Missing Image IO plugin?

[RoyBU]

I am using the shield prop from the extras CD in a choreography. Every time I open this project I get the message "Missing Image IO plugin" for the file "bouclierADc.wmp". That file is in fact in the path listed. I checked my options and determined that the IO plugins are in the standard place. However, there is no iio file listed for a "wmp" file. I have these:

 

AVI.iio

BMP.iio

EXR.iio

JPG.iio

MOV.iio

PCX.iio

PNG.iio

TGA.iio

 

Is there someplace to get the needed plugin?

[SirSpectre]

I had the same problem. Only way I could figure out how to fix it is to reinstall

[heyvern]

nevermind

 

 

I said a bunch of stupid stuff here because I didn't read the entire post carefully. Better that my stupidity remain a secret.

 

-vern

[Rodney]

No one has written a WMP IO image plugin yet.

 

As a workaround you can convert the image to a format that you can import?

If it came off the Extra CD that way it must be an image that didn't get converted.

 

Leaving the above as they are true statements (after a fashion) but after a little investigation I discovered this:

 

The file in question is a Targa image file.

It is one of A:M's weather maps which in earlier versions of A:M will automatically be applied to models as A:M identifies it.

 

While you could just rename the file with the extension .TGA (Targa) instead of .WMP (Weather Map) that won't help you much as the tiling nature of the weather map will not easily conform to your shield.

 

It'll probably be a lot easier just to discard the image and weather from scratch.

 

If you just can't seem to get A:M to import the model without the error you can copy the files to harddrive, delete the weather map (.WMP file) and press on. If A:M doesn't see a weather map it should ignore it.

 

(My take. Hash Inc can provide more specific information on weather maps.)

Rodney

[RoyBU]

Yes, on looking into it more I figured out that it must be something to do with the weather feature that no longer exists. I guess I'll just delete it. (And I believe it did come straight off the extras CD that way; must have been overlooked.)

 

Now that I understand it better, I'm intrigued about weathering. Is there a specific way to approach it? Could someone point me to a tutorial? Or is it just a matter of learning textures and materials well enough to be able to think of a way? Weathering this shield would greatly increase the realism of my scene.

[Rodney]

And I believe it did come straight off the extras CD that way; must have been overlooked.

 

Actually it wasn't overlooked. Weathermaps (.wmp files) worked at the time the Extra CD was created.

My earliest guesses weren't exactly accurate. I must have been thinking Windows Media Player instead of WeatherMaP or something. Which is an odd thing to think I'll admit as A:M has never natively imported .WMV files.

[RoyBU]

Help! I decided to just delete the decal that referenced the wmp image for that one model (the shield) and for some reason AM now refuses to show any decals for any of my models in the chor (in shaded view, of course). I don't think I did anything other than delete that one decal, but something has changed and it must be something in the program itself because (1) I can see my decals if I do any type of render (like shift-Q) and (2) even when I open other, completely unrelated projects the decals no longer show (unless I render). Instead of decals, I just get flat shading on all surfaces, the way things look before applying any decals.

 

How can I get my decal view back?!

[Rodney]

How can I get my decal view back?!

 

Save your project file (Embed everything first!) under a new name and then close and restart A:M.

If your view still doesn't return that would be strange indeed.

If A:M has somehow grown that attached to the weathermap (which is very unlikely) you could always add the file back in from the Extra CD.

 

I assume you might have deleted the weathermap decal while viewing the model in realtime.

 

Edit: I see you deleted the decal rather than the weathermap. .

[RoyBU]

Well, just restarting A:M didn't do it, neither did restarting Windows. Not until I did a clean reinstall of A:M, including deleting the registry keys as described in the FAQ, did my decals come back. That also meant I lost a number of models I had imported for this project, and after I put those models back in the directories where my project expected to find them and tried to save the project A:M told me the project hadn't saved correctly. Indeed it hadn't! -- it seemed to be empty on trying to reopen it! Fortunately I had a fairly recent backup so I didn't lose lots of work.

 

Thanks for all the help.

[RoyBU]

A possibly interesting update:

 

Today I was working on a different version of this same project and after making a trivial change to the placement of a model in the chor, suddenly all the models went "blank" again. Fortunately, I happened to have two instances of AM running at the time and, having my wits about me more than usual, I closed down the "bad" instance of AM first, and THEN closed down the other, untainted version. Lo and behold, on starting AM again, everything was fine.

 

This makes me think something gets corrupted and then that corruption is saved upon exiting AM to taint all further attempts until I reinstall from scratch. Since I exited a "good" version of AM after exiting the corrupted version, whatever it was got restored to its correct state.

 

I think I'll keep two instances of AM running in the future, just as insurance.