srek

If you like send me a few examples and I’ll look for a more practical solution, this is a nice opportunity for me to see where things fail and succeed. After all it is my job to get this kind of stuff working 🙂

It is more complicated since the scene nodes are currently not optimized for this object centric workflow but for a geometry centric one that is better suited for the geometry creating and modifying capsules we have in focus right now. The whole Op/Children Op setup is more complex than it ultimately needs to be and some smaller stuff like the split of the old Range Mapper into Spline Mapper and Range Mapper doesn't help in this situation as well. If you look closer you will find it is basically a copy of your setup, except for the switch between Sphere and Cube, where there is a real change in geometry, not just visibility.

What you want to do can be achieved in multiple ways. Even though this distinct object workflow is currently not a focus of the Scene Nodes you can achieve the same result as you setup. Instead of just controling the parameters and matrices of standard objects though the node setup creates the whole thing. Edit: Small update, forgot the UI for the Shape Switch xRigSimple 03.c4d

Scene nodes are something completely different than Xpresso. Xpresso defines dependencies between objects that go beyond the hierarchy. Scene Nodes (not capsules) define their own smaller scene graph that can make use of elements of the standard scene graph in hte object manager. What Scene Nodes can not do is manipulate objects in the object manager. Capsules are different again. Every Capsule that is used in the object manager is very similar to an object and is evaluated within the scene graph just like any other object. A parameter of a Capsule can be driven using Xpresso, just like any other objects parameters. Either way the new nodes can not, and do not, replace Xpresso, but many things that otherwise might need an Xpresso tag or a Python script can be done within a capsule or with Scene Nodes, just not in an identical way.

Yes, this is a general solution for big problems that can be used for other things, but with caveats. I do hope we will find some nice workflows to make working with materials and node sin the future more fluent and powerful.

All that use the new node system and the asset browser. Please keep in mind this is not mainly a workflow to share/link simple shaders or parameters, but complex functionality. The assets can be stored in the scene, prefs or any other user defined asset database.

In Cinema 4D you can build your own dirt layer node asset and use it in as many node materials as you want. If you update the asset all materials will use the updated version.

That would come with a lot of limitations. As soon as you use surface/object dependent nodes you run into trouble. Linking Parameters of Materials would work, but linking the shader graphs directly has huge implications.

Also it offers stuff the User Data Editor just couldn't do. With the Ressource Editor you can define UI dependencies like visibility or enable status based on parameter values. This allows you to keep an interface clean and understandable.

The resource editor allows you to enable and adjust the limits of sliders on groups

Or right click on the port to see options to either show values beside the nodes, or for more complex stuff in the data inspector.

It was in Cinema 4D well before i started at Maxon, which was in 2001.

The „Select Facing“ capsule might do what you need

Refraction change based on the wavelength of the light. I have no idea if and which current render engine supports this. In the past i created the effect by using scene motion blur to render with varying refraction in a single frame. I’m curious to hear how this is done today.

Some functions need to be used with care, remeshing is one of them. I love having it as a node now, but you need to be careful in its use since it can bring down a setup to a crawl. Especially interactively dialing in something can backfire here.

I have no idea how blender development, management, testing and design are organized, i can only comment based on my own experience.

I fear you overestimate the pool of developers outside of Maxon that could fill this role. Of those that left Maxon in recent years (recent enoguh so their experience makes this work) most have switched to different fields and are usually quite busy in their new jobs. Those that continue to develop for Cinema 4D do so because they want to work on their own terms, not as de facto employees. Also the devs are only one part of the whole thing, UX, QA, Documentation, PM, ... are all involved in different stages and the whole process works much better in house than partially externalized. As much as we like to stay in contact and work with ex Maxonians, they are not a drop in replacement for in house people.

You were pretty much spot on in every aspect.

Lidar is precise and if you have a scanner why not use it? Most problems are solveable using a number of possible solutions, Lidar for vehicle and environment scanning isn't outrageous. Sometimes also it isn't about the tool as much as about the talent you have at hand. If the person you want to handle this is more comfortable using lidar over photogrammetry, why not let them?

Please get in contact with Maxon Support, that license dialog does not look as it should imo.

You did not check into UV mapping at all it seems. UVs are a part of the geometry, Inside Cinema 4D they are usually stored within the UV tags, except for unconverted primitives. You can remove it, you can replace it, but it does not just materialize out of thin air. You either have to use a default projection as is, or modify it by hand to achieve whatever you need. Every material you apply to a geometry somehow uses UVs, depending on your setting in the material tag it is either the UV information stored in the UV tag, or one of the default projections. It seems you haven't read up on UVs or done any tutorials on it, and you are unwilling to provide the scene to demonstrate, i can't say i am much motivated to try to help you anymore. Read up on UV mapping, do some tutorials, and if then you have detail questions maybe ask again.

That sounds wrong indeed, I’ll check once I’m back at a pc.

In general there is no „reset“ since there is nothing to go back to. In some cases standard projections work, but if they don’t you have to adjust UVs by hand.

I am not aware of such a function and it would be of limited use for UVs anyway since they can only be interpolated in the most simple cases. Other attributes that do not have an own topology can work. The problem is mainly that UVs are often not continuous.

If you move the points you also stretch the projected texture if you do not adjust the UVs to correct for this. The UVs are basically the formula used to match a point on the geometry with a corresponding point on the texture. If you change one side of the equation the other changes as well. That is why it is highly recommended to get all your modeling done before you start texturing.