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11/05/2025 at 5:10 PMFinishing our journey into generative patterns with the some Truchet patterns. They are procedural tilings formed by repeating simple geometric tile motifs and varying their orientation across a grid. Although each tile is locally simple, their edges are designed to align so that curves, paths, or shapes connect seamlessly between neighboring tiles. Common Truchet kernels include diagonally split triangles, circular arcs, semicircles, diamonds, and maze-like line structures. By rotating, mixing, or subdividing these kernels per tile, complex and visually coherent patterns emerge from minimal geometry, making Truchet patterns well suited for procedural textures and shader-based rendering.
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11/05/2025 at 5:10 PMContinuing our journey into generative patterns, today we’re diving into the fascinating world of orbit traps—a powerful technique that transforms mathematical chaos into stunning visual art. At its core, an orbit trap is an elegant coloring strategy originally developed for fractal rendering. The concept is beautifully simple yet remarkably expressive: as you iterate a function, each point traces out a path—an “orbit”—through mathematical space. Instead of simply checking whether this orbit escapes to infinity (as in traditional fractal rendering), we place geometric “traps” at strategic locations and measure how close the orbit gets to these shapes.
The implementations shown here are based on research from “Orbit Trap Rendering Methods for Generating Artistic Images with Crystallographic Symmetries” by Lu et al., which combines chaotic functions with crystallographic symmetry groups to create patterns with mathematical precision and artistic appeal.
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10/11/2025 at 2:15 PMThese are islamic star patterns based on the paper : ‘Mathematical Modeling of a Class of Symmetrical Islamic Design’. They are repeating geometric designs built from self-intersecting radial polygons. Each pattern is defined by parameters controlling the number of points, angular stepping, and radial symmetry, creating intricate interlaced motifs that tile seamlessly across a plane. The coloring (black and white interleaved regions) was so hard because ray-casting breaks down when the self-intersecting star geometry exists in a periodic tiling where cell boundaries wrap, destroying the topological assumptions the algorithm relies on… ie. a ray can potentially hit edges that are topologically behind the starting point.
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09/18/2025 at 9:38 PMWorking on generalized procedural pattern algorithms. There’re so many ! This one is called : “Symmetrization of Quasi-Regular Patterns with Periodic Tilting of Regular Polygons”. It constructs a periodic tiling of regular polygons(uv cells), applies canonical centering and rotation, and symmetrizes the base quasi-regular field using invariant mappings (dihedral, rotational, or reflectional). The result is a smooth, symmetric procedural pattern suitable for material texturing, decorative shaders, or analytic pattern synthesis. Colors are also fully tweakable and will create new pattern themselves. Infinite variations at your finger tips. They also can be tiled or not (see last pattern below).
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07/28/2025 at 6:08 PM2.5D motion vector blur directly with imagers. Here both cam and cars move. The red one looks almost without moblur because the cam has to move with her to actually frame it (like in motor sport photography), however wheels have spinning moblur and other cars directional coz are moving in the opposite direction. It’s so close to full 3D moblur that we can even use it to smooth artifacts on the latter.
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07/16/2025 at 9:00 PMLast piece of the sky puzzle : fully programmable lens flares !
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07/09/2025 at 6:49 PMAn attemp at outdoor snow with microglints. Was intended to show multiscale support but I could not resist to use a bit of DOF from our defocus blur imager however if you watch it at 100% you can clearly see how multiscale kicks in with distance from the camera .. smoothing glints with distance, naturally resembling real-world scenario.
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07/08/2025 at 10:53 PMThis is a microflake procedural multiscale shader. It can mimic snow, sand etc. All those white spots ain’t no random fireflies but deterministic glints. Mainly these can be used as a procedural texture. Snow uses a new phase function called delta-Eddington to better simulate forward-directed light (subsurface) scattering in some kind of material. They will be part of rombotools at some later point, microflakes will come first together with a new set of powerfull noises.
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06/26/2025 at 9:14 PMWith next release, we ‘ll provide an augmented Quasar sky addin shader. Previous one, was 2D and worked only for the scene view. Now we project it onto the 3D sky dome, so it moves with it and we can position it where we prefer. And because we fade it nicely the quasar feels like a natural gaseous phenomenon within the sky. And oh we can use many of them to compose our sky view.
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06/21/2025 at 10:20 PMIn the next release, you can remap rombo sky from ‘pixel space’ to latitude/longitude.. aka equirectangular mapping. Ie. bake rombo sky to a lat/long panoramic image you can then use as an HDRI with GPU rendering for example or for 360° animation etc. It’s there you may want to disable the ‘Stochastic’ flag in the Sampler params and render the sky with an 1×1 AA for super fast rendering (8k res under 5secs). This is because rombo sky supports both ‘stochastic’ and a more deterministic mode. Stochastic is there to cope with the inherent nature of a pathtracer like Arnold, while when we render the sky alone for lat/long baking we can do our own stuff.
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06/06/2025 at 6:02 PMChalk style ⚪
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06/02/2025 at 9:55 PMCross-hatching post effect. Implemented also a different lines extraction algorithm.
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05/26/2025 at 7:16 PMNice thing is that because this is a post-effect, you can’t ctrl lines as you really would.. but you can use the toon engine that comes with arnold for that.. and then turn those lines into sketches.
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05/23/2025 at 7:27 PMCUDA/GPU support for rombo imagers
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05/21/2025 at 6:39 PMTemporal coherence for sketch lines. Flicker on the ground is due to poor quality GI (ie. noise) used for this fast test. https://vimeo.com/1086470567?share=copy#t=0
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05/19/2025 at 11:36 PMCracking it down on imagers.. sketch/charcoal styles.Yes, that’s the original scene that comes with RtoC4D.
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05/13/2025 at 10:51 PMTurning into a full photographic pipeline
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05/12/2025 at 11:08 PMChromatic aberration in defocused highlights plus physically based vignetting for natural looks.
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05/08/2025 at 10:54 PMAdded bokeh shape params
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05/07/2025 at 7:22 PMReal-time defocus blur with enhanced circle of confusion from z-depth. Nice thing is no z-depth nightmares.. you can easily visualize the custom z-depth on-the-fly and use physically based parameters to precisely position your focus (black means no DOF) then instantly switch to the final beauty render. Being an imager is GPU rendering ready.
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04/24/2025 at 6:39 PMTried Kuwahara filter .. it’s 5x faster than the Mertens open-source implementation and isn’t using external libs for the tensor structure computation. Also it is slighty improved to look like ‘pointilism’ with high sharpness values. Yep, that’s the RtoMaya scene with rombo clouds.
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03/12/2025 at 9:29 PMLast post before release ! Photorealism with a couple of clicks. Everything rombotools. Full scene available with RtoMaya.
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02/21/2025 at 11:04 PMLads, we’re finally feature complete ! Procedural nebulas generator .. one click, – infinite variations.
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02/04/2025 at 9:06 PMFor v1.5 galaxies will still be tied to a generic sky implementation .. meaning they are intended to be seen from a planet with an actual ground. But you can already do cosmic stuff ! Scene is part of RtoHoudini as the previous one.
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01/28/2025 at 6:45 PMHoudini is cool.. with rombo even cooler !
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01/27/2025 at 9:12 PMWorks a treat with stylized stuff. RtoMaya.
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01/21/2025 at 9:54 PMSunset turbulence can be easily added with Sun EFXs.
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01/20/2025 at 9:40 PMFirst draft of rombosky documentation. https://www.rombo.tools/2025/01/19/rombosky/
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12/17/2024 at 11:27 PMIntroducing pluggable sky add-ins. Physical Moon.
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11/26/2024 at 10:19 PMExperimental sun pillar.
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11/24/2024 at 10:28 PMSunset turbulence.
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11/22/2024 at 8:27 PMAt least the landing page is ready..
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10/10/2024 at 12:01 PMHorizon clouds at sunset
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09/24/2024 at 10:45 PMGetting there lads ! It’s taking a bit more than planned because we went for a fully open cloud system where you can build up anything you want (even silly shaped clouds) with any node available in the node editor and rombosky will just do the rest.
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09/05/2024 at 5:35 PMWith latest C4DtoA 4.7.6 (Arnold 7.3.4.0) rombo tools category folders in the new node editor are fully supported, thumbnails were already with latest rombotools release together with create menu entries. If you don’t see them in the node editor or node commander.. you may want to go to Edit->Preferences->OpenPreferencesFolder (at the very bottom) then navigate to the Maxon Cinema 4D XXXX_XXXXXXXX->userrepository and delete any rombotools folder there, eventually restart C4D, instanciate a new material and there you go. To convert from the legacy Arnold Shader Network Editor to the new editor .. in the legacy editor .. File->ConvertToNodeMaterial.
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08/22/2024 at 3:18 PMWe just updated Houdini scenes (30 and counting) for Houdini 20 and up. Corrected various stuff and set up the relative path using $HIP instead of $JOB so by just setting File->SetProject to the RtoHoudini main folder you’re good to start rendering. Take care on the first render Arnold will have to convert texture to .tx format so first run will be a tad slower. All the scenes from the various updates are in the RtoHoudini20 zip. Upon login : https://www.rombo.tools/demo-scenes/
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08/18/2024 at 5:29 PMThis is a tonemapping display driver (imager). It does everything on its own and it does not belong to OCIO config files. Notably it implements AGx-Default, AGx-Punchy and the newly released Khronos PBR Neutral tonemapper. On the README file you’ll find overviews, key characteristics and use cases for each of the tonemapper available. To setup the correct pipeline all you have to do is to set the ARV display to sRGB (or Raw) from your View Transform rollout and set Color Manager to Legacy or at least Arnold color space to Linear-sRGB for textures. Eventually from an imagers list add a Rombo Tonemapper. There’re no parameters for the tonemappers themshelves. Select ‘Is Raw’ if your display is setup so and use the ‘Exposure’ param to align the tonemapper output. Btw, rombo tonemapper works pretty cool on Kick for display while rendering. If you wanna save the image you better create a new driver and save it without the tonemapper applied. Below are images with sRGB (colors washed out), ACEScg (colors too dark) and PBRNeutral where everything simply shines ADDED :: 2024-08-28 :: GUI .py file for mtoa users (read docs!) You can download the plugin from here : https://www.rombo.tools/downloads/romboTonemapper.zip
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08/12/2024 at 6:34 PMRombotools 1.4.2 is now available for Arnold 7.3.3.1. Go grab it : https://www.rombo.tools/checkout/purchase-history/ It integrates C4D support for new editor and create menu, node commander categories instead needs a C4DTOA update but for the moment you can start typing any rombo node name and it will show up there. Fixed a singularity around zero values for Rayleigh scattering in romboSSSRandomWalk. Added Khronos PBR Neutral Tone Mapper to romboCCTonemapper. Some fixes and better handling of verbosity and IPR for rombodenoiser (added also Linux version).
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08/05/2024 at 10:26 PMThanks to Daniel and Peter, next release will have support for C4D latest editor, create menu and node commander !
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07/22/2024 at 5:53 PM
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07/15/2024 at 7:03 PMWith these latest additions romboMathParser is becoming freaking powerful
Addded fncs :
– radtodeg -> converts radians to degrees
– degtorad -> converts degrees to radians
– union -> perlin boolean op -> ((a+b) – (a*b))
– diff -> perlin boolean op -> ((a) – (a*b))
Added 3-args fncs :
– clamp -> constrains x to lie between a and b ..(x,a,b)
– lerp -> interpolates linearly x between a and b .. (a,b,x)
– exerp -> exponential interpolation
– logerp -> logarithmic interpolation
– sstep -> smoothstep function .. (a,b,x)
– pulse -> step(edge0, x) – step(edge1, x);
– pulset -> pulse (edge, period, mod(x,period));
Added constants :
– PI -> π -> 3.1459…
– E -> euler -> 2.7182…
– GR -> goldenratio -> 1.6180…
Added globals :
all shading float/int globals are available.
Name convention is : SG(shading globals) + uppercase variable name, ie:
SGU -> float u.. U surface parameter
SGDUDX -> float dudx.. U derivative wrt screen X-axis
SGSC -> uint8_t sc.. type of shading context
… -> etc.
Now, to test for example constants and new fncs .. we know that Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter .. so if you input radtodeg(PI) .. and assign the shader to a cube .. go to the Pixel tab of your Arnold IPR view .. and put the mouse cursor over the rendered cube .. you should see 180 under Lum (remember that what you see in the IPR is not what you source from the pixel which is linear raw.. so values are not altered).
With globals instead we can write a full expression without having to leave mathParser .. for example following :
(floor(SGU *12-SGV *12) + floor(SGU *12+SGV *12)) %2
Here a bit more involved example that uses the full power of the rombomath upcoming library.
————————————————————————————————
(2024/07/16 – v1.4) Re-engineered the parser class for init and eval and this makes romboMathParser x20 faster 
.
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07/09/2024 at 11:00 PMHere a little freebie while you’re waiting for rombo next release This is a super sweet math expression parser.. ie. you can now simply input a basic math expression and use a variable ‘x’ to source the connected input. This unleashes some tremendous power if you know what to do with math of course. So instead to have to use many math nodes you can use one to rule most of them. Current operators : + – / * ^ % Current functions : sin, cos, tan, floor, fract Parenthesis : () For example : floor(x*12)%2 , where x is the floating input node (U/V coords) and % is the modulo operator It’s a checker node. One branch does U stripes, the other V stripes and eventually they are added together to form a checkerboard. https://www.rombo.tools/downloads/romboMathParser.zip
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05/08/2024 at 8:00 PM
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04/03/2024 at 8:58 PMWith 1.4.1 we added rombo denoiser as it comes as a standalone dll. Rombo denoiser works pretty well with many AA samples where the quality is almost there and needs just some help to be optimal. The denoiser is based on some bayesan denoising approach. It’s CPU based and works in terms of seconds (not millisecods as OIDN). It’s still better than Noice and faster. In a further release we shall introduce temporal stability to render full animations. Because it’s multi-scale by default (set passes to 0 to avoid that) it does an incredibly good work at smoothing jagged edges coming from HDR speculars or directly visible high intensity area lights.. that’s why we keep it as last pass to further enhance the quality on many images you see on rombotools gallery. It can be applied to any AOVs or directly to the beauty pass (its default). At least in Maya the path to the rendered image is filled automatically obeying the maya image folder structure (one folder per AOV). Increase ‘verbosity’ param to have it more detailed. Some instruction (untill we update our website) are below. While the setup may happen in a DCC apz, the final render will be on CLI. We’re looking into the newly released Imagers APIs to see if they may help to use rombodenoiser directly from within a DCC apz
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04/03/2024 at 7:36 PMWe released a 1.4.1 update to cope with new Arnold 7.3.x.x core. Go grab it on rombo.tools. ⚡
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03/27/2024 at 5:24 PMFirst attempt at true light scattering in the atmosphere .. clouds (but not their shadows) are hidden to better see the fx. Not possible with stock Arnold (can’t cope with volumetric shadows at all). Sun glare is also physically based.
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03/01/2024 at 7:20 PMSome early on-the-fly renditions to test photo-realistics clouds in the background, see how illumination changes accordlingly. For these kind of scenes you won’t need anymore IBL with the added advantage to be able to change at any time the illumination, the cloud shape, to animate the sun, to have infinite resolution etc. Eventually the procedural clouds (together with sky/sun) are kicked-in in the usual Arnold light pipeline ie. importance sampled etc.
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02/28/2024 at 7:08 PMBetter procedural clouds and near real-time volumetric scattering. While this will be a background clouds system (vs single hero clouds) we can still render the iconic cumulus clouds formations. Last twos are nimbostratus and lenticular clouds. See previous post for cirrus and altostratus together with virga clouds (those weird looking clouds;) Each takes around 5secs at 2k.
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01/19/2024 at 11:22 PMEarly tests of some volumetric background clouds we’re working on. Still a lot of work to do but happy how is turning out. Oh, and that’s real-time !
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10/22/2023 at 10:48 PMSome samples from upcoming rombo denoiser (CLI only at least initially) included probably with v1.5. One thing we’re really good at .. it is to smooth HDR speculars and high intensity area light borders (on both, classical AA simply fails and in this regard also any other denoiser we tried (Noice, OIDN etc.). Everything rombo tools here.
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09/26/2023 at 11:04 PMModelling skin with Mie and Rayleigh scattering. You can too with rombotools
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08/24/2023 at 11:08 PMBonus scene for RtoHoudini v1.4 -> Skin with Rayleigh scattering : DreedScene.zip”>https://www.rombo.tools/downloads/RtoHoudiniDreedScene.zip
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08/24/2023 at 12:45 AMGaffer porting WIP.
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08/18/2023 at 7:27 PMWe did a Lentil re-compile for Arnold core 7.2 (win/linux) : https://www.rombo.tools/downloads/Lentil/lentil_v2.5_ARN7.2.1.0_WIN.zip https://www.rombo.tools/downloads/Lentil/lentil_v2.5_ARN7.2.3.1_LINUX.zip
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08/14/2023 at 6:54 PMWe’re working on some Gaffer porting. USD export and import work just great with rombotools.
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07/19/2023 at 7:18 PMRombotools v1.4 for the Arnold renderer are out https://www.rombo.tools/2023/06/12/update-v1-4/ And do not forget to give a read to the docs for the new stuff you’ll find with SSS nodes https://www.rombo.tools/2023/06/10/improved-sss/
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07/17/2023 at 4:13 PMThis is an equal time comparison with romboSSS in hybridmode vs arnold rw2.. we gave them both a full 1mins to render. (Take care we’re not trying to match a particular rendition but just the overall radius with default SSS settings)
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07/11/2023 at 9:55 PMAlmost ready for the v1.4 update with the most versatile and powerful SSS shader out there ! Image by Daniel Hennies, UglyKids
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07/04/2023 at 9:44 PMFinishing v1.4 update.. added new phase function to approach Mie scattering ! Worked also extensively on ‘continuation rays’ to avoid extraneuos stuff in the mesh volume automagically. Here a simple test rendition with the new phase fnc.
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06/15/2023 at 11:31 PMJesus Freaking Christ.. look at this !! From Daniel Hennies, UglyKids. Few ppl I know are so brave to push this shit to the limit ! This is light interacting with matter. Period.
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06/07/2023 at 11:29 PMNow that latest Arnold is out, we’re finalizing rombotools v1.4 that will focus on SSS with some great additions that will speed up your workflow 10x in some cases (indirect high bounces scenes for example). Btw, this will be the base for something even more important that we’re working on. New scenes also coming.
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05/30/2023 at 6:13 PMWe added Voronoi noise too to rombotools noise arsenal.. it’s around 15% faster than build-in Arnold and notably has rounded edges (vs sharp only) and can be built not only from a classical grid but also from triangular and hexagonal lattices that together with a jitter (randomness) parameter allow for many shape variations. Here we left jitter set to 0.2 to see the building blocks. Click the imgs to see the three versions for comparison. Noise shaders will be avail at a later release.
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05/24/2023 at 5:29 PMThis is another rombotools noise. Nice thing here, beside the cool patterns you can work out, is that it’s analytically filterable so it’s always well antialiased even with few global AA samples. We added also auto normalmap output with just a click of a checkbox. Then orientation, lenght, thickness and hardness come as user params while global rotation, distribution and chaos factor are drivable with a control map and its RGB channels.
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05/13/2023 at 11:12 PMWe’re adding a bunch of powerful new noise algorithms. This is one of them. Great for sand, erosion and river beds, finger prints, barks, patch snow and whatever you want because it has direction and width fully controllable (with other shaders or even images) while various profiles are available.. also it’s a pluggable noise so we can use a cascade of them one into the other.
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05/08/2023 at 10:11 PMAdded Rayleigh scattering (scattering of light by particles smaller than the wavelengths) to rombotools randomwalk SSS. Here a GIF (with some bad banding) to illustrates the effect.. three frames : -0.75, 0 and 1.
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05/01/2023 at 6:57 PMThe problem with SSS is that Arnold takes only one single sample for anything indirect so generally with 2/3 bounces of GI, SSS is getting under sampled and to be able to have it well converged (ie. no noise/variance) we have to cranck up AA or SSS samples or even both and see render times explode. With next rombotools we introduce a consistent stochastic strategy that smoothly degrades SSS to a lambertian lookup that is perceptually equivalent to the reference full SSS. For a fraction of time of course. On the left we have defaults, on the right rombo new strategies; it’s easy to see how with just an additional minute of computation (lower right) we have an almost converged SSS solution compared to the upper left one. To reach almost the same quality with traditional workflow, we have to cranck up global samples and so render times skyrockets (lower left crop).
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04/12/2023 at 7:56 PMRombotools v1.3 for the Arnold renderer are out https://www.rombo.tools/2023/04/05/update-v1-3/
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04/03/2023 at 8:09 PMAs for requests. adding a romboWIFloader shader to match romboFabricWoven patterns for increased flexibility in modeling bumps and displacements.
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03/28/2023 at 7:09 PMThis is the latest PRG sky model, probably one of the most realistic model ever even if its params are a bit limited compared to others models. It also supports elevation up to the atmosphere limit. Scenes also available.
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03/27/2023 at 4:17 PMAdding a super nice scene to rombo contents for upcoming release (not sure if it will be v1.3 or v1.5 with skies already into). This uses latest ‘position free’ true multiple scattering.
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03/23/2023 at 10:05 PMThis one instead supports views from outer space with an elevation parameter. Here respectively 1m (ground), 1km, 10km (atmosphere limit), 25km and 50km from earth surface. This is just the spectral sky model atm parameterized with air, dust, ozone and haze layers.
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03/17/2023 at 11:24 PMNow because each sky model has its strenghts we gonna implement more than one This one for example can easily model dusk when the sun is getting below the horizon. Sun coloration and limb darkening are automatic and can eventually be tweaked for custom appearances. Horizon can be shifted up and down, colored and blurred while following earth curvature. Internally it’s all spectral code sped up with hero wavelengths sampling. Here rendered with ACES.
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03/16/2023 at 6:23 PMPrepping rombotools v1.3 release .. meanwhile already working on milestone v1.5, which will feature … ☀️
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03/13/2023 at 10:19 PMNew scene being added … using tileblender, microdetail flakes, modulated roughness (you see it well in the second image).
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03/02/2023 at 11:57 PMTake care this phenomenon has nothing to do with the classic Fresnel effect where with narrow viewing angles we get more reflections and less transmissions for example. It’s another thing that you can experience directly by looking through grazing angle viewing any conductor with a certain rough finish like iphones computer cases etc. it depends how roughness has been created (sand blasting etc.) It still works great also for dielectrics like leathers where it enhances realism just because it realistically varies roughness depending on the viewing angle.
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02/27/2023 at 11:33 PMOur latest dedication to metals did bring a new bump mode to rombotools that we called ‘Symmetrical’ and that will be the new default bump mode from the next update. Microfacet, fully energy conserving especially good for low poly models (like the gun here where all the detail is normalmapped) and animations. You gonna find it on both ReflectGeneralized and ReflectMultiscatter. Scene also available with rombo contents !
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02/11/2023 at 7:30 PMRefining rombotools normal mapping approach for better, faster and more consistent results. Btw, on the right, standard material … how unnatural is the upper rim at grazing angles (that grey flat patch), looks like devs are injecting some lambertian brdf to obey energy conservation for normals that go brrr.. in the second picture is more evident (that’s still leaking energy btw with those black fringes). You can also see that rombo materials are perceptually equivalent to stdmaterial while parameters also match std ones, there’s nothing one needs to learn to achive the same basic look, rombo shaders can easily replace a stdmat. Then if you wanna go specialized there’s plenty of stuff to experiment with… https://www.rombo.tools/2020/06/19/microfacet-based-normal-mapping/
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01/16/2023 at 9:19 PMRombotools v1.2 for the Arnold renderer are out. Go grab your update ! https://www.rombo.tools/2023/01/16/update_v1-2/
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12/25/2022 at 9:11 PMAdded documentation for latest rombotools features : https://www.rombo.tools/latestposts/
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12/14/2022 at 6:28 PMRombo triplanar mapper with tile and ad-hoc planar projections blending. It completely smokes the default triplanar shader that comes with Arnold. See ghosting due to naive linear blending and repetition artifacts (Arnold, middle image), while rombo triplanar practically acts and looks like procedurals (ie. no UVs) but with textures (final image). In upcoming rombotools v1.2.
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11/16/2022 at 6:58 PMThis is rombotools tile blender shader, a powerful stochastic texture synthetizer (not to be confused with some naive OSL uvs scrambler or the triplanar shader that comes with Arnold). It fully preserves texture characteristics and features. Basically it allows to have a texture as input and produce an infinite, non-repeating render-time texture from that. Below on the Porsche scene we use a 2k texture repeated 20×20 with no visible artifacts or repetitions. This would require for the same resolution without tileblender on both overview and closeup to have an almost impossible texture resolution. Arnold texture engine is fully supported as you can see with the blurred mipmaps in the background, derivatives, .tx files too, ACES etc. It can also be used to get on-the-fly render-time variations of the same texture as we did on the stone with grass tx. It comes with an advanced set of parameters that allow for fine tweaks but all one has to do basically is just to crank up repetitions and it will blend them automagically (on the straw picture.. first image is the input texture, on the right the default tiling with visible repetitions and then our tile blender on the remaining pics). Available with the upcoming rombotools v1.2.
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11/07/2022 at 4:40 PMThis is some great rendition from Daniel Hennies – UglyKids. He’s working with our SSSRefract shader. The shader itself does multiple scattering SSS refractions (plus the ‘I’m Rough’ param trick for automatic transparent thickness). Multiple scattering as opposed to single scattering (which is an approximation) is a thing of nature and so let’s say, – it looks naturally great I particularly like those thick wings of the little thing a bit out of focus on top of the bird. Watch it ful rez ! See here for more : https://www.rombo.tools/2021/06/20/sss-refract/
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10/28/2022 at 11:17 PMImproved procedural and bitmap texture blurrer for rombotools v1.2. Blur can be mapped and animated.
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10/26/2022 at 7:21 PMAdvanced thickness shader for rombotools v1.2.
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08/27/2022 at 5:50 PMWorks great also for classic geometrical optics .. just no diffractive coloration (aka structured colors). You really get back that smooth appearance not possible by just mapping usual PBR channels like roughness, specular, normal, anisotropy etc. Scene and custom maps available.
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08/23/2022 at 6:11 PMThis uses everywhere flakes and glints shaders and because we both support uvs and on-the-fly mapping it’s easy to add extra detail on existing PBR setups. Eventually flakes are multiscale.. as soon as we zoom out they tend to get smoother and smoother like in reality where up to some point we don’t see anymore the single glints/flakes but a smooth specular. Convergence is super good as flakes are well importance sampled. 10mins at 2k.
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08/22/2022 at 11:11 PMHere we’re using the Flake shader for the iphone back. You can see the nice light transport trough those little sandblasted aluminum flakes. Note also how flakes remain crisp while the inner bands get smoothed out. Flakes are fully procedural.
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08/19/2022 at 5:57 PMThis is a test with Arnold adaptive sampler to show how our Glints are fully deterministic (while still being in a regime of randomness) in the sense that they are not seen as variance and effectively never converge to unrealistic super smooth highlights. Just compare how smooth is the ring flat surface against the body side hit by direct light. That’s where realism is made. Beside the diffraction proper coloration, for such little features one can’t just use textures to break highlights because they would ‘flicker’ instead of properly ‘glitter’. Scene available with rombo contents.
max
08/18/2022 at 6:09 PMHere (upcoming september update) we added PBR support to our Glints reflect node. It means it now supports metalness workflow and can be used with usual PBR textures setup (albedo, roughness, metalness, normal). Notice the slight orange shade around highlights that comes from wave optics. 3mins for a 2k render. Scene also available.
max
07/21/2022 at 11:51 PMNew truly unbiased multi-bounce reflection model. Super realistic and vibrant metals with just default settings. Same PBR parameters. Just some little percent slower than the approx version (ie. std material) and faster than previous random walked multiscatter. Scene also available. Stay tuned for the next update.
max
06/08/2022 at 12:28 AMThis was already in v.1.0 but now we added the doc page. It looks a bit technical as it introduces microfacet diffuse shading passing by cosine weighted stuff, importance sampling and eval/sampling routines.. however it is there just for a short introduction .. in practice the model does have the same params as the classic diffuse shading.. it just works better (ie. best backscattering of any diffuse model). https://www.rombo.tools/2022/04/17/rough-diffuse/
max
06/05/2022 at 8:49 PMAdded doc page for retroreflections together with a demo scene (available with upcoming rtoa) : https://www.rombo.tools/2022/05/25/retroreflections/
max
05/27/2022 at 3:08 AMHow about some microfacet retroreflectors ? Notice how (view dir) not being aligned with light dir inhibits traffic barrels retroreflections and how properly no reflections on the ground. Should be available in the next rtoa point release.
