trouble with cookie cut decal

[John Bigboote]

Hey- I am making a 'GRANDSTAND' a lot of seats that will be viewed from afar but need to be there... I've made some simple geometry that holds a cookie cut decal, but when I go to render... every-other row of seats comes out fuzzy! I've tried rotating the image... checked normals... I can't figure out what causes this imperfection...?

[John Bigboote]

I just tried setting the decal from cookie-cut to color... same results. What is going on here? (V15.0J PC)

[Darkwing]

I'm no expert or anything close, but your normals are all correct? I know they can sometimes have weird effects. Are you rendering with multi-pass on?

[John Bigboote]

Normals are all facing forward. Renders the same in Preview, multi or non multi.

[Darkwing]

I suppose you could always re-export the decal under the same name, effectively replacing the old one and then closing the project and opening it again so that the new decal would load in its place. That helps me sometimes

[NancyGormezano]

That looks like a preview render - Does it look the same when final rendered to file?

 

zip the model and image for decal and upload? Hard to tell what may be going on.

[John Bigboote]

I'll try the 'switcheroo' darkwing, good idea. I tried the same project in V16 with same results... Nancy- you give me a good idea... I'll copy paste the questionable geometry into a new file... see if it works there... if NOT, i'll zip it and post the model.

[John Bigboote]

Yup--- weirdsville deluxe!

 

I tried the decal-switcheroo, no luck. I copy/pasted some of the seats into a new model, same results. Here is the model, see if it happens for you, please.

SEATSproblem.zip

[Darkwing]

Works fine for me

[Darkwing]

or scratch that, upon closer inspection, the numbers on the seats for every second row is blurry, but the whole row isn't blurry like it is for you

 

EDIT: Here's a pic in the choreography view rendered as a PNG with a 9 pass multi-pass:

 

[John Bigboote]

No, that looks like it's working just fine. I would be happy with that... if i could get it.

[NancyGormezano]

Hmmm...tried in 15e as well - and get same funnies - it appears that the problem occurs when a cutout patch occults another cut-out patch. If you change your view angle (or separate the rows) - so that they don't overlap - the problem doesn't occur. That obviously isn't going to help you.

 

Have you tried decaling instead of making it a patch image? I don't think that has the same problem. Also not sure if spec is also contributing to problem with cut out patch images (try setting spec color, size, intensity = not set)

 

EDIT: Blah - never mind - I just tried decals versus patch images in both 15e, 15j+ - all still look funny - but funny in different ways

Edited October 8, 2010 by NancyGormezano

[John Bigboote]

Yes, I am now in the process of aborting the patch-image approach and going with a higher patched decal... and I am getting better results. 'Occults', ay? You would know more about that than I...being from California and all.

[NancyGormezano]

Yes, I am now in the process of aborting the patch-image approach and going with a higher patched decal... and I am getting better results. 'Occults', ay? You would know more about that than I...being from California and all.

 

heh heh. In astronomy terms: An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer.

 

I shoulda said partially occults. Ya want bettah I shoulda said occlude? But regardless, it seems that it might be an even/odd incantation/occultation/occlusion thingy perhaps? And a paucity of patches?

 

Doo doo doo doo.

 

Or more succinctly: a doo wop a biddie diddie yum diddie yay!

 

(hope it works for you)

[John Bigboote]

Or more succinctly: a doo wop a biddie dum de yum diddie yay!

 

Why didn't ya say that in the first place! The bing-bong is ginkin the dew-wop and puttin the kai-bosch on it!

[Darkwing]

Heh.

 

Well if that's the case, then how come mine works? I'm only using V15j. Have you tried rendering it in a chor like I did? Maybe it's a modeling window exclusive problem? Maybe it's late at night and I'm too sick to think...which is more likely the case

[Darkwing]

Hmmm, I just tried something that should be interesting to note. The distance of the camera from the model seems to have an effect on things, plus depending on the distance, the rows will alternate as to which is blurry and which is not

[John Bigboote]

I guess that supports what Nancy said... the 'occulting' effect... (great, now she has ME using that word...) it may have to do with the camera lens width as well. Should this be a reported bug? OR- should I just never do this again...

[DJBREIT]

Did you ever get it fix?

 

I dug throw the model. Rip it apart and used the notepad on it. And I and 95% sure this is coming from the program. Unless you have found something.

 

And since sgross is on a roll you should put it up on AM report. It is a good time as any to get these small bugs out of the way.

[3DArtZ]

I feel like back in the day YVes at some point showed us how lower resolution maps work better for displacement and cookie cut maps...

just a thought.

Mike Fitz