how do they move and what setting changes this? :)

You say they're using parametric coordinates, but wold or object? You want object here. And as Silverbalde asked, what triggers the move? Any setting change or something more specific?

yeah, usually only using WORLD mapping changes an object by moving it, since it's based off the "world" not the object space :)

silverblade,
Thanks for responding.  I did some experimentation, and what is very weird is that only the settings for specularity seem to cause the problem.  If my attachment isn't too large, you can see what I mean.  There are two maps each for the top and bottom of the saucer.  One is the Aztec pattern, and the other is a block hull plate pattern.  I rendered images with only bump, specularity, and reflection, and one combined Spec-Reflection.

And the mapping for the object is Parametric Object!

This final image shows using only Spec maps, again one is Aztec, the other the blocks for the hull, and the image on the right shows what happens with the block-plate map in both Spec and Reflection channels.

If you can, look closely especially at the outer rim of the saucer--the distortions that do not appear when the maps are used for bump only or Reflection only!  This seems to be very odd to me.!

If the model is properly UV mapped from Blender, you can just use the default automatic mapping and bilinear texturing.  You want to bake three (or four if you like bumps) textures from Blender: Diffuse (color) map, bump map, spec (highlight) map, and reflection map.  Use the Function Editor to attach an image to each material attribute.

Can't bake anything with Vue6 Esprit!

Chocolate Chip cookies sounds good about now, though.........

No.  Bake in Blender.  Vue is just for rendering.  If you are doing the textures in Vue then all bets are off.  There's much more work involved.

What confuses me is why the specularity is distorted, but the same maps are fine when applied as Reflection or Bump.

Just wait until you try using Displacement.  It shifts all over the place depending on where highlights shifts to.

And keep your value range -1 to 1 (near the material previews).  Don't throw 2's or 3's in there.

I haven't done a whole lot in blender, other than render some models.  Where would I find the commands to bake the textures in Blender to export the model?

This was the only texture baking I could find.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7Q-6S5xdz4

The rest were lighting baking.

I thought I found a workaround for the problem, by applying asquares function for highlights, as an additional material layer, mapped spherically, but  the image renders with what looks like a "band" across portions of the object..  It doesn't seem to matter which layer is on top.

Increase the range scale of the UV map to 1.01 to close that banding.  Might be a UV seams issue?

I'm modeling something will quick to see if I get the same results as you.

You can see that on the right side that there is a seam where the two ends of the square pattern meet.  Kind of messy.

This shape is UV mapped.  If I were to use a JPG texture map of a square pattern for highlighting with, it would turn out a lot better than what Vue can generate without putting more effort into the function editor.

Is your object UV mapped and is your NCC-1701 a JPG texture or is it generated somehow at render time?

Shawn,

The banding that I mentioned, and showed above a couple messages, occurs when I attempt to use a block function for highlights on a 2nd material layer (with spherical mapping), whether that layer is on top or the bottom ( with the original layer using parametric mapping for the reflection and bump and color).  It is not a seam due to the repeat of the function, but some weird artifact when I do layering.

greg

I would use the function editor only for what you are trying to do.  You'll need to decide how your "layers" are going to blend together such as, ADD, MULTIPLY, etc.  They won't be treated as layers anymore.

The basic and advanced material editors try to auto-control what you're trying to achieve and get in the way.

You would know if your object is UV mapped because you have to do it yourself at some point before importing into Vue.  If so, and that is how you got the NCC-1701 applied, you just need to create color, bump, highlight, and reflection JPG maps and not use the materials generated by Vue at all.

But anyway, for now you need to tell Vue how to blend your functions.  NOTE: blending parametric, cylindrical, and spherical maps together create bands at their cross sections.  I would keep everything mapped as spherical (highlights, reflections, colors, and bumps).

I'm going to try some more tests doing it the way you been.

It looks like keeping every material type mapped object - spherical should fix the problem.  I tried it using just simple blending for layers (default).

I forgot to mention (just looked at the age of this thread's start date), I have seince moved on to Vue 8 which has mapping fixed.  Vue 7.51 had trouble matching bump/displacement with highlight/color/reflection.  Scaling was always off without a lot of fussing with the settings.

I am not certain what you meant by blending layers--in Vue. ( I can blend layers fine in PSP, but it doesn'[t apply to this)  I created a Simple Material, with Color, bump, and reflection MAPS (provided with the model), all mapped parametrically--which all work as they are suppose to
----I added a second material layer and spherically mapped the vary block noise in the highlight channel of the 2nd layer--this creates the weird band across the center of the saucer.  I have found no way to blend these two together, only the alpha boost applies--unless there is something to drive the alpha function itself--but, as you mentioned, the banding would still happen because of the two different material types (paramet object, and Spherical Object)
Using a noise function in the highlight channel of the material does not work properly when the material is parametrically mapped--which is needed for the other channels.

The registry numbers are not mapped, but are a separate object from the saucer itself.

I am still looking for an answer to my ORIGINAL post,, as to why this  UV mapped object will not properly use a map created for the object, in the highlight channel.  I do not know how I can be any more clear about this problem, and I hope I am not coming across as being rude--I am just very frustrated.

To add to the confusion, I am attaching an image from an original series version of the Enterprise.  On the left, with a plain blue color channel, I used the supplied map for specularity in the highlight channel.  In this instance, I had to  flip the image in PSP so the lettering appears properly.  On the right, the  color map is also used--not flipped ( though the lettering is backwards from the spec map), with the spec map loaded in for highlights, bump, and reflection.---and, except for having to flip vertically the gray scale image, everything works!--This problem only seems to apply to saucer shaped objects--other parts of the ship map correctly.

On the movie Enterprise, I have to wonder if there is something about the UV mapping that works for color, bump and reflection, but is wrong for highlights?--which doesn't make much sense to me.

It also does not make sense that I would have to use a flipped image on the other model (in the channels other than color).  Also, strangely enough, for the TV Enterprise, the preview image shows the lettering backwards, though it renders correctly!

Shawn, I just read your last post, after I was creating my last posting.  Since I am still using Vue 6 Esprit, should I just consider myself stuck?

No.  Since you mentioned UV mapping and parametric though, can you show what your UV map looks like?

I imported the new object into Vue, and had the same issues again.  However, I split the object, and then the saucer mapped properly, even in the highlight channel ( my recent work files of the model also have a split mesh--but have the mapping difficulties)  As another test, I then saved the split model as a VOB, and reloaded it into Vue.  As you can see in the attached image, the highlighting still seems to work right.  I guess I will now have to just rework everything with this newer vob, relight and recheck all the textures.

Shawn, what is the advantage to using baked textures?

Oh.  In Blender I believe you can bake any procedural materials that you've created for your objects and save them as BMP or TGA or JPG (even PNG probably) color, bump, highlight, and reflection texture maps.   The texture maps can be then applied to your OBJ model once imported into Vue so that it looks just like it did inside Blender.  For Blender's baking to work though, the model has to first be UV mapped.  The UV mapping is kept with the model's OBJ file when it is exported, yada yada.

I looked again at spherical mapping.  There are three kinds.  I've been using spherical mapping around the Z axis (up/down in my modeler).  Make sure Vue knows if you're talking about the X, Y, or Z axis so that it matches the axis used in your modeler.  The XYZ lables could be different in Vue.

I got the same banding as you did when I used the X axis instead.

I am still a bit confused.  Since the model already has maps applied in Blender for each channel--except bump I expect, and those maps are already made, and in a folder, what difference would baking make?

Baking allows you to use the exact same materials in Vue that you're using in Blender for your model.  It converts procedural materials into a JPG file.  Vue has its own procedural materials that will not match Blender's.

I use Vue just for rendering (sometimes with clouds).  The imported models and their materials are created from other programs.

Oops.  Reread again.

How did you make those maps of yours that are in folders already?

Shawn,
The maps are part of the Blend file, and were originally exported out with the first object file I used.  As far as I can tell none were procedural.

I've just about got all the materials tweaked again, and am trying out a new render.  Oddly, instead of the mapping issues on the saucers, now it seems, the deflector dish doesn't map.  The maps supplied with the model don't fit right, and the procedural material I had created for the earlier version doesn't work either, so I'm stuck with a dish glow with no variation in color or brightness--which is less of an issue than I had before.

Shawn, do you know how I could export out of Blender, and get individually mapped parts instead of the entire ship in one piece?  I think I may have done it once, but the options are all different with the 2.49 version.  As I recall, in UV Mapper, I could do Poser figures, and move parts on the UV map, but I don't remember how I did it, or how to do it on such a complicated mesh as a starship.

I don't know how Blender exports OBJ models into separate objects.  But my method for texture baking for rendering inside other 3D programs can be browsed at http://www.shonner.com/ta/commander_wip.htm

I had to play with the model, by loading the previous version, resizing the new one and trying to get the postion the same,and then I deleted the older one from the screen, so I wouldn't have to relight the whole thing again.  I've been speding time adjusting the lights, since I couldn't quite match up the two models, and tweaking the textutes, since I forgot to make some of them parametric when I was loading everything.

Looking good there.