#ScreamerNet/Raptor Ships
20 messages in this thread
Glen,
Almost every problem I had went away after LW3.5. It still doesn't do clip maps
properly.
Elliot
Elliot,
Turn off all the buttons in the clip map screen and your problems should go
away! No Antialasing! No Blending! NO nothing!
Or, are you speaking of other clip problems?
GM
Glen,
Yes, there seems to be a clip map problem. I can render a scene properly using
the Toaster, but the scene doesn't render properly using ScreamerNet. All the
buttons are off, and the IFF files are in the proper format.
If I use several objects using the same clip, bump and surface maps, only some
of the objects render. I've tried separating them further apart and making sure
that the objects aren't in each others shadows.
I can even get the Raptor to consistently shut down on one scene. Newtek has
been no help and I've lost a lot of productivity trying to work around the
problem.
It makes no sense at all.
Thanks for the suggestion, though.
Elliot
Elliot,
I am still running 3.2, so all of the following message might be kinda
moot!
But, I have rounded the corner at work to find the Net stalled (locked
up) on a frame. At first I always would reboot the Amiga…but
then…
..I found that every scene always finished itself when I would render
at night. So, One day, when I saw the machine had stalled, I just
sat and watched the screen. A long ten minutes later, it unlocked
and continued to render!
Don't know why???!!!
I haven't sent a clip across yet, but I will try one soon.
As for Newtek, there is one guy I have gotten ahold of two times that
is super nice…I guess the rest of 'em are busy…. or tired….can
you imagine having a phone glued to your ear eight hours a day
hearing, "My toaster isn't this…a nd my toaster isn't that!!" I
would go nuts!!!!
Well, until later!
Gm
Glen,
Most of my lockup problems seem to have disappeared since I started using
LW3.5. There does seem to be a problem though, when I render to my VCR, but I
think it's a long standing problem anyway. Sometimes at the end of a rendered
scene, the screen just goes blank. It always happens at night, when I'm not
there, so I don't know the circumstances.
I think my Raptor is kind of flaky also. This afternoon, one of the processors
just stopped blinking and died. Resetting started it back up, but this seems to
be an annoying problem that just won't go away.
My PAR seems to have bit the dust, so now I'm forced to render to a Syquest and
single-frame from there.
There just doesn't seem to be any justice in the world. I guess I might try
working for a living.
Elliot
Elliot,
Hey, I have had that CPU problem myself…where it just
dies….hmmmmmmm,??? I wait until the second one finishes, shut the
Raptor down, and then restart only the Raptor.
Like you, I have no idea what's up!
GM
Elliot,
Also check and see if your image goes across the net into the raptor. You might
load it as a background image and see if it comes back.
If not, shorten the name of the image to eight characters (dot) three
characters. (xxxxxxxx.xxx) .
I had a problem with names being too long…even though LW "fixes" the problem.
GM
You've given me an idea. I don't know the protocol for how stuff gets
sent accross the net, but your message makes me think that maybe long
file names, sent in sequence, might be the problem. I generated two
clumps of objects and the first object in each clump gets rendered
properly, while the next four don't get rendered at all. There are
other objects sent between these two clumps, which leads me to think
that maybe I should try spacing the object names in the object list.
Sounds kink of screwy, but I'm ready to try anything. The scene just
doesn't look right using alternate objects.
I'll let you know.
Elliot
Glen,
Well, I've changed every filename to conform to the 8.3 format and SN
still chokes on a very simple scene. It shuts down one of the
processors. I guess I'll have to wait for the update.
Elliot,
Try one more thing….I don't know if this will do a darn thing, but
here goes…. Start up both systems….then, shut down the raptor
thru screamer net. Then turn off the Raptor's power. Turn it back
on. Go through the start up and shut down about three or four times.
You could have some downed files on the Raptor….and maybe NT will correct
them.
Hope it helps!!!
GM
Glen,
Every time I start up, I always click on Clear All Files, which should
do that. I understand that the new version of SN is shipping this
week. Maybe that will help.
I also read on the NewTek BBS that clip maps don't work well if the
object or the camera is moving. Well, in my scene, the camera is
doing a fly-by. I thought that motion, is what animation is all
about!
Elliot
RE Clip maps…
You may have problems with single plane clip maps beeing seen on edge
from the camera.. Other than that, they should work fine.. Always
make sure that you have Antialiasing off for the Clip Map.
Hmmm, I just thought of something… If the clip map edge is being
antialiased during the animation, there may be times when it could
render off. I'll ask Allen about that when we talk next…
PMFJI, but I've noticed an occasional problem when using clip masks
as gobos (metal foil patterns placed in front of a std spot to cast a
patterned shadow). Randomly, an occasional frame will render with a
slightly distorted shadow. To cite the most recent case, I had a
scene with 3 monitors stacked in front of a white cyc, lit by 2
shadow mapped lights, while a 3rd light cast a clip mapped pattern
against the cyc in the bkgd. (I was trying to simulate the typical
studio ligthting used for 'product shots') The first time I rendered
it, the pattern cast by the 3rd light flickered off for several
frames. Re-rendering the frames fixed the problem and I couldn't
duplicate it, so I just learned to live with the roblem. Recently, I
re-rendered the scene after changing the length and flight path of
the camera – I also used field rendering. This time, only one field
of the 180 frame scene fritzed out. Go figger.
Anyway, I'm not expecting an answer…I just thought you'd like to hear of
yet another 'unexplained mystery' to clip mapping.
Thanks, &
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Out of curiosity…
What size shadow map were you using? (Plus, I assume antialiasing was
turned off on the clip mape texture)
JG
You got me!…..I had both pixel blending & anti-aliasing activated…
My fault! I thought I'd turned it off for that clip map!
Thanks for pointing out the problem. I was aware of it, but just needed to
look at the scene again.
(BTW, figured it was a typo about the 4400/4600 thing. I don't even know
what the differece is? Bigger cache size, I've heard?)
Thanks, &
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
I understand what you're saying, but, I've rendered the collection of
objects from many different angles and only the topmost object
renders.
In talking to Allen Today, there should be no reason that clip maps
don't reliably render in an animation unless of course antialiasing
on the texture map is turned on
What? Motion in an animation? Are you crazy, man??!! :} Well,
maybe one day we'll see a bug free Lightwave!!! My Raptor shut down
the other day when I sent it a scene using a shadowmap! UGGGGGGGG!
I'll wait by the mailbox!
PMFJI, I can't help but ask you, which version of SN are they up to
now? They haven't sent me any upgrades since the first one! I know
they got me registered 'cause I've gotten my mousepads…
Polo,
Beats me. They've had me registered for about a month and were supposed to send
updates to all users. I talked to them yesterday and they promised to send me
an update. My serial number is under 100, so there can't be too many of us
around.
Elliot