Isn't Blender 2.80 not out yet?

It's in BETA. The schedule says it will be released this month (if I recall correctly).

@Samino. Thank you so much Samino! I think you're right!!

Just as an idea... would it be possible to add two more Geometry Options checkbox features to the importer? Right now we have two of them ("Improve Geometry" and "Apply Modifiers"); the first checkbox makes the model use quads instead of tris as well as adding an Edge Split Modifier and a Bevel Modifier, while the second one immediately applies them.

I would ask whether it's possible to add two more checkboxes, one that improves the geometry (quads + Edge Split Modifer) but doesn't add Bevel Modifiers, and another one that will add a Bevel Modifier, but won't display it in the viewport to speed up importing and editing. I'm aware of this would be possible by using [Ctrl]+[L] on one part for all the others too, but as soon as the imported model becomes too large, it really gets troublesome to even get to such a point.

I guess that you are still using Blender 2.79. In the newer version of the add-on not based on collada format, the internal system is different and the apply modifier option is gone.

@Scrubs
Yeah, still using 2.79 for 2.8 isn't officially released yet plus the beta was quite unstable for me. Will give it a try once it's out then.

Yes. I am planning on trying out 2.80. When it is out!!

Beta is now almost similar to what the released version will be. for example the API will not change anymore. Mecabricks render mode has been running on Blender 2.80 for 6 months now with no issues.

@Scrubs
Nah, no issues for you I guess. Blender 2.8 BETA (February, March) closed itself about 15 times during modeling (no viewport rendering) and more than 6 times during rendering before I gave up on it. No way close to being out of RAM or VRAM either, and it did that despite using Mecabricks or not, so I see no relation there. I just hope it's more stable during release, and that old viewport styles support will be continued. 😕

Hey, Scrubs, does that mean you will start investigating getting the advanced plug in to work with Eevee now?

For my 10c, I have been using 2.8 for about 4 or 5 months now on my windows 7 PC's and found it to be fairly stable, with and without the advanced plug in but I have been working a lot with Eevee where the materials from Mecabricks do cause issues, especially Image Textures. The one PC is not interested in working with Eevee even with its GPU card, but the other 3 old i7 gen 2 machines seem to be as stable as can be. Certainly no more crashes then I was having with 2.79.

I did find that Cycles was a lot faster on most of the computers when rendering with 2.8, but my older PC can now no longer use its 550GTX GPU as it is no longer supported which is a shame. That was the machine that started me off on Blender, but Eevee now just blows cycles away if you are prepared to accept the compromises and for me, and I think a lot of other animators, its going to see a lot of action.

Pre-rendering for Eevee is VERY CPU and GPU intensive and I have found that you just have to leave the computer alone while it is processing that otherwise you will cause it to hang up.

Eevee results while not up to Cycles standard I know, but are good enough for an amateur like me.

I Would love to get the Mecabricks plug in working with Eevee though, EVEN if it means purchasing a new version as I am sure its a complete rewrite.

Hello,

I previously posted in this topic, concerning a render I was attempting. It turned out I needed WAY more samples than I was rendering with.
Now I have come across another problem. I rendered an image with 1000 samples (which, as you can tell, is still not enough) and it took over seven hours. Image: https://i.imgur.com/ai1EI0Y.png
I was wondering if anyone has any tips on bringing down the render times, as I am planning on rendering a whole animation. That image is just the first frame.

I don't think that you need more samples here. It looks ok to me. You would need to share your settings to see what could be improved. 1000 samples is not something crazy when it comes to good quality and animation. Rendering animation requires top hardware to be made in a timely manner. Use sheep-it or another render farm. Your animation will take hours or days instead of months to render.

Maybe try using the denoising feature? If you have a Nvidia GPU with CUDA technology, you can you the AI De-Noise by Remington Graphics as well.

@Samino It is only available for windows and it wipes out most of the small details (it is design for very low samples). So it is not that great for the advanced Add-on. Cycles denoising would work better in this case.

Okay, good to know. I have Windows, but I don't have a Nvidia chip, so, still have not been able to try it out.

Thanks guys! I already have the denoiser enabled, but I will definitely look into Sheepit.
Here is the file, if you want to see the settings.
.Blend file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ragmwu7rajs2vsu/scene_one.blend?dl😮

Excuse my ignorance as I'm new to both Mecabricks and Blender. I forked out for the Advanced add-on. I'm using Blender 2.0.4 but for the life of me I can't find the Mecabricks tools panel with all the color shift wear and tear settings?

With the mouse over the viewport, press N. It will open a panel on the right hand side. From there, you shall be able to click on the Mecabricks tab as per the image of the PDF guide.

Thanks, I'm getting some good results already so I'm keen to keep exploring

It would be quite good if the wear controls were split up. When I use 25% wear it looks good on regular pieces but on clear pieces the fingerprints are too pronounced. I want to tone down the fingerprints on clear parts but retain the wear on non clear parts.