[nik_h]

Hi all,

I'm having trouble texture mapping some simple objects. The image below shows a simple cube which has had a cylnder substracted from its centre. The object has a cubic texture map. As you can see no matter if the object is smooth or facetted (with or without triangulation) I get errors in the texture map. Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Nik

[tcamco]

Have you tried applying a mesh to the cude before rendering? It solved this same problem on one of my renderings.

[nik_h]

Thanks tcamco, meshing has solved the problem. However, it isn't really an ideal solution as I don't really want to have to mesh every object in my scene to ensure the texture maps behave themselves. One of the many downfalls of RadioZity is the whole pre-meshing business and I would hate to think that this was necessary in Maxwell too.

Juan, is this related to the problem with normals? Will it be resolved when we have the material editor in v1.0?

Friday - woo hoo!

Nik

[juan]

Juan, is this related to the problem with normals? Will it be resolved when we have the material editor in v1.0?

Hi Nik,

No, it has nothing to do with the normal vector issues. We are investigating this issues, Maxwell needs the texture coordinates in a special way and in some cases FormZ provides it in other.. we go on this issues.At now Maxwell internally only handle triangle meshes, so in the process of geometry extracion the mesh that maxwell gets is triangulated. It seems RadioZity does something similar, so perhaps now the only way is premeshing it.

With the material editor there will be new powerful tools, of course

Regards,

Juan

[nik_h]

Hi Juan,

The texture map problems are just as bad with v1.0 as before:





I have to say I'm really dissapointed that more progress has not been made with the FormZ plugin. 2 of the 4 plugin files date from May/June 2005 so they obviously haven't been updated for a long time. It's still hit and miss as to whether I can successfully create a MXS file from FormZ. More often than not I get an error. If successfull MXCL does not usually launch automatically when I hit render - I have to double click on the MXS file. And after all of that the texture mapping is faulty.

Back to RenderZone for production work....

Nik

[juan]

As I have told several times, there will be a major update of the plugin after FormZ 6 is released. There are some limitations in the current system that can not be bypassed yet, but Autodesys has done a great work to enhance it for 6.0.

2 of the 4 plugin files date from May/June 2005 so they obviously haven't been updated for a long time.

The files that you are talking about are resources files and the have just some dozens of lines inside. The true plugin is in the fzp files and it has been updated a lot of times.

Regards,

Juan

[nik_h]

Juan,

So what you are saying is that NL are not going to fix this problem for v5.5 and that I will have to purchase FormZ 6.0 and then wait for an updated MaxwellZ plugin after that? Forgive me for being less than impressed.

NL may have "updated" the other files lots of times but they still managed to leave in the old material system which as you point out in another thread is no longer appropriate for v1.0.

I would rather you were honest and admitted that, for whatever reasons, MaxwellZ has received minimal attention between RC5 and the release of v1.0.

Also, where is the documentation for MaxwellZ? Any new user (purchasing after the release of v1.0) is going to have a hard time using the plugin, especially if things like the material system are wrong.

I've held on patiently since ordering in April 2005 and been generally supportive, but I'm really starting to get frustrated now. I've spent a good chunk of my weekend at work trying to get MaxwellZ to work so that I can finally start making production images and demonstrate to my directors why we purchased this piece of software in the first place.

Sorry to be so negative, but from my perspective MaxwellZ has actually gone backwards with the release of v1.0.

Regards,

Nik

[juan]

So what you are saying is that NL are not going to fix this problem for v5.5 and that I will have to purchase FormZ 6.0 and then wait for an updated MaxwellZ plugin after that?

I just have said that with FormZ 6 there are more possibilities looking for a better integration, for instance integrate the parameters of Maxwell materials inside the surface style panel and other things.

NL may have "updated" the other files lots of times but they still managed to leave in the old material system which as you point out in another thread is no longer appropriate for v1.0.

We have kept the old material system to keep compatibility and to let you feel confortable working with the mxed. After that, old materials will be removed, but now it was not the best moment to do that. For a programmer perspective it will be very good to remove old materials entirely but we were waiting for the response of users.

I would rather you were honest and admitted that, for whatever reasons, MaxwellZ has received minimal attention between RC5 and the release of v1.0.

We have put all our efforts in making the material editor standalone, which is a way to improve the plugins. This is not giving minimal attention but sacrifize other priorities to allow a better workflow using the plugins. We will go on working in future improvements in the next weeks.

Juan

[nik_h]

Juan,

With all respect, you're avoiding the questions:

1. Will texture mapping be fixed for FormZ v5.5? Yes or No?
2. What is the logic behind keeping the old material system in MaxwellZ when you yourself admit it doesn't work?
3. Where is the documentation for MaxwellZ?

V1.0 is now released which means that Next Limit have given the software their stamp of approval and that they believe that it is ready for professional use by its customers. It took me less than 10 minutes to discover that with FormZ/OSX that this is far from the case.

Can we at least get a sticky on the forum with an official bug list so everyone can clearly see where the problems are?

Nik

[nik_h]

bump

[juan]

Hello Nik,

Sorry, I do not pretend to avoid any of your questions. We have a lot of work these days and it is quite difficult to answer all your request without delays, although I try to read FormZ topics everyday.

1. Will texture mapping be fixed for FormZ v5.5? Yes or No?

As I told a couple of days ago, this is not exactly a bug of the plugin. The plugin does not care if the cube has a cylinder substracted or not, the plugin just asks to formZ for the tesselated geometry. It is not possible for the plugin to notice whether the order of the vertex is wrong in some cases. As you said, even RadioZity has to premesh it, so we are investigating if there is a way to bypass this limitation. Also Autodesys has always provided an excelent support and we expect to get a solution. It has nothing to do with 5.5 or 6.0 version.

2. What is the logic behind keeping the old material system in MaxwellZ when you yourself admit it doesn't work?

I have repeated several times that it has been kept just to avoid to force you to change your workflow quickly. Internally the plugin translates the old materials to new ones and due the extreme difference between the two systems it is not possible to make a perfect translation. Old materials will dissapear soon, when people is confortable with the new ones. Meanwhile if you do not like them, just ignore them.

3. Where is the documentation for MaxwellZ?

You are absolutely true, we will rewrite it as soon as possible.

Regards,

Juan

[johnrafferty]

Hi Juan!

Have you had time to check out my problem on macs?
It is really annoying. Can you confirm it works on
a mac you have and if so can you give me the paths of
your files.

Anything to help me find out where the difference is.

Cheers

John

[juan]

Nik, could you send me your formZ scene with the cube with the cylinder substracted? You can send it to maxwelltech@nextlimit.com
We will try to find a way to fix this issue.

Thank you very much!

Juan

PS:

Have you had time to check out my problem on macs?

Hi John I am working with it just now, I hope to give you news very soon,even today.