Hi just bought carrara4, amapi pro 7.5 and a bunch of digitalcarversguild addons for carrara. can someone give me the basic settings to accomplish a wireframe ONLY render of a model with wireframe pro? Ive tried several, and no matter what I do..its just like the wireframe is rendered as a texture on the model (the poly always render). I tried using the wireframe pro as a shader in the transparency channel, and it generates a "layer" error and then freezes carrara4. (incidentally, I have the latest update for both installed) so just curious what the settings are and if I'm missing something. also have some issues with the anything grooves addon, but still working on understanding wth I'm doing...I can make it groove a model but it doesnt do it the way I want. For instance, if I apply a brick texture as the basis of the grooves..it only uses a very small amount of the bricks instead of the whole brick texture as the displacement map... what am I doing wrong there? tia BT

BT, Good to see ya in the carrara forums! The AGrooves maps according to whatever mapping mode you use, so anything you do would be placed on the model in that manner. A picture would be helpful, but we can try to work it through without one. In mapping a primative, the AGr map will map according to the AGr shader. If you do a cube and set the shader to cubic front face, only the front face will be mapped. Personally, if I do a brick wall, I usually use an AGr primative plane and just the standard Multi-channel settings. This will displace the plane to the brick work that I need. If I need more brick, I tile the image and tweak it to whatever number I need. Problem with that is that you have to change the resolution of the AGr settings to something higher than the default. That can result in slightly (or MAJOR if it's above 512) higher render times. In a UV mapped model (parametric is usually default, correct me if I'm wrong guys) you can use the UV map as the displacement map. If you are bricking a UV building, say, then you can map the specific walls with just the number of bricks you need. You will, however, have to increase the rez slightly to compensate and get a cleaner displace. I could be totally off-base, and I know it's Monday morning, so the neurons aren't firing fully. If anyone can clarify on what I'm trying to say, I'm easy (going that is). Ken

BT,

Let's start with with WfP. The easiest thing to do is to set the alpha channel to the Wireframe Pro shader like the sample below.

The second option, which I think provides a nicer edge is to use it in the transparency channel and a multiplier on the color channel. Remember to check the invert option in the transparency channel.

Remember for rendering to turn on the lighting through transparency option on the renderer to get the wireframe shadows.

If you have an object that generates an error when you apply Wireframe Pro to it, please forward it to me with directions on how to recreate the problem and we'll get it fixed.

I don't think I understand what you're hitting with the Grooves, though Ken may have pegged it as a mapping problem. If you want to forward me you're scene I can make suggestions to get it displacing the way you want.

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
3D Plug-ins for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

hi thanx for the replies. I guess I shoulda been clearer on the wireframe pro question. :) I need to know the settings for an obj imported model. I can get it to work for a carrara native model...but not an import. Im sure this is a matter of mixing and matching this the correct way, but as of yet...I've struck out. Im also trying to get this to render with backface culling. That is, any wireframe of a poly pointing away will not be rendered..kinda like the 'hidden line' option in open gl display. if I use this in the transparency or alpha, I dont see how the backfaces can be culled..perhaps I'm wrong there. I still have to look at anything grooves to see what I did wrong there...I feel it is a mapping problem with what I'm doing so maybe that'll be really easy. tnx BT

BT,

Settings shouldn't be different for an imported OBJ. If you've got one that doesn't work, please forward it to me.

I guess I misunderstood the question when you mentioned that you didn't want to see the polygons (like you do in the renderer). There is no backface culling in the shader. It probably wouldn't be a hard thing to add to the shader(since we already do it in the renderer), perhaps for the next update.

The other thing you can try is create a transparent object and use the wireframe renderer, that would look something like this.

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
3D plug-ins for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

thanx eric the second method is almost what Im trying to get done. It works with the exception that the lines are 'breaking up' instead of being continuous...and I can not combine the object with other full render models without having lines around them. I can composite them in aftereffects or photoshop, but that really wasnt what I wanted to do. I have the antialiasing set to the finest and highest settings. It doesnt break up quite as bad if I uncheck smart quads, but I need the quad setting because the vertex modeller setting gives too much detail (and not using the vertex modeller setting doesnt accomplish anything different) thus removing impact from the render. and no way can I get this to work as a texture (even with back faces rendering)...it always renders solid. It may be a result of there being so many lines in the vertex model thus making it look solid (even at very fine line settings)... this model is one I through together last week in amapi just as a quickie...its a freebee poser model. Im gearing up to do an amapi 7.5 pro tutorial dvd and am looking at all the various rendering options to add impact to the dvd presentation. tnx BT

Are you importing your OBJ files in Carrara as a Vertex Primitive or as a Facet Mesh? I use Vertex Primitive so that Carrara doesn't add/change any of my object's edges.

oh ,btw...cckens and eric... I have the brick working now..it was indeed the mapping mode. Its really easy to hit the "not enough memory" warning tho...hard to believe with only one cube and one texture when I have 2 gigs of ram. heh but it works if I start out doing it right instead of playing with settings. thanx BT

BT,

For the links breaking up, try unchecking the Edge in Degrees option or playing with that slider. That tries to look for large flat areas and treat them like a single polygon. That may be what's going on.

The solid effect on the shader probably is due to the size of the model. If you scale it larger in the Vertex Modeler, you can probably get it so that it works with the shader.

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
3D plug-ins for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

here's the error I keep getting...just got it again. this may be a carrara error or a plugin error. Oddly enough, the drive it references here is a dvd drive, not a hard drive...and there is no disk in this drive. However, I did copy the files that I downloaded onto a dvd and installed the program and plugins from the dvd instead of the download (to make sure the dvd was ok)

BT

Message edited on: 03/28/2005 20:58

Carrara Pro 4.1.1?

on an up-note, I have found what was needed to make the obj render with the wireframe pro as a texture..the mode needed changed to "global" and it works...this was the ONLY thing I hadnt changed..heh. really too bad this doesnt have backface culling tho, cause this effect is PERFECT with that small exception. :) BT

yeah the latest one with the patch shonner :) all I did was copy the files for the plugins so this is probably a carrara installation problem. I'll probably have to reinstall from my harddrive instead of the dvd to make this stop. :( BT

well, Ive "kinda" got a grip on wireframe pro now. Since it doesnt have backface culling the way I need it, I'll have to do either compositing/multiple renders or something similar. But this is too kewl and is gonna work great for the dvd. :) BT

a multiple render composite...

Regarding the path given in the error message you show above, that path would actually be the path to the source file that the exception occured in on the machine that Carrara was built on at Eovia. So it is not your E: drive that it refers to. That path is the only one that the compiler knows when building the app though.