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Please Multi-Thread Brush selections in Voxel Room


AbnRanger
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You can see from the following Quick Tip video, that the current brush selection for tools like VoxLayer, Vox Extrude, Angulator, Subdivide, Smoother, etc..are just way too dang slow to be usable. The trick I used in the video is to use a Sticky key for the Freeze brush, to make the selection. However, we should never have to rely on work-arounds to get proper functionality from our tools. They should work as expected, all on their own.

 

I e-mailed this problem to Andrew a few months ago, and nothing came of it. I know he was busy with the Auto-Retopo work, but I have since filled out a Mantis report. If you would like to see this issue fixed, as well, please add your +1 to the report, so Andrew knows it's important to more than one person. Thanks.

 

http://3d-coat.com/mantis/view.php?id=1297

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMq-GYD6aPc&list=PLlQ3JITh9bXOcshH7ALiXsMJlP4hrZjd4

Edited by AbnRanger
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Hey, AbnRanger.  Question for ya....if one were to subdivide an area in Surface mode, and then go into Voxel mode, does this mean that area is also more highly compacted with voxels?  I tried to test this answer by going into Voxel mode with a cube, checking the projected poly count, then going into Surface mode and subdividing half the cube, which of course increased the projected poly count.  Once done, I reverted back to Voxel mode, and while the projected poly count is higiher, the wireframe shows the same size voxels on both sides, with just a little distortion in the middle.

 

This leaves me wondering what the benefit of using subdivide is in scenarios where a user is to follow up with Voxel mode, as I often do.

Edited by alvordr
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Hey, AbnRanger.  Question for ya....if one were to subdivide an area in Surface mode, and then go into Voxel mode, does this mean that area is also more highly compacted with voxels?  I tried to test this answer by going into Voxel mode with a cube, checking the projected poly count, then going into Surface mode and subdividing half the cube, which of course increased the projected poly count.  Once done, I reverted back to Voxel mode, and while the projected poly count is higiher, the wireframe shows the same size voxels on both sides, with just a little distortion in the middle.

 

This leaves me wondering what the benefit of using subdivide is in scenarios where a user is to follow up with Voxel mode, as I often do.

There was a point where Andrew mentioned that he was going to explore subdividing Voxels in a similar fashion as LiveClay does with polys, but that hasn't come to fruition. Not sure why....maybe Andrew can speak to that. May have been put on the backburner. May have been just too challenging. But the general consensus here, among this community is that you really want to do some planning with your sculpt. Use Voxels early on, when it makes more sense to, but then at some point, when you are in the final stages of a sculpt (high detail work), that is when you switch to Surface mode for good, and don't bother returning to Voxels (mainly because it's really not going to benefit you anyway and you'll loose all the dynamic tessellation.

 

The sculpting brushes have gotten so advanced lately, that I rarely use the Voxel mode brushes anymore. Voxels are really outstanding for doing boolean type operations and handling the early stages of a sculpt, but it's no longer the environment you want to use for the high detail work Surface mode affords. You COULD....switch back to Voxels after using the Subdivide brush or LiveClay, without necessarily losing the detail (3D Coat tries to estimate the voxel Resolution  you'll need to maintain the details), but that means you lose all the localized tessellation. It's a judgement call, but it comes back to the notion of planning out your sculpt a bit, beforehand.

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It's probably because it's too difficult to determine how many voxels to put in place, as it doesn't just lie on the surface of the model.  So, how far in to make more or less dense a model is questionable.  As far as Voxel vs Surface, I bounce between them relatively often and know how to deal with the details, in general.  Unlike you, I spend most of my time in Voxel mode.  I prefer it to Surface 90% of the time.  I do see, however, the benefit of localized subdivision...but it only matters for memory usage, unless you plan on exporting straight out of the Voxel Room to an external .obj or .fbx.

Edited by alvordr
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It's probably because it's too difficult to determine how many voxels to put in place, as it doesn't just lie on the surface of the model.  So, how far in to make more or less dense a model is questionable.  As far as Voxel vs Surface, I bounce between them relatively often and know how to deal with the details, in general.  Unlike you, I spend most of my time in Voxel mode.  I prefer it to Surface 90% of the time.  I do see, however, the benefit of localized subdivision...but it only matters for memory usage, unless you plan on exporting straight out of the Voxel Room to an external .obj or .fbx.

I too, preferred sculpting in Voxels....until recently. The new brushes, presets (thanks to Artman) and the greatly enhanced brush feel/behavior + adjustment options for those specific brushes, make the Voxel brushes seem arcane. You can see the sheer number of brushes/tools for Surface mode are greater. This is because Andrew and Raul diverted their focus from Voxels to working in Surface mode (in large part to take advantage of the speed differential between the two), about 2yrs or so, ago.

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