Cheetah3D 8.1 Beta 1 - Adds USDZ import/export

Martin

Martin

0
Hi,
Cheetah3D 8.1 will mainly focus on USDZ import and export. I already have support for object hierarchies, meshes, cameras and materials (including PBR shader). So it should be already pretty usable for static scenes. Since I'm using the SceneKit framework for importing/exporting USDZ files the import/export of SCN files is a free side effect. SCN is the native file format of SceneKit. SCN files are also directly supported in XCode.
So far I've only tested USDZ sample files from Apple (see screenshot) and some free files form the web but they came in nicely so far.
There are furthermore the obligatory bug fixes.

New in v8.1b1:
-added support for USDZ import/export (no animation yet)
-added support for SCN export (no animation yet)
-HDRI light intensity and clamp values are now display properly in Metal preview
-directly add materials with PBR shader
-removed "HEVC with Alpha" codec on macOS Big Sur and older since it didn't work properly
-fixed rotation bug in SCN loader
-fixed crashing bug in polygon tesselator
-fixed bug in extrude tool
-fixed bug in optimize tool (no longer creates zero area polygons)
-fixed vertex color display bug
-fixed bug when drawing joints
-fixed specular lightning bug in some Metal shaders
-fixed light intensity bug in disntant and sky light
-fixed crashing bug when loading small textures
-fixed crashing bug in timeline
-fixed "Light both sides" property
-fixed bug in "Files"" preferences panel
-upgraded FBX SDK to v2020.3.4


Attention:
THIS IS BETA SOFTWARE. USE THE SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN RISK AND DON'T USE IT ON ANY IMPORTANT DATA.

You can download the Cheetah3D 8.1 Beta 1

Please let me know about your experiences.

Kind regards
Martin
Bildschirmfoto 2024-03-19 um 19.22.00.jpg
 
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Oh, what a stupid mistake. :oops: I've fixed the download link. Now it points to v8.1b1.

Thank you very much for the fast reaction.:)
 
Hello,

HDRI light, when set to use the HDR image as the background, is not showing the HDR image as the background in viewpoint of 8.1b1. It does render properly.

Even though the background image is not being presented, the viewport looks different than it does when Background: is unchecked.

Same result using a variety of HDRI in a variety of files

Those same files all show as the background and render properly in 8.0

Steps taken to address the issue when background was not the HDR image…

Made sure Background: was checked…
Reloaded the same HDRI
Loaded different HDRI
Relaunched 8.1b1
Tried same files in 8.0

Cheers,
gsb
 
Hello again,

Ok, that was fast. Re-reading Martin’s list of additions/fixes I noted…

“HDRI light intensity and clamp values are now display properly in Metal preview"

I always have HDRI clamping set to 0.

I always try to have my HDR images adjusted so that an intensity of 1 results in renders I had envisioned.

I started playing with those settings

As clamping is increased and approaches 1, the background appears.

Changing the clamping value, of course, changes the render.

hmm…

Thanks and cheers,
gsb
 
Martin said:
-HDRI light intensity and clamp values are now display properly in Metal preview
. . .
-fixed light intensity bug in disntant and sky light
Click to expand...
Clamping value = 0 means no clamping, the HDRI background should not disappear but look like clamping = 100,000 or so.
Since I always disable clamping because my XDR screen displays most HDRIs nicely this beta is not usable for me.

Skylight background is still missing.

USDZ format I don't use, but tried to import the grammophone file from Apple and it works (better with scale factor 0.01).
When trying to import the Fender Stratocaster file C3D8.1b1 crashes, report attached.
MacBook Pro 14" M3 Pro, MacOS 14.2.1
 

Attachments

  • crash report.txt.zip
    12.8 KB · Views: 18
Last edited:
Hi,
I've fixed the clamping = 0 problem. It should display properly in beta 2. Thanks for the tip.

The skylight is still not implemented in the Metal viewport. But it's on my todo list.

I'm still on the Fender Stratocaster bug. Something pretty strange is going on there.

Bye
Martin
 
Thanks very much for your work. I just quickly updated to Beta here to see if it would fix an 8.0 issue. I have a late 2013 Intel MacBook Pro and when performing a simple extrude on a cube I get buggy primitives. I reloaded the file, the mess cleared up but it's clearly still missing a triangle.

1711033450889.png
 

Attachments

  • trainStation.zip
    6.8 KB · Views: 25
Can you try to zoom out and check if it´s still missing? The 2 objects are identical here with no polygon missing: Polygons 10, Vertices 12.
 
No change on zoom out. I'd say this is some overlooked general bug to do with Metal on Big Sur 11.7.10.
Switching from Intel GPU to Geforce GT 750M doesn't seem to make any difference to the missing triangle.

If it looks good to you I'd say this is some out-of-support hardware software issue.

I'll switch back to Cheetah 7 for the moment.
 
kingc8 said:
Thanks very much for your work. I just quickly updated to Beta here to see if it would fix an 8.0 issue. I have a late 2013 Intel MacBook Pro and when performing a simple extrude on a cube I get buggy primitives. I reloaded the file, the mess cleared up but it's clearly still missing a triangle.
Click to expand...

Hello,

Downloaded your file and opened it in both 8.0 and 8.1b1.

As Frank noted, there are two identical objects, box and box.1. 10 polys and 12 vertices.

Both of them look fine and dandy on both of my 2019 intel boxes, all surfaces visible.

Guessing it could be a Metal support issue on 2013 vintage hardware.

Just for fun…

What happens if you triangulate the quad? Do both triangle halves of the quad appear?

What happens if you delete the troubled surface? Do other quads develop troubles. Now add a new quad back to the hole. Anything interesting happen?

What happens if you reverse the normals on the troubled surface?

Cheers,
gsb
 
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Indeed two identical objects, I was building a "train station" and had duplicated it, I forgot to remove the duplicate before submitting it here. That was scruffy of me, apologies.

So I triangulated it just to see, the missing triangle reappears in another location.

Yeah, I suspect it's a case of no-longer-supported hardware in this instance, unfortunately. Shame.

1711094098738.png
 
Just found Cheetah3D7.5.
If you need the latest 7.5.3 you have to ask Martin for a download link or I can look up in my downloads for the zip file.
All the best
Edit: I’m still under the impression it´s just a display glitch not a malfunction of Cheetah3D´s toolset: can you delete the edge from that triangle to get rid of it and use „fill hole“ on that section please?
 
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Thanks Frank, 7.5 ought to be fine.

So I selected the edge,
1711122600191.png

And on delete of the edge, the hole moves around.

1711122654652.png

The inner edge of this triangle is not selectable, as if it's not there. Selecting the four edges around this hole and filling it changes nothing.
1711123021320.png


If I return to the original state, and simply select the three edges of the missing triangle and Fill Hole, again, nothing changes, doesn't fill.

1711123131800.png


Weird.
 
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