robcat2075

Wonderful! I like that there are lots of details for the eye to discover.

Normal maps are like Bump maps in that they only change the shading of the surface without actually changing the shape. I tend to use bump maps rather than Normal maps because they are easier to create in a paint program. Basic tips for Displacement maps: -The grayscale range of TGAs, PNGs and JPGs only has +/-127 steps so very slight slopes or slopes on large lumps can start to look stair-steppy. If you have a way to paint in a high dynamic range format like OpenEXR, that will allow you many more steps between zero and peak. -Extremely steep protrusions rarely work well with Displacement. -Displacements have a way of flickering in animation as the angle of the camera to the surface changes. I have found that can be mostly eliminated by rendering at triple size and scaling the finished render back down in post. For example a 640 x 480 image would be rendered at 1920 x 1440. In a normal Final render that will cause a noticeable render time hit. If you are using Multipass you can save some time by using fewer passes... a 1920 x 1440 image done with one pass and scaled down to 640 x 480 will have the same level of anti-aliasing as a 640 x 480 image done with 9 passes.

Can you show us one of the unpredicted results?

After sleeping on it, here is another approach... a stripe material on a flat card, warped with a Pose into a cylinder... https://www.dropbox.com/s/ltef9j7laxj453x/PoleWrapMP4_30.mov?dl=0 Thanks!

I'll note that Combiners typically have two attributes, one for each color. One way to get more than two colors in a materiel (like Red White and Blue) is to change one of the two attributes into yet another Combiner. This is "nested" combiners.

Unfortunately, A:M does not include a "Spiral" combiner. There was a 3rd party set of materials that did include one. I forget the name. A decal would be most likely solution here. If I were determined to do it with a native materiel in A:M my first gambit would be to use the Extended Grid Turb combiner to put vertical stripes on a cylinder and then, with a Pose, twist the cylinder.

"Why don't the duplicate relationships also get a number appended to them?" It wouldn't be impossible to implement. Probably just a bit more involved than with the Groups or Bones because the Relationships can contain bone names in targets of constraints and those would need to be properly converted so they point to the right bones. Currently A:M will update target names in a relationship if you manually change a bone name, so part of the work is there.

If you model the spokes with an inner, middle and outer CP instead of just two that should prevent adjacent spokes from creating four point patches.

Whileyou are experimenting with v18 be careful to not resave any files over old file names. From v13 on, the file format changed so anything saved in v18 will not be openable in v12 or earlier.

I suppose the consistent thing to do would be to append a number to the duplicate Poses, in the same way that a number is added to duplicated Bones and Groups.

Work-around Explained Problem: A Microsoft update for Windows versions 8.1 and earlier (KB3086255, released in September 2015) disables the secdrv.sys file that enabled copy protection like that used by CDROM-keyed versions of A:M (v14 and earlier). With the file disabled, the CDROM verification gets stuck and A:M is never run. Microsoft felt the file had become a security flaw. The copy protection software that uses that file was not written by Hash, Inc. Hash only licensed the software and won't have access to the code to update it or fix the security flaw. Solution: The best solution is to update to the current version of A:M that doesn't use the CDROM copy protection. Current versions of A:M are much faster, more stable and incorporate new features. However, in rare cases, it may be necessary to revisit old projects in the version they were authored in. If you need to run one of those past versions of A:M in Windows 8.1 or earlier, it is possible to re-enable the secdrv.sys file and permit a CD ROM version of A:M to run in Windows 8.1 and earlier. This Microsoft Bulletin explains DOS-Style commands that can typed in to enable and disable the secdrv.sys file as needed. I was not able to get them to work on my computer, possibly because of "path" confusion. The bulletin also explains a registry modification that performs the same enabling/disabling. That procedure does work on my PC. Microsoft warns that enabling this file is unwise and Hash, Inc. is not recommending you do this. I am not recommending it either. To minimize your risk, enable it only before starting A:M and disable it when done with A:M and disconnect your PC from your internet/network for the duration of that session. On my PC, a restart is required before the registry enabling takes effect and another restart for disabling to take effect. What about Windows 10? There is no published solution from Microsoft for Windows 10. If anyone finds one, let us know. Another version of the How-to-Geek article hints at using a virtual machine of an older Win under Windows 10. I have not tried this. Run as Administrator? Another problem mentioned above was that the CD ROM versions of A:M would fail to start and give an error message that they must be run by an administrator even if the user was logged into their PC as an administrator. Individual programs can be set to automatically run as if by an administrator. on the program's icon, choose Properties, select the Compatibility tab and under "Privilege Level" check "Run this program as an administrator".

Success....

Further clue... a search on secdrv shows it does exist in the A:M versions we are investigating...

After doing the command in the correct dir I get this StartService FAILED 1058: The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it. So I'm guessing A:M has some similar, but not the same, software that has been disabled.

How do I get the exact command prompt directory shown here? Mine says C:\Users\Robert> Does that even matter?

ooo... ooo... ooo... someone do this and tell me if it works.... How to Play PC Games That Require SafeDisc or SecuROM DRM on Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, and Vista

-possibly some half way point between teh two extremes, or... -perhaps if it were not so dark. More greyish like the interior of the car.

That is fearsome! What game?

I'm sure I was able to run those old versions on Win 7 because I installed them a long time ago, when I first set up 7, and I would have at least run them after the install. But now, they're stuck. Something has changed. I have some other programs that run but are buggy under Win 7.

Long time forum member and A:M user Mark Largent (Largento) is prominently interviewed about his A:M production "Stalled Trek: Amutt Time" for "Fan Film Friday" on the Axanar Productions blog. Give it a read! Interview Part 1 Interview Part 2 (includes discussion of A:M!)

I should amend my comments... The manipulator limits restrict what YOU can do when rotating a bone manually. However I don't think they will limit what the bone can do under the influence of something like an AimAt constraint or an Orient Like constraint. To limit a bone's motion in those situations you'll want to use a Spherical Limit constraint or possibly an Euler constraint. Spherical would be my choice.

From the Windows mouth... Troubleshoot problems with removing updates I suppose the way to do it would be to remove half of them, see if the problem is fixed. If not, remove the other half. Then continue to narrow it down by halves and halves and halves. But there's a lot of megabytes involved.

I recall it is possible to uninstall Windows updates. Some ambitious person might try that and see what happens.

The rotate manipulator limits in the bone's props (in a Pose) are good for limiting rotation to a particular axis. The Euler limits are for if you need to limit the rotation to something less than an axis' full 360° freedom.

i mean this...