Itoo Software Forum

RailClone => RailClone Pro (*) => Topic started by: GB2081 on January 29, 2016, 09:56:10 AM

Title: Transparent Material
Post by: GB2081 on January 29, 2016, 09:56:10 AM
Good morning!

I am currently facing an issue where I got stuck.
When I insert a custom built facade as a railclone object, the glass will not render transparent. The same scene has a simple 3dsMax box with exactly the same glassmaterial and renders correctly.
For better uderstanding, I attached a screenshot.

Where is my mistake? Would be great if someone could help me.
Thank you, Hari.
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: Paul Roberts on January 29, 2016, 11:21:43 AM
Hi,

Thanks for contacting us. I can't reproduce this problem here, would you mind sending me your file so I can take a closer look to ascertain what's going on? If you'd prefer not to share the files publicly please feel free to send it to support@itoosoft.com.

Many thanks!

Paul
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: GB2081 on January 29, 2016, 11:30:58 AM
Thank you Paul for your quick response.
Here´s the file without material and HDRI.
The glass material should work, there´s no bitmap used.
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: Paul Roberts on January 29, 2016, 12:37:59 PM
Hi,

Thanks for the file. I've tested it here and it still appears to be behaving correctly.

(http://i.imgur.com/FkJ8HRF.png)

But the wall object had an XRef material that I couldn't check. When I applied the glass material in the scene to the wall this is what I got. Are you sure the XRef material is the same?

Many thanks!

Paul
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: GB2081 on February 01, 2016, 04:17:25 PM
Hi Paul

I just checked the material, it´s fine.

So this is what I did now:
I opended the original RC-library file of my glass facade and did a render directly in this file. - This works fine!
Then I created a new scene and imported exactly the same facade with the RC-tools. - No transparency!

Please see the attached image.
And I also attached the original RC facade file.

Thank´s for your help.
Harald
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: Paul Roberts on February 01, 2016, 04:50:09 PM
Hi,

Are the materials saved in a separate .mat file? If so could you share the library with me too?. Ideally if you could send me the library's XML file or even zip the folder the contains the library and see me that it could be very helpful. I can't see a reason why this should happen. I've tested your file including importing it from the library and it all seems to work fine here.

Many thanks!

Paul
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: GB2081 on February 01, 2016, 05:20:10 PM
Very strange.... ???
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: Paul Roberts on February 02, 2016, 11:28:22 AM
Hi,

Thanks for the files, but I'm afraid I still can't reproduce the problem, I've also been discussing this with other members of the team and to our knowledge we haven't had any other reports of this issue. The odd thing is that RailClone doesn't affect the materials except that you can set the library to load a different material from a .mat file, which I can see from your XML isn't the case this time.

You can test to see if it's a RailClone issue by converting the the object to instanced meshes using RailClone tools. You can read about this here (http://docs.itoosoft.com/display/RAILCLONE/RailClone+Tools). If the problem persists after conversion then it's probably not related to RailClone as the object is now a standard mesh.

Also I can see also that you're using RailClone 2.3.4 and  I'm not sure which version of V-Ray but you could try installing the most recent versions. Though as I mentioned RC doesn't change materials so I'd be surprised if that's the problem.

Many thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: GB2081 on February 03, 2016, 10:00:01 AM
Hi Paul, I just did another check.

I set up a scene and referenced the railclone library file to this scene.
Then I imported the same railclone object into my scene via rc-tools.

The referecned facade works fine, the railclone imported facade has no transparency.

I will keep on trying and finding out.
Hari.
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: Paul Roberts on February 03, 2016, 10:28:43 AM
Hi Hari, that's really strange.

It's definitely the same material on both objects? If you sample the material from the working RC object and apply it to the problem one does it still not work? Also when you say rc-tools can I just confirm that you mean the library browser. I can't imagine why this doesn't work.

Sorry about this issue, I hope we can get to the bottom of it.

Thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: GB2081 on February 03, 2016, 11:02:52 AM
OK, I somehow got stuck.
But I found out, that it´s an issue with the multimaterial of rc objects.

Both renderings show an xref facade of the original rc library file in the background.
And both images show a rc-imported facade in the foreground.

Image 1
The objects of the rc library file use a single glass material. -> Transparency is fine

Image 2
The objects of the rc library file use a multimaterial where exactly the same glass material is part of it. -> Transparency is wrong. But only in the rc imported object.

That´s a bit annoying.
But maybe we find a solution
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: Paul Roberts on February 03, 2016, 11:18:24 AM
Could I ask which version of V-Ray you are using so I can try to reproduce the same conditions here. Am I correct in thinking that you're using RailClone 2.3.4?

Thanks!
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: GB2081 on February 03, 2016, 12:04:58 PM
Hi Paul, I´m using RC Pro 2.3.4 and Vray 3.00.03
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: Paul Roberts on February 03, 2016, 01:49:15 PM
Hi,

Could you send me a single scene in which contains both the correct and incorrect versions or the RC object.

Thanks!

Paul
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: GB2081 on February 03, 2016, 02:38:15 PM
Ok, here we are:

I uploaded an archive file.
Please open the "iTOO_HDRI_Exterior.max" File. There you will find one xrefed file. (No HDRI included)

"iToo_PR-Fassade.max" is my xrefed railclone library file. It contains 2 rc objects. The left one uses multimaterial, the right one has a single glass material which is exactly the same, used in multimaterial on the left.

When rendering, both xrefed facades appear transparant. But when I bring in the railclone objects into my "iTOO_HDRI_Exterior.max" (objects in the middle), only the non multimaterial works.

I hope I could describe it clearly.
Thanks.
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: Paul Roberts on February 03, 2016, 03:41:02 PM
Hi,

It is still rendering correctly for us but we're wondering if there is an issue resolving the X-Reffed material. Could it be possible there is another material with the same name? To test this, in the attached scene this we've merged the material (which works on our tests). I'd be interested to know if it works correctly for you too if you render it. You could also check the asset tracking window to see where the XReffed material is being found.

Thanks,

Paul
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: GB2081 on February 05, 2016, 10:39:26 AM
Hi Paul, it seems to work!  :)
But I don´t know at the moment what it means to my workflow.
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: Paul Roberts on February 05, 2016, 04:02:47 PM
OK, That's interesting. This suggests that your XReffed material may be coming from somewhere other than the intended file. You could try renaming the material to make sure it is not clashing with one saved elsewhere.

Thanks,

Paul.
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: GB2081 on February 19, 2016, 10:58:35 AM
Hello Paul,
sorry for my late reply. I was offline because of a flu.

There is definitely an issue with the xrefed material. When I render your provided file with the merged material, everything is fine.
But when I railclone the glass facade once again, both elements (old and new) get the xrefed material again and render wrong.

Even renaming the glassmaterial in the library file does not help.

So a workaround for this would be merging the material and get rid of the xref material. But how did you do that???



Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: GB2081 on February 19, 2016, 11:35:03 AM
And here is the scene again.
Two railclone objects. One with xrefed material, the other with merged material.
Title: Re: Transparent Material
Post by: Paul Roberts on February 19, 2016, 03:47:19 PM
Hi,

I'm really sorry you're still experiencing this issue, it's very strange because I still can't reproduce it. Even your supplied file renders fine for me with correct alpha information. Anyway if you want to merge in the x-reffed material you can open the References > XRef Objects menu, right click on the XReffed materials and select Merge in Scene.

(http://i.imgur.com/Q8b8SxK.png)

You can then check the material to make sure it has all the correct alpha settings which will help to determine if the material is actual the one on the source object or if it's being found somewhere else.

I hope that helps and that we can get to the bottom of this issue for you.

Thanks!

Paul