Substance in 3ds Max - Corona Renderer

[cjwidd]

Starting a new thread to compile suggestions for the Substance in 3ds Max plugin - redirecting from Topic: Substance in 3ds Max 2.3.2

[cjwidd]

Seeking visual parity between IRay and Corona Renderer using the Substance in 3ds Max plugin (2.3.2).

• Incorrect gloss?
• Incorrect albedo?
• Gamma correction issue?

[cjwidd]

cross-post from Corona Renderer forums

After rendering basically every permutation of the material using Substance renderers (Yebis, Iray) in various Substance material authoring / texturing softwares, I think I have to backpedal on my earlier assertions, because it appears I've misunderstood or miscalibrated Substance Designer.

Looking at the various renders (displacement exaggerated for effect) it appears that Substance Painter Iray render and Corona (tonemapped) render are the most visually similar to the preview renders from Substance Source. 

The Substance Painter Yebis and Iray renders differ significantly in terms of the normal map response - AO response? It looks like the self-shadowing is completely different, perhaps because the shadows are being calculated from the normal map in Yebis but from the geo with Iray?

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substance source preview

vpq_substance_source_preview_1


vpq_substance_source_preview_2


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vpq_corona_linear


vpq_corona_tonemap_5.0cm


vpq_corona_tonemap_1.0cm


vpq_substance_designer_iray_cw


vpq_substance_designer_iray_default


vpq_substance_designer_viewport_cw


vpq_substance_designer_viewport_default


vpq_substance_painter_iray


vpq_substance_painter_viewport


vpq_substance_player

[Galen Helfter]

Thanks, this is much easier to keep track of than the release posts.

[cjwidd]

Visual parity issue reported above was resolved on a separate thread in the Substance Designer channel

[Galen Helfter]

Excellent, glad that you found the right configuration.

If there's anything else with Corona Renderer, please keep putting it here. I'll go through the previous threads to make sure we have everything as tickets. The release threads are going to start being invalidated fairly quickly, so it's going to be hard to keep track of things there.

With the current schedule, there may be up to 2 releases a month after we finalize the new release pipeline.

[cjwidd]

Thanks for the update Galen, that sounds great. I will be sure to report directly to this channel with any issues or concerns.

Can you say anything about feature updates or improvements that are planned for the next release?

[Galen Helfter]

No real features for 2.3.3, that will be another bugfix release, as well as testing out a release with the new build system. Currently fixed an undo/redo crash when loading sbsars, fixed an issue with non-latin characters in sbsar filepaths, and will be making sure the redshift script is proper and up to date with the most recent version. I may also look at tiling with Corona, but that may go to the release after, which will be 2.3.4.

2.4.0 will resolve all parameter block collision issues, although the minimum version of 3ds Max will have to be 2019, as the API changes we need for that were added in that version of 3ds Max. I think we will also add non-destructive reload to this one, where reloading the sbsar will retain various things like keyframes, etc.

I'm working with Wes on updating the Corona script to add anisotropy, but I'm not certain which release that will be in.

2.5.0 will add native Arnold support, also coinciding with a Maya plugin release, after some iteration on the experimental Substance in Arnold plugin and then hooking that up to MaxtoA and MtoA respectively. It's also planned to update to the newest Substance Engine to support new stuff for the next Designer release.

Some of this can change, but that's the near future plan.

[cjwidd]

EDIT 2: The issue is resolved in v2.3.3

EDIT: I just saw that 2.3.3 is available, so I will test the new version and see if the issue persists. Is there a way to get notified by email when a new version goes live?

Modifications to substance settings not registering(?)

[Galen Helfter]

That should be fixed in 2.3.3, it is something I did fix unless it didn't get merged in somehow.

No notification right now, but might be able to do notifications in the Launcher like with Painter, etc.

[cjwidd]

Thanks Galen, the issue is resolved in v2.3.3

[Galen Helfter]

In the short term, 2.3.4 and then 2.4.0 should be released within the next 3 weeks.

[cjwidd]

Seems like Substances (v2.3.3) are not working in 3ds Max 2020 with multiple UV channels and the UV coordinates are not adjustable from the Substance itself.

[Galen Helfter]

I think that has been reported before, it has not been fixed for 2.3.3.

I have some time for one of the next releases, I'll look at addressing it for that.

[cjwidd]

I'm not sure what the issue is, but I am getting crashes regularly when using Substance (2.3.3) in 3ds Max 2020.

I started an archviz project with a new client this week and I instantly reached for Substance to texture the scene. On the first day I spent more time (>2hrs) fighting the plugin (or Max?) than actually using it. Substance tools are meant to improve productivity, but using Substance in 3ds Max (2020) is not enabling a reliable workflow.

Substance in 3ds Max 2020 (2.3.3) crashes consistently when activating substance presets or adjusting resolution after the substance has been converted to a Corona material.