My general Fstorm Feeback

[wizix]

Hi all,

I'm a french CGArtist and I discovered Fstorm a week ago. I'm a Maya/Arnold user and precise I don't know 3ds max some days ago.

1 - First project.
I've a production project to make so I decided to first do a simple test between Arnold and Fstorm. I not worry about render time but more about light quality.
So I build a simple scene in Maya : 1 area light - 1 object - 2 simple shaders. Then I translate it exactly the same in 3dsMax.
Finnally I show the renders at 2 other non CG Artists people to know the one in witch they found the better mood/feeling. They both immediately choose the Fstorm one.


I decided to do my Product Lighting with Fstorm. So much easy to learn. So quick. So powerful. So photographic feeling in use. Here are the results :



For the displacement on the ground I first bake it in Zbrush and import the high poly mesh directly.

2 - Feature and idea suggestion :
Some little ideas to make life easier.

a - Frame Buffer storage.
For the lookdev proccess I really like the possibility to store my progress. I know a lot of renderer frame buffer and my favorite one is Maya. Not too complicated like Vray one. Just something simple : store/compare. Here is a quick video for non-Maya users :
https://vimeo.com/175862348/b94343138c

b - Turbosmooth at render.
May I'm wrong but we need to Turbosmooth iterationin viewport only actually.

c - Bitmap Drag'n drop.
Drag'n drop an external image file directly in Material Editor create a Fstorm Bitmap and not a default 3dsMax Bitmap node.


Conclusion :
For me it's all good and I will support as much as possible Fstorm. Can't wait to render an other project with it.

PS : I ear about a possible Maya version. Does it always plan for the future?

[Karba]

Hi. Thanks for sharing

a) FStorm has RT frame buffer. Isn't it enough? What do you want to have in frame buffer?
b) I will add it
3) I can't force 3ds max to create FStorm bitmap by default.

Maya will be supported in the far future after c4d.

[Javadevil]

Nice looking renders !

I think he is after a frame buffer history.

Does Fstorm save the frame buffer to disk during interactive rendering ?
I discovered my machine wouldn't come out of sleep mode this morning, I had a render going all night and I couldn't wake it up.
So the render is gone, it would be great if fstorm did save to disc every once in a while.

cheers

[Karba]

Nice looking renders !

I think he is after a frame buffer history.

Does Fstorm save the frame buffer to disk during interactive rendering ?
I discovered my machine wouldn't come out of sleep mode this morning, I had a render going all night and I couldn't wake it up.
So the render is gone, it would be great if fstorm did save to disc every once in a while.

cheers

I prefer making stable version rather than such patches.

[RobSteady]

I prefer making stable version rather than such patches.

Karba, maybe I'm wrong but I think you didn't quite get request.
It would make sense that FStorm saves the frame buffer incrementaly, like in Maxwell. If the system crashes while rendering you still have a backup version of what you had so far.

[Karba]

Karba, maybe I'm wrong but I think you didn't quite get request.
It would make sense that FStorm saves the frame buffer incrementaly, like in Maxwell. If the system crashes while rendering you still have a backup version of what you had so far.

I got the request.
Loosing render result is not a normal situation in general.
I prefer to fix it properly. It is the same as do 3ds max auto save instead of making 3ds max stable.

[Javadevil]

What happens when its not related to Fstorm ? Like my computer not coming out of sleep mode ? Theres nothing I can do except hit the restart button.

[Karba]

What happens when its not related to Fstorm ? Like my computer not coming out of sleep mode ? Theres nothing I can do except hit the restart button.

I will think what I can do

[mitviz]

Fstorm is just amazing!

[wizix]

Thanks for feedbacks.

Yes I know Fstorm have is own FrameBuffer and I really appreciate it after using during a week. What's I asking for is even not to save a file a crash is just a "store file" to make a sort of compare A - B between to render. It's why I try to show on my video.

I like when I move a light or made a little change to be able to compare if it's better than before.

[adams]

Hi Karba - I've revisited this post realizing how great it would be to have ability to have what wizix user requested: storing image/progress to file in frame buffer, and if you could have a scrub bar to have comparison A-B this would be amazing.

From my own experience now using your post tools in FStorm - tone mapping / glare / DOF and LUT functionality are meaning I can do most of the work in FStorm, very little to do in post (mainly because your rendering engine is so good).

Your built-in post tools have a powerful effect on mood / lighting and presentation, I can export image file with all effects burnt in (glare has to be burnt in)- I love this as very powerful and fast workflow.

But, I cannot revisit the original render in FStorm Frame Buffer at a latter time, if I want to change something with your FStorm post tools (maybe at test-print I need to change something with mood, or glare effect is too strong etc) - I have to re-render entire image again in FStorm and then again experiment with your tone mapping / LUT / Glare settings etc.

Instead if I could open the saved image file in FStorm Frame Buffer, I can tweak using FStorm post tools (tone, LUT, Glare..) this would keep more of the workflow exclusively in FStorm - which it is capable to do so.

[Javadevil]

But, I cannot revisit the original render in FStorm Frame Buffer at a latter time, if I want to change something with your FStorm post tools (maybe at test-print I need to change something with mood, or glare effect is too strong etc) - I have to re-render entire image again in FStorm and then again experiment with your tone mapping / LUT / Glare settings etc.

Instead if I could open the saved image file in FStorm Frame Buffer, I can tweak using FStorm post tools (tone, LUT, Glare..) this would keep more of the workflow exclusively in FStorm - which it is capable to do so.

Yes this is a very handy feature to have. In Thea you can save out a Thea.Image file, load it back into the buffer and adjust Glare, tonemapping and if you load the scene file too, you can keep on rendering if theres still noise.
But just having a frame buffer that can load images and adjust the glare would be awesome.