Material Rectangle - new issue to me 2004-05-13 - By Richard R. "Remnar"
Back
Speaking of material rectangles, I am wondering if the memory issue from
version 4.x ever got fixed?
Ill explain. In version 3.x, material rectangles were fast and didnt take up
much memory even on large scale objects. Thus I was able to render this city
scene pretty fast.
http://www.geocities.com/element8mm/3d/scifi_02.jpg
Now I pulled the scene into version 4.3 and tried to render it on a dual p2
with 256 ram and it was slow and before it finished, the system ran out of
memory.
-- -- Original Message -- --
From: "Kris Krieger" <pterochromics@(protected)>
To: <truespace@(protected)>
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 9:43 AM
Subject: Re: [TSML] Material Rectangle - new issue to me
> Since I never could get "channels" to work worth a hang (and, yes, I
> followed all instructions, but always got these ugly "black halos"
outlining
> everything), I've resorted to "Stupid Graphics Ttricks" and make a simple
> black-and-white mask for transparencies.
>
> There are various ways to make the B&W image but, once you have it, what
> I've found works best is to reduce colors to two but then increase them
> again to 16 and save as a *.BMP file. The reason is that the BMP format
> *only* stores that info, whereas TGA and JPG insist on saving every image
as
> either a 16-million color image or a 256 color greyscale image. I've
found
> the the BMP files are the "smallest" and also that they load and render
the
> fastest. WHen using this sort of "stencil", "transparency map", or
whatever
> it's technically called, remembner to UN-check "filter" in the materials
tool.
>
> ALSO: Note that, if you use Layered Materials (which I do all the time),
> White is the opaque area that shows up, *but* on layers 2 and above,
*black*
> is opaque. I have no idea why it works like that, it just does.
>
> Don't forget =:-) that these "transparency maps" can also be applied to
> layers 2 and above of the bump tool and the reflectance tool!
>
> For making odd and/or complex material effects, you also can use a
greyscale
> (16 shades or higher, as you like) image to "phase in/out" bump and
> reflectance effects over a material's surface. For example, you can make
a
> "scrubby" desert-type ground by layering different "transparency maps"
using
> different textures, bumps, and reflectances on each layer. The height of
> your bumps also influences what will and will not show.
>
> HTH for any other "alpha-channel challenged" folks out there =:-o <G!>
>
> - Kris Krieger
>
>
>
> At 11:46 AM 10-05-04 -0400, Michael C Horner wrote:
> >A long question deserves a short answer: Use a TGA file with the areas
you
> >want transparent masked off for your Material Rectangle. A JPG file can't
> >store any mask channels like a TGA can. Creating the TGA is something
you'll
> >have to do in your 2D program of choice (Photoshop, etc).
> >
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