CompuServe Thread

#Please Help: Net Render

9 messages in this thread
#192764From: Robert C. RitgerSep 27, 1995 1:07 AM
Paul: Your original message is still around, just set your date back to before 9/24 and you'll be able to see it. It is forum policy to refrain from deleting messages, they scroll off after about 2-1/2 weeks. Did you get my message #192338? I had popped you a couple of questions so we could get to the bottom of this bitmap problem you are having. BTW, which CIS software are you using? I ask only because your last message started a new thread. Did you use the REPLY command? This will keep our conversation in order and will be much easier to back track to check what things we've tried. Anyway, here's my first message: >> There are a few possibilities for the problem you have. Could it be that you have more than one bitmap file with the same name? Possibly one on your main workstation, one on your server? When you render the view on on the network workstations are you rendering to the same resolution as your main workstation? Rendering to fields? Rendering to same file type? Same number of colors? With a little more info I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this one. << Let me know what you come up with and we'll get you going. Also, what is the resolution of the bitmap you are using for the map on your ground object? Bitmaps can get real fuzzy if they are not sufficiently high resolution. This will be extremely obvious if you use a low-res tiled bitmap to simulate a ceiling grid or floor pattern and then view it from an acute angle similar to what you are describing with your site. In these cases I opt for a much higher res bitmap or sometimes I'll forego the bitmap and actually model the geometry if it isn't too time consuming. Is your ground bitmap tiled over a large area or does it cover the whole site? – Bob Ritger
#193180From: Paul DomzalSep 29, 1995 2:27 PM
Bob Since I can't again locate previous messages related to "Map problem in net rend" (it seems that some other net rendering problem has surfaced there), I'm using this message now. My rendering problem seems to be much more serious than I originally thought. What I did is remove all the objects from the scene but the ground object and remove all materials from the ground object. Guess what? The object still renders OK from the screen but blurry (now around the edges) on the network. I think the problem is that the size of the ground object is very much larger than the distance of the camera from the object and that the camera's is at a sharp angle to the object (ie the camera field of view is grazing the gound). What is very unnerving about all this is that the problem occurs only in net rendering but does not seem to be caused by configuration (I net render on the master machine for these tests). If we cannot fix this problem, than I have a question: how do I create a moving horizon line in an animation (ie because the horizon line moves, I don't think it can be represented by a background bitmap). Bob, I have been struggling with this for more than a week now and have fallen catastrophically behind my schedule. I NEED to resoslve this problem ASAP! Thanks. PD.
#193185From: Chris NormanSep 29, 1995 2:49 PM
Video Post
#193222From: Robert C. RitgerSep 29, 1995 7:51 PM
Paul: Your messages are still around, you can see them if you set your date back a couple of days. Did you catch my comments back to you with regard to your posted images? You can call me at work and we can hash this thing out. I'll e-mail you my phone number. Upload your project to the library here with everything stripped down to just the ground object and all of the lighting and cameras, etc. You say that even the ground alone is rendering fuzzy on the network right? I'm going to be interested in seeing from which viewport you are rendering from, what type of shadows are cast if any (you've tried rendering with shadows off, right?) and from which module you are rendering from. – Bob Ritger
#193238From: Paul DomzalSep 29, 1995 9:40 PM
Bob One of your colleagues at the Autodesk NJ center (I believe his last name is Blaha but I lost the note that I made) has helped me solve the problem. The ground object's faces were too large relative to everything else in the scene. The fix was to replace the ground object with a grid with many smaller faces. I can't now believe that we all spent so much time on such a simple fix but I'm happy that it's done. Thanks for help. PD. PS: I'll delete the two images from the library since they are no longer needed.
#193262From: Jonas Ruikis [ADESK]Sep 30, 1995 12:56 AM
Hi Paul, << One of your colleagues at the Autodesk NJ center (I believe his last name is Blaha >> That was Grant Blaha and myself, here in northern cal. I'm glad it's working. jonas[adesk]
#193306From: Robert C. RitgerSep 30, 1995 3:08 PM
Paul: Alright then, thanks Grant! Actually, I don't work for Autodesk, I'm an architect and I work for The Hillier Group. Your project looked very interesting and I'd love to see the finished product. Don't hesitate to upload an image or two. – Bob Ritger
#193319From: [F] Grant Blaha [Adesk]Sep 30, 1995 6:15 PM
Thanks Paul. For everyone's edification, the fuzzy ground effect seemed to be caused by the relatively large faces of the ground plane when compared to the angle of the camera. I believe the lighting calculations were exceeding the 9 significant digit math precision, causing essentially random rounding errors and a noticable streaking and smearing of the face texture map. The answer was to break the ground plane up into a grid of smaller triangles. I am still puzzled as to why it worked in direct rendering, but not in network rendering. -Grant Blaha [ADESK]
#193327From: Robert C. RitgerSep 30, 1995 6:45 PM
Grant: Obviously this one had/has me baffled. I hadn't run into anything like this with the exception being shadow maps which fuzz up and smear when they are too small. Could this be related as I recall placing my lightsource (often emulating the sun) very far away from my geometry? – Bob Ritger