Bunkspeed Wishlist

[phoenix]

Features we would like to have:

- Possibility to render alpha-channels for each material seperately but during a single rendering process

- Different environments choosable for each material seperately, to have the desired reflexes on the parts of the model

- Possibility to render the shadow and the reflection on the ground without the model visible in order to save a lot of render time

[andy]

#1 it's called a clown pass. They have that, but I think it's done for each part, not each material. I would just want that user selectable.

#2 pretty sure that's not possible in iRay. You can't do it in Max or Maya either. I've not seen any physical based that allows you to do that, since it's not actually physical. You can cheat by making your object non-reflective, then putting your environment map as a second layer on that object with transparency to control "reflectivity"
Anyway, that's something you'd have to wait for nVidia to do, but I don't think there are any plans. That generally creates unrealistic images anyway.

#3 not sure about reflection, but yes you can do that already. Select your object, in the first tab check faded. You get your shadows Real fast but you don't see the object. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what you are asking for. I always do that as a separate pass because I Never want my shadows on the object alpha. That makes it so you can't select them separately. And since you can render the shadows alone incredibly fast, why not just render once with no shadows, render again with Only shadows. It Would be nice if they allowed you to submit a render like that in one step though. That would save us All some time.

[david.randle]

@ phoenix - Which Bunkspeed product do you have?

your 1st and 3th items are available today (and have been) in Pro. The second is Maya/Max territory and we don't envision going there any time soon, however, with a little bit of labor, you can accomplish this by combining some of the features in Pro.

[andy]

You can't do that in Maya/Max using iRay either. you have to use a biased render engine.

Also, #3 is in shot as well. I tested it on my own machine and I don't have pro.

[haknslash]

4 viewports with Pro as well as baked lighting is now on my wishlist after watching David's webinar.

It should not be a DRIVE only feature that caters towards the automotive users. Those are great features that will hopefully make their way in the next release or two. Us product designers would use it too ya know

[david.randle]

We know that, but don't expect a Ferrari for the price of a Fiat ;-)

[haknslash]

We know that, but don't expect a Ferrari for the price of a Fiat ;-)

Is Drive that much more expensive over the rest of the product line? I would hardly consider Pro being compared to a Fiat given its your apparent 2nd to most expensive solution. Does that mean that regular Shot uses are in hand-me-down Yugo's? Kidding of course but I get the jest of what you're implying.

What is the pricing of Drive? I do not see it on the Bunkspeed product comparison store web page. Only found info about Drive. Had I known that Pro was going to be limited (to an extent) I would of bought the full package or whatever the "top dog" Suite would of been the first go around. In this case I'm guessing Drive is a combination of everything Bunkspeed offers? Is there a discount for upgrading from Pro to Drive on maintenance plan? If this needs to be taken to email or PM that's fine too.

Thanks for all you guys do. Bunkspeed has come a LONNGGG ways from the Hypershot days. Every new release is a nice step forward. Keep it up!

[andy]

How much does Showcase cost? I seem to recall Very similar features a few years back, although I think they only calculate shadows from one angle at a time, meaning you can't rotate the environment without recalculating. Of course, it also doesn't take 2-4 hours on a twenty thousand dollar machine. How long would that calculation take on a 5 thousand dollar machine? Is it CPU based? If so, it would be similar, but if not, then it would probably take my machine about 4x longer?

[haknslash]

How much does Showcase cost? I seem to recall Very similar features a few years back, although I think they only calculate shadows from one angle at a time, meaning you can't rotate the environment without recalculating. Of course, it also doesn't take 2-4 hours on a twenty thousand dollar machine. How long would that calculation take on a 5 thousand dollar machine? Is it CPU based? If so, it would be similar, but if not, then it would probably take my machine about 4x longer?

If you like Bunkspeed you will not like Showcase. I have Showcase as it comes with my Autodesk Suite but I rarely use it. Showcase is a GPU renderer using RapidRT ray tracing. Realistic images aren't easy but I do like the Alternatives workflow. It has its pro's and con's like anything really. For quick down n' dirty wowzer renders I'll use Showcase to hand off to some salesman. Mainly because tt saves me a little time up front by not having to re-assign materials like I would have to in Shot. If I want realism, no matter the resolution, then I use Bunkspeed. Much easier and faster to get phot-realistic results using Shot.

Side story - I sat with the big wig exec's of ADSK MFG in SanFran a year or so ago. One of the topics we discussed was our renderering workflow. They did not like me stating how I preferred Bunkspeed over ADSK products and kept asking me what I liked better about it and how I could help make theirs more attractive (typical marketing stuff you know). Showcase has its place don't get me wrong. It's just there are aspects about it that I do not like. I will say that having the Showcase Viewer is a blessing as I can send the file off to a salesman who has the Viewer installed and he can play with the model and spin it around in front of clients to his hearts content. In the past I would of had to set up a formal presentation and such. So for that I do like using it but not as much as I like Bunkspeed (and I'm a HUGE ADSK guy).

[david.randle]

Keep your eyes peeled for what we are showing off at Excite this week....i think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how easy we are making it to communicate design intent with others....