#ScreamerNet Image Maps
6 messages in this thread
Am I missing something, or do I need a wasteful workaround.
I have a 12 second, captured clip on my PAR, saved as an animation. I have
several objects in my scene that I would like to map with different offsets
into the clip, so that it looks as though each object is showing something
different.
If I load a sequence with the same name for each image map, and a different
offset for each object's image map, things work ok: clip. offset -59, clip.
offset – 119, clip. offset -179, etc. Each is set to loop so the action appears
continuous. It works.
When I transfer to ScreamerNet, it looks as though only the last offset is
accepted, and all the objects map with this offset. I don't want to make
multiple copies of the clip and then assign the proper offsets, but it looks
like the only way I can do it. I'm not concerned about the image memory, but
the PAR space.
Anybody got a better idea?
Elliot
Elliot,
I know what is happening, but first a question…
Are your image sequences named the same in LightWave, but use different
letters capitalized in the file name for the different objects?
The trick is that AmigaDos treats files named this way (eg. Fire.001 and
fiRe.001 as the same file (which they are), but LW treats them as two
separate image sequences. Remember that since offset information is saved
in the object file, you must save all of the different objects using the
same sequence….In order for this to work, you must have a different
surface name for each object using the appropriate sequence (Fire or fiRe)
and each object must be saved with a different name
LightWave always uses the values for the last surface loaded (if the same
surface name but different settings from previous incarnations) which
would include the offset data.
If all of this is kosher, I would bet that the conversion of the sequences
to ScreamerNet names is coming out the same on the ScreamerNet side….
Let me know which it is.
Also, do you mind if I use this in a column some day?
JG
John,
Thanks for the great seminars in Hawaii.
What I have is a cube which I call World. Each side has a different surface
name: WorldTop, WorldBottom, World1, World2, etc. I have an image sequence
called WorldClips.
The image sequence is 300 frames. I only want to map World1, World2, World3,
World4. In the Images panel, I loaded WorldClips with an offset of -59 with a
loop of 300, WorldClips with an offset of -119 and a loop of 300, and so on. In
the Surface requester, I just pick the next version of the sequence for each
surface.
Like I said, it worked on the Amiga side, it didn't on the SN side.
Having spent many years on the PC side of the world, the concept of reloading
the same-named file, multiple times is not something I'd normally consider, but
I noticed once that I'd accidentally loaded an image file twice into LW and the
system didn't complain.
I see what you're getting at and I'll try using different capitalization and
see if it works on the SN side. It'll be real interesting to see if some of the
"quirks" of the Amiga can be implemented on the new platforms.
Of course, you can use this as a topic for your column.
Elliot
Try the capitalization thing and let me know what happens…
JG
John,
As usual, you know of what you speak. Reloading the sequence, with a
capitalization change for each load, worked accross the SN. I wonder what kind
of algorithm NewTek uses to map the file names. They must use some kind of
mathematical substitution scheme because I'm not aware of Windows NT being able
to save mixed-case file names with the 8.3 scheme they're using.
As an aside, its a real bummer when it takes longer to load the images accross
the SN than it takes to render the frame. It would be nice if they could find a
way to cache sequence images on the rendering machine so they're where they
have to be when they're needed. Next time you talk to Alan, see if he can find
some extra processor cycles to pre-load images. It's amazing where you can find
bottlenecks!
Thanks for the solution.
Elliot
Glad it worked.
NewTek and Allen are aware of the SN problems with images and I'm sure
things will be smoother in the future. For now, it's not even worth it to
do scenes that don't take very long to render on Amiga side because of
the file transfer time add in.
JG