Blender Cycles features lacking from Rhino Cycles?

[nathanletwory (Nathan 'jesterKing' Letwory)]

Continuing discussion from VRay GPU Useability? - #37 by nathanletwory

@nathanletwory

@Rayn4

Is there a broad view of where you want Cycles to go? The Cycles version for Blender has developed rapidly in the past year and is quite impressive – can we expect the same with the Rhino version? Blender’s version is production ready but Rhino’s is not yet, as it is lacking features.

What features in particular are you missing? Apart from denoising about everything (most things anway) is one way or another accesible.

[Ryan4]

@nathanletwory

What features in particular are you missing? Apart from denoising about everything (most things anway) is one way or another accesible. I’ll link in a moment a new topic here that you can use to respond at for this particular subject. Edit ⇒\Rightarrow Blender Cycles features lacking from Rhino Cycles?

For Rhino 7 I expect we’ll have More Features directly accessible, Cycles in Rhino 6 was more about rendering without having to worry about which buttons to press (depending who you ask we either succeeded or failed).

Hi Nathan,
I should have worded that better . . . I mean more directly accessible. I might be wrong, but it seams that there are quite a few command line options for Cycles instead of features in the UI. I don’t even know where a comprehensive list of those command line options are found, although I haven’t looked to hard to be honest. It’s a cumbersome way to work, especially when tweaking parameters. That, at least to me, makes it more complex to use. I’m glad to hear that might change for Rhino7 but V6 just came out so V7 is years away.

Will Rhino Cycles be getting regular updates and enhancements? Or is it a “wait until Rhino V7 comes out” before any real features are introduced?

@nathanletwory

For Rhino 7 I expect we’ll have More Features directly accessible, Cycles in Rhino 6 was more about rendering without having to worry about which buttons to press (depending who you ask we either succeeded or failed).

I totally understand. However, I think there are a lot of advanced Rhino users doing solid rendering production work out of Rhino. Could Cycles maybe have an “Advanced” tab or something like that for power users displaying ALL features? The new Vray Plugin does this. I think that Cycles is an amazing addition to Rhino – however, it could be jaw dropping if the UI made everything it can do accessible. Pair Cycles with Bongo and Grasshopper animation and wow!

@nathanletwory

I think the idea is to have this work through Bongo.

Terrific! That’s great news! However . . . we’ve been talking about new Bongo features for several years and there’s only been V2 bug fixes. I don’t know if Bongo V3 is a few months away or if it’s a few years away still?

I know McNeel doesn’t have a huge staff, especially for Bongo. I get it. But, I got on the Bongo forum in 2014 and asked if Bongo was still being developed. 4 years ago we were talking about V3 and there’s no mention of even a guess on a V3 timeline. I love the McNeel products, but Bongo needs some TLC – it has HUGE potential, especially with GH integration. I’m not looking for a replacement for Max or Cinema 4D I know that’s not the intent. But some of the conversations regarding new V3 features sound amazing – but again 4 years ago and still nothing. Please throw us some indication of a timeline if possible!

Thanks,
Ryan

[nathanletwory (Nathan 'jesterKing' Letwory)]

(moved reply here so we can continue discussion here).

[nathanletwory (Nathan 'jesterKing' Letwory)]

@Ryan4

I might be wrong, but it seams that there are quite a few command line options for Cycles instead of features in the UI.

Indeed many tweaking options are found through RhinoCycles_SetAdvancedOptions. Most of the names should correspond to Blender Cycles settings - most of them sampling and integrator related.

I’m not going to promise any UI during v6, though. Enough to do already as it is

@Ryan4

Will Rhino Cycles be getting regular updates and enhancements? Or is it a “wait until Rhino V7 comes out” before any real features are introduced?

I continue to work on Rhino Cycles even for v6. Right now Clipping Planes and native decals are in the pipeline.

@Ryan4

Could Cycles maybe have an “Advanced” tab or something like that for power users displaying ALL features?

Maybe - first the other todos on my list

@Ryan4

Pair Cycles with Bongo and Grasshopper animation and wow!

You can already use Bongo and Cycles. And Grasshopper you can of course already use to create new shaders…

@Ryan4

But some of the conversations regarding new V3 features sound amazing – but again 4 years ago and still nothing. Please throw us some indication of a timeline if possible!

I only know what is typed in the room next door, but for timelines I’ll defer the question to @andy.

[Ryan4]

Thank you Nathan, I appreciate your time on these questions and comments.

@nathanletwory

Indeed many tweaking options are found through RhinoCycles_SetAdvancedOptions. Most of the names should correspond to Blender Cycles settings - most of them sampling and integrator related.

Good to know, I’ll play around! I’m still doing my production work in V5 cause I’ve been waiting until all my plugins were ported over (which they have been now), but will be switching over fully to V6 in the next couple of weeks.

@nathanletwory

I continue to work on Rhino Cycles even for v6. Right now Clipping Planes and native decals are in the pipeline.

YESSSSSSS! Thank you!

@nathanletwory

You can already use Bongo and Cycles

Wait a minute, stop the presses! I didn’t know you guys had Cycles and Bongo working already, I hadn’t even tried. So . . . I know you mentioned that the animated Grasshopper nodes were eventually supposed to work through Bongo, but since Cycles has in viewport rendering how big of a deal would be to render out separate frames of the animated nodes in Grasshopper with Cycles? Here’s just the GIF I’m talking about, there’s a lot in that post link in my previous post above:https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohc1gHrYXdGH6YrHa/giphy.gif

@nathanletwory

I only know what is typed in the room next door, but for timelines I’ll defer the question to @andy.

Hopefully Andy can chime in, thanks for deferring to him. I’m not trying to be a pain asking a timeline, I know you guys hate that question, but it’s been a really long time since Bongo has been updated and it’s becoming a bigger and bigger part of my work, so I had to ask . . .

Thanks again,
Ryan

[nathanletwory (Nathan 'jesterKing' Letwory)]

@Ryan4

Wait a minute, stop the presses!

Sorry, the presses are not allowed any downtime, there are demanding users…

@Ryan4

I didn’t know you guys had Cycles and Bongo working already, I hadn’t even tried.

Some quick tests I did with some features I added/enabled for Bongo, rendered with Bongo+Cycles(Raytraced)

Raytraced focal blur animation with Bongo

Bongo light intensity

@Ryan4

Cycles has in viewport rendering how big of a deal would be to render out separate frames of the animated nodes in Grasshopper with Cycles

I suppose you could write a component that waits for N time and then does a scripted viewport capture. Haven’t really thought about it, to be honest.

@Ryan4

it’s been a really long time since Bongo has been updated

Well, it gets continuously fixes. Not to mention the small features I sneaked into Bongo to get focal blur animation and light intensity animation…

@Ryan4

I had to ask . . .

Of course. If users weren’t obnox asking we’d not get new features

[Ryan4]

@nathanletwory

Some quick tests I did with some features I added/enabled for Bongo, rendered with Bongo+Cycles(Raytraced)

Very cool! Thanks for letting us know about this!

@nathanletwory

I suppose you could write a component that waits for NN time and then does a scripted viewport capture. Haven’t really thought about it, to be honest.

I’m going to have to play around with this when I get a chance. GH animations could open up some doors for sure until Bongo can take on handling the GH info.

@nathanletwory

Well, it gets continuously fixes. Not to mention the small features I sneaked into Bongo to get focal blur animation and light intensity animation…

We appreciate it, small things like this can make a huge difference in a professional animation.

@nathanletwory

Of course. If users weren’t obnox asking we’d not get new features

I promise not to be obnoxious.

[Holo]

@nathanletwory

I suppose you could write a component that waits for NN time and then does a scripted viewport capture. Haven’t really thought about it, to be honest.

I made a script that does just this for Neon. Worked like a charm in V5 and I am revisiting this script this week, so I’ll see if I can get it to run in V6 with Cycles as well.

[nathanletwory (Nathan 'jesterKing' Letwory)]

Sounds like it should work easily then.

[Ryan4]

@Holo

I made a script that does just this for Neon. Worked like a charm in V5 and I am revisiting this script this week, so I’ll see if I can get it to run in V6 with Cycles as well.

That’s terrific Holo! I’m not very versed in GH yet, still have a lot to learn – is there anyway you could get it to capture at a specific resolution? Specifically HD 1920x1080.

Thanks for letting us know about this.

Ryan

[Toshiaki_Takano]

Is it so that in Bongo it’s possible to control focal blur using raytraced?
(say setting frame to just 1 frame for example?)

I’m thinking about getting Bongo now and selling extra win V5, to get IK as well…

[nathanletwory (Nathan 'jesterKing' Letwory)]

Yes, you should be able to animate focal distance and aperture. If you want I can double-check tomorrow when I am at work again.

[Toshiaki_Takano]

Thanks! Cool.

[Ryan4]

@nathanletwory

Yes, you should be able to animate focal distance and aperture.

Awesome!