SkIndigo Progress Updates (Whaat's Development Blog)

[crc]

Wait, just dl'd the new test and read in the notes that the Y-axis points to the center of the exr map. That's all I've needed. Was that just put in there?

Awesome!!

[Richard]

Where is the real geometry???
I can't see it in the sketchup view.

It is saved internally in the Sketchup scene file. It does not have to be visible or even be 'in use'. If you have used Sketchup, you would understand.

Mate I'm back on deck and really happy to see you have seemingly broken the back of what we could ever foresee being achieved through ruby scripting. Amazing!

I have a question on this subject! Is the instancing / component management handled by Layers or component names?

Actually I think I might have worked it out anyway like this would it work.

1. The component named say TREE COMPONENT contains two nested components TREE (on layer TREE) and TREE_DUMMY (on layer TREE_DUMMY),

2. The TREE COMPONENT is inserted in scene the TREE layer turned off (TREE_DUMMY on) and the scene populated and then exported

3. The nested component TREE_DUMMY is replaced on export with the nested component TREE!

Is this the work flow you considered or not?

Great stuff mate!

[Whaat]

@Richard:

Hey Richard! It's been awhile! I think the workflow you mentioned should work. As long as the TREE_DUMMY component is on a visible layer when you export, it should be replaced with the tree component at export time. I have never tested this with both the dummy and the original component nested inside another component. Try it and see if it works! I suggest going through the brand spanking new SkIndigo tutorials (posted in the Tutorials Forum) That should explain the workflow that I had in mind when I created this feature.

[kwistenbiebel]

He he Richard ,

Now that is a marvelous working method you describe there.
Very clear and effective strateguy. I hope it works using Skndigo.

Cheers mate!.

By the way, how is Indigo doing for you ?

[crc]

isn't that method somewhat defeating the purpose of using dummy instancing? I thought the point was to speed up work flow and speedup exporting/rendering. populate the scene with boxes, and have one Tree and than you just have to name them right? But I haven't played around with it yet.

[Whaat]

Yeah,

I am not sure what the advantage of Richard's workflow is. I guess that it allows you to switch which component is visible using Layers instead of going through the Select Instances->Replace Selected workflow.

[Whaat]

a little taste of what I've been up to lately...

http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla/fo ... php?t=2686

[Whaat]

The next beta of SkIndigo is almost here. With it comes a simplistic and intuitive (but still very versatile) UI mode. A challenge was tranforming the non-linear Indigo properties for IOR and exponent into a clamped linear range. The attached image shows how the sliders will be initially calibrated (I might tweak it some more in future releases...)

One of the coolest features of the new UI is that you can switch modes and any time and still retain the all of the material properties. For example, you could create a comlicated SSS material using RGB Scattering coefficients and HG phase function. Then, just switch to simple UI mode to tweak the reflection and roughness sliders. All of the SSS attributes will still be saved and exported when you render.

[crc]

Looks awesome Whaat. Couple questions if it's not too early for them;

how is the roughness factored if there isn't a bump map, or to put it differently, is that in the current exporter under a different name?

and what about that power slider, lights?

again, looks really great and intuitive.

[Whaat]

how is the roughness factored if there isn't a bump map, or to put it differently, is that in the current exporter under a different name?

Roughness controls the exponent. It is independent of the bump map settings.

and what about that power slider, lights?

If the emitter checkbox is checked, the power slider controls the power of the lights.

[crc]

Cool, a co-worker wanted to do some renderings and it took maybe 10 minutes to show him how to set up materials, etc with Skindigo and he did a render overnight. He had never done any renderings before, a definite testament to how easy you have made this great exporter to use (and how good Indigo is). It looks like it will only get better!

Thank you!

[Whaat]

It looks like it will only get better!

It's about to get several orders of magnitude better!
Just hope there aren't too many glitches with all the new changes.

[suvakas]

Looks cool !
Any tips how you convert the Roughness and Reflection values from 0 to 100 ?

[VMD]

Can't wait...It's looking great! I was actually starting to do something like this for myself. I tend to work almost 100 percent visually and having examples of values with a prerendered screenshot will help immensely. - Thanks again

P.S. crc, Just noticed you are also a Portlander * wave *

[Whaat]

Looks cool !
Any tips how you convert the Roughness and Reflection values from 0 to 100 ?

It's a total hack. I just kept experimenting until I found an equation that I was happy with. I used MS Excel to do some curve fitting which helped quite a bit. I found it useful to convert the IOR back to a Specular value first. This equation is not a hack. You can find it on the Wikipedia and on the forums here somewhere.
Here is the current code (probably not the final code)

Code: Select all

def to_reflection(ior)
		ior=ior.to_f
		specular=((ior-1)/(ior+1))**2
		if specular<=0.0
			reflection=0
		else
			reflection=Math.log(1000*specular)/0.0692
			reflection=100 if reflection>100
		end
		return reflection.to_s
	end
def to_roughness(exp)
	exp=exp.to_f
	rough=Math.log(exp/1000000)/(-0.14)
	rough=100 if rough>100
	rough=0 if rough<0
	return rough.to_s
end

The functions 'to_f' and 'to_s' just change the value to a float or a string.