CompuServe Thread

#R3 Render

30 messages in this thread
#63038From: Mark BessetteOct 23, 1993 9:57 PM
I installedR3 a couple of days ago. it looked ok but I have some problems. I'm using Vibrant driver for IBM 8514A Graphics board.Display is set for 256 colors at 640×480. When I render an object it looks terriible. It looks as if there aren't enough colors or something. I went back to R2 and everything looks Ok. Any suggestions?
#63065From: John TissavaryOct 24, 1993 12:05 AM
Have you adjusted the gamma correction settings properly? There is a description on how to do this in the installation guide. If incorrectly adjusted you're images could appear too dark or too light.
#63079From: Mark BessetteOct 24, 1993 10:27 AM
I tried to adjust display gamma but I'm having problems with that too. The small box on the display gamma is dark or light. It is dark at any settings from 1.99 and below. When I get to 2.00 the box shifts to a light gray. There doesn't seem to be a close match. I've set the gamma at 2.00. I'm going to turn the gamma off and see what happens.
#63080From: Mark BessetteOct 24, 1993 10:49 AM
I turned display gamma off. rendering in the materials editor seems ok but a little dark. I've set my display as bright as I can without the lettering bluring. I'm not sure what is happening but maybe 3ds is using 16 colors to render? mark
#63146From: MARTIN G FOSTEROct 24, 1993 8:00 PM
I suggest deleting your 3dadi.cfg, running 3ds vibcfg, and going through the main-display, render-disply and materials display again. Do a video mode TEST on each choice. When you are in 3ds make sure your device is VIBRANT. Let me know if it helps.
#63147From: Mark BessetteOct 24, 1993 8:08 PM
I'll give it a try. I won't be able to try it until tue. night . I'll let you know if it works then.
#63345From: Mark BessetteOct 25, 1993 8:27 PM
Martin, I did get a chance to try your suggestion Monday night. I deleted 3dadi.cfg and ten ran 3ds vibcfg. I went through the main display, render-display and materials display again. I picked 640×480 256 colors for each with the VIBRANT driver for my board (8514A). Unfortunately I still have the same symptoms. Can't seem to pick a correct display-gamma and the colors are all blocked-up. It seems to work fine with gamma off. I am losing about 2 Meg of RAM. I only have 8 so it hurts. Is this normal? I have QEMM but I haven't done anything since installing R3. I lost about the same in R2 but I was using Turbo DLD for my graphics board. mark
#63374From: MARTIN G FOSTEROct 25, 1993 10:50 PM
Mark, I don't have any other ideas. If you tested the video mode during the 3ds vibcfg stage and it looked OK, then I'm not sure what it's doing wrong inside the package. What gamma do you the main display set at? My monitors seem to be around 1.1 for display and my targa+ 16/32 I just assume 2.2 for NTSC. I have 16mb (16384 bytes) in my 486/50 and 3dsr3 reports 14832, so I'm losing 1.5mb. You might want to read the performance and installation guide on how to configure pharlap. FWIW, some bios' steal a few hundred K's to put something in; also, some software cache programs (like Smartdrive) may steal some RAM. Release 3 will chew up 8mb of ram in no time flat! If you find yourself paging a lot, it's highly recommended to get more RAM.
#63403From: John TissavaryOct 26, 1993 2:09 AM
BTW, how do you turn Targa's gamma correction off to arrive at 2.2? If I do 2.2 everything looks like utter CR*P. Thanks, John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
#63496From: MARTIN G FOSTEROct 26, 1993 1:59 PM
It's probably more a case of what I do _not_ do. I just boot-up with the targa+ driver and run tmode 11. I don't do anything else. Seems like running other commands will cause gamma correction to be used. I'm just guessing I don't know much about it. I may even have to RTFM <g>.
#63654From: John TissavaryOct 27, 1993 2:45 AM
I do the same thing, but when I set gamma in 3DS it acts like there's already correction going on. And when I run TCONFIG it shows some sort of gamma correction.
#63728From: MARTIN G FOSTEROct 27, 1993 1:00 PM
sounds like I really need to read the manuals – don't want double gamma-correction!
#63827From: John TissavaryOct 27, 1993 10:58 PM
Today I reset the gamma to 2.2 and it looks much better than gamma OFF, double gamma or not. Perhaps without hitting "DO MODE" in TCONFIG it leaves gamma correction off. Anyone out there know the answer? The manual is very vague about this.
#63851From: MARTIN G FOSTEROct 28, 1993 12:12 AM
John Ellis suggested rebooting and starting the targa+ with "tmode 11 6" command to switch off gamma correction. Give it a try. I will try it too.
#63994From: John TissavaryOct 28, 1993 6:38 PM
What does the "6" do?
#63607From: Mark BessetteOct 26, 1993 9:09 PM
Thanks for your input. Monday Autodesk is going to be in Boston for a kickoff forum on R3. I think I'll output to video, see how it looks and bring it to to this forum. Maybe someone from Autodesk will be able to help. Your right about R3 eating up memory. I need a new computer but can't get one until next year. When I find out what's causing the problem I'll let you know.
#63633From: Yost GroupOct 27, 1993 12:19 AM
What does your framebuffer gamma setting end up being after you match the grey pattern with the surrounding grey field? Don't assume that your gamma is 2.2 without having them match at 2.2. If you can't get them to match, try to turn the gamma correction in your video chain (framebuffer, encoder, whatever) OFF, and if you can't do that, turn off gamma correction in 3DS. The worst thing in the world to do is gamma correct an image TWICE. You should definitely read the section about gamma correction in the AUG that comes with r3. Regarding the Boston forum, there won't be any tech support people there. – G
#64181From: David J. MarksOct 29, 1993 4:07 PM
>>The worst thing in the world to do is gamma correct an image TWICE. Have you gotten any feedback from Truevision on disabling built-in correction on Targa+ cards? – Dave
#64272From: Yost GroupOct 30, 1993 9:44 AM
Sure have. We've been talking about it here in the forum for a few days now (have you seen the message threads about it?). Basically, the problem (according to Jamie at Truevision) is that using tconfig automatically invokes the gamma correction circuitry. Just don't use it, and use tmode (ie: tmode 11) instead. If you must use tconfig, he says that you can turn off gamma correction by doing a: targedit lutByp 1 (or lutBypass 1). Since I use an old Targa24, I can't test this here, but the consensus is that it seems to work.
#64596From: David J. MarksNov 1, 1993 4:14 PM
>>We've been talking about it here in the forum for a few days now >> (have you seen the message threads about it?) – G Welp… thanks to Tapcis, I read and replied to some threads, then saved some of the 500 messages for later… and tried to make money for a while. I finally read them over the weekend. Thanks muchly for the update. (Just curious… how much time per week do you dedicate to CIS?)
#64623From: Yost GroupNov 1, 1993 6:02 PM
Gary usually spends a LOT of time on Cserve–except for now. He's just unplugged for all of November and won't be back online until December 1st.
#64710From: David J. MarksNov 2, 1993 10:02 AM
>>Gary usually spends a LOT of time on Cserve I find myself spending over 8 hours a week! There's so much going on! I'm curious how much time the rest of the world devotes to CIS-Asoft. Time for that speed reading class…
#64597From: David J. MarksNov 1, 1993 4:14 PM
>> Since I use an old Targa24, I can't test this here, but the consensus >>is that it seems to work. – G Aaaaaarrrrrghh… My two Targa+ 64's must be the only two in the known universe that don't follow the rules! Following are my only lines pertaining to Targa configuration: CONFIG.SYS: Device=C:\TPLUS\TARGAP.SYS MD D6 I220 AUTOEXEC.BAT: C:\tplus\tmode 11 3DS.BAT set RDPADI=c:\3ds\drivers\rdptplus.exp When I run 3ds, select the gamma control d-box and set frame-buffer gamma, the boxes ALWAYS match at 1.01 — nowhere near the expected 2.0-2.2! Please tell me I'm not crazy…
#64625From: Yost GroupNov 1, 1993 6:03 PM
Sorry David. You'll have to wait until December to find out about your sanity. – J
#64711From: David J. MarksNov 2, 1993 10:02 AM
>>You'll have to wait until December to find out about your sanity. NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo!!!! They're coming to take me away! Ha ha!
#64701From: David RhotenNov 2, 1993 9:20 AM
That's odd, because I switched (my Targa+64) from using a TConfig generated batch file to just TMode 11, and I DEFINITELY see a difference. I won't say that I think the two rectangles look "alike" at 2.2, but it did shift "closer", and the 1.0 center square is muy darker now. So, I'm sorry David, but you're crazy!<g> Dave
#64853From: David J. MarksNov 3, 1993 9:32 AM
>>So, I'm sorry David, but you're crazy!<g> Maybe not, thank heavens! In a voice conversation with John Ellis, we came to the conclusion that composite NTSC monitors may be the source of my problem. He reproduced my results on his NTSC monitor, but WAS able to make the grey boxes work on an RGB monitor (without changing a thing on the Targa board). I may attempt to borrow a studio monitor to "calibrate" my systems, until we can afford to buy a better one.
#63877From: David HoganOct 28, 1993 7:01 AM
Where and when will 3DS Boston pitch be?
#63884From: Ted BoardmanOct 28, 1993 8:19 AM
PMJI, The place is The Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St. Cambridge. I believe it is at 9 am but you can call Tamar at Wentworth 617.442.9010 x376 if Mark doesn't correct me by Friday.
#63989From: Mark BessetteOct 28, 1993 6:19 PM
The Boston (actually Cambridge) forum (pitch) is at the Charles Hotel, One Bennett St. It's about 3 or 4 blocks from Harvard Sq. It runs from 8:30 – 11:00. You should call 800-225-1149 to register.