3DS MAX and ICC profile support (IPS screens)

[RAVIZ]

Hello,

Recently I bought two IPS screens HP LP2475w, I have also Eye One Display 2 calibrator. I created ICC profiles for my screens and it works perfectly for Photoshop and Firefox. In few other programs some colours are oversaturated, mostly red, pink and green. For example FastStone doesn't support ICC profiles in correct way, the same story with Internet Explorer. I was expecting that 3DS MAX 2010, soft for 4K E will support instantly this feature. Unfortunately I was wrong. When I display the same picture in PS and Material Editor in MAX, second one is oversaturated in the way I mentioned earlier. Did you find solution for this problem by any chance?

Thanks in advance for help.....Rafal

[pfbreton]

Hello,

Recently I bought two IPS screens HP LP2475w, I have also Eye One Display 2 calibrator. I created ICC profiles for my screens and it works perfectly for Photoshop and Firefox. In few other programs some colours are oversaturated, mostly red, pink and green. For example FastStone doesn't support ICC profiles in correct way, the same story with Internet Explorer. I was expecting that 3DS MAX 2010, soft for 4K E will support instantly this feature. Unfortunately I was wrong. When I display the same picture in PS and Material Editor in MAX, second one is oversaturated in the way I mentioned earlier. Did you find solution for this problem by any chance?

Thanks in advance for help.....Rafal

 

Hi!

 

3ds Max does not handle ICC profiles. The closest approximation right now is to use gamma correction with a value of 2.2 and assume that it is close to the sRGB color space.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't read closely enough. You wanted to get the image to display correctly back into Max without. I should have read closer.

 

Rapheal,

 

If you have your screens calibrated to a custom ICC profile, then the images you create in Max are essentially being created with that profile, even though that profile is not being assigned to them.

 

For the sake of explanation, lets call that profile HP-LC.

 

Now, when you open your image in Photoshop, it will have no profile assigned because Max can not do that. So you need to assign the HP-LC ICC profile to the image. After you assign the profile to the image, you can then convert that profile to AdobeRGB, or sRGB depending on what you are doing.

 

If you are working with AdobeRGB, then you need to convert to sRGB before exporting/saving out. It is recommended to embed that sRGB profile into the image so that color intelligent applications can read it properly.

 

I am far far from an intelligent person in regard to this, but I recently worked through similar steps in this thread.... Actually, I am re-working through Jeff's chapter on color management.

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/61686-wide-gamut-monitors-still-somewhat-scratching-my-head.html

 

Oh, and I think Windows is only capable of utilizing 1 ICC profile. It applies 1 profile to both monitors even if try and tell it differently. At least I believe this is the case. So you should only calibrate your main screen, and use that calibration for both. Just make sure your image is on that screen when you are doing your color adjustments.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Ok, after looking into this further it seems that if you work with your monitor ICC profile assigned to the image, and save it with your monitor ICC profile assigned to the image, then it will display correctly in Max. If it has no ICC assigned, or a sRGB assigned, then it will look wrong. Or at least this is how it is appearing to me.

 

You can see what I mean above in the first attachment.

 

I test rendered it, and it looks as though it rendered correctly on the both the local machine, and the renderfarm. Which is a plus. I guess.

 

You can see that part in the second attachment.

 

I don't know if it is a clean process, but it seems to work.

[Jeff Mottle]

Ok, after looking into this further it seems that if you work with your monitor ICC profile assigned to the image, and save it with your monitor ICC profile assigned to the image, then it will display correctly in Max. If it has no ICC assigned, or a sRGB assigned, then it will look wrong. Or at least this is how it is appearing to me.

 

You can see what I mean above in the first attachment.

 

I test rendered it, and it looks as though it rendered correctly on the both the local machine, and the renderfarm. Which is a plus. I guess.

 

You can see that part in the second attachment.

 

I don't know if it is a clean process, but it seems to work.

 

NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER (oh did I mention NEVER), save an image with your monitor profile assigned. The trick I explained is ONLY to get the image into photoshop and then convert to a device independant color space like AdobeRGB or sRGB. You don't want to edit or save an image with a device dependant profile. Also a very important note about this technique is that you must ensure the display profile is up to date. You can't assign a profile of your display if it does not represent the behavior of the display when you open the image in Photoshop.

 

NOTE TO OTHERS READING THIS THREAD: If you've not read my chapter on color management or thoroughly understand color management, don't try this technique with the display profile. It's meant only to be used once you understand what you are doing.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Jeff Mottle

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER.

 

Very short sighted of me on that. I was thinking in reverse of how it came out of Max, and not the long term consequences the embedded monitor profile would create.

 

The vast majority of textures I have created over the years do not have a profile stored with them at all, and 95% of them suite my needs well. It will only be in the time of high saturation that I would need to find a work around.

 

Anyway, I did the same test with an image that had saturation problems, but this time I saved the profile as AdobeRGB. The image was not spot on in 3dsMax, but it did resolve the over saturation problem.

 

I just double checked my "texture" saves on a low gamut display. The one with the DELL profile looked like crap (highly under-saturated,) but the one with the Adobe1998 looked perfect, and matched all of the other images. I am assuming it would be fine to save a texture into a library with a Adobe1998 profile since it is a standard?

 

I probably should not be replying while I am still working through things myself. I am very much a hands on person that needs to work through problems in order to best understand them.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Crazy Homeless Guy