGGyST8QQ/s1600/vnttest.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noshadow" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj665shdYVkSGrhVJtsaUhVbnb_hkWiA7guFKBfed9dl4LI0yli88jVAs61vF_WCMnzz_VIG8RL3YGdSDhFIc5Tb4qa3igEv7C_5s3Ne9Qn97-7noWTmDYh94hpq4SuZL7RTvoLGGyST8QQ/s1600/vnttest.png" /></a></div>Release 1.03 of the Vertex normal tools is now available. This is a minor update that fixes an issue when using C4D r17.048.<br /><br /><br />ChangeLog: <br /><b><br /></b><b>Version 1.03:</b><br /><ul><li>Fixed bug in C4D r17.048 AddColorChooser "#TypeError: Required argument 'settings' (pos 6) not found" does not seem to be documented but providing dummy bc seems to surfactant.</li></ul>All license holders of VNT are eligible for this fix free of charge and should receive an email with download links for the latest version. If you are a valid license holder of VNT and do not receive an email please contact me.<br /><br /> Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-69631604002130154462015-11-18T03:43:00.002-08:002016-09-19T14:21:39.128-07:00PIXELBERG USERWORK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ATbNrPue5Ec/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ATbNrPue5Ec?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><br />Another cool piece of work by the very talented paolo lamanna be sure to check out his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdbKOLT6sPWKpfIyVTe7cLg/videos">youtube channel</a> for a breakdown of modeling/texturing this work. You can also see all his other artwork at his site <a href="http://www.paololamanna-artworks.com/3d-works/" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">http://www.paololamanna-artworks.com/3d-works/</a><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />Also wheres the 1.8 update? I know people keep asking this and i keep answering very soon but really it is very very soon and i am working hard on it.:) (found a few more minor bugs that needed to be fixed first and as long as no other bugs comes to light in the final testing it will be approx. a week or two before release).<br /><br />Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-87408655159963537022015-10-17T12:01:00.005-07:002016-09-19T14:21:39.136-07:00PIXELBERG USERWORKI came across some nice videos recently about pixelberg by ryan synder (<a href="http://www.tanglewire.tv/">tanglewire</a>) and wanted to share them. The videos are a 5 part introduction/overview tutorial and ryan has kindly allowed me to share them here. As always be sure to check out his other stuff ,follow him on vimeo and let him know you appreciate him sharing his knowledge:).<br /><br />Some of you may of already seen these videos but for new users or those wanting to know abit about pixelberg and PBR they are definitely worth checking out.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/133619669" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br /><a href="https://vimeo.com/133619669">01 PBR C4D TW-TUT</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/tanglewire">Ryan Snider</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/133619670" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><a href="https://vimeo.com/133619670">02 PBR C4D TW-TUT</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/tanglewire">Ryan Snider</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/133619673" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br /><a href="https://vimeo.com/133619673">03 PBR C4D TW-TUT</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/tanglewire">Ryan Snider</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/133619674" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br /><a href="https://vimeo.com/133619674">04 PBR C4D TW-TUT</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/tanglewire">Ryan Snider</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/133619678" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br /><a href="https://vimeo.com/133619678">05 PBR C4D TW-TUT</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/tanglewire">Ryan Snider</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-3726399798861923882015-09-20T15:12:00.005-07:002016-09-19T14:21:39.116-07:00PIXELBERG UPDATE RELEASE 1.76 b (r17 Build added + Fixes) NOW 1.77PixelBerg beta has been updated to version <strike>1.76 </strike>1.77 and is available to <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/p/plugins.html">purchase now</a>.<br /><i>*A small update has been released today 1.77 and you now download it using your download links for 1.76</i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibSwM1HoT6KoCE0s5HHRnj7MgVnv10m6Y2CASchUpmThE09C6UrAEBELexGqZ4PO9w1KEExsNBNz7F1NL9J-nXlHGQ-i4GlTPBKZJkH5Qo3x9SgC9ST6aExnkMvL4DEXjeLqQ3i9jajFMZ/s1600/pb1_76d.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibSwM1HoT6KoCE0s5HHRnj7MgVnv10m6Y2CASchUpmThE09C6UrAEBELexGqZ4PO9w1KEExsNBNz7F1NL9J-nXlHGQ-i4GlTPBKZJkH5Qo3x9SgC9ST6aExnkMvL4DEXjeLqQ3i9jajFMZ/s320/pb1_76d.png" width="320" /></a></div><span id="goog_1343848486"></span><span id="goog_1343848487"></span><br /><br /><b>WHATS NEW:</b><br /><ul><li><b>C4D R17 SUPPORT ADDED</b></li><li><b>IMPROVED COMPATIBILITY WITH SUBSTANCE PLUGIN 1.1+</b></li><li><b>MAJOR FIXES AND INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS </b></li><li><b>NEW TEXTURE LOADING ROUTINES(FIXES ISSUES WITH LAYER SHADERS) </b></li></ul><br /><div></div><form action="http://sites.fastspring.com/frostsoft/product/pixelberg" method="POST" target="_top"><input type="submit" value="Pay What You Want and Download Now" /></form><a name='more'></a><b><br /></b>PB 1.76/1.75 adds support for c4d r17 together with fixing some issues from PB 1.7 wih layer shaders crashing and being unable to open a scene on save under certain circumstances. It is however a stop gap release before PB 1.8 which will contain new features like C4D standard render support and some new post FX. I felt it was important to release this version prior to PB 1.8 due to the fact that alot of issues and bugs appeared with PB in C4D r17.<br /><b><br /></b><b><u>HOW DO I GET THE LATEST VERSION?:</u></b><br /><b><u><br /></u></b><i>*Just to let people who received an email from me with download links only to receive a message that limit was reached. I have removed the limit so the download links i sent should be fine now(sorry) </i><br /><b><u><br /></u></b>As PB 1.76 does not include any new features except things like the new texture handling routines which could be classed as fixes i have decided to make it available to current PixelBerg users for free. However if you are feeling generous and appreciate my work feel free to donate by making a purchase from the FrostSoft store. :) (<i>the server has has also been updated to PB 1.76)</i> <br /><div><div><br /></div><div>All PixelBerg users will receive an email with download links for PB 1.76 as the example files have not changed from 1.7 i have provided links for the plug-ins only in order to make it easier for you . If you do not receive an email shorty please check your spam folder and if its still not there please contact me.<br /><br />As always if you experience any problems or issues with PixelBerg as it has changed internally a fair bit from 1.7 then please let me know.<br /><br /><div><u><b>WHATS UP NEXT</b></u></div><div><u><b></b></u><br /><div>As people always ask whats planned for the next update i thought i would make a note here of what i have planned next. I have a few users reporting issues with intel integrated graphics which i need to sort out then shortly after PB 1.8 will be released.. </div></div><div><br /></div>Version History<br />#1.77 : Fixed Bug where sky viewport display would show the wrong cubemap, Removed some console output that was leftover from debugging.<br />#1.76 : Fixed Bug with Sky Lights Control redraw blocking material texture loads.<br />#1.75 : R17 New Build Added, Major tweaks and fixes for r17, New Texture loading routines, Fixed threading issue, Fixed layer shader issue, Substance plugin compatibility improvements(substance plugin 1.1+), Transpareny fixed in r17 by maxon(no more work around needed).<br />#1.7 : MAC version added. Minor tweaks and fixes, initial substance plugin support, basic parralax occlusion mapping added.<br />#1.6 : Internal release.</div><div>#1.4 : DOF post added, sky plane material added, general fixes and improvements.<br />#1.3 : Fixed Post Shader Error on NVidia.<br />#1.2 : R15 support, metalness map support, improved ssao, improved sky creation, vignette post added, hardware render fix, general fixes and improvements.<br />#1.1 : Fixed Shader Error Display Issue.<br />#1.0 : Initial Release</div><br /></div>Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-3830819108181632622015-07-03T04:23:00.002-07:002016-09-19T14:21:39.120-07:00PIXELBER USER WORK AND DEV PROGESS UPDATE<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/132083670" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br /><a href="https://vimeo.com/132083670">SPACE MARINE-PIXELBER TEST render</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user21991439">Paolo Lamanna</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br /><br />Spotted this amazing work by Paolo Lamanna utilizing PixelBerg and had to share it. Excellent work Paolo. Considering i have not yet added a dedicated skin shader the face looks pretty good.<br /><br /><b><u>Development Progress Update</u></b><br /><br /><b></b>Its been over a month since any update has been released for pixelberg so i thought i would just make a quick not on whats going on.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />(Had a phone line fault that has caused me to loose telephone/internet connection for large parts of this month. Openreach have dug up the road outside 5 times this month and are still scratching there heads to locate/fix the fault. While my connection is now up and will hopefully stay that way(cross fingers) Its been fairly stressful.<br /><br />I am just finishing of the Pixelberg c4d offline standard render support and this update should be out in a week or so . This means that for final render if you wish you can use c4d standard render (rather than switching to hardware). The output of the c4d standard render is 99.9% match to the viewport and while obviously slower it does have some advantages to name a few:<br /><br /><ul><li>Much improved anti aliasing the same as standard c4d renders.</li><li>Ability to mix in c4d standard post effects and vice versa.</li><li>Ability to use other c4d objects/systems that are not designed/supported well in the viewport e.g grass particles ect.</li><li>Ability to use c4d 3D procedural textures when doing final render.(In the viewport they are still converted to 2d textures though)</li></ul><br />This will mean that all future updates to pixelberg will also support the offline standard C4D render. And while the initial implementation is to match the viewport output it does open up possibilities that i can/may push the render output quality wise to support further non realtime effects and possibly add some hybrid realtime/offline render options to improve speed in future updates .<br /><br />Thanks to everyone for their continued support,<br /><br />Tundras<br /><br />Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-36248750443290247332015-06-04T04:36:00.003-07:002016-09-19T14:21:39.113-07:00PIXELBERG USER WORK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Spotted this and thought others may be interested.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tlKptt_MZ40/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tlKptt_MZ40?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br />Cool example of pixelberg in use by the very talented <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjH5L_JjXuOtf3pQCx0xrtg">Holger Biebrach</a>. be sure to check out his you tube channel for lots of other C4D related goodness.<br /><br />I noticed that on the video he is switching between different skys which is a bit awkward but rest assured that is on the todo list to allow easier selecting/switching of the current sky. <br /><br /><br />Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-2499092119329454492015-05-13T15:01:00.004-07:002016-09-19T14:21:39.109-07:00PIXELBERG UPDATE RELEASE 1.7 b (Mac Version Added)PixelBerg beta has been updated to version 1.7 and is available to <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/p/plugins.html">purchase now</a>.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvPQX-Im93GzEutL9Xv2G6gUETQlD7rUvgHyfbYswcz_FoHLHxOxjHyRN-Wh3WO2eG16xCosxr23Ifgocum53Xacf4DndYwji4N1JJLR_eq2pZOcdTCugT7pARN8jWugEeQvqkfQ9lwnH/s1600/pbr47.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvPQX-Im93GzEutL9Xv2G6gUETQlD7rUvgHyfbYswcz_FoHLHxOxjHyRN-Wh3WO2eG16xCosxr23Ifgocum53Xacf4DndYwji4N1JJLR_eq2pZOcdTCugT7pARN8jWugEeQvqkfQ9lwnH/s1600/pbr47.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pixelberg v1.7 NOW IN APPLE FLAVOR!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><b>WHATS NEW:</b><br /><ul><li><b>MAC VERSION ADDED</b></li><li><b>PARALLAX OCCLUSION MAPPING ADDED</b></li><li><b>GENERAL FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS</b></li></ul><br /><div></div><form action="http://sites.fastspring.com/frostsoft/product/pixelberg" method="POST" target="_top"><input type="submit" value="Pay What You Want and Download Now" /></form><br /><a name='more'></a><b><br /></b><b><u>HOW DO I GET THE LATEST VERSION?:</u></b><br />Because i have moved to a pay what you want pricing scale i can not provide free updates (as stated <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/pay-what-you-want-pricing.html#more">here</a>) like i did on a traditional pricing model so the way it works is as follows:<br /><br />If you made a purchase of Pixelberg in the last 14 days you will receive new download links via email (If you dont recieve an email within 24hrs then please contact me with your original order details). However if you are outside that timescale you will need to purchase again at whatever price you see fit for the latest version.<br /><div><br />I hope people will see it as supporting the project and not mind putting a couple of dollars into the collection tin every now and then to help aid future development.<br /><br /><b><u>MAC VERSION</u></b><br /><b><br /></b>The main feature of this release was always going to be bringing pixelberg to the mac and pixelberg is now compatible with c4d r15 ,r16 and above on macs.<br /><br /><b><u>PARALLAX OCCLUSION MAPPING</u></b><br /><b><br /></b>Basic parallax occlusion mapping (pom) has been added to 1.7 and is accessible on the bump tab of the material.* I will probably look at also adding shadows and a silhouette pom implementation in the near future.<br /><br />Parallax occlusion mapping is a form of "virtual displacement" that is it provides the illusion of displacement by altering the uv position without creating any new geometry.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/57iDh7SsiHk/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/57iDh7SsiHk?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br /><br />However all parallax mapping techniques suffer from some very nasty artifacts if you push them to far or view from oblique angles. The technique works really only/mainly on large flat areas for example walls or floors. Because of these limitations i am not a huge fan of pom as its only suitable in very few limited situations.<br /><br />So why did i add POM if i am not overly keen on it? If used right it can be effective and there is also one area that i do like using pom which is to make quick realistic eyeballs.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCG9U5X28w49EOzCuqTKiMu63SANWDrDhczLvaDe9ZxS1S4nDS54VP307wnCYWqAlNkU-Qadh4onB1KTJ_eK8KWNKLhLA5Yl2ZctpoqrS9J31Y7ld0qKAU5Kz6PPqsCpFURSJVoGlODb1/s1600/pbr48.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCG9U5X28w49EOzCuqTKiMu63SANWDrDhczLvaDe9ZxS1S4nDS54VP307wnCYWqAlNkU-Qadh4onB1KTJ_eK8KWNKLhLA5Yl2ZctpoqrS9J31Y7ld0qKAU5Kz6PPqsCpFURSJVoGlODb1/s320/pbr48.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />I think i first saw square enix doing this and it works in my opinion very well. Due to the way parallax mapping works it makes very nice/realistic eyeballs with only a simple sphere and 3 maps. I will try and cover this more in depth in a future post but the above quick test should give you the basic idea. <br /><br /><b>Settings:</b><br /><br />Pom is a switch on the bump map tab that will switch from standard bump to pom. The bumps settings of texture and intensity will be used for pom.<br /><br /><b>Use Pom:</b> turn pom on - note that the intensity range of the bump will change to 0 -100 as pom does not use negative intensity value,<br /><b>Clip Pom: </b>Clips any values that lie outside of the uv range - useful in a few situations for very basic simple silhouettes. Hopefully this will eventually be changed to proper silhouette pom.<br /><br /><b><br /></b><br /><div><b><u>GENERAL FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS</u></b><br /><br />Here are a few of the more general improvements that were done.<br /><ul><li>Initial support for substance plugin -Understandably the substance plugin was built with c4d standard materials in mind only. Unfortunately that meant that in pb 1.5 when you changed an assets params pixelberg would not know and thus not update the viewport textures. In 1.7 the textures will be updated if needed on the next viewport redraw or pb material update- while not perfect this makes the substance plugin useable/workable with pixelberg however i am waiting to here back from someone so expect further improvements here.</li><li>Sky creation has had a minor tweak/optimization where down-sampling is done pre-filter. The Sky creation is currently still cpu bound so expect further improvements when its moved to GPU. </li><li>Layer Shades will no longer cause a crash however they are no longer sampled threaded. </li><li>Fixed a minor issue where if a material was not present in scene on document open its preview would not be generated correctly.</li><li>Fixed an issue with alpha that caused objects to appear slightly transparent when they shouldn't be.</li><li>Removed metalness clamp the metalness lower (as per he original paper) bound was clamped above zero in previous versions- This clamp has been removed for better compatibility with other PBR implementations. </li></ul><br /><div><u><b>WHATS UP NEXT</b></u></div><div><u><b></b></u><br /><div>As people always ask whats planned for the next update i thought i would make a note here of what i have planned next. Next up will be the off-line render support and sky improvements. </div></div><div><br /></div>Version History<br />#1.7 : MAC version added. Minor tweaks and fixes, initial substance plugin support, basic parralax occlusion mapping added.<br />#1.6 : Internal release.</div><div>#1.4 : DOF post added, sky plane material added, general fixes and improvements.<br />#1.3 : Fixed Post Shader Error on NVidia.<br />#1.2 : R15 support, metalness map support, improved ssao, improved sky creation, vignette post added, hardware render fix, general fixes and improvements.<br />#1.1 : Fixed Shader Error Display Issue.<br />#1.0 : Initial Release</div><br /></div>Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-90128719226333475022015-04-25T06:39:00.002-07:002016-09-19T14:21:39.141-07:00PIXELBERG UPDATE RELEASE 1.5 b BUG FIXPixelBerg 1.5 has been released.<br /><br />1.5 Fixes DOF field on NVIDIA cards as this is a bug fix it is free of charge to all 1.4 users. If you purchased 1.4 you should receive an email shortly with links to download v1.5.<br /><br />If you are a 1.4 user and do not recieve an email (and have checked your spam box) please contact me with your original order number and i will send you the new link.<br /><br />Version History<br />---------------<br />#1.5 : Fixed DOF post on Nvidia, Tweaked AO intensity weighting, added AO debug output.<br />#1.4 : DOF post added, sky plane material added, general fixes and improvements.<br />#1.3 : Fixed Post Shader Error wich cause post efects not to be displayed on NVIDIA cards<br />#1.2 : R15 support, metalness map support, improved ssao, improved sky creation, vignette post added, hardware render fix, general fixes and improvements.<br />#1.1 : Fixed Shader Error Display Issue.<br />#1.0 : Initial Release<br /><br />I also snuck a couple of non bug fixes into 1.5:) nothing major just tweaked AO intensity weighting that gives a slightly cleaner output and added an option to see just the raw AO pass on its own to make adjusting the parameters a bit easier to see.<br /><br />For non 1.4 users the server has been updated with 1.5 and it is available to <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/p/plugins.html">purchase now</a>.Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-3881172366277461152015-04-22T03:43:00.002-07:002016-09-19T14:21:39.124-07:00PIXELBERG UPDATE RELEASE 1.4 bPixelBerg beta has been updated to version 1.4 and is available to <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/p/plugins.html">purchase now</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBpS3W30vAR_5qHmpCOlerCmGhCqA_mulcdfXpSw5H20kMPVI1Gqe0u8fXhz58H9c4OW96zmuCF8CEpf-P3j5qhPYh7_b9LbmTTE-59DB5Aovy2UuU-KmVC66cXPurJd2jKdFYcEK77B61/s1600/pbr44.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBpS3W30vAR_5qHmpCOlerCmGhCqA_mulcdfXpSw5H20kMPVI1Gqe0u8fXhz58H9c4OW96zmuCF8CEpf-P3j5qhPYh7_b9LbmTTE-59DB5Aovy2UuU-KmVC66cXPurJd2jKdFYcEK77B61/s1600/pbr44.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PIXELBERG VERSION 1.4 RELEASED</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>WHATS NEW:</b><br /><ul><li><b>NEW DEPTH OF FIELD POST ADDED</b></li><li><b>NEW SKY PLANE MATERIAL ADDED</b></li><li><b>GENERAL FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS</b></li></ul><b><br /></b><b><u>HOW DO I GET THE LATEST VERSION?:</u></b><br />Because i have moved to a pay what you want pricing scale i can not provide free updates (as stated <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/pay-what-you-want-pricing.html#more">here</a>) like i did on a traditional pricing model so the way it works is as follows:<br /><br />If you made a purchase of Pixelberg in the last 14 days you will receive new download links via email (If you dont recieve an email within 24hrs then please contact me with your original order details). However if you are outside that timescale you will need to purchase again at whatever price you see fit for the latest version.<br /><div><br />I hope people will see it as supporting the project and not mind putting a couple of dollars into the collection tin every now and then to help aid future development.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><i><strike>** There seems to be a problem with depth of field on Nvdia cards(reported issue on GTX 460 and GT540m but i suspect it will probably be all nvidia cards). I have ordered a Nvidia card today in order to reproduce and fix the issue as it does not seem to affect ATI cards. Hopefully i will have a fix out by the weekend and of course as a bug fix it will be free of charge to all 1.4 users. So just to let you know if you are a Nvidia user and getting 1.4 solely for DOF you may want to wait until i have fixed the issue.</strike></i> Fixed in 1.5<br /><i><br /></i><b><u><span style="font-size: large;">DEPTH OF FIELD POST</span></u></b><br /><br /><div>The much requested depth of field post has been added. My depth of field implementation took longer that i anticipated because i was not really happy with any of the normal approaches and for various reasons going forward did not want to use geometry shaders. I am however finally happy with the solution i arrived at for depth of field (i hope you will be too) and while the implementation is relatively artifact free there is always room for improvement mainly on anti-aliasing artifacts that can appear due to sampling.(hopefully i will address/improve on this in future updates). <br /><br />A real camera can only focus its lens at a single point, but there will be an area that stretches in front of and behind this focus point that still appears sharp. This zone is known as the depth of field. It’s not a fixed distance, it changes in size and can be described as either ‘shallow’ (where only a narrow zone appears sharp) or deep (where more of the picture appears sharp). While in the virtual world we are not restricted by the limitations of real cameras and the whole scene would appear in this zone "in focus" it is often desirable to fake DOF for cinematic and/or artistic effect. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1yDaa2RnFqE75L3ztIHQZSTJwaUp8Zay07onTiSv4Hlf-hieE-3fgFeLupws99DA00TlmDIO9ggKqNF9M4y3U7weFPUgd-XVJaif_hog08g31AgjelajZDiL0EWthhGkUfyLDLjZPrFX4/s1600/PB_40.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1yDaa2RnFqE75L3ztIHQZSTJwaUp8Zay07onTiSv4Hlf-hieE-3fgFeLupws99DA00TlmDIO9ggKqNF9M4y3U7weFPUgd-XVJaif_hog08g31AgjelajZDiL0EWthhGkUfyLDLjZPrFX4/s1600/PB_40.png" height="430" width="500" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Depth of Field example (She3PO model by Gavin Goulden)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><b><u>SETTINGS:</u></b><br /><br />Depth of field is enabled via the pixelberg post dialogue.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB31JvvnOTZwv4hgPHBeJdkOUx2hIp7YuQD0FQkvL-BGFmkDnKb_R1Afd4LHmubz03MVFOLaRsPa0pa2i0HACPsU-G5u1crPQerOHjvRUzVleavr-vkHIwVuKKSg0iSOfh7s-fISBjzTQO/s1600/PB_38.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB31JvvnOTZwv4hgPHBeJdkOUx2hIp7YuQD0FQkvL-BGFmkDnKb_R1Afd4LHmubz03MVFOLaRsPa0pa2i0HACPsU-G5u1crPQerOHjvRUzVleavr-vkHIwVuKKSg0iSOfh7s-fISBjzTQO/s1600/PB_38.png" height="304" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b>DOF LENS SHAPE:</b><br /><br /><b></b>The lens shape setting is used to define the lens shape<b> </b>and simulate a bokeh effect. Simply select the desired lens shape from the drop down box.The preview image above the lens shape setting will show you the current lens image being used.The bokeh effect produced by the lens shape will be most visible in scenes with bright pixels like light sources etc.<br /><br /><b></b> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQRQzUda_A3W3JM2N7xiYjcMKs5hfgk7AfJpISaCnmam5khmkTj7HISzptFj2sHV2K9lgTfJuSVvmpQwdHGvs_WhVc-reIkiiNoG6kV-BExcp1v_calTqYi6OYi5V1kjuPU_W2GrQW59fY/s1600/PB_39.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQRQzUda_A3W3JM2N7xiYjcMKs5hfgk7AfJpISaCnmam5khmkTj7HISzptFj2sHV2K9lgTfJuSVvmpQwdHGvs_WhVc-reIkiiNoG6kV-BExcp1v_calTqYi6OYi5V1kjuPU_W2GrQW59fY/s1600/PB_39.png" height="352" width="600" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Example of the effect of a few different lens shapes</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />You can add your own lens by adding an lens image into the lenses folder located in the pixelberg plugins "res" folder. The lens images describes how much light enters for each pixel of the lens with solid white meaning all the light gets through and black meaning no light gets through. <br /><br /><br /><b>DOF LENS ROTATION:</b>Controls the rotation of the image used for the lens shape.<br /><b>DOF USE CAMERAS SETTINGS:</b> If enabled this uses the current C4D cameras settings for<br /><br /><ul><li>DOF Enable far field</li><li>DOF Enable near field</li><li>DOF Focal plane</li><li>DOF near start</li><li>DOF near end</li><li>DOF far start</li><li>DOF far end</li></ul><br />allowing you to use the built in c4d camera gizmos if you wish to do so.<br /><br /><b>DOF ENABLE FAR FIELD:</b> Enable far field depth of field.<br /><b>DOF ENABLE NEAR FIELD:</b> Enable near field depth of field.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivSxO96kBWO5I4hFyOxWqWRGyvzNuVPzeNIZ0n6C08lztJH6OcvFracKidMO6FI7MCBJLEI6uWc-_SYM0gYi1QafHC0eo228MbzPUgzXN_7uxzJ0CLqHtg4l6tpmpl8p2jMhPN9fWlrEdc/s1600/PB_46.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivSxO96kBWO5I4hFyOxWqWRGyvzNuVPzeNIZ0n6C08lztJH6OcvFracKidMO6FI7MCBJLEI6uWc-_SYM0gYi1QafHC0eo228MbzPUgzXN_7uxzJ0CLqHtg4l6tpmpl8p2jMhPN9fWlrEdc/s1600/PB_46.png" height="400" width="321" /></a></div><br /><b>DOF FOCAL PLANE: </b>The distance from the camera to the focal plane(objects in focus).<br /><br /><b>DOF FAR/NEAR FIELD SETTINGS</b><br /><b><br /></b><b>DOF QUALITY:</b> The number of samples per pixel. In general larger DOF sizes require more samples and a higher quality setting. Typical usage in most scenes a setting of med to high should suffice. There is individual settings of quality for both near and far DOF as often you can get away with a lower setting for far DOF.<br /><br /><b>DOF FAR/NEAR START: </b>The distance from the focal plane either away from the camera"far" or towards the camera"near" beyond which objects will begin to appear out of focus upto the far/near end size where objects will be completely out of focus.<br /><br /><b>DOF FAR/NEAR END:</b>The distance from the focal plane either away from the camera"far" or towards the camera"near" beyond which objects will be completely out of focus.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwA_JPmH5mTnu7Al4vp0x6cRIXWFByovgwnvVJVd8NVtEWOMtbGsuEn3gAIfP5lBdFKJ6fxCh92qyURBa8Vp-XZfJ3ku5EK64lnQOos4Hu9mBAuVWzZeKxIq6Z5rOWILC8R93_EvItvmj/s1600/pbr46.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwA_JPmH5mTnu7Al4vp0x6cRIXWFByovgwnvVJVd8NVtEWOMtbGsuEn3gAIfP5lBdFKJ6fxCh92qyURBa8Vp-XZfJ3ku5EK64lnQOos4Hu9mBAuVWzZeKxIq6Z5rOWILC8R93_EvItvmj/s1600/pbr46.png" height="188" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>DOF FAR/NEAR SIZE:</b> Individual settings for he maximum blur/sampling radius of the far and near dof's. Larger sizes will require a higher quality settings.<br /><br />please note that as the depth of field is a post fx that uses the depth buffer it does not work as expected when you are looking through a transparent object in focus to an out of focus background object. In this case the backgroud seen through the transparent object will also appear to be in focus due to the depth buffer.<br /><br /><b><u><span style="font-size: large;">SKY PLANE MATERIAL</span></u></b><br /><b><u><span style="font-size: large;"></span></u></b><br /><div><br /></div>The new sky plane material allows your models/scenes to better integrate with the environment so your models will no longer appear to be floating. It acts as a shadow catcher and also works with post effects like ambient occlusion and depth of field.<br /><br /><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibgIkGFTxbB0_-wj6FboQ02uiVQ6nSkLBVT54lbdGPA2LLxWk0ruQ-WGFqP1oQoLVgC4IPTGVAlaDvHK8NKUEFEdgIfl1YsGokICXCPmpPsVBQth6eMlz22L4Ns03u4ecUQ7duesPgxY6i/s1600/pbr45.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibgIkGFTxbB0_-wj6FboQ02uiVQ6nSkLBVT54lbdGPA2LLxWk0ruQ-WGFqP1oQoLVgC4IPTGVAlaDvHK8NKUEFEdgIfl1YsGokICXCPmpPsVBQth6eMlz22L4Ns03u4ecUQ7duesPgxY6i/s1600/pbr45.png" height="640" width="521" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">SKYPLANE MATERIAL EXAMPLE (VW model by Mark Hodsman )</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><b><u></u></b>The Skyplane material is very simple to use just create a new skyplane material and set its environment link to a pixelberg sky object. Then assign it to a plane object(or similar) scale the plane object to the desired size and position it at ground level. <br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVoA64fugL0UCkvRFmhviFAkc8RyTWwZbpeJmEK45wFPAcMizximFuB9hRH8Kk3ItMYdL9OLN_53kjF4aQXcVEUDzAbjD1ZUcisXc48Rf4sQIWZ9BdGPnAtq7Y0tKyuvxV9Q_bStjlhq4y/s1600/PB_41.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVoA64fugL0UCkvRFmhviFAkc8RyTWwZbpeJmEK45wFPAcMizximFuB9hRH8Kk3ItMYdL9OLN_53kjF4aQXcVEUDzAbjD1ZUcisXc48Rf4sQIWZ9BdGPnAtq7Y0tKyuvxV9Q_bStjlhq4y/s1600/PB_41.png" height="185" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><b><u>SETTINGS:</u></b><br /><b><u></u></b><br /><div><br /></div><b>ENVIROMENT:</b> This is a link to a Pixelberg sky object that the material will use for ambient lighting and specular reflectioms. For convenience it is available on all tabs - Drag and drop any Pixelberg sky object into this link to set it.<br /><div><div><br /></div><b>AMBIENT INTENSITY:</b> Controls how much ambient light will be added to the shadows a value of 0% will result in solid black shadows<br /><br />The skyplane material will work with all he different display options of the sky object (sky,specular,ambient,color and none) however when none is selected it will only work with the viewport background (gradient or color set in the c4d prefs dialog). This means it currently does not work with the C4D sky object etc.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW3nDoI0fuYZHIcC_7Oe1OoGXf4Gy_djhpvCriL9qVRJj2M-LqiH1Cvjl7-XggTmPF8XuzbF-CFVHauuoA7YLVdhyck2FmEmWWPl94X3uVizwajZt9lIN1iLowX5-t1JDV_RuKDNG_fyaF/s1600/PB_37.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW3nDoI0fuYZHIcC_7Oe1OoGXf4Gy_djhpvCriL9qVRJj2M-LqiH1Cvjl7-XggTmPF8XuzbF-CFVHauuoA7YLVdhyck2FmEmWWPl94X3uVizwajZt9lIN1iLowX5-t1JDV_RuKDNG_fyaF/s1600/PB_37.png" height="400" width="325" /></a></div><br /><div> </div><br /><b><u><span style="font-size: large;">GENERAL FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS</span></u></b><br /><br />Here are a few of the more general improvements that were done.<br /><ul><li>Fixed a black spot artifact that caused the odd pixel to appear black. This has been present since 1.0 but it was hardly noticeable before unless you were looking for it, in fact i only discovered it when i was implementing DOF but has been fixed now. </li><li>Fixed clipping issue of environment cube map with certain view clipping distances. </li></ul><br /><div><u><b><span style="font-size: large;">WHATS UP NEXT</span></b></u></div><div><u><b></b></u><br /><div><br /></div></div><div>As people always ask whats planned for the next update i thought i would make a note here of what i have planned next. Next up will be the MAC release followed by adding off-line render support and sky improvements. It seems sensible to add offline render support now before adding more realtime features as then the two systems will/can develop in tandem. However if you really want feature X please let me know as nothing is set in stone (DOF was moved up the development order due to requests).</div><div><br /></div>Version History</div><div>#1.4 : DOF post added, sky plane material added, general fixes and improvements.<br />#1.3 : Fixed Post Shader Error on NVidia.<br />#1.2 : R15 support, metalness map support, improved ssao, improved sky creation, vignette post added, hardware render fix, general fixes and improvements.<br />#1.1 : Fixed Shader Error Display Issue.<br />#1.0 : Initial Release<br /><div><u><b></b></u><br /><div><br /></div></div></div></div>Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-80500493428792738872015-01-13T05:15:00.002-08:002016-09-19T14:21:39.132-07:00PIXELBERG UPDATE RELEASE 1.2 bPixelBerg beta has been updated to version 1.2 and is available to <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/p/plugins.html">purchase now</a>.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyDuVTixfO3vQOjBhFL1yW0SP41bsRqVrSE0YZba01cfVPYVMKTOOQZYbID4e95QUUWGMTpcH3tm0cH4NkIoBDPgsPqimNIH67YnULfTJ7XfxfSRXkM8IDLBW1_GjN83jPO0hhk5w9UHuX/s1600/pbproductimag.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyDuVTixfO3vQOjBhFL1yW0SP41bsRqVrSE0YZba01cfVPYVMKTOOQZYbID4e95QUUWGMTpcH3tm0cH4NkIoBDPgsPqimNIH67YnULfTJ7XfxfSRXkM8IDLBW1_GjN83jPO0hhk5w9UHuX/s1600/pbproductimag.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">VERSION 1.2 OUT NOW </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>WHATS NEW:</b><br /><br /><ul><li><b>R15 SUPPORT (64BIT)</b></li><li><b>METALNESS MAP SUPPORT</b></li><li><b>IMPROVED SSAO</b></li><li><b>IMPROVED SKY CREATION</b></li><li><b>VIGNETTE POST ADDED</b></li><li><b>HARDWARE RENDER FIX</b></li><li><b>GENERAL FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS</b></li></ul><br /><b></b><br /><div><a name='more'></a><br /></div><b><u>R15 SUPPORT</u></b><br />PixelBerg is now available for Cinema 4D r15 (win 64it only). A 32bit build for r15 is highly unlikely as future versions of Cinema 4D, i presume will also only be 64bit so supporting 32bit does not really make sense going forward.<br /><br /><b><u>METALNESS MAP SUPPORT</u></b><br />Reflectance can now also be set to use metalness maps rather than reflectivity(f0). Metalness maps are another popular method for defining reflectivity and are supported by Marmoset Toolbag and used by allegorithmic Substance Painter to name but a few.<br /><br />Metalness maps are a differant way to think about reflectivity which simplifies the user input and is often easier to understand and use. It exploits the fact that the majority of materials actually occupy a very small reflective(f0) range apart from metals,gems and crystals. This is done by the shader actually selecting the final values for albedo and reflectivity dependent on the metalness input value.<br /><br />The end result for the artist is pretty straight forward with as the name suggests the more metallic a surface the higher metalness value you set (0-100%). However both methods are not interchangeable and as you will see below the albedo texture also needs to be created differently depending on our chosen method<br /><br />Using Reflectance if you set the reflectivity color to pure white which means 100% reflective it does not matter what the albedo color/texture is all light is being reflected and no value from the albedo is used/seen.<br /><br />Using Metalness however is different when set to 100% metalness the albedo texture is actually used as the reflectivity(f0) value so this needs to be kept in mind during texture creation.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkeppQvjFTN9YzPkK5uMy_sCdX3JR3Tsv2R65fM0mPUIhGu38j7C4_g_QU9ri3RTqH_cuSkwrcxSW4BpvBDlY5A4Y8I8wMM22RoCfNG4YW-Cvdtg6Gpdr2dWNzR2x0oSHP2fncQ95e7cl2/s1600/PB_35.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkeppQvjFTN9YzPkK5uMy_sCdX3JR3Tsv2R65fM0mPUIhGu38j7C4_g_QU9ri3RTqH_cuSkwrcxSW4BpvBDlY5A4Y8I8wMM22RoCfNG4YW-Cvdtg6Gpdr2dWNzR2x0oSHP2fncQ95e7cl2/s1600/PB_35.png" height="320" width="313" /></a></div><br />This means that when creating the albedo texture for metalness method the surfaces often have the color you would expect e.g gold surfaces should have a gold/yellowish color then the (greyscale) metalness map should have the metallic value in the case of gold probably white fully metallic. As you can see this can make the textures clearer and easier to create/work with as you would have one albedo map containing the colors you would expect for the surfaces being described and then a greyscale map containing the metallic values.<br /><br />With reflectance however the albedo map using the same example for a gold surfaces would be black (as metals typically have no albedo color) and the (RGB) reflectivity map would have a gold/yellowish color.<br /><br /><b><u>IMPROVED SSAO</u></b><br />SSAO has been improved in various ways including new sampling patterns to improve the noise that was visible in the old version. I have also added a drop down which allows you to change the SSAO sample count from LOW to ULTRA (MED to HIGH should be sufficient for most scenes as ULTRA does not really add that much of a visible quality improvement over HIGH).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpaQ4yKQ2spBSzF7c0wO8OQlp89UawWzv9nGx4vjfuRBoK9zDpJDUyH8lFaxqm02TnXeMpRByCYpbzuUsdgj8eGddgp_CETkb24oc1AcrL0xVMVBNm2z9tcnH-NjexIS4HU22EqoDxQH9m/s1600/PB_33.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpaQ4yKQ2spBSzF7c0wO8OQlp89UawWzv9nGx4vjfuRBoK9zDpJDUyH8lFaxqm02TnXeMpRByCYpbzuUsdgj8eGddgp_CETkb24oc1AcrL0xVMVBNm2z9tcnH-NjexIS4HU22EqoDxQH9m/s1600/PB_33.png" height="177" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><b><u>IMPROVED SKY CREATION</u></b><br />Due to the conversion process the last version produced slightly blurry outputs when compared to the original. The conversion process has been partly rewritten to rectify this problem and produce a higher quality output. On top of this i also now run a small sharpening filter to further recover some of the sharper detail lost in the conversion sampling process. This however does have the effect of making the conversion process slightly longer but i do have a plan to address this in the next release.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0W2CuD8P6SdFZ3LSjCXDXWs-dXRy8C_luSssB69fFp7jAncMyuzpciayps6P6KnzSKxkBkoCkCwtVruOCxNoVSalo5DupBOqJ5nsOq9Kanjs2AoQ_vaNRNZUVSlaFUFe_da7Ooi7pFXU8/s1600/PB_34.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0W2CuD8P6SdFZ3LSjCXDXWs-dXRy8C_luSssB69fFp7jAncMyuzpciayps6P6KnzSKxkBkoCkCwtVruOCxNoVSalo5DupBOqJ5nsOq9Kanjs2AoQ_vaNRNZUVSlaFUFe_da7Ooi7pFXU8/s1600/PB_34.png" height="172" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b><u>VIGNETTE POST ADDED</u></b><br />Although most of the work to do with post effects for this release went into restructuring them, improving stability and SSAO I still wanted to add a new post effect even if it is a very simple one.<br />A vignette is actually an effect produced by a camera/lens defect but can be used for artistic effect to frame or draw attention to the center object.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd8qkxCtpnQxt4mZClE8nfLrkEeISd_sCno9EclFw2C8y2hDzwTFLEAE1XOwCzo3eJW8b0HTYOzVECc6xZDOnKfrxQ_MnZIf8SHK9fhcUdm9KPfH5jGQrvtz5_EJ62xY4IenAA0MOAKefs/s1600/PB_36.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd8qkxCtpnQxt4mZClE8nfLrkEeISd_sCno9EclFw2C8y2hDzwTFLEAE1XOwCzo3eJW8b0HTYOzVECc6xZDOnKfrxQ_MnZIf8SHK9fhcUdm9KPfH5jGQrvtz5_EJ62xY4IenAA0MOAKefs/s1600/PB_36.png" height="183" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b><u>HARDWARE RENDER FIX</u></b><br /><b></b>One of the main issues with the previous version was that the first frame of hardware out put would have black smudges artifacts. This was down to a normal buffer not being created by C4D on the first frame of render output when material plugins are used. I be-leave this to be a C4D bug but have implemented an internal work around that fixes the issues for now and forces the required buffers to be generated.<br /><div><br /></div><b><u>GENERAL FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS</u></b><br />Often its the small things that take up most of the development time so here are a few of the more general improvements that were done.<br /><ul><li>Sky Object cubemap generation/management has been improved(cubemaps will now show up correctly even if the sky object editor dot is set to red)</li><li>Post effects have been completely restructured improving stability and making it easy to add further post effects in future,</li><li>Roughness/Gloss is now a drop down selection like Reflectance/Metalness and the group name headings will change to make it clearer what you are using.</li><li>Texture loading is normally threaded however when using Hardware render output that meant that the textures may not have been loaded by the time the first frame outputs.This has been fixed and all textures are now loaded during Hardware output render before the first frame actually renders. </li></ul><br /><b><u>HOW DO I GET THE LATEST VERSION</u></b><br /><div>Because i have moved to a pay what you want pricing scale i can not provide free updates (as stated <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/pay-what-you-want-pricing.html#more">here</a>) like i did on a traditional pricing model so the way it works is as follows:<br /><br /></div><div></div><div>If you made a purchase of Pixelberg in the last 7 days your original download links can still be used to download the latest version. However if you are outside that timescale you will need to purchase again at whatever price you see fit for the latest version.</div><div><br /></div>I would like to thank everyone who has purchased pixelberg thus far and hope you will continue to support the plugin.<br /><br />Now that the post effects have been restructured i am going to start work on depth of field post for the next release because it is probably currently the number 1 requested feature. <br /><br /><b>Version History</b><br />#1.3 : Fixed Post Shader Error on NVidia.<br />#1.2 : R15 support, metalness map support, improved ssao, improved sky creation, vignette post added, hardware render fix, general fixes and improvements.<br />#1.1 : Fixed Shader Error Display Issue.<br />#1.0 : Initial Release<br /><br />Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-15518225631541895082014-12-11T15:27:00.002-08:002016-09-19T14:21:39.102-07:00PIXELBERG BETA<b>INTRODUCING PIXELBERG:</b><br />PixelBerg is a realtime viewport renderer for C4D aimed mainly at realtime artists. PixelBerg comprises of 3 main components which all function together to produce high quality realtime visuals in the c4d viewport by means of physical based shading, IBL and selected post FXs.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZggOqrRwfrmjYrrqxHolnX5i1m0WrDaR9okWPMPEqTZIcKTgyJsPBLkOEJ-fEIvhwtEDfUpPbO5TB2n-KSRcyPzKdLFo4QgB0_nJK3fxFcFcY033hp4er6EKpzlWsXcXbEPz1sfaURe61/s1600/pixelberg_lighting1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZggOqrRwfrmjYrrqxHolnX5i1m0WrDaR9okWPMPEqTZIcKTgyJsPBLkOEJ-fEIvhwtEDfUpPbO5TB2n-KSRcyPzKdLFo4QgB0_nJK3fxFcFcY033hp4er6EKpzlWsXcXbEPz1sfaURe61/s1600/pixelberg_lighting1.png" width="590" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">C4d Viewport screen grabs of pixelberg in action with different enviroment maps</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br /><b style="text-decoration: line-through;">IMPORTANT!</b><i><strike>Pixelberg is a realtime opengl viewport renderer so if you try to render using the c4d render buttons the output will be black. I do plan on adding traditional render output for completness however Pixelbergs main focus will remain as a realtime renderer. That said if you set the render engine to “Hardware” the render buttons will produce the viewport output allowing you to produce/grab renders larger than the viewport size. </strike>PB 1.8 now has support for the standard renderer</i><br /><br /><b>PRICE AND AVAILABILTY</b><br />Version 1.8 (BETA) is available to buy and download now at Pay What You Want Price. <i>minimum $1</i><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span><br /><br /><form action="http://sites.fastspring.com/frostsoft/product/pixelberg" method="POST" target="_top"><input type="submit" value="Pay What You Want and Download Now" /></form><form action="http://sites.fastspring.com/frostsoft/product/vertexnormaltool" method="POST" target="_top"></form><br /><b>REQUIERMENTS:</b><br />C4D r15, r16 ,r17 (64bit only)<br />A Windows PC or MAC<br />Graphics Card supporting at least Opengl 3.2<br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b>LATEST VERSION IS 1.8 </b>please see the 1.8 <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/pixelberg-update-release-18b.html">release post</a> for details<br /><div class="Normal"></div><br /><b>INFORMATION:</b><br /><br />WHAT IS PBS:<b> </b>Physical based shading (PBS) means that the shading algorithms are based on real world obsivations and physical properties allowing artists to create content that will be consistently high quality and predictable in many lighting scenarios.<br /><br />WHAT IS IBL: Image Based lighting (IBL) uses preprocessed cubemaps describing an enviroment to provide convincing ambient ligting and specular reflections.<br /><br />WHAT ARE POST FX: Post FX are just what they sound like effects applied after all the main drawing, rendering calls- These effects can be as simple as just exposure adjustments to more complicated effects like realtime amient occlusion.<br /><br /><b>WHATS INCLUDED:</b><br /><ul><li>PIXELBERG SKY: object plugin responsable for providing the IBL lighting ,viewport background, directional light control and enviroment map conversion utility.</li><li>PIXELBERG MATERIAL: material plugin which is the physical based shading component.</li><li>PIXELBERG POST: post Fx plugin providing the realtime post effects.</li><li>PIXELBERG WATERMARK: Bonus - post Fx plugin providing a watermark that altough it defaults to a pixelberg logo it can be easly changed by the user. </li><li>PIXELBERG SKY MATERIAL: Can be used either as a shadow catcher when assigned to a plane or as a source of GI etc for standard materials when added to a C4D sky Object. </li><li>PIXELBERG ENVIRONMENT RENDER: Bonus - post Fx plugin that allows you to create environment maps (spherical camera). </li></ul><br />+example scenes and textures : I would like to give a special thanks to Grzegorz at <a href="http://hdrmaps.com/">hdrmaps </a>and <a href="http://dativ.at/">Bernhard Vogal</a> for allowing me to include a couple of their Hdr enviroment maps for you to play with (please see their respective sites for liscene information)<br /><br /><b>DISCLAMER:</b>While great time and effort has been put into PixelBerg to ensure its usability and functionality it is important to remember that its is still in a beta stage and thus requires the following disclaimer: The software is provideded “as is”. I do not give any warranties, whether express or implied, as to the suitability or usability of the software. I will not be liable for any loss, whether such loss is direct, indirect, special or consequential, suffered by any party as a result of their use of the software or content. Use of the software is done at user’s own risk and the user will be solely responsible for any damage to any computer system or loss of data that results from such activities.<br /><br />Should you encounter any bugs, glitches, lack of functionality or other problems please let me know.<br /><br /><br />Turntable animation of model with 2 different enviroments. <i>The screen recorder seemed to slowdown viewport animation abit. I could ofcourse have rendered this out by setting the render engine to hardware but i want to emphasize that this is what the viewport output looks like.</i><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sn-WJzpb31U?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><br /><br /><b>MORE INFORMATION: </b><br /><ol><li><a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/pixelberg-beta-tutorial-videos.html">PixelBerg Beta Tutorial Videos</a></li><li><a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/pixelberg-beta-quickstart-guide.html">PixelBerg Beta QuickStart Guide</a> </li><li>PixelBerg Full Documentation (Ongoing) </li></ol><ul><li><a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/pixelberg-beta-documentation-1-sky.html"><i>PIXELBERG BETA DOCUMENTATION 1. SKY</i></a></li><li><a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/pixelberg-beta-documentation-2-material.html"><i>PIXELBERG BETA DOCUMENTATION 2. MATERIAL</i></a></li><li><a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/pixelberg-beta-documentation-3-post-fx.html"><i>PIXELBERG BETA DOCUMENTATION 3. POST FX</i></a></li></ul><ol></ol>Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-66799379597066329022014-06-02T17:08:00.003-07:002016-09-19T14:20:56.922-07:00VERTEX NORMAL TOOL v1.02 UPDATE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj665shdYVkSGrhVJtsaUhVbnb_hkWiA7guFKBfed9dl4LI0yli88jVAs61vF_WCMnzz_VIG8RL3YGdSDhFIc5Tb4qa3igEv7C_5s3Ne9Qn97-7noWTmDYh94hpq4SuZL7RTvoLGGyST8QQ/s1600/vnttest.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noshadow" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj665shdYVkSGrhVJtsaUhVbnb_hkWiA7guFKBfed9dl4LI0yli88jVAs61vF_WCMnzz_VIG8RL3YGdSDhFIc5Tb4qa3igEv7C_5s3Ne9Qn97-7noWTmDYh94hpq4SuZL7RTvoLGGyST8QQ/s1600/vnttest.png" /></a></div>Release 1.02 of the Vertex normal tools is now available. This is a minor update that fixes a couple of bugs.<br /><br /><br />ChangeLog: <br /><b><br /></b><b>Version 1.02:</b><br /><ul><li>Fixed bug that due to the plugin not correctly checking for presance of a phong tag caused the object to become out of sync.</li></ul>All license holders of V1 will receive V1.02 free of charge and should recieve an email with download links for the latest version. If you are a valid license holder of v1 and do not receive an email please contact me.<br /><br /> Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-55398114233640572692013-09-09T19:17:00.002-07:002016-09-19T14:20:56.919-07:00VERTEX NORMAL TOOL v1.01 UPDATE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj665shdYVkSGrhVJtsaUhVbnb_hkWiA7guFKBfed9dl4LI0yli88jVAs61vF_WCMnzz_VIG8RL3YGdSDhFIc5Tb4qa3igEv7C_5s3Ne9Qn97-7noWTmDYh94hpq4SuZL7RTvoLGGyST8QQ/s1600/vnttest.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noshadow" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj665shdYVkSGrhVJtsaUhVbnb_hkWiA7guFKBfed9dl4LI0yli88jVAs61vF_WCMnzz_VIG8RL3YGdSDhFIc5Tb4qa3igEv7C_5s3Ne9Qn97-7noWTmDYh94hpq4SuZL7RTvoLGGyST8QQ/s1600/vnttest.png" /></a></div>Release 1.01 of the Vertex normal tools is now available. This is a minor update that fixes a couple of bugs and adds R15 compatabilty.<br /><br /><br />ChangeLog: <br /><b><br /></b><b>Version 1.01:</b><br /><ul><li>Fixed bug that in certain cases when c4d called "reload python plugins" a warning would be printed to console.</li><li>Fixed bug that could cause an unexpected error when c4d is closed if the vertex normal tool is still active and drawing to the viewport. </li><li>Added compiled .pypv for R15 compatibility. </li></ul>All license holders of V1 will receive V1.01 free of charge and should recieve an email with download links for the latest version. If you are a valid license holder of v1 and do not receive an email please contact me.<br /><br /> Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-12605631806103743292012-02-01T20:51:00.003-08:002016-09-19T14:20:56.879-07:00WELCOME TO FROSTSOFT<i>(*This site is best viewed using FireFox or Google Chrome. FrostSoft is not and has never been associated with any other companies or websites that may have a similar name.)</i><br /><i> </i> <br />Welcome to FrostSoft, my personal blog specialising in all things related to realtime asset creation with C4D.<br /><br />As a C4D user and artist whose primary field of interest is in realtime asset creation I wanted to create a site in order to share tutorials and work flow tips gained from personal experience, together with information and WIP's on any personal projects i am working on.<br /><br />In the coming months i will also be making available on this site various C4D plugins (both free and commercial), the majority of which have either been built to aid in realtime asset creation within C4D or to incorporate a variety of realtime techniques into C4D for traditional rendering.<br /><br />So stay tuned and thanks for stopping by,<br /><br />TundrasTundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5528946570575106274.post-68801135945249473592012-01-31T12:10:00.003-08:002018-01-31T13:12:13.102-08:00VERTEX NORMAL TOOL PLUGIN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj665shdYVkSGrhVJtsaUhVbnb_hkWiA7guFKBfed9dl4LI0yli88jVAs61vF_WCMnzz_VIG8RL3YGdSDhFIc5Tb4qa3igEv7C_5s3Ne9Qn97-7noWTmDYh94hpq4SuZL7RTvoLGGyST8QQ/s800/vnttest.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noshadow" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj665shdYVkSGrhVJtsaUhVbnb_hkWiA7guFKBfed9dl4LI0yli88jVAs61vF_WCMnzz_VIG8RL3YGdSDhFIc5Tb4qa3igEv7C_5s3Ne9Qn97-7noWTmDYh94hpq4SuZL7RTvoLGGyST8QQ/s800/vnttest.png"></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><b>OVERVIEW</b><br />Vertex Normal Tool is a plug-in for C4D which adds a tool for creating and manipulating vertex normals on polygon objects in C4d. Virtually all other high-end 3d applications (3ds Max, Maya, etc.) support vertex normal editing and while c4d supports importing, rendering, etc.. vertex normals it lacks any interface or tool for creating or editing them. This plug-in aims to address that problem by giving the artist full control over vertex normals.<b> </b><br /><br /><b>PRICE AND AVAILABILTY</b><br />Version 1.03 is available to buy and download now at Pay What You Want Price. <i>minimum $1</i><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span><br /><br /><form action="http://sites.fastspring.com/frostsoft/product/vertexnormaltool" method="POST" target="_top"><input type="submit" value="Pay What You Want and Download Now" /></form><br />A free function limited lite version of the Vertex Normal Tool is also available to download from the <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.com/p/plugins.html">Plugins Page</a>.<br /><br /><b>REQUIERMENTS:</b><br />C4D r12.048 and above (also updated for r15).<br />A Windows PC or Mac.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtj1OAMPQg7U1oZezQxwb71aX9RRCzhknlDUsDgLeablDJdv39CT2X9Ym0XYsvcoijssUeDxqfCC9NbDLqQLqguGrsU7YJj4XXugwEu7Kkuv8OJ-sW_VfTKInyAQKFe7KpNjLUz_uJviro/s1600/VNT_banner.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtj1OAMPQg7U1oZezQxwb71aX9RRCzhknlDUsDgLeablDJdv39CT2X9Ym0XYsvcoijssUeDxqfCC9NbDLqQLqguGrsU7YJj4XXugwEu7Kkuv8OJ-sW_VfTKInyAQKFe7KpNjLUz_uJviro/s1600/VNT_banner.png"></a></div><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><b>HIGHLIGHTS</b><br /><ul><li>Complete tool kit which adds the ability to really work with vertex normals on par with other high-end 3d software. </li><li>Easily add new vertex normal tags to objects while preserving any phong angles and edge breaks. </li><li>Easily update and manipulate vertex normals with the ability to perform all common tasks like flipping, averaging, normalizing, setting hard or soft edges by selection or angle, etc... </li><li> Built in functions for easily dealing with common vertex normals tricks. </li><li> Bend Normals by stealing a target meshes normals to improve lighting of alpha planes etc. </li><li> Remove ugly shading seems across separate objects.</li></ul><br /><b>LOWLIGHTS </b><br /><br />As I listed the highlights I think it is also important to list any current known limitations or “lowlights” of the tool, however I would also like to state that I aim to address these limitations together with any feedback from users in future updates <br /><ul><li>Because C4D does not dynamically update vertex normal tags on all mesh structure changes the current suggested workflow would be to do all the major modelling of an object before switching to vertex normals. (It is probably common practise for most to only start the final shading/smoothing set up during the minor modelling/tweaking stage anyway.) </li><li>If rendering objects in C4D with modified vertex normals where the backfacing polys should be visable, I.e. foliage planes an extra step may be needed because of the way C4d (currently) deals with back-facing polys. Please see <a href="http://frostsoft.blogspot.com/2012/02/rendering-backfacing-polygons-with.html">RENDERING BACKFACING POLYGONS WITH MODIFIED VERTEX NORMALS</a>. </li><li> The tool was built with real-time assert creation in mind so speed may be an issue for high-poly objects. </li><li>*R12 only – If you are exporting scenes/objects for use in external engines please be aware that in r12 FBX format export of vertex normals did not work. Maxon has addressed this issue in r13 and fixed it. So in r12 COLLADA format was really the only built in option to export vertex normals for use externally. </li></ul><br /><ul></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRZEVXKUuqF5OwVoJmMRva4cac4dVT7Kd5wRCXaxHq6yOzDtXO03_K6UzZdYAyjiYl63cHGZO2ZM5vfe8PJj-WBxqvKcZx519Nl3vSEqxX8X6RN04bGrF80ZJm_XhsAmOC_nfUn_tYC8gQ/s1600/fsweb_m72.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="noshadow" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRZEVXKUuqF5OwVoJmMRva4cac4dVT7Kd5wRCXaxHq6yOzDtXO03_K6UzZdYAyjiYl63cHGZO2ZM5vfe8PJj-WBxqvKcZx519Nl3vSEqxX8X6RN04bGrF80ZJm_XhsAmOC_nfUn_tYC8gQ/s1600/fsweb_m72.png"></a></div><br />If you are using r12 of C4D once installed the plugin will be available from the python/plugins menu for r13+ it will be available from the plugins menu.<br /><br />Documentation for the vertex normal tool can be found in the llinks below. It is fairly long becuase i wanted to focus on some of the uses of vertex normals that you may not be aware of. It does however briefly go over the basics(setting hard/soft edges) which is pretty self explanitory and also gives an overview of what vertex normals actually are.<br /><br />
<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/vertexnormaltoolkb/home" id="go_link">
</a>
<div class="go_linkc" style="vertical-align: middle;">
<div style="background-color: #dd8d00; padding: 0px;">
<div style="display: inline-block;">
<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/vertexnormaltoolkb/home" id="go_link"><img alt="" height="40" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1mAMXxHKxhbd4EpvMoy6cyYri0D6h8teo5HG3N2QduLeouFKTSmgttiG6gvcXqnA6UwU9nyXVe1mVytEzT8vj4bMzljcgw-f3RX1_ixFCm_rgkCgFE5kJ7pQA0qMBhHSjUZeHgwroRGA/s800-Ic42/KBlogo.png" style="background-color: #dd8d00; border-style: none; box-shadow: none; margin-left: 5px; vertical-align: middle;" width="40" />
</a></div>
<div style="color: white; display: inline-block; font-size: medium; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 5px; padding-top: 15px; vertical-align: top;">
<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/vertexnormaltoolkb/home" id="go_link">GOTO the Vertex Normal Tool Documentation</a></div>
</div>
</div>
<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/vertexnormaltoolkb/home" id="go_link">
</a>Tundrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12931574531897267670noreply@blogger.com18