The big SDF thread

Well modeler IS a voxel based engine. They store their data in voxelgrids, Magica rather creates the final voxelgrid on the fly. Thats the main difference. Modelers voxelgrid stores the data permanently as signed distances. Thats how it relates to implicit surfaces. I cant say much about Magicas limitations, but it not true that eg a bend would be impossible for sdf results based on mathematical formulas. In fact the queries result would just also have had to be carried through the bending method before.

But yeah its still right, these tools differ very much in the direction they are heading. And so Magica currently does not have any way to “directly” alter the voxelgrid.
And yeah modeler will outperform mcsg, judged by the manhours they put into in comparison its quite a safe bet.

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Reference images have been added.

https://twitter.com/ephtracy/status/1576449575723757568?s=46&t=4zaTNHbIhW4BfwQBhmDpPQ

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And with 0.1.2, released yesterday, vertex color export is back :slight_smile:

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Next version: individual materials in the MCSG renderer, finally! :+1:

https://twitter.com/ephtracy/status/1579210542535016448?s=46&t=lftFw6ZlRzKfd3oHUURr_Q

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https://twitter.com/ephtracy/status/1586889486687952897

:heart_eyes:

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Metin hello! I went to its site but did’nt find any download link. Did it become commercial?

Looking at the changed page, yeah, MagicaCSG is now accessible to Patreon supporters only. Didn’t know that. I think that’s a bit of a bummer. Up to now people could first get a taste of MagicCSG, and decide to become a Patreon supporter if they’d like to have a go at a more developed version.

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Hmm that’s disappointing. I liked the potential of CSG but paywalling it like this means I’ll probably stop using it. I don’t mind supporting developers on Patreon if they have a good software. I’m a supporter of DillonGoo, for instance. But I’d much rather have the choice to support them rather than being forced to

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Yeah, I also think it would be more beneficial for the developer if users could still get a tasty appetizer to wet their appetite for the full Patreon meal.

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… Also, this move has effectively turned MagicaCSG into subscription software, with the only exception that you can choose to keep using the last version you had access to before quitting your Patreon support.

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It’s a subscription working with an honor system. Nothing’s stopping someone from plopping down $5-$10 to access the Pateron page, then cancelling immediately after grabbing the latest version.

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Correct. I am just waiting for something ground breaking to get back on Patreon. The material system is great but it’s kind of expected. I waiting to see something that would make hardsurface design in MagicaCSG easier, maybe more flexible tools.

Did he post anything new about the next set of features on Patreon?

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The to-be-expected materials + renderer progress, which is of course great, but I’d rather see the dev extending and refining the SDF / CSG toolset.

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Just fiddled a little with Metaballs in Blender again by the way. They provide an often underestimated toolset for quick base meshes and hard-surface modeling, SDF-style.

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There’s also robust SDF support through geonodes in Blender. The interface isn’t quite as simple but I’ve seen ZorroWeaver doing some impressive stuff that way

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What is missing is geometry nodes gizmos in the viewport like in this proposal: https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/z68Z/

With that, Blender would become an SDF procedural powerhouse, because the tooling is there. But this is one of those things that could only come from the community, as I have the impression that historically Blender tends to be a bit gizmo-adverse.

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The past weekend I’ve continued rediscovering the possibilities of Blender’s metaballs. If you dig into them, they’ve got similar potential to MagicaCSG, and with some trickery you can also mirror them and create arrays:

Mirroring Blender metaballs:

Arraying Blender metaballs:

Nice demonstration:

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Why has MagicaCSG become a paid program that is only available to subscribers of the developer’s patreon?

Nope, can’t send it to you. I have to respect the developer wishes not to spread it. You can join the patreon once, and cancel and keep it forever. It’s not expensive.

https://twitter.com/ephtracy/status/1596602071289151490 rendering stuff is done or almost done.

the rendering stuff is great but no real time materials? the default material is too dull, for it to be useful for hard surface modeling.

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I’ve edited your post slightly as requests for pirated or improperly obtained software are not allowed here :slight_smile:

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