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Standard Facing Particles Rendering as Black and Pixelated?

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Message 1 of 7
szurawski
670 Views, 6 Replies

Standard Facing Particles Rendering as Black and Pixelated?

Hello,

My company recently asked my coworkers and I if we could upgrade from Max 2014 (Mental Ray) to Max 2018 (Arnold.) We thought this would be a great idea, as it seems like Arnold is a high quality renderer. Sadly, in testing Arnold within our workflow, we are experiencing a major problem. We've been very unsuccessful in trying to find answers.

Our problem is with the PArray standard particle system in Max 2018 (Arnold). We used this system in Max 2014 (Mental Ray) with no problems. We use this system for tree leaves that always face the active viewport (perspective and created cameras.) When we try to do the same in Max 2018, it does not render the diffuse map or the opacity map. Instead, the particles render as black/pixelated squares. In removing the opacity map and only having the diffuse on the Arnold material, it renders as a green square and does not show the diffuse at all. It seems like the renderer also bugs out when it tries to read the opacity map. We've tried using all methods that we could find from adding the Arnold modifier and unchecking opaque, to making sure we are using the correct Arnold materials. We've noticed that this "glitch" seems to happen on any of the particle systems that work like the PArray system. We can get the same material to work exactly how we would like with PF Source, Spray, Snow, etc., but not PArray. The standard facing option with PArray works extremely well with what we do, and would like to be able to have this in Max 2018 (Arnold.)

We are using the newest version of Arnold and Max 2018 at the time of this question.

Please help as this is crucial to us deciding to transition over to Max 2018 and we would really like to use this renderer, but we are having our doubts.

Thank you to anyone who can help!

Sincerely

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6 REPLIES 6
Message 2 of 7
lee_griggs
in reply to: szurawski

Have you disabled Opaque? More information here. If that does not work can you upload a simplified scene, please?

Lee Griggs
Arnold rendering specialist
AUTODESK
Message 3 of 7

PArray renders deffuse map and transpancy with cutout for me with max2018.

Message 4 of 7
szurawski
in reply to: szurawski

Hey all,

@Lee Griggs - Yes, we've tried many of the Arnold settings including disabling the "opaque" checkbox. Sadly, with not much success. Tough, what my coworker and I have found out is that the leaf materials we've used in Max 2014 are not mapping correctly to the particles in Max 2018. In Max 2014, the material is simply applied to the faces of the facing particles of the PArray system (exactly what we need). In Max 2018, the materials seem to be stretched along the entire "size" of the particle system. This was never a problem in Max 2014. In messing with the material coordinate settings we were able to somewhat see the diffuse. Though it only applies the material from certain angles. I've linked the max in the WeTransfer link below. Hopefully someone can find something that we've been missing.

2032-arnold-render-particle-test-facing.jpg This is how the particles render. No mapping coordinates whatsoever.

@Michiel Van Gasse - That is very interesting as we can see the diffuse in the viewport, but not the cutout map.

https://we.tl/YiJ5KWB63A

Message 5 of 7

Ah yeah the cutout doesn't show in the viewport but does render.

If I change the uv on the instanced object, it changes on the particles aswell.

You probably want to render out a particle, witch doesn't work.

I personly would do it with the particle system(pf source).

Here is a quick test with pArray:

2042-parray.jpg

Message 6 of 7
szurawski
in reply to: szurawski

Thank you for taking a look at this.

We've also tried the PFsource particle system, but cannot get it to render facing the camera like the PArray. With our workload, we don't have the time to go through and select the camera for the particles to face. Which is why we really liked the PArray system. Can you do this with PFsource? Also, is there no way to fix the mapping coordinates of the PArray system? How can I get my diffuse / cutout / top material level to show correctly in the viewport? We've found a couple solutions to this, but with no luck...

Sincerely

Message 7 of 7

You could maybe assign a object to the "shape facing" node in pflow.

Then script the object to move to the selected camera. Or animate the object to the different positions.

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