I need some help with the following problem: I have a texture set with a transparency map and a reflection map. However, Poser 6 does not render it correctly when I load the scene file. The image on the left is correct: I open Poser 6 with a new scene, add V3 from the Figures library, add the V3 Catsuit from the library, apply a MAT pose to apply the texture, trans, and reflection maps, and render the scene. Everything looks good so I export the image for comparison. I then go to File > Save, save everything as a pz3 scene file for later, and close Poser. I reopen Poser 6, File > Open the scene file I just saved, and render the image... and it is horribly incorrect! The transparent sections aren't transparent and the reflection map isn't as dark (plus the shadows are showing incorrect light colors). Both of these images are the EXACT same file, rendered with the exact same render settings with the exact same light set with the exact same version of Poser 6. The only difference is that the image on the left was created by adding items from the library and the image on the right was loaded from a scene file. Can anybody help with this issue... or can anyone else duplicate it with their own figures and textures? --John

Did you check in the second scene that all the material values are the same? They might be changed, or reset some way in the second scene.

The second scene looks like it has quite high specularity on the clothes, even in the invisible parts, I would check the specularity and the transparency fall off for the clothes.

Like I said, the second image was made by loading the scene file. The material settings are exactly the same- all I did was open the scene and render it. There should be no need to check the specularity or anything else... how would they get changed in the first place? --John

It sounds to me that P6 is not saving everything as it should even though it appears to be. ~shrug~ maybe it's a P6 thing.

I sent an e-mail to e-frontier to see if they can replicate this issue. We'll see what happens. --John

I'd be interested in knowing what they say John.

Nothing as usual!

I played with these for two hours, changing all the settings I could think of, and as far as I can see, it just doesn't work. The reflection map works fine on it's own, the transmap works fine on it's own, but use reflection map with transmap in Poser 6 and it doesn't work. It works fine in Poser 4. I haven't tested in Poser 5 yet because I don't feel like re-installing it.

Nope, I followed the same steps as John. Clean open of Poser, load Vicky, load catsuit, conform, add MAT file, and render. And the transmap doesn't work, because the reflection is being applied to the areas where it is transparent. I am getting exactly the same image as John, and I am on two different machines.

I just replicated the problem Helena described. If you import rather than open a .pz3 the lighting doesn't come with it, and the existing lighting stays in place it seems. Tested in P6 V-6.0.1.75

That is not the problem here. It has nothing to do with the lighting. I have deleted all the lights in the scene and created new ones just to check. The problem is with the interaction of the transmap and the reflection map. Load up Vicky, a catsuit, and apply any texture to the catsuit that uses a transmap. Then add a reflection map. As soon as you add a reflection map, the effect that John showed in the pictures above on the right happens. But this does not happen in Poser 4.

Can you take a look at the Material Room, see what settings are wrong and post the difference (screenshots maybe ?).

OK, picture on the left is the file opened in Poser 4 and rendered there. The picture on the right is the exact same file opened in Poser 6 and rendered using the Poser 4 engine. Both times I started the program, loaded Vicky, loaded the catsuit, applied the MAT pose, and rendered. The lights are default. So no settings where changed in the MAT file, or the textures, or anything else. These should both render the same as they are both using the Poser 4 engine.

This is the texture settings. Remember, rendered in the Poser 4 engine.

Making the assumption that the Material Room screenshot is the "before" one.

It looks like the problem is that the Specular_Color is being set to white when the file get reloaded.
Try disconnecting the map from "Specular_Color" (keep it set at black) and set "Specular_Value" to 0.0, save, reload, and see if it makes a difference.

(Getting highlights on transparent areas is a classic P4/PP PITA)

Have you tried using "Ignore Shader Trees" and using the "Simple" Material Room view to set things up for the P4 renderer.

The screenshot is the material room before and after the render, it doesn't change. The specular colour stays black. The big problem is that the product works in Poser 4 but not in Poser 6. We have sent an e-mail to e-Frontier to see if they know what is going on. Has anyone ever managed to render a reflection map with a transparency map in Poser 6? If someone else has managed to get this right we could look at their setup to see what the problem is.

Let's try this again...

I opened the scene again in Poser 6 (the same scene I saved in the previous step). This time, I went to Render > Render Settings, clicked on the Poser 4 tab, and checked all of the options, from "Anti-Alias" to "Ignore Shader Trees". I then rendered the scene... and it is CORRECT! Even the shadows are colored correctly!
So, nruddock's suggestion worked. :)

However, the FireFly renderer still renders the image incorrectly. Adjusting any settings gives the same results as the image to the right, in my first posting. I tried using the Auto settings, the Manual settings, and even tried adjusting things like Texture Filtering... though this shouldn't be necessary- the render settings should be saved with the scene file.

So, the issue may be caused by something in the shader nodes.

As a side note:
(Getting highlights on transparent areas is a classic P4/PP PITA)
This is probably a "classic" issue because many material settings have the "transparency falloff" set to 0.6, which causes the material to be almost, but not quite transparent. To be fully transparent, the "transparency falloff" must be set to zero.

--John

Message edited on: 09/07/2005 23:14

Just as a follow-up: I have sent a zip file of files to the tech support people (with full instructions) to they can duplicate this issue. The tech also mentioned that this issue may already on the list of issues to be fixed in Service Pack 2. --John

Another way of fixing this is to connect the transmap to the "Refelection_Value" input.

If the transmap isn't pure Black & White, then you can use a Math_Function node set to "Step" and a suitably low value to get an appropriate control mask.