Liquid: New ZPlugin

[ryankingslien]

Hey Matt -

Thanks for the kind words. The best thing is to send me a zscript recording of the problem.

When you encounter the problem just go to the zscript palette, click End Record, save the file out and upload it here. I can look through that and see if the zscript is doing something it shouldn't (I hope).

Also, the distortion plane can be rotated. I am not sure what you mean by unstable but if you click on a part of the mesh that is inbetween vertices it will rotate the mesh. Either way a zscript may help me understand.

r

[Jhotun]

Oops, for some reason i did not see the email notification
I´m gonna try to record a zscript with the problem.
Matt, maybe it would be a good idea you do the same. I think that this strange behaviour has to be with something we have installed or something on our computers that maybe escaped to the betatest purge :P

Glad to know that ryan is there

Thanks!

[Jhotun]

Ok, i have tried to record a zscript but for some reason it is not working :P Sorry, i have never done that before so i think i need to read some posts before posting crap here.
Instead of that, i have done some screenshots of the problem. I hope this can help.

Here we go:



















So, the problem seems to be when entering Liquid for a second time. Initialize does not seem to clear everything on the backstage.
Oh, i forgot to say that if i click on the Move or Draw button inside liquid... they dissapear :P Just like when you ctrl+click on any button. Veeery strange.

I have a lot of job to do from now until sunday, so i think i will not be able to try to record the zscript for now, but as soon as i can i´ll try to record it.

Later


EDIT: Ryan, i did the MRGB and Zadd thing. Yeah, the model draws correctly without the need to restart zb, but when entering liquid, it is still invisible.

[marcus_civis]

Jhotun and Matt,

Until Ryan has a chance to look at the code here is something you might try:

1.Start ZBrush and use the Tool>Load Tool button to locate and load the LiquidPlane.ZTL from the ZStartup/ZPlugs/liquidData folder.

2.Immediately press the Tool>Export>Export button to export the tool. Save it as LiquidPlane.OBJ to the ZStartup/ZPlugs/liquidData folder, clicking Yes to overwrite the existing file.

Now you can test Liquid to see how you get on. Be sure NOT to Initialize ZBrush during a session when you are using Liquid because clearing the Tool palette will cause the plugin to malfunction.

HTH,

[MattSilverstein]

hmm...so that totally worked. thanks, marcus!

i'm too tired to stress test it right now, but will report back if i have any problems or discoveries.

i did try to record a zscript, by the way, but failed miserably (my first attempt). will try again when i have a bit more mental energy...

-matt

[ryankingslien]

Thank you Marcus! I will review the code when I get back to the office on thursday guys. Thanks for all the hard work with screen shots and testing! We will get it right yet!

I am guessing that one of Liquid's automatic assumptions is getting all screwed up.

Cheers,
Ryan

[GhosTDoG]

i can load the script but it doesn't appear in the plug-in menu on (the next) startup.

greetz

[ryankingslien]

GhosTDoG -

To install, unzip content to your ZStartup/ZPlugs folder. If a ZPlugs folder doesn't exist just create one.



r

[GhosTDoG]

yeb. the same procedure like my other plug-ins in my start up folder, but unforunatly it doesn't work. also didn't rename anything. strange thing.


edit: u have to extract the stuff from the root folder again. i've put the entiere folder in my start up folder, so it didn't work.
works now, thx.

[warpy]

@marcus, your solution works.

@ryankingslien now for the bad things:

1. if you load one of the stock textures and not make your own one, liquid will not go into liquid mode. for examples using a sphere and the earth map.

2. when going into liquid mode the texture quality deteriorates, is this intentional ??

3. i dont see any difference when i push add more resolution. is it only me ?

4. is there a way to solve the fact that if you move a bit of texture from the boundary it carries some of the gray color beyoned the actual texture ?

cheers for the plugin, a few more fine tuning stages and its going to rock.

[ryankingslien]

warpy -

I haven't looked at Liquid yet but to answer your questions:
1. It is hard-wired not to use the default textures. There is a reason but I will re-examine it.
2. Can you give me a more detailed situtation? It is using ZBrush's 3d copy routine. You should get the same results you would if you went into projection master. The only difference is that Liquid will increase your document up to 2048 to try to keep as much resolution as possible. Everything is based on the texture that you go into liquid with.
3. do you mean the resolution slider in the Liquid interface? If so, you should "see" a difference. It is simply adjusting the amount of polys you have to work with in the distortion plane.
4. the primary solution is to not do it. If you drag grey onto the sides it will project gray onto the model. This is what the 3D Copy routine does. You can use a stencil to isolate areas to be picked up.

Best,

r

[ryankingslien]

warpy - what is your texture size?


r

[warpy]

@ryan good point it was on 256x256

with 4096 it doesnt lose quality.


@about the other pinching problem, does it interpolates between levels of resolutions. because it appears that it might do that on and the pinching change will appear mild on some levels while on others it will appear as intended?

[ryankingslien]

When it pinches, it is pinching a poly plane. Depending on the resolution when you pinch it, it will be either a larger or smaller difference. If you pinch it at a lower level it will hold less of its shape. I recommend that you use pinch at the highest level.

r

[ryankingslien]

Hello! I have just uploaded v2 of liquid! To download it go to the first post in this thread.

It should fix problems people experienced with the texture not picking up or after having initialized ZBrush. Special thanks to Marcus_Civis who fixed it!

Also, I have added two new features: the ability to save out a mesh of your distortion and the ability to load that back in!

I hope you enjoy!

Ryan