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Author Topic: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material  (Read 12829 times)

RJ1367

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Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« on: June 21, 2008, 10:42:12 AM »
Hi Guys

I have read quite a couple of posts about this but am still unsure how to resolve my problem(s)

Set up

VIZ 2008
Forest Pro 3.0
mr Sky
mr Sun
Mental Ray

I have a large landscape and the problem is when aerial perspective is turned on (which is quite vital for this project) a box appears around the trees in the middle distance with the background showing darker through the opacity map. There are no issues with any trees on the horizon conflicting with the mr Sky.

The materials all have "Fast Opacity" unchecked- turning this on removes the box but the problem is then the horizon showing through the trees which has been discussed on the forum and I believe is an Autodesk issue.

Having read some post I thought the problem might be solved by using planes material. However when I chose planes material and then select a tree from the library nothing shows up in the mat editor. The navigator shows a red mark against the Mbase mat.

The procedure I'm using for planes material is as follows. New material in editor->Planes Material->[navigate to Forest Library] select tree from library. And then nothing displayed in the mat editor.

The hierarchy is as follows:

eg:

(Planes Material)
Mbase: acer_opalus (Forst Material 3)
Mbase: basemat (standard) *red dot against this*
Diffuse Color: texture (acer_opallus.jpg)
Opacity: opacity (acer_opalus_o.gif)

I have tried many different combinations of applying a forest material to a planes material with no luck.

Cheers

Geoff




iToo

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2008, 10:56:28 AM »
Hi,

1.- Don't use "Planes Material" with Forest 3, that plugin is included only for compatibility with old Forest 2 scenes. Use always "Forest Material 3".

2.- Install Forest 3.02 beta. We have fixed many Mental Ray issues, including aerial perspective and mr Photographic Exposure compatibility. For most scenes, is not longer needed to disable "Fast Opacity", and we have improved the rendering speed with MR.

Please, see here for details and instructions to download it:

http://www.itoosoft.com/forum/index.php?topic=150.0

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

RJ1367

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2008, 04:12:32 PM »
Thanks Carlos

I downloaded the update but it now causes every scene to crash when I try to render:

Warning - the software has encountered a problem (etc etc)

Assertion Error Information

In file:'.FShader.cpp'
Line: 227


Geoff

iToo

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2008, 06:34:59 PM »

This is a common error when the version of MR shader (fshader3.dll) doesn't match with the plugin (ForestPackPro.dlo). Please try this:

- Create a empty folder at C:\viztest
- Install Forest 3.02 there, selecting "3DS Max 9 / Viz 2008 (32 bits)".
- Check if these files are the same that the existing at your Viz installation (use file size and date for checking). If not, overwrite them:

C:\viztest\plugins\ForestPackPro.dlo
C:\viztest\mentalray\shaders_autoload\include\FShader3.mi
C:\viztest\mentalray\shaders_autoload\shaders\FShader3.dll

I just installed Forest 3.02 patch on my Viz 2008, and updated it correctly...  but may be it failed on your installation.

Please, post here the results, to know if there is some problem with the installer and we must fix it.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

RJ1367

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2008, 08:48:17 PM »
All the files were updated with the exception of the  plugin.ini file.

The download does not update this file in the main Viz folder (the one in there is 286 bytes the one with the download is 218).

I swapped the two over and put the new plugin.ini in the main folder. On start up I got a warning  that Forest Pro had a duplicate ID. Viz would run but the same warning displayed when I tried to render.

I have swapped back to the original plugin.ini file for now, and all is as it was before- crashing on render.

iToo

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2008, 10:32:10 PM »

Don't overwrite the plugin.ini, is not needed.

If all files are correct, then must be other problem, although in our tests we cannot to reproduce the error. Can you verify on the About Box that Forest is 3.02b version ?

Can you send me a test scene that fail ? Remove non-essential objects to reduce scene's size.

Thanks,
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

RJ1367

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #6 on: June 21, 2008, 10:40:27 PM »
I'll send a reduced file over

Thanks

Geoff

RJ1367

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #7 on: June 21, 2008, 10:56:28 PM »
Hi Carlos I have just sent a file over. The scene is one plane with lighting, camera and some trees and replicates the crash (at least at my end).

The scene will render until you apply a forest material and then it crashes.

Thanks

Geoff

iToo

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #8 on: June 21, 2008, 10:58:09 PM »

Thanks. Have you verified that your Forest version is 3.02 (see About Box) ?

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

RJ1367

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #9 on: June 21, 2008, 11:00:25 PM »
Yes sorry was just checking that

About box:

Forest Pro 3.02b

and then my Licence details

iToo

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #10 on: June 21, 2008, 11:19:52 PM »

Well, your scene renders fine here. Must be an installation error or something really strange...

Please, try this:

- Delete ForestPackPro.dlo, FShader3.mi and FShader3.dll from your Viz folder. Use Windows search if necessary, to be sure that there are not other copies.
- Load the scene. You must get a missing plugins error. If not, please tell me.
- Install Forest 3.0 (doesn't install the license)
- Install Forest 3.02b

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

RJ1367

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #11 on: June 21, 2008, 11:25:13 PM »
Ok thanks I'll follow your instructions and report back. I'm hoping it is an installation error and not "something really strange" in my experience those are the worst :)

Geoff

RJ1367

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #12 on: June 21, 2008, 11:33:05 PM »
No luck.

I removed the files as you suggested, loaded the scene and got the error message missing plugins.

Re-installed forest pro, updated to 3.02, loaded the scene, and it crashed on render with the same error message.


iToo

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #13 on: June 21, 2008, 11:57:49 PM »

Ok, Please try the attached MR shader (FShader3.dll).

It must display additional information about the error.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

RJ1367

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Re: Aerial Perspective/Planes Material
« Reply #14 on: June 22, 2008, 01:48:46 AM »
Carlos- this shader has solved the problem! :D

All scenes render fine and there is no longer the problem of any boxes around the trees in the middle ground. This shader makes a big difference to the renders (perhaps part of the 3.02 update?).- the trees are rich with colour from just the mr sun (I thought I may have had to use additional lighting with 3.0). It works absolutely perfectly.

Thanks a lot for sorting this out, you and your guys are superb. I was beginning to panic a little as we're a bit pushed for time on the project. Thanks again

Geoff