Decal disappears in chor

[RoyBU]

I have modeled a box and applied decals for a realistic look. When I brought it into a default chor it looked fine until I moved off frame 0, whereupon all the decals disappeared and the shading reverted to the plain, non-decaled look. So all frames after frame 0 fail to show my decals. Presumably there is a setting that needs to be changed. Could someone clue me in?

 

Thanks.

[ronburk]

Are you sure it was moving off frame 0 that did it?

Or were you looking at a final render on frame 0 and

then a preview on frame 1? IIRC, decals tend to

not do much for me in previews.

 

If that ain't it and nobody else has the solution, then:

 

O/S? A:M version? Type of decal?

[RoyBU]

When I move off frame 0 in preview, the decal disappears. Thinking that perhaps decals just don't show in animations (except, apparently, on frame 0), I tried both a quick render (shift-Q) and a final render but still got no decals. All the decals are TGA images. The decals show fine in the model window. After my initial post I tried the model in an action window and the same thing happens in preview - I can see the decal in frame 0 but after that it disappears.

 

Running on Windows XP SP2, AM 12.0t.

[NancyGormezano]

not sure why you see decals on frame 0 & not in non frame zero -

 

Perhaps the option for showing decals in your rendering settings (shaded mode) is not set to ON.

[RoyBU]

More info -- I did a quick test in my version 11 of AM and it showed the decals fine throughout the whole preview. Then I went back to version 12 and discovered that if I use a JPG image to decal a model, it worked fine in an entire chor, but if I use a TGA image - poof! - it would disappear after frame 0. Aargh! I don't look forward to redoing all the decals using JPG -- I thought TGA was a good format for AM?!

 

I can't seem to find a place to turn on decals under render options. I assume you mean Tools-Options-Render, and the tech reference does refer to the ability to turn decals on and off in that dialog, but there is no such option in my version. Was it moved somewhere else (and maybe my tech reference is out of date)?

[NancyGormezano]

under tools/options/render - and you have advanced checked - change quality to shaded - show decals is an option 4th from bottom, it does not show when rendering to final -

 

you can also set these options when rendering to a file (under options tag) - must have quality = shaded in order to set decals on/off - then can change back to final quality.

 

and yes tga is a good format.

 

you might experience a temporary glitch when changing decals on/off and rendering - just click in window (to refresh, perhaps) - then try rendering again

 

(still not understanding why you see decals in frame 0 & not other frames tho, hope this helps you)

[ronburk]

What kind of decal (transparent, color, displacement, etc.)? Any chance you can boil it down to a small enough example that you could upload a .zip of the project?

[RoyBU]

OK, thanks for helping me find how to turn decals on and off. I checked and decals were in fact turned "on". In the meantime I also installed 12.0w, but that made no difference. My model still goes blank as soon as I move off frame 0, and the behavior is the same whether in preview or final render.

 

Edit -- I have another computer which used to run AM so I tested this problem on it. It has an earlier version 12 (12.0q) but the same graphics card (though with an earlier version of the driver). I applied a TGA to a simple one-patch model, dropped it in a chor and - what do you know! - it was fine for all frames. I don't know what to do now - perhaps I'll try removing AM and reinstalling it.

[Stuart Rogers]

I don't know what to do now - perhaps I'll try removing AM and reinstalling it.

See if there are any newer drivers for your graphics card. If that makes no difference, a visit to AM:Reports is in everyone's interest.

[RoyBU]

Another update:

 

I wondered whether there was some conflict between versions 11 and 12 of AM. So, after setting a Windows restore point, I uninstalled version 11. Then I opened my project (in version 12 of course) and determined that the decals were still disappearing. However, when I created a new project, created a new model and applied one of my TGA decals, it worked fine. Then I went back to my original project and reapplied the decal for the top of the box. Now in my chor frame 0 still shows all the decals, and when I move off that frame the other decals disappear but the newly applied decal remains.

 

So, the mystery isn't exactly solved, but it looks like if I just reapply all my decals I'll be ready to move on. Did uninstalling version 11 do this? I can't be sure.

[Dhar]

Many things in computer performance goes unexplained. I just blame it on the gremlins.

[ronburk]

It would be really nice if you could boil it down to a small, reproducible case.

That way, it could get reported and there would be one less "gremlin" for

other folks to waste time on in the future.