5 point patches not rendering... Hooks are?

[Postality]

so far I've had no problem getting 3 or 4 point meshes to render, but I can't seem to get a 5 point one to render...

 

Am I missing something that I have to do?

 

Also I've seen alot on hooks but don't know what they are nor how to create one. this might be useful for me as well.

 

Thanx guys.

[phatso]

Aren't hooks mentioned in TOaM? You make one by hitting "A" to add a spline, but instead of clicking the left mouse button you click and drag, then terminate by clicking the right button. This attaches a spline to another spline without making a control point. It's useful when you need lots of splines in one part of a model but not another, or when you're attaching things at angles as in attaching a branch to a tree. As you know, you can't make a patch out of just any combination of control points. Hooks are a help in this direction.

 

Which brings us to 5-pointers. Very often, when a 5-point patch won't make, you either have duplicate control points sitting on top of each other (move each one to check, then Undo to move it back) or a problem with flipped normals (shift>1 to see normals, shift>1 to hide them again). Sometimes you have to manually select the 5 CPs, then hide everything else, then Group those 5 CPs. This usually works when nothing else will. The problem usually resides with splining errors and not with A:M.

[KenH]

You do know you have to close fpps right? Select all the cps of the patch and use the tool at the bottom of the right hand side toolset.

[Postality]

close FPPS? not sure what that is exactly.

[KenH]

P129 of TAOAM describes the process with pictures.

[Caroline]

Hooks Manual entry:

 

http://www.hash.com/Technical_Reference/CustomHtml/HOOKS.htm

 

FPPS = five point patches. (not in the official list of abbreviations I don't think )

 

phatso - that 5 point ritual seems very complicated - have you tried the magic dot?

 

If you are having problems with the 5 point patch tool not being enabled, hide the other control points so that you can use the lasso tool to only select the 5 points in question. If the tool is not enabled, press ".", then "." again, and it should be enabled now. I can't remember when I had to try other things.

 

Having said that, you do need to know the rules of splines, so that you don't have the same spline going round the 5 point patch. That becomes automatic after a while.

[Postality]

OH, okay now I see that extra button that appears when I select the 5 points of the patch.

 

Thanx for the school lessons guys.

 

I do understand how the spines work, it was just the whole 5 point thing that was messing me up.

 

like a 4 point patch won't render if it's a single spline etc.

 

it will only render if it's 2 or 4 diffrent "lines" that create a 4 point square etc.

 

that I know from another program I use to use, which is what makes me excited about A:M

 

Hooks on the other hand I'll be checking that link out since I'm new to the hook world.

 

Thanx alot guys.

[phatso]

In no time at all you'll be an accomplished hooker.

 

Caroline, I thought that's kinda what I said... you have to select the 5 CPs before you can hide the others. Mebbe I wasn't clear enough.