Skip to main content
ghostlyfu
Up and Coming
October 9, 2013

360x180 CG Renders

I'm facing a problem when rendering any pair of equirectangular images from inside a 3D modelling package (Maya in my case, but no doubt the same issues apply to many different packages). The attached (side-by-side format) image is an example. I'm hoping the good folk on this forum can help.

I render out my panorama (I use the Lat-Lon Mental Ray lens plug-in) and it looks as you'd expect. Looking at it through the excellent VRPlayer, it works well. I then shift my camera to another position approx 6.5 'virtual' cm to the side of the first position and re-render. Again this panorama works fine on its own.

I was hoping that I could just place these x2 renders side-by-side (as they are in the attached example) to make a 3D version of the scene. Not so. What's happening is that the 'forward' view works fine but the depth gets reversed towards the peripheries of the image (which just looks bad) until the 'back' view is completely inverse (and so look pretty much OK again).

Logically I can see that the reason is that the 'Right camera' becomes the 'Left camera' as it renders the part of the view directly behind itself. However, I haven't got a clue how to fix it and output an equirectangular panorama that works in 3D. Help!

    165 replies

    Show previous replies
    pixelmind
    Participant
    August 21, 2014
    Are these stripes still visible if you disable global illumination ?

    I think it would be best to precalculate the irradiance map and light cache when rendering in strips.


    @luckyfox: Sorry, can't share the plugin just yet. We currently doing some inhouse R&D but I've been told that I may release it later on.
    @bcoyle: thx :)
    pixelmind
    Participant
    August 24, 2014
    Another render test :

    Good old Sponza
    thrillhouse900
    Participant
    August 26, 2014
    "pixelmind" wrote:
    Another render test :

    Good old Sponza


    Cool!

    Are you rendering 1px wide strips?
    DK2: Processing. 9:51AM
    pixelmind
    Participant
    August 26, 2014
    This was rendered with with my custom camera again.
    I have not tried the stitching technique actually, because it's highly impractical for production and I have more control with C++

    Imagine handling thousands of seperate slices and stitching them on a renderfarm ( for multiple layers and lots of frames ) ... not fun at all.
    thrillhouse900
    Participant
    August 26, 2014
    Haha, yeah thats what I am doing with maxscript. Its not the best!

    Custom camera eh? that sounds sweet
    DK2: Processing. 9:51AM
    Loyalwater
    Participant
    August 30, 2014
    "j1vvy" wrote:
    Looks like an error introduced by rendering engine. Maybe an auto brightness being done on each strip.


    There is an option called "Use Camera Path" which was not checked. Checking this option fixed the issue :)

    Guys, can we use backburner to render stereo 3D? Will backburner be able to strip down these strips and pass them to different computers and then merge them correctly?
    bcoyle
    Up and Coming
    September 2, 2014
    "Loyalwater" wrote:
    "j1vvy" wrote:
    Looks like an error introduced by rendering engine. Maybe an auto brightness being done on each strip.


    There is an option called "Use Camera Path" which was not checked. Checking this option fixed the issue :)

    Guys, can we use backburner to render stereo 3D? Will backburner be able to strip down these strips and pass them to different computers and then merge them correctly?


    If you precalc the GI, technically you could has all the strips render with backburner. Since each strip is a frame of animation. Although you might run into discrepancies between strips that way if your GI settings are too low. I think Embree might also cause some unwanted effects, I haven't tested it enough since I've abandoned rendering stereo panoramas until better tools are released :)
    http://www.quitenice.co
    bryanfsmith
    New Participant
    September 3, 2014
    As a Cinema 4D user, this is a thread I am interested in, so am posting, primarily to follow the thread. I am currently exploring Cinema 4D's stereoscopic rendering on a more 180 degree movie, but am also interested in the best way to accomplish 360 stereoscopic. Thanks in advance for the info.
    Bryan
    WerTicus
    Participant
    September 5, 2014
    I'm watching this thread with interest.

    It is my desire to render animated vray 3dsmax scenes out to the Oculus via a 360x180 vr player compatible sequence of images / video.

    It needs to be more automated than the current methods involving multiple cameras or rotation of cameras and the 1 degree strips etc.

    I'm 100% certain that back-burner can render strips and combine them together - this is an automated process. The combination of the strips is a separate BB job that is dependent on all the strip files being rendered.

    However this is designed for large single images... the way it is setup is that you check the 'render scan lines' option on the export to BB dialogue box.


    So I am not sure if this can be used in our context as it would be only working from a single camera for a single image.

    However perhaps someone can work around that with max script and make use of BB to automate the combination process in a similar way.

    Perhaps if we furnish the creator of vray (Vlado) with the requirements we have he will implement this into vray directly. He has expressed interest in doing so in this official forum thread:

    http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthread.php?70014-Vray-Stereo-camera-Spherical/page3&highlight=vray+stereo+spherical+camera

    Not being an expert I don't know what to tell him.
    kimblarsen
    Up and Coming
    September 5, 2014
    If you are using Maya or Max with Mental Ray you can use this stereoscopic shader to render out 360x180 stereo panoramic images:
    http://www.andrewhazelden.com/blog/2012/04/domemaster3d-stereoscopic-shader-for-autodesk-maya/

    "The Domemaster stereo shader is designed to create 2D & 3D fulldome renderings for use in planetariums and other fulldome theaters, and spherical/equirectangular renderings with the latlong_lens shader."

    Cheers,
    Kim Baumann Larsen
    @kimusan
    Show more replies
    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement