I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've searched the manuel, but can't see anything to help. Vue pro is eating all my old textures and ignores most of my models. I ran the texture converter thingy, and it made the little thumbnail black and the texture seems to be gone. I deleted all my old textures out and tried to download again, ran the converter... same thing won't work. Most of my old models I get a message saying "can't use models used in 2 and 3" I've never used those versions of vue. There are lots of things in pro I really like. The opengl works great, being able to use my computer while rendering is a real bonus, plus there are a lot of little things that make life so much easier, but this material thing is bugging me. Yes, I can I can remake some, but I had a lot over the last couple years. And some of the models can't be replaced. If someone can give me a smack and tell me what I'm doing wrong I'd appreciate it. Using XP, P4 2.66 Thanks.

I get the same message with my old models in some cases and not in others also the black preview. But it's better with the update. Also the converter dies with errors everytime I use it. I have loaded some the models that didn't work in 4 and resaved them in vue pro as a work around and this usually works. hope this helps.

I do have the update. I'm sorry, I don't understand, Resaved them in vue pro? The models were in vue 4... Didn't understand what you meant, but just tried loading a model in 4 and saved it into Pro and it worked... so maybe this will work. Thank you.

I've had to do that (load and save in Vue 4) with atmospheres, textures, models. Then I can use them in VuePro. It's really been a pain. I've also had the black preview. Apparently Vue4 didn't care if models and things were created in earlier version. VuePro is very picky. No versions later than Vue4 are acceptable. -Lin

I hope they fix this. My atm's seem to be okay. And the models do work by saving, but my mat's won't go in for some reason.

I do too. Also, the problems I'm having mapping textures. Some scenes I've just gone back to Vue 4 to finish. Too much hassle. -Lin

That converter is FAR from perfect...and completely unsupported by E-On...but here's what I've figured out about it: 1. It does an accurate job converting most, but not all, VOBs 2. It only sucessfully converts about 1/2 of materials. 3. It only converts a small fraction of vegetation. 4. It can convert about 1/3 of scenes. 5. It gives no indication when it's running. The only way to tell that it's still working and not locked up is to open the Windows Task Manager and check the performance of a process called, "setup.exe". When it's working, it uses from 98 to 100% of system resources. 6. When converting Scenes or VOBs, it's VERY, VERY slow. -SMT

Well I'm having no luck at all with materials. It's driving me around the bend. I've become leery of using the converter since it seems to eat them making them useless in both programs. I hope Eon is working on this, it's a major pain.

Haven't read through all the answers, sorry. Maybe i am a little redundant now. Materials. Pro simply looses the path to the textures and show a black sphere therefore. Edit the material and show Pro where on your hard disk the textures are. Thats it. Old objects. It is not a question of you not having used an older Vue version than 4. The downloaded old objects were created in Vue 3 or even in 2. Thats why they are old! :-)) Because Pro has a slightly different file format they need to be converted. Pro only has a built in converter for 4. The trick is, as for Mac users too, load the old objects into Vue d'Esprit 4 (on windows) and simply save them again. Then Pro is happy again.

But mat files don't have pictures.... Can someone tell me how to make shore foam? I'm having no luck reproducing that mat

Mat files can have pictures. I can send you a screenshot of the material editor if you want to know where you'll see it. Guitta has an example file for foam - i think. Look onto her web side. You'll find the link and a lot of links to tutorials in our backroom. Feel free...

There is a nice example of foam and splashes in the sample scenes called Kereon which shows waves breaking around a light house save some of it as a material and modify it as needed in the material editor. gives you a good starting point.

Wabe, yes Guitta does, but I can't get it into vue pro.... that's what I'm trying to get at. Ahh Grace, right, duh, Never even thought of that, thanks. Will do that.

mat files and textures - here the "proof". Just a little screenshot of the material editor. When the material turns black, mostly here is a pathname defined (see the circles) that Vue can't find anymore. Repoint Vue to the texture via load. Thats it! Regarding Guittas file. Does it not work to load it into Vue d'Esprit 4 first, save it again and then to load it in Pro? I will give it a try!