Maybe using X-Particles for the droplets? They have quite more physical effects there. We support them using all the particle physical attributes

No the cache files on disc are created for all textures you reference in the scene. This is unlimited. However the CPU texture cache is the size of memory block in RAM that is used to store the required texture parts in CPU RAM memory for faster downolad to GPU on demand. This helps to avoid loading from disc space so frequently. Larger CPU cache can be better but larger and larger size will give less extra improvement.
Without this cache we would load the textures every time to CPU and get a huge RAM memory consumption for large scenes. But with a cache we may keep them on disc and get lightweight use of RAM and leave space for some other tasks.
This article shows how it works:
https://centileo.com/docs/index.php?COURSE_ID=3&LESSON_ID=43&LESSON_PATH=17.43
And this article shows how it looks in practice:
https://centileo.com/docs/index.php?COURSE_ID=3&LESSON_ID=57&LESSON_PATH=17.57

PS: I have moved the question to the extra topic

CentiLeo multi-pass is not enabled from there. These passes are enabled from Centileo render settings -> AOVs Tab. There are checkboxes to produce extra images. Btw there are no yet distribution for direct/indrect passes, but it will be easy to add this.
To make the output linear, i.e. without post-effect enabled you can either disable the post effects from IPR or go to Centileo render settings -> AOVs Tab and check "Send RAW passes to the Picture Viewer (gamma = 1).

Thanks for sharing the images! Btw, I like the look of the icecubes you did. However there is probably needed to improve the water droplets on the bottles, they are too spherical

I think the projection you are talking about is based on directional textrure mapped to the light source. However CentiLeo emission material texturing is currently used only for changing the area of the emissive surface with different colors and intensities. We need to add this features. However, I would also give a try to some workaround:
1) Create an object with clear glass material (roughness = 0) around your light source.
2) Add a texture to the color of Transmission.
This way you will be able to get a projected pattern you like to on the walls. And the render speed will be quite good too.

No, I don't think it will normally work this way. We need to implement it, it's on a roadmap. I think after finishing the current release there will be much easier to add such small features as that

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thrimanakatha wrote: Thanks, I forgot the alpha toggle for Centileo. Recently I was working in Blender and used the same workflow.

It's like a default way of doing things in C4D itself So there are some material channel settings and there is a toggle to on/off it with a single click.

Shortly, the closest updates will get the following:
0.65 will get acceleration for render time and scene compilation (a lot of work also including quality and memory improvement)
0.66 will get native hair and spline support
0.67 will get material converters initial support

Oh very cool it works for you! I believe the texture uvw manipulation in CentiLeo is more powerfull than in Octane. However we need to add programmable shaders to make this statement more complete

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thrimanakatha wrote: Sure, I sent the scene but with a different bottle. Icecubes, water and hdr is packed with c4d and blender scene.

Hello! I have checked your file and have fixed few material settings that I think are right now. Have a look at my screenshots and material settings. It seems the ice looks nice now. I have fixed the colors: transmission color is white, but absorption is not white and distance is smaller, check it. Also the Clamp params of render settings are increased. Also the icecubes have "Is Liquid" setting Off. For some fun I have switched on the top light source. Sorry for long waiting for reply, I was extremly overloaded with new version development



Water material:


Ice material:

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ssjenforcer wrote: also, is it correct to use a math node with add function to combine transform and projection nodes before connecting to a bitmap? I find that usually works, but I had a very strange interaction with a certain material where it didn't work until I removed the transform and only used projection. I suppose I could try connecting them to one another then to the bitmap?

Combining them using Math.Add isn't right, because they will add to one another. Correct way is to make uvwProjection->uvwTrasform->Bitmap.
Each other port inside inside Projection/Transform can also be textured in some other custom way, for example to add variation to the tiling or offsets and etc.

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thrimanakatha wrote: Okay, I connected the bitmap alpha to material alpha, still same.

Have you enabled the Alpha channel in the list of channels of material? It's off by default. There are toggles for all layers in CentiLeo Material

They don't swap the surfaces. The Falloff node makes the choice of texture in use depending on the view angle.
However what you want to do can be achieved with Triplanar at some extent but with some more trivial blend function between the sides. You can rotate the Triplanar using connection with uvwProjection that has coords rotation parameters.

Hello! Just use the "Alpha" output port of Bitmap to connect with Alpha channel. On your screen you use the "Result" output port which is just RGB without Alpha.

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Filip Stamate wrote: Very nice! It didn't occur to me to pass the random node through a ramp. That's perfect! Honestly, with this combination I think it's the easiest way of coloring clones I've seen from all the engines I tried.

Btw I recall there is a "randomize by object parts" option in Random node. It allows to get randomized colors/values for the connected polygon groups inside a single mesh object. For example you have some natural tree with the leaves and the leaves are disconnected from the tree trunk. And as soon as these parts are disconnected they receive different values using the Random node.
As for clones you can use MoGraph node to get access to the colors of objects. There is also a dedicated node for X-Particles.

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Filip Stamate wrote: I could get a linear gradient with your instructions, but not sure if other types are possible? I need to figure out these Shuffle, Projection and Transform nodes a bit more. But yeah, hopefully when you have time you can add different types of gradients as just options inside a node.

It looks like the current combination of extra nodes to do this become too complex. Probably a Pattern node can be used too with some adjustments. But we may always get these particular greyscale patterns from Photoshop. Of course I need to add these simple features directly to the Gradient node

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ssjenforcer wrote: Also, was I correct that the falloff node is broken? it always behaves like fresnel setting for me. I might try the triplanar node to see if that works for certain objects.

Not broken. It has 2 modes: one for fresnel using IOR and one linear falloff. The second just changes the gradient linearly between 90 and 0 degree view points. Also the node has power setting which changes the curve of the falloff function. Power 2 setting raises the value to the power of 2, the power 0.5 gets the square root and so on.
The Triplanar node can accept the uvwProjection to rotate the coordinate system that is used to generate triplanar mappings. Also the triplanar can be nested into each other for some crazy use cases.

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ssjenforcer wrote: My car paint looks ok, but I think it could be better. Is there something I could do to improve it? I'm not quite sure how to get the flakes and reflection to look better without layering two materials, with the top one having the flake node.

The Flakes shader node can be connected to the Bump map slot and sometimes it can be connected to color slots of Reflection.
For example for Bump map it's straightforward just connect it. You may have 2 reflections enabled for you material:
1) the first reflection is coating it has roughness zero and IOR say 1.5. You also switch off "Reflecion 1" in the Bump map settings to make clear coating for Reflection 1!
2) The second reflection is rough, it has roughness say 0.3 and IOR 4.0. If you connect the Flakes node with the same settings as for Bump but with output type set "Flake IDs" connected to Gradient/Ramp node (Input Map slot) and connected to Reflection 2 Color then you can get colored flakes!
Using multi materials the flakes can become a lot more complex. The Falloff node with Fresnel type using IOR can be used to determine the amount of materials in the layered material container.
Also the Layer node can be used to add multiple flakes with different scales to each other and use a combination of them but I think that layered materials are more powerful for this task

Well, diffuse will not work same way as subsurface scattering even with the same textures. SSS is very much needed to add this small subtle under surface effect for organic objects. For skin or fruits/vegetables. Using diffuse the man's ear wouldn't pass the light through thin regions making it red, and the face skin would look like the desert.
Also here the displacement map was used instead of bump, it's just better. But I think the shaders of this head model can be improved even more for better look as this was done in just one evening.
When I finish implementing support for hair & spline native support the next render example will get some hair

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Filip Stamate wrote: - A simpler way to create gradients. At first I was confused by the gradient/ramp node in CentiLeo which is used to remap colors instead of creating gradients. Then I found the pattern node, which kinda does it, but it's cumbersome to just get a simple gradient... linear, circular etc. And impossible to get something like a radial gradient. For a good example, check the "ramp" node in Redshift which can be used both for creating gradients AND remapping colors.

Sure it needs these extensions in place inside the node itself. They are based on UVW mapping. But even now it's possible to do this combining uvwProjection and Shuffle nodes. For example it's possible to get 3 components of UVW from uvwProjection and then connect it to Shuffle to move to be able to move the second or third UVW component to the first component position. And then connect result to CentiLeo gradient input map. This is complex for sure and will give linear gradient based on the given UVW projection.

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Filip Stamate wrote: - The IPR window is by default locked to a 16:9 ratio. Therefore the resolution you set in the render option isn't properly translated to the IPR. It would be better if you took the ratio automatically from the render options. And have that change automatically when you switch between scenes. Currently, the ratio doesn't change when switching between scenes with different ratios.

Yes, the IPR render resolution is decouple from the main render resolution and so the aspect! You can set the main resoltion high and IPR low if you want this may be convenient. To change the IPR resolution it's needed to click the "Gear" buttion in IPR window as shown here https://centileo.com/docs/index.php?COURSE_ID=3&LESSON_ID=39&LESSON_PATH=17.39

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Filip Stamate wrote: - An option to turn off the default light. Currently, if you only have an emissive material in the scene and no light objects, the default light is on and you need to add a light object with 0 intensity to turn it off.

Ok, currently it's done this way just to see the scene geometry before the light sources are set. Actually this default white is the Sky + CentiLeo Environment tag with white constant background color. To turn it off there is need to create Sky + Environment tag with black color, zero intensity. This would be nicer than making a regular light with zero intensity

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Filip Stamate wrote: - Spread/Directionality for Area Lights - I'd like it if you had your own light objects, like other engines have, rather than a tag on C4D lights/Sky Object. It's just better to have available only the options that do something rather than have all the C4D options there which do nothing in CentiLeo. It's weird that you need to go in the C4D light options to change the intensity and type of light. - A physical sky - Volumes - More AOVs/ability to mask objects and materials - Random walk SSS - I'd also like it if the IPR used a native C4D window. I know some other engines also use their own (like Corona) but I prefer a C4D native window which can be docked in the UI.

Sure all of this is needed and is on our roadmap. I am a huge fan of Random walk SSS btw, but for example will need to make AOV masks first and there will be a lot of them supported in the same render process.

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Filip Stamate wrote: - I think the tiling options in the bitmap node don't work quite right. If the tiling use even numbers then the texture won't be properly positioned. For example, this is a 2x2 tiling.

I also think you are right but as far as I remember I have tried to recreate the behavior of Cinema 4D tiling positioning in response to the settings change. And this method can be changed using uvwTransform and/or uvwProjection nodes if it's connected to CentiLeo bitmap. The uvwTransform node has "Pivot" option that sets the UVW coordinate position as a base of tiling change. By default it's (0.5 0.5 0.5) as in C4D and so the tiling grows from center to the all sides. If you make Pivot (0 0 0) then tiling will grow from a fixed corner to the right/top sides.

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Filip Stamate wrote: - Distance shader, like for example Corona has. - Curvature shader, for example like in Redshift - Rounded edges shader

All these effects are working in a similar way and I hope to fix back the support for them starting from Dirt/Curvature/AO. As for Round Edges it's very much needed but to make it with a legal use we need to talk to Nvidia as they hold the patent to this tech back from Mental Images acquisition. Hope there will be agreement.

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Filip Stamate wrote: - I like the "Random" shader in CentiLeo because of how easy it is to get a bunch of colors in a certain shade to apply them to a Mograph Clone. However, it would be useful to also have something where you can choose exactly the colors you want to have applied. So basically, have the same effect like the Random shader, but be able to choose the colors. As an example, look at the Corona "Multi Shader" which allows you to choose some colors and then you can plug it in the color input of a material and each color will be used on the clones.

You can do it now connecting the CentiLeo Random node (with black & white output) to CentiLeo Gradient/Ramp to the "Input Map" slot. Inside Gradient/Ramp node you can move the knots positions left right to determine the frequency of each random color element and also determine the color of know or assign a texture to the knot instead of a constant color.
There is also one more non-obvious way of randomization using Random node "seed" slot. For example you can connect CentiLeo Noise node (with enabled) quantized option) to the Random.Seed. This will create randomizations based on the grey scale levels of Noise node.