CompuServe Thread

#LenZFX bugs

14 messages in this thread
#171052From: david W. mennenohMay 20, 1995 11:33 AM
I'm getting really frustrated with LenZFX and I'm really hoping someone can help me out. I've got a space scene with an earth, sun and moon. I need tohave a slight glow around the earth and was using aura – by object/edge. For the sun I've got a flare assigned to an omni light. Well, it _was_ working last night, I'm not sure how or why but it was. Lenzfx seems very erratic to me in how it works. For my sun, sometimes the flare will appear where the light is on frame 0. Even with move in scene turned on this is happening. And now my aura will not appear at all. I'm using v1.3 of LenZFX. In VP, last night, I had 4 entries. 1st was KF scene, next was LZstacker, then the inactive aura, and inactive flare. And like I said, it was working. Then I remembered stars and added 2 more entries at the top of the queue. Stars 3 and YG's hilite. I rendered the exact same frame and my earth no longer had a glow and the sun was coming from the position of the omni at frame 0. I deleted the stars and hilite with no sucess – same thing. So I deleted all the entries and started over. Same thing. This morning I added just a KF scene and my aura to the earth. No go. No glow. I sure hope the new version fixes this garbage. Anyone have any ideas? DM
#171054From: Jonas Ruikis [ADESK]May 20, 1995 12:40 PM
Hi David, << This morning I added just a KF scene and my aura to the earth. >> Did you save the parameters to a new file name or use the same *.lzf as before?
#171125From: david W. mennenohMay 21, 1995 10:33 AM
Hey Jonas. I believe I figured it out. It seems that when using the lz stacker and changing any of the settings in LenZFX itself, something gets hosed and a reboot is needed. After rebooting my machine everything rendered correctly. I've also been getting lockups in LenZFX, which seem to coincide with the 1.3 upgrade. At least it's working now though. Do you know of any way of getting aura to anti-alias? The only way I've been able to do this is by compositing a non-glowed version back over the glowed version. I'm doing this atmospheric effect around a globe and the edges are crap because of aura. My problem right now though is I've got a flare which needs to come from behind the earth and can't be composited. So I guess it's just live with the rolling edges. Oh well, thanks much.
#171133From: Jonas Ruikis [ADESK]May 21, 1995 11:34 AM
Hi David, << Do you know of any way of getting aura to anti-alias? >> Sorry, nope. I've spent alot of rendering hours on blur..
#171373From: david W. mennenohMay 22, 1995 11:03 PM
Thanks Jonas. I'm just having to render the KF scene twice to get good edges. It's a simple scene so it's not that big of deal. Someone mentioned an IPAS package called Tranzition which includes two .IXP's called PUSH and POP. Witht hem you can push off the current image in the queue and then pop it back in at anytime later. Cool idea, but is doesn't support the alpha channel so as far as I'm concerned it's useless. I think it could be accomplished with TSE, now to just get it… Anyway, if you come up with any cool ideas let me know.
#171374From: Jonas Ruikis [ADESK]May 22, 1995 11:17 PM
<< Someone mentioned an IPAS package called Tranzition which includes two .IXP's called PUSH and POP. Witht hem you can push off the current image in the queue and then pop it back in at anytime later. Cool idea, but is doesn't support the alpha channel so as far as I'm concerned it's useless. >> Larry's suggestion of looking at Robert's package is a good one. E-mail the author and state your needs. He doesn't log into CIS but does have an Internet address.
#171538From: david W. mennenohMay 23, 1995 6:33 PM
Yeah, it was a great idea. I just need alpha. Can you think of _any_ use for these without alpha? I'll email him and see what he thinks.
#171060From: Mike White SunDog Pro.May 20, 1995 2:01 PM
David are you using Flames or Vapors. Some thing with the secondary motion scrogs with LenZFX. Mike White [SDP]
#171126From: david W. mennenohMay 21, 1995 10:33 AM
>> David are you using Flames or Vapors. Some thing with the secondary >> motion scrogs with LenZFX. Thanks for the tip Mike, but no I'm not using anything but LenZFX. Rebooting my machine seemed to fix the problem though. I haven't pinned anything down but I'm going to see if I can today. DM
#171147From: Mike White SunDog Pro.May 21, 1995 1:53 PM
What about checking if it attributed the *.lzf files on your hard drive you as hidden. This seems to happen with my version. Mike
#171372From: david W. mennenohMay 22, 1995 11:03 PM
Thanks for the help Mike. I dl'd the LenZFX tech notes and I think it's a pretty simple thing. Based on the notes, I think it has to do with rendering the same frame more than once when doing test renders. For some reason, after doing a frame, you have to move off of it and can then go back to it. I've just been going up or down a frame and it seems to be working. Weird. Now if aura would just anti-alias, these rolling edges I'm getting because of it are crap. I'm having to render the KF scene twice to get nice edges. Luckily it's a simple scene. Thanks again. DM
#171505From: Mike White SunDog Pro.May 23, 1995 3:02 PM
Your welcome. Hopefully these little quarks will be fixed in the next release. Mike
#171593From: PATRICK KEILHOLZMay 24, 1995 1:14 AM
Perhaps someone can help me with a couple of bugs I have noticed with LenZFX. Best IPAS ive used so far but two problems exist: 1. When setting the 3DS mouse speed to 1(fastest) I've noticed that upon opening LenZFX my cursor is moved to the top-left corner of the screen and is locked there until I ESC out of LenZFX. Setting the cursor to 2 in 3DS remedies the problem. I believe this started occuring just after I upgraded from 3DS rel4 to rel4c1. Do I need to re-modify 3ds .set file. I did make sure to have OUTPUT RENDER-Coords=ON and VPOST-ZBUFFER=Yes already. 2. Ive noticed when setting STARLIGHT effect area to BY OBJECT and setting effect by to BRIGHTNESS, all objects in the scene are subjected to the STARLIGHT effect instead of just the object I selected. I've only had LenZFX for a couple of weeks and love it. A solution to these to problems would be great. Thanks in advance.
#171105From: James BieblMay 20, 1995 11:47 PM
David Are you rendering a _single_ test frame each time? I've noticed I have to render a _sequence_ of frames to insure the getting the correct test results. Sometimes it gets it right doing one frame….but not always. JB