#Black Trace
12 messages in this thread
Okay, I give up. I don't like asking for advice, but I can't figure out where
I'm going wrong.
I've got the 2.0 version of Imagine that comes with 3d Modelling Lab. I finally
got some time to work with it (not exactly true; I *made* the time), and have
done a couple of test renders. Terrific program to work with, really. Anyway,
my first attempts at balls and examples from the book went okay, but I then
started on a project of my own consisting of two, colored glass, disk-like
objects, with a plane image-wrapped with a picture (specifically, the Amiga
Logo from AmigaUser converted to .tif) behind them. The thing quick renders
terrifically. I go to the project menu (yes, I created a project and subproject
for the image), and render it in scanline mode, same picture, looks great. I
try to render it in Trace.. black screen. When I have the specular set all the
way on the max, the Trace mode rendering shows a dim splotch of color where the
highlights would be. The rendering also goes incredibly fast (regardless of
specular settings). Now, I've added a light object near the camera (spherical),
and I've added another right next to the glass objects in the scene, and it
makes no difference. I've set ambient to max, no difference. I've used a global
reflection map (clouds.tif), and that seemed to have the same effect as having
specular maxxed out.
Help help?
Jim
Dah, I dunno, maybe the ray trace is making the glass objects disappear
for some reason, try putting a ground under them and give it the checker board
texture, this way you will have some depth to whats going on, other wise send
us the file and we will look into it.
Mike
Thanks, Mike, I will. I'm sure it's something dumb I'm overlooking (or doing),
but it has me stumped.
Try this —
The Imagine universe is only 1000 ( I think its 1000, Mike, can you confirm?)
units in size when ray-tracing. Any object outside the 1000 unit parimeter
will disappear in trace mode. This phenomonon does not occur in any other
rendering mode.
I would check your objects positions. If they are real far from center, try
selecting everything (shift-click)lights, objects, camera and any tracking axis
and move the whole kit and kaboodle to something centered around position
0,0,0. Selecting everything and moving the group together will not change your
picture.
Let me know what happens. SGinNJ
I'm positioned around 0,0, but everything is huge (the plane is something like
1500 units across, as I recall). I'll check into that. Thanks!!
Could I scale everything down all at once?
Jim
The world is 16285 units in all directions unless in the Action editor
you have set the size of the world to something else, on the other hand if you
leave it at 0 then Imagine will use what it needs and not bother with the rest
of the world size. This makes it render faster and not waste rendering things
that dont need to be rendered.
A plane 1500 units in size with a few triagnles, could cause some
problems, increase the face count with fracture and that might do something to
help. Let me know.
Mike
Mike, thanks… I tried scaling everything down to 10 percent, and it didn't
help. So I deleted everything, started from scratch, and now have a nice ray
trace at 320 X 200 X 24. I dunno what I did right, but this time everything was
much smaller. It didn't turn out too well cause the idea was screwed, but I
still got good results. I later did a trace of a Boing! ball and a mirror and
it came out just terrific. Thanks again! Imagine is an incredible program.
Mike,
Is the size of 16285 units a new default? I ran into the problem of
disappearing objects in trace mode years ago (probably v.1.0 or 2.0) and tech
support told me about the unverse size constobjects pretty far to violate 16285
units, and Ive always focused on making objects small).
Also, can you reduce memory requirements by reducing the size of the universe
in the ACTION editor say if you only need 2000 units, and room for 16285 has be
allocated?
Any news on the next version for the constant upgrade program? SGinNJ
Stephen
NO this is how big it CAN get and no larger, outside that figure and
nothing happens. You could save some memory but you might increase the
rendering time to something real slow, so just set the value to 0.. As for
making things small, this is not a good idea, I make things that occupy the
default screen size from top to bottom of the window, this makes thing render
very fast,. when things are toooo small they take up such a small amount in
the octree that it really gets very slow and is not worth the effort.
Mike
<<I make things that occupy the default screen size from top to bottom of the
window, this makes thing render very fast>>
Mike, I assume you mean that you create the object as large as the default
window of the detail editor. When rendering you must be scaling the objects in
the stage to the size you want them to appear in the final picture. Am I
correct?
Jim R. Ollick on a Warped 4000/040/40
Using AP 1.77 from Bergenfield, NJ
Jim
I dont scale things once I finish them , I just move the camera around
and set the Y axis to get the effect I need.
Mike
"I dont scale things once I finish them , I just move the camera around and set
the Y axis to get the effect I need."
Thanks for clearing that up. I'll have to start doing it, all along I've been
scaling objects to fit the default camera settings.
Jim R. Ollick on a Warped 4000/040/40
Using AP 1.77 from Bergenfield, NJ