[Becco_UK]

This is a significant problem with the 'new' plugin and has damaged some of my Cinema made mesh - Rendered a scene using the new plugin and on return to Cinema4D 9.6 many scene objects had been trangulated ruining hours and hours of work.

Am I annoyed? _ Yes I am.

Was the plugin properly tested before release - doesn't look like it was.

Is Next Limit going to remiburse me for the time that will be lost in correcting the damage.

[jc4d]

I can notice this "behaviour" too with a simple scene with a plane and a cube , before render ok, after hit render the cube and the plane are triangulated.
WinXP 32, C4D R10.1

Cheers
JC

[Becco_UK]

jc4d: It's really annoying! It done this to a model that has been in the making for quite some time. I have incremental backups so hopefully I can sort this out without having to redo all the work that has been wrecked. I have dumped the new plugin and gone back to an older, reliable one.

Maxwell Render is a great render engine - I just wished Next Limit ensured the same level of quality with the Cinema plugin.

[JDHill]

Thanks, I see this too. However you may think, it was tested, but this was not reported. I'll see what I can do.

[Becco_UK]

JDHill: Thank you. I'm sure the new plugin was tested - just not properly!

[JDHill]

Well, there are several testers, and the geometry export routine has been tested in its current state for a month or more. It seems at first glance that this problem only happens with polygon objects at the top level in the object manager. If they are in an array, or being copied by some other generator, then it looks like the source polygon is not affected. Several export strategies have been implemented and subsequently discarded due to deficiencies in the Cinema SDK. The current one is very fast and works quite well in all circumstances, except of course the one you found here; we'll see if it can be altered to deal with this issue.

[Becco_UK]

JDHill: Thank you. It was the second problem I noticed within a few moments of use. Anyway. the problem is being sorted. I don't know if it helps but the last 'older' plugin exports everything correctly, leaving the actual Cinema mesh intact.

I have never encountered a Cinema plugin that destroys the original mesh!

Changing those that do 'testing' of future Maxwell/ Cinema plugins should be considered by Next Limit? The Realflow SD exporter seems to work fine too - and on the occasions it doesn't it leaves the Cinema mesh in its original state.

[Bubbaloo]

Would you like to volunteer your time for testing?

[Becco_UK]

Bubbaloo: I did some testing this morning - within moments two significant errors were found!

[Prowler]

I was verry optimistic with the new plugin - but the triangulation bug is something what really should not happen!

I hope JDHill can fix this ASAP. Maybe the new plugin should be removed from the download page?

Nevertheless I'm happy that the Cinema 4D plugin is on a good way...

Kind regards,

Prowler

[zoetropeuk]

I agree, the new plug-in is completely useless, the HDR intensity doesn't match. The new plug-in renders scenes significantly darker. The meshes in my renders are full of missing triangles and even missing objects.

I've written over my only copy of the old plug-in. Where can I re-download the previous version ?

Matt

[JDHill]

@zoetropeuk:

- HDR intensity doesn't match - I don't know what you're referring to. Do you mean in the Cinema viewport?
- renders scenes significantly darker - how have you set up the camera? The plugin just writes the file however you tell it to.
- missing meshes/objects - please supply a file, or at least some description of how to duplicate this, because I'm not seeing it here.

I don't control the availability of old versions, but I can get in touch with NL about it.

[Becco_UK]

It seems strange that a Maxwell Render plugin known to damage Cinema mesh is still available for download.

[zoppo]

It seems strange that a Maxwell Render plugin known to damage Cinema mesh is still available for download.

Strange, yes ... and utterly disappointing. I wanted to use the new plugin for a scene that heavily relies on instancing.

So, what now? Is this problem so severe that the plugin ist unusable?
Do I have to render in Vray again?

[Becco_UK]

zoppo: I suppose if some feature of the new plugin was needed then a copy of the Cinema scene could be rendered and then it wouldn't matter if the Cinema mesh was damaged - I didn't try it enough to see if the triangualation problem also destroyed UV mapping.

The real problem could be for people downloading the plugin that are not aware of this serious issue.