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[Steve]

Check out build 1121 that fixed a lot of bugs in materials with multiple textures!

[neirao]

Very nice PNG render in Raytracer transparency work now in "BUILD 1122" thanks !!

Steve, is possible in nexts builds EXPORT IMAGES /IMAGES SEQUENCE to .PNG
WITH TRANSPARENCY PIXELS EMBED in the png files??

[thecolclough]

BUG REPORT: movies exported as a PNG sequence generate separate RGB and Alpha files per frame, instead of a single combined image.  (i think this is what neirao is talking about as well)

i set up a test scene (as threatened earlier) using 3 different layers, and tried rendering it as a PNG sequence; the same parameters which i had used in the still-image renderer to save a single RGB+Alpha file (PNG, RGBA, Image + Alpha) instead produced 2 files per frame.

on a related note, i've noticed that when you export a movie using Image + Alpha, any empty areas default to black in the RGB channels, instead of obeying the background colour set for the scene's environment.  This could lead to unsightly dark edges around different render layers when they are composited in post-production, so could it be altered to fill empty areas with the user-defined background colour like it does when rendering without Alpha?

also while setting up my test file, i found the Options -> Layers dialogue is still missing from scene mode.  not sure if that's deliberate or not?

[Trevor]

Oh My... I just got 1121 to open.

I was messing around with a different video card that allows dual screen in 98 (the 9700 Pro) as the x800 while works on primary screen doesnt support the secondary unfortunatly.

When using single monitor the 9700 has all the same drivers and OGL stuff that the x800 has, just a little slower.
So, when I ran 1121 it still didnt start.

HOWEVER...

When running the 9700 in a dual monitor configuration, an8 says its using OGL1.1 instead of 1.5.
Just out of curuiosity I tried 1121 and voala... IT WORKS

So, OGL 1.5 is broken in 1121

Now to test these CAD amd layer features Ive been dying to try

Trev

[cooldude234]

98!?!?!?
Darn, and I was told I was living in the past with a laptop running xp still

[Steve]

Trevor: Anim8or does not choose what version of OpenGL to use - it's simply reporting what your computer is using. When you use two monitors with the 9700 Pro it's driver only supports 1.1.  What do the "OpenGL Vendor" and "OpenGL Version" in the About->System Info dialog say? Doh! It's in your screen capture...

So what's happening is that you are not using the graphics card at all. The vendor is Microsoft, which means that you are running completely in software, no hw acceleration at all. Microsoft wants OpenGL to die and for everyone to switch to Direct3D so they haven't updated their OpenGL code in more that 15 years.

It's probably your dual monitors that are causing the OS to fall back to software OpenGL. There was no official support for dual monitors in Win98 and all the vendors  did what they could to get it to work, often reverting to Microsoft's sw OpenGL.


(I didn't even know that Win98 was still legal!!!  )

[cooldude234]

Microsoft wants OpenGL to die and for everyone to switch to Direct3D so they haven't updated their OpenGL code in more that 15 years.

Ewww, direct3d!
I do know Mesa3D has a software version of opengl that supports 2.0 (possibly 3.0 now). But I don't know if you have to link to it during compile or you can just replace opengl's run-time library (.dll) by copying the mesa3D opengl32 to the same folder as the exe just like with the windows version.

EDIT: there are also a few other alternatives to software rendering with opengl just so you know

[Steve]

I don't want to use SW acceleration. HW acceleration is always better. 99% of today's Windows computers support it in some form for WinXP and later, more like 100% for Vista and beyond. Trevor is using Win98 in a way that Microsoft never supported. The 9700 Pro's support of dual monitors is a testament to a lot of work by ATI (and I'm an NVIDIA fan so I don't say something nice about ATI without a good reason ).

[Steve]

neirao:

Steve, is possible in next builds EXPORT IMAGES /IMAGES SEQUENCE to .PNG
WITH TRANSPARENCY PIXELS EMBED in the png files??

Yes, this will work in the next build. All you need to do is check the RGBA box (which is the default) and select the .png format. Somebody in the Anim8or Software Department forgot to pass that information from the movie rendering code to the image saving code.

[Trevor]

Hmm... so... that explains a lot. Thats why games slow down in extended desktop mode.
Apart from Superfast an8, its always fast even on a 233Mhz CPU of my laptop I used to use.

Ok, so, whenever I use the 9700 or the x800 in single monitor config with full HW accelleration an8 dies after v1103 (Of which prior and inclusive of 1103 all work flawlessly in both HW and SW modes).

With that in mind and the OGL version is irellevent, what could be the cause of the fail of builds 1108-1122?

I mean, I only jumped on OGL because of the version difference.

I Suppose, the other difference is all the ARB Extensions in HW mode.

"(I didn't even know that Win98 was still legal!!!   )"
hahaha, I have a lot of legacy stuff and while I can tripple boot into 7 and 8 as well, An8 refuses to load in those OS's (Any version of an8) hence I always use 98 for modeling and server. Basicly, I loaded 8 for testing purposes before giving tech support on it, and I loaded 7 for the same reason.
One little caviat to these 2 OS's is internet TV which now no longer works in IE6 and flash 11 on 98.


As for CAD stuff, amazing, Im really enjoying the features.

The default layer and copying from layer to same layer is great.
Didnt you say there was some sort of click combo to set default in the toolbar? So far I cant find it and I have to use the Options>Layers dialoge.

I love DebugA Mode.

My Next suggestion to basicly call the DebugA mode complete is to add angles like in a picture I posted in the CAD thread.
90' angles could be skipped or have the little square Right Angle symbol.
In addition to the numbers you could embrace them within a coloured ark (say red, so its different to the legnths) and if the ark is too big for the line on screen then the text is removed untill you zoom in sufficiantly to allow the text to show within the ark.

I havnt tested all this PNG stuff as I have no use for it.

Trev

P.S. I have just throught of another suggestion.
Can we set a default preferance for Texture mode so that I can have all new mtls 'Darken' instead of decal.
Darken is the default OGL and N64 way of using textures with diffuse colours.
I notice however others including yourself will want to keep using Decal. Im not sure why. Before I got into modeling I used the default but now I always use darken because it allows you to colour textures or shade them darker or bright depending on where they are.

EG, I can have 1 dry mud texture and darken it to 128 and it will now look like wet mud.

[neirao]

Thanks Steve,
yes i no saw before the "RGBA box"  yes for export SINGLE IMAGE WORKs!
PS:only for test i try export .png image after render in "object mode" and the " RGBA box" for transparent pixels no work..

[Steve]

Check out build 1124 with a few fixes and Layer support for Figure components.

[thecolclough]

just downloaded 1124 and re-tried my multi-layer PNG test scene.  it's now saving the RGBA frames correctly, but still generating Alpha-only files too.  not a huge issue as i can bulk-delete them afterwards, but still a bug of sorts (i think?)

also, not sure if this got through last time, or if so what you thought about it:

i've noticed that when you export a movie using Image + Alpha, any empty areas default to black in the RGB channels, instead of obeying the background colour set for the scene's environment.  This could lead to unsightly dark edges around different render layers when they are composited in post-production, so could it be altered to fill empty areas with the user-defined background colour like it does when rendering without Alpha?

?

[Steve]

thecolclough If you render a movie to RGBA .png files select only the image channel Anim8or makes full color RGB with the appropriate alpha channel. The background (where the alpha is 0) will be whatever color it is on the screen, which you can set to any color (or an image, etc) in the Scene->Properties dialog using the Environment button.

The black background and separate alpha images are created when you select Image+Alpha Channel which outputs both channels as you'd expect. The black background makes it possible to blend the images with another image an not result in a color fringe tinted the background color. This is not possible with the back ground color which can vary when you use an image or panorama.  See the user manual for how this works:
http://www.anim8or.com/learn/manual/7_scene_editor.html#the_alpha_channel

[thecolclough]

If you render a movie to RGBA .png files select only the image channel Anim8or makes full color RGB with the appropriate alpha channel.

That'll be what threw me - i assumed that if you selected Image only, it wouldn't include the alpha data.  thanks for clarifying.

The black background and separate alpha images are created when you select Image+Alpha Channel which outputs both channels as you'd expect. The black background makes it possible to blend the images with another image an not result in a color fringe tinted the background color. This is not possible with the back ground color which can vary when you use an image or panorama.

erm... i was about to protest that a black fringe is sometimes worse, but i suspect i've misinterpreted something here... *goes away to do a bit more reading about this compositing lark*