Rayscaper New Releases

pixelcruncher

@ntxdave Thanks for the suggestion. @fredo6 reached out to me. I now understand the work required for the integration with Animator, which will happen in the future.

Something else to think about in the future is the ability to view a rendered model in a 3D model viewer.

What do you mean by a 3D model viewer? Can you provide an example of other rendering software that offers this feature?

Thanks,
Thomas

ntxdave

@pixelcruncher
Well there are three areas I have been looking at.

Trimble Connect allows you to save a SketchUp model that can later be viewed in 3D. Since this is all native SU materials and etc. it would be neat if your rendering features could be included.
A SketchUp midel can also be uploaded to Sketchfab. I am not sure but I think Sketchfab saves them in a glb file format. They also allow you to do some “rendering” in their editor but being able to export your rendered version would be neat. After you have exported your midel to them you can then embed a link to the model on a web page and it will then be presented in a full 3D format (this is kind of something mikar to the Trimble Connect I discussed above).
A 3rd option would be that SketchUp also allows you to save a model as a glb format. There are several products ou there that will then allow you to present a glb file in a 3D format on a web page. Many of those tools also allow you to some “rendering” as part of their tools.. It would be neat if you could export the rendered version of the model to a glb format. I have to admit that I have been having some issues with this one because I do not have a web server and most of these tools rely on a couple of javascript tools that I do not/can not have installed on my laptop.

I know that this is a little far out there but given the growth in the 3D world it would be really neat to be able to share a rendered midel in a full 3D environment instead of just images and movies.

majid

I am wondering is there any way to save the materials I make, locally?

Rich O Brien

@majid said in Rayscaper New Releases:

I am wondering is there any way to save the materials I make, locally?

pixelcruncher

@ntxdave That's an interesting idea, but I don't have the resources as a solo developer to create a separate 3D viewer. Currently, I focus on making a great integrated rendering plugin for SketchUp.

majid

@Rich-O-Brien thanks, and were exactly they will be saved?
I will share my screen, as it is slightly different.

Rich O Brien

@majid said in Rayscaper New Releases:

@Rich-O-Brien thanks, and were exactly they will be saved?
I will share my screen, as it is slightly different.

Materials are saved here...
C:\Users\SomeName\AppData\Roaming\Rayscaper\UserAssets

To import materials you use this menu...

majid

@Rich-O-Brien Thanks a million. I am wondering if there is any way to have a "custom" preview (model) instead of the default sphere.

pixelcruncher

@majid There's no custom preview model available right now. A while back, I hid material previews from the user interface. Would you like to have them back?

By custom, do you mean switching between a sphere/cube/plane / etc., or are you looking to load a custom model (e.g., an obj file, ...) used in the material preview?

Cheers,
Thomas

majid

@pixelcruncher if I could load my model/preview, or knew how to or where to place it manually, it would be more than enough for me. It is not something in demand that much at this stage I believe.

pixelcruncher

@majid Hey Majid, I will add this to my feature list, but there's not much demand for it right now. The preview scene is baked into the Rayscaper binary, so today, there is no option to overwrite the material preview scene with an alternative scene.

pixelcruncher

Hey, Rayscaper users!

Rayscaper 0.9.13 is available (0.9.11 and 0.9.12 were internal test releases) in the SketchUcation store. There is more good stuff, so I recommend you upgrade to this version.

What Changed?

Fix flaky material picking. Sometimes, material picking would not work, or pick the wrong materials. This is fixed.
Fix a cursor problem after viewport dragging; sometimes, the hand cursor would not go away.
This release also features a simplification of the user interface:
- Add more readable icons for the Rayscaper window.
- Improved editors for the scene settings with more intuitive controls.

Reworking the editors was a significant code change, so let me know if something is not working or some things don't make sense to you. I'm here to help!

I'm also on Twitter (X) now: https://twitter.com/Rayscaper3d/ - Please follow the @Rayscaper3d that will help me grow the community!

Happy Rendering!

sashapepperspray

@pixelcruncher There is no option anymore to change the texture type (color or image or perlin noise). Was this purposely removed, or is this a bug. I found the perlin noise one especially to be useful (for roughness).

pixelcruncher

@sashapepperspray

I removed it from the user interface because I assumed the use was limited, and maybe too complex. If you have use for it I will definitely bring it back in the user interface the next release.

sashapepperspray

@pixelcruncher thanks!

majid

@pixelcruncher I was going to prepare a car paint material pack and thought it would be nice if I could have my custom material preview, nothing serious.
car paint.PNG

majid

@pixelcruncher huge amount of job! well done!
I am wondering if this is possible to assign a map/option for "opacity" of the materials. so that I could make a perforated metal sheet i.e.?
Also I may not be able to imagine that a metal/mirror material is emitting light.. is there any real-life example?

pixelcruncher

Hey @majid,

Yeah, I see how this can be handy for you. I will re-add the material previews in one of the subsequent releases and make a note to support custom material previews.

For my information, are you interested in having a custom material preview while editing the material or after saving it in the material library? Or in both places?

Cheers,
Thomas

pixelcruncher

@majid

I am wondering if this is possible to assign a map/option for "opacity" of the materials. so that I could make a perforated metal sheet i.e.?

That should already be there unless you are talking about something else. You can plug a map into the material's opacity input.

Also I may not be able to imagine that a metal/mirror material is emitting light.. is there any real-life example?

I don't think so, but artists might still want to use it. Is that something that bothers you? The implementation of emission is shared by all materials so that I can put it on every material at no extra cost.

Cheers,
Thomas

majid

@pixelcruncher Ah I did not noticed the "square" as an "image place holder", Thank you...