Can't render a TGA

[RoyBU]

Hello all,

 

I am trying to use the Dwarrowdelf set so generously donated by William Sutton, as found on the Hash2005 CD under data\models\sci-fi\balrog. I loaded the dwarrowdelf.prj file and tried to render out (to a file) one frame as a TGA. Although I specify the beginning and ending time as the first frame, the render nonetheless begins rendering all 300 frames. When I abort the process after waiting for one or two frames to have finished, I find that the resulting TGA files are basically empty and unreadable. By the way, I tried with both AVI and Quicktime and both of those also ignore my direction to only render a subset of all the frames.

 

(In mucking around trying to figure this out, I discovered that there are output options listed under the Camera1 shortcut, but strangely, I can't change the format, filename, or resolution at all (the program allows me to click and select something else but then doesn't change what's displayed as the current option) and trying to change the frame range leads to unpredictable results. I can, on the other hand, change all these things for the Camera1 listed under Objects. As a beginner not understanding how all these places for the same options relate to each other, I don't know if these observations have any bearing on my problem.)

 

As a test of my system, I did open a new project, dropped the KeeKat model in a choreography and rendered out one frame as a TGA without any trouble. The resulting file looks just fine in Paint Shop Pro. So it must be something about the Dwarrowdelf set, but I haven't been able to figure it out and don't know where else to look. I have viewed Sutton's brief movie clip using his Balrog in the Dwarrowdelf set, so obviously it worked for him. If someone could take a look or point me to a place that explains these matters further I'd very much appreciate it.

 

Thanks,

 

Roy Underhill

[Odog2020]

I don't know if A:M can actually ignore the render from frame 00:00:00 to 00:00:00. Thats all you need if you want a still.

 

If you are having a hard time, turn off the advanced option and do as follows;

 

-click final

-change frame from 00:00:00 to 00:00:00

-choose where you want the file to go, and before you click okay, click the drow down and choose TGA

-the click okay to render it to file.

 

If you are doing an animation and render it out to TGA, then there are going to be a lot of TGA files, that you can open as sequence in Quick time.

[arkaos]

I tried it and found no difficulty rendering from the given setup. Which version of A:M are u running? 11, 11.1 or 12.0n? I am using version 12.0q.

[zandoriastudios]

Maybe you need to save the .prj to your hard drive, so that you can overwrite the settings when you save.

Should set the frame range from 00:00:00 to 00:00:00 to render just one frame (although you can render any frame, doesn't have to be frame 0).

 

Changes made to the "shortcut to camera" should over rule the settings of the camera under OBJECTS.

 

Check to see what buffers may be enabled--I don't remember what state that project was when I last saved it...

[arkaos]

Check to see what buffers may be enabled--I don't remember what state that project was when I last saved it...

 

Alpha on, all others off, Will

[RoyBU]

I am running 11.1b.

 

I tried as suggest with the "Advanced" option unchecked, but it still starts rendering all frames.

 

I had already saved the project to my hard disk and had loaded it from there.

 

Not knowing what else to do, I will try updating to a later version of A:M and trying again.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Odog2020]

I am running 11.1b.

 

I tried as suggest with the "Advanced" option unchecked, but it still starts rendering all frames.

 

I had already saved the project to my hard disk and had loaded it from there.

 

Not knowing what else to do, I will try updating to a later version of A:M and trying again.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

If the program is just completely ignoring the commands of just rendering one frame, is sounds like something that you would need to submit to A:M Reports.

 

When you do, make sure that you send in the version, what picture is on the CD, what your system information is, and steps to recreate what is happening, it will speed the process if you send in all at once.

 

Only other thing I can think is if you are trying to use multi pass, but I don't know if that is the case.

 

Maybe you should uninstall and do a clean reinstall, if it installed incorrectly.

[RoyBU]

Well, I uninstalled version 11.1b using the Windows uninstall utility from Control Panel. Then I reinstalled and tried again with the same result. (Actually, I let it go ahead and render all 300 frames because for some reason they were only taking a few seconds each, but the render did not complete because towards the end the program spontaneously exited to Windows.) I noticed that after the reinstall my settings had been retained (e.g., the Balrog scene came up the first time I ran A:M after the reinstall) so I suspect that a more complete uninstall would be needed and that something in the settings is messed up. (For future reference, it would be nice to know how to do a really complete uninstall of the program.)

 

However, rather than hunt that down, I installed version 12.0p that I had downloaded some time ago and not installed yet. I loaded the Dwarrowdelf.prj into 12.0p and rendered a single frame as TGA no problem.

 

Phew! I'll continue from here and thanks to all for your suggestions.

[heyvern]

v12.0p is very good!

 

You will like it.

 

Don't forget there is a v12.0q as well.

 

I recently made the jump from 11 to 12 without any hitches to speak of.

 

Vernon "!" Zehr

[RoyBU]

Yes, so far I like v12.0p very much. One strange thing -- when I loaded the Dwarrowdelf set in v12.0 the floor lost all its texture (just a solid color, and I did not notice this immediately). I figured out that the two images for the floor were for some reason not coming in with the project, so I specified those images again and then reset the repeats and it looks right again. I don't know why that would happen; I was loading straight from the CD. Now I also recollect that in v11.1 the program would ask me where the concgen image was when it was trying to load in that project. Don't know why that happened either, since the image was obviously on the CD.