Knowing the stabilization of AA with small sampling, I wanted to try giving snow another go with a v2. However, I can't seem to actually animate falling snow. I tried World Position and not, but the cloud fractal is the same every frame.
What am I doing wrong here?
Animation is not set in this screenshot (blue value). How about using redirect or vector displace/warp with animation?
Quote from: Dune on January 17, 2020, 01:50:52 AMAnimation is not set in this screenshot (blue value). How about using redirect or vector displace/warp with animation?
Blue value indicates no change in that frame I thought? If you key all the first frame you set it on is green, rest blue, unless you go to a frame and key a new transition value. It'd make no sense to have to set the same value for every frame.
Yes, so you did set animation in other frames, I suspect. Then I don't know why it's not working. I think it needs vector displacement rather than transform. (Get frame number plug into vector displacement and set values for Y).
Quote from: Dune on January 17, 2020, 02:26:03 AMYes, so you did set animation in other frames, I suspect. Then I don't know why it's not working. I think it needs vector displacement rather than transform. (Get frame number plug into vector displacement and set values for Y).
I'll give that a shot in the morning, thanks for that too. Hadn't looked into the get frame yet.
No idea, why this doesn't work. In this thread:
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,21035.msg210280.html#msg210280
I did exactly the same to create rain, so take a look, and see, if theere's something different in your file.
Quote from: Hannes on January 17, 2020, 03:15:06 AMNo idea, why this doesn't work. In this thread:
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,21035.msg210280.html#msg210280
I did exactly the same to create rain, so take a look, and see, if theere's something different in your file.
Thanks Hannes I'll take a look. I figured it should work. Kadri mentioned perhaps my speed is too slow. Could be too.
Just to be sure on my old setup, I set up a faster movement (-0.5). And boy... what a weird effect. Part of the fractal is moving, and part of it is static lol
So I think I may be having a sequencing issue...
I'm using ffmpeg, and doing a lossless AVI
ffmpeg.exe -f image2 -i "input.%04d.tif" -c:v ffv1 "output"
Sorta deal.
But by default it's scaling the video down to 850 wide when the output is 1200x675px. So I added a scaling flat to the exact resolution of the output images...
Now the video is still a pixel show, but strangely doesn't even resemble the frames! For example here is frame 7 and frame 7 composite in the film... they're completely different. In fact almost ALL frames have that splattered effect lower right, which isn't even showing up in the sequenced video??
I'm not too familiar with FFMPEG but was told to use it by two people as the best option with most codecs and lossless formats. But this seems just wrong.
Is anyone familiar with FFMPEG and maybe some other options? I know h.264 codec isn't working on my system. I renders weird colour effects like vectors or something. Totally unusable.
There are many options bu the http://virtualdub2.com/ is small fast and easy like the old original Virtualdub for example.
Quote from: Kadri on January 17, 2020, 05:54:29 PMThere are many options bu the http://virtualdub2.com/ is small fast and easy like the old original Virtualdub for example.
Thanks, Kadri! Seems to be just a GUI for FFMPEG. But maybe it'll have more options I can fiddle with.
FFV1 is suppose to be lossless, but what it's sequencing isn't even in the files. I'm so confused. Clearly it isn't really as 1.5mb doesn't equate to the raw TIFFs.
Quote from: Hannes on January 17, 2020, 03:15:06 AMNo idea, why this doesn't work. In this thread:
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,21035.msg210280.html#msg210280
I did exactly the same to create rain, so take a look, and see, if theere's something different in your file.
I tried even duplicating your transform and just changing the key values, and it is keying through the 100 frames in TG but not producing any effect. The warper for left and right swaying working fine.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KJVjjsk3aPUcEzX1V0smIyMNNdT9ml21/view?usp=sharing
Going to try Ulco's method again (tried last night but the pills hospital gave me make me super ill and hard to focus)
Do notice 1/16 at pixel noise threshold of 0.05 is not enough for stable sampling. Probably going to have to do much slower 1/4 at 0.01.
I am still testing but with 4D noise selected in the snow node it could be unpredictable.
Clouds are rendered using ray marching. Rendering tiny particles this way is very difficult. The ray marches will miss most samples because they are smaller than the step size of the ray marcher. It could work with very high ray march quality, but it will be very, very inefficient.
So, if it's not working, it's not because of anything you're doing wrong, it's just because this is a very difficult way to render tiny particles.
The "Snow fall controller" doesn't have animation in it. What looks like that it is animated is actually only 1 key of translation.
I will try to render and see if the real problem is related to what Matt said too.
There was 4D noise in the warpers too.
Disabled all of them. Still testing.
Quote from: Matt on January 18, 2020, 05:01:22 PMClouds are rendered using ray marching. Rendering tiny particles this way is very difficult. The ray marches will miss most samples because they are smaller than the step size of the ray marcher. It could work with very high ray march quality, but it will be very, very inefficient.
So, if it's not working, it's not because of anything you're doing wrong, it's just because this is a very difficult way to render tiny particles.
Matt would be using populated small objects as snow different and better from the renderer aspect?
I made a basic scene of my own to see that it works (in theory).
It works but there is popping of small snow and not sure if it is curable especially after Matts post so i won't try more.
Quote from: Matt on January 18, 2020, 05:01:22 PMClouds are rendered using ray marching. Rendering tiny particles this way is very difficult. The ray marches will miss most samples because they are smaller than the step size of the ray marcher. It could work with very high ray march quality, but it will be very, very inefficient.
So, if it's not working, it's not because of anything you're doing wrong, it's just because this is a very difficult way to render tiny particles.
The problem seems different. The snow simply won't translate down on Y, but can translate back and fourth with warping, and do so smoothly (besides background ones). And it seems to be the same AA issue of stars coming in and out like noise, which probably can be solved by the 1/4 sampling at 0.01 like stars. I was just trying to get the quicket render times so shot for 1/16 at 0.05.
Reason I am doing this is the quality of videos I've found of snow on black BG or with alpha sequence, just look bad (also usually at or below 1080p) so wanted to render out my own video on black, to overlay on stuff.
Quote from: Kadri on January 18, 2020, 06:21:09 PMMatt would be using populated small objects as snow different and better from the renderer aspect?
Usually, yes. For small particles I think a population is a much faster and cleaner way to render them.
Either way, you might need to adjust the adaptive anti-aliasing so that it doesn't miss tiny objects, like WAS found. At high AA the defaults for the robust adaptive sampler should be good enough for objects about the size of a pixel, but for smaller objects that are very sparsely scattered you'll need to pay attention to the "minimum samples per pixel".
Thanks Matt.
Me and Kadri seem to be in a small argument over key framing.
He has set a key of 0 at frame 1, and 10 at frame 100. To me and every program I've used (and even opening the transform shader and playing the animation) goes from 0 intensity to 10, over 100 frames.
If you want a static animation, with no transition, setting the first frame is enough, as all other frames than utilize that setting when you Key All. Correct
@Matt ?
Quote from: WAS on January 18, 2020, 07:44:44 PMHe has set a key of 0 at frame 1, and 10 at frame 100. To me and every program I've used (and even opening the transform shader and playing the animation) goes from 0 intensity to 10, over 100 frames.
Right.
QuoteIf you want a static animation, with no transition, setting the first frame is enough, as all other frames than utilize that setting when you Key All. Correct @Matt ?
I don't know what you mean. What's a static animation?
Quote from: WAS on January 18, 2020, 07:44:44 PM...
If you want a static animation, with no transition, setting the first frame is enough, as all other frames than utilize that setting when you Key All. Correct @Matt ?
Only true with 4D noise. The other animation places need keyframes in the beginning and in the end(at least 2 keyframes).
Jordan thought that the others parts were like in the 4D noise and needed only one keyframe to be animated
@Matt
Quote from: Kadri on January 18, 2020, 08:59:44 PMQuote from: WAS on January 18, 2020, 07:44:44 PM...
If you want a static animation, with no transition, setting the first frame is enough, as all other frames than utilize that setting when you Key All. Correct @Matt ?
Only true with 4D noise. The other animation places need keyframes in the beginning and in the end(at least 2 keyframes).
Jordan thought that the others parts were like in the 4D noise and needed only one keyframe to be animated @Matt
Yes, what Kadri stated. I was confused and thought movements were relative to frames and movement. For example frame 1, with -0.5 would push it down -0.5 at frame 1, and with it at -0.5 (blue) at frame 2, another -0.5 for a total of -1.
You are correct Kadri.
When you set a key on the "translate" parameter of the transform shader, you are setting a key on the position, not the velocity. To create movement you need to set a start position and an end position.