CGAxis textures and adding new materials into scene

[u0888250]

A couple things I could use some help with. 

First, I just downloaded a bunch of textures from CGAxis and they look really great on the website, hence why I bought them. But I am putting them into Max, using Vray, and they look completely different than what they show on their website. What am I doing wrong?

This leads into my second question. I just bought these textures and I'm not sure what is the easiest way to open a material I've purchased to use in my scene? What I've had to do so far is individually add each bitmap one by one into the correct slot and it takes a long time. I just bought 2300 textures and how in the world am I going to get them going quickly?

I'd appreciate any help. Please note that I am no pro so please use terms and language that a non-pro could understand haha. 

Thank you

[10DSpace]

@u0888250 

But I am putting them into Max, using Vray, and they look completely different than what they show on their website. What am I doing wrong?

Assuming you are putting your textures in the right material slots, then the other important thing is lighting.  If the lighting in your scene does not match the lighting used for shots that appear on their website, then the materials will look different.   A good starting point would be to use a dome light with an HDRI map as your main light source.  Are you using PBR material maps?  It would help if you show a screenshot of your rendered result that you are not happy with and indicate what texture maps you have placed in which vray material slots.  

This leads into my second question. I just bought these textures and I'm not sure what is the easiest way to open a material I've purchased to use in my scene? What I've had to do so far is individually add each bitmap one by one into the correct slot and it takes a long time. I just bought 2300 textures and how in the world am I going to get them going quickly?

There are available maxscripts to automatically load pbr texture maps into the appropriate material slots.   For example here:

https://dmz.gumroad.com/l/XOPH

[u0888250]

@10DSpace Thank you for replying. I appreciate your help and and any additional help you can provide to what I am about to share. 

See below the images i've attached. One image shows the CGAxis preview on the right wile the Vray preview is on the left. There is a large difference. 
Also I've attached the assets I purchased that I put into the map slots (which I've provided an image of). 
I did not use the AO map they provided. 
I used the Height map in the bump slot and I used the normal map in the displace. When I render, it the material looks like millions of spikes, not like what it should, but the actual render also looks extremely different than the material preview. 

Thank you again for your help. 

[10DSpace]

@u0888250 

I used the Height map in the bump slot and I used the normal map in the displace.

That's wrong and that explains the obvious lack of displacement you are getting vs the CG Axis Preview.  The Height map should be placed in the Displacement slot and for the normal map you should first place a vray normal map node in the bump slot of the material and then place the Normal Map Texture you bought into the Normal Map slot of the Normal Map Node.   Also, all of the maps that you are using except for the diffuse Map, should be loaded with a gamma setting of 1.0.  

 That should bring you close to correct result.

[u0888250]

Seriously @10DSpace you rock. Thank you for your help. 

I've made the suggested changes. I attached an image of the CGAxis preview vs the vray preview with the new changes. 

I've also attached two renders of a sphere with the changes. One is without the gamma change and one is with the gamma change. Please tell me what you think and if you see something that looks off. The gamma one is the more shiny one. 

You can see that I had the displace value set to 12. I'm not sure if there is a specific sweetspot that I should use. 

May I ask why the gamma should be set to not automatic?

Thank you again,
Marshall

[10DSpace · Accepted solution]

@u0888250 

I've made the suggested changes.  I attached an image of the CGAxis preview vs the vray preview with the new changes. 

You seem to be comparing your Material preview (which does not show displacement) and the CGAxis preview which does show displacement, so you really need the rendered version to compare.

You can see that I had the displace value set to 12. I'm not sure if there is a specific sweetspot that I should use.  

There is no magic displace value number for all displacement maps.  What you have eyeballed (12) looks reasonable to me in your render and generally I just adjust the amount to suit the material and the object.   But the material map looks stretched horizontally vs the CG axis preview.   This can be adjusted with U tiling in a UVW Map Modifier  rollout.

May I ask why the gamma should be set to not automatic?

This is a big topic, but I suggest that you watch the following video which explains a little more about PBR workflow and the importance of a gamma setting of 1.0 for the maps I mentioned.  The video uses Arnold and the Max Physical material as an example, but the principles are the same for Vray and any render engine and materials that supports Physically Based Rendering.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82hhg8Q1nus

I've also attached two renders of a sphere with the changes. One is without the gamma change and one is with the gamma change. Please tell me what you think and if you see something that looks off. The gamma one is the more shiny one. 

Concerning the shininess, to my eye the correct glossiness to match the CG Axis preview  would be somewhere between the 2  images.  I use Arnold and am not as familiar with Vray, so I am not sure why the correct gamma setting of 1.0 for your glossiness map  does not look correct (looks too glossy in this case for the rock).   Nothing will break if you do not use the gamma setting of  1.0 for the glossiness map, so if it looks better to you with the auto setting of 2.2 or even an intermediate setting  between 1.0 and 2.2, (e.g, gamma override set to 1.5) feel free to experiment.   But of course you don’t want to have to do this all the time and it would be better to understand why the  correct setting seems overly glossy.   Maybe someone with more experience with  Vray has some insight they can share.

At least the displacement is now working.  A few other comments:

• I think that you may have placed the roughness map into the diffuse roughness slot, correct?  I  think that the intended use for the roughness map is not that slot, but the Reflection Roughness  slot if your material has it. However, the vray Material you show has Reflection Glossiness and not Reflection Roughness (the 2 maps are just the inverse of each other), so you would use only the glossiness map.    
• When you use a Displacement map you do not necessarily also need a Normal map.   It depends on how each were created.  The displacement map actually changes the geometry for the render, while the normal map is just a lighting illusion of surface bumps that breaks down when you see the edge of the object .   So try the render with and without the normal map enabled and see what you like better.   

[u0888250]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. That was all very helpful.