Cycles Volumetric Rendering

Any 4D geometry is possible. :slight_smile:


this is on U tube:

Generated texture coordinates are now supported.
http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-blender-cvs/2013-December/061164.html

Also an optimization for those cases where a surface shader isn’t used.
http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-blender-cvs/2013-December/061163.html

To note; Brecht mentioned that it will be a while before the generated coordinates support deforming the volume texture with deformations in the mesh as that will require a much more sophisticated and complex approach (like making use of harmonics).

Michalis; no doubt that actual volumetric scattering will come because it’s already in the DingTo branch, as said in the other thread, Brecht is committing these features one by one so as to be sure to have all of the code nice and clean for the final integration.

Yeah, I know, and I like it.
I love volumetric shaders.
Maybe, better results on some specific materials than using SSS.
I had a lot of fun (and some interesting results) using older storm_st’s builds.

A happy and creative new year to all!!!

On this.

I have just tried it now and it does work with the translucent shader, but you’re not going to get instant scattering if you do (you will need to wait for the inclusion of the scattering medium for that).

Also, for those who are getting a lot of black with the absorption shader, the rate at which it fades to black is dependent on the brightness of the color input (Go to the HSV mode and set it to 1 for example and it will never lose energy).

Also, you will not be able to use it in conjunction with the SSS shader, but this is understandable due to the complex nature of the shader and I doubt it would be an easy job to get SSS and volumes to play with each other on the same object.

I can’t find the volume shader :frowning:

You need a new build for this, it is not in the 2.69 release.

Testing the new volume absorption against the old way of faking it:


File and more info here: http://blenderdiplom.com/en/blog/541-preview-volume-absorption-in-2-70.html

Could you please send me a link I have windows32

@tadine http://builder.blender.org/download/

And ironically, the buildbot does not have a recent Win32 build :slight_smile:

The first post in this thread contains all the info, with links to graphicall and buildbot.

And that’s my problem the buildbot doesn’t have the latest Win32 build

But perhaps Graphicall does…

Really nice Gottfried. I liked your tutorial on faking volumetrics, but the real thing does look much better!

Whoops, my bad, I did not pay attention to that. Maybe because I’m on Linux and compile Blender myself. Anyways…

IIRC, the guy in charge of Windows builds is on vacation till mid to end January, that could explain why there isn’t any recent Win32 builds available.

Another reason why the volume shader is superior can also be seen when you stick an object through an volume mesh. I have tried before to modify a ray-length absorption setup to get a natural falloff on all surfaces inside of the fake ‘volume’, but it proved to either be quite difficult or just about impossible.

I do think that it also shouldn’t be long before volumetric scattering is in, as it’s one of the last remaining things in the DingTo branch that hasn’t been ported over.

Quick test yesterday, with OSL and Volumes:


I bet those hearts will look even nicer once the scattering volume is in, so instead of looking like simple gels, they can become full-blown emission clouds :slight_smile:

It gives a good argument to start expanding the non-OSL procedural texturing options, an image texture cannot readily be used to create a volumetric structure.

I really wanted to learn more OSL, for now I’m still limited to the basic mathematics of nodes Cycles (no ray trace, points types, array).
Trying to recreate the @DingTo’s heart without using OSL: