I'm just getting into the intricacies of Vue8 (after using the PLE for a while to assess Vue's possibilities with Poser).

I'm trying to create an alpha plane linked to the main camera to create rainfall across an image. Image1 is a preview of the scene - a wet night in London.

Image 2 is the rainmap that I've installed in an alpha plane - as you can see, at 1000x1000, it's quite detailed.

When I use this alpha plane in the scene I get the result as per the preview in image 3. As you can see, the rain drops are few and huge and it's apparent that only a small part of the original image is being used.

I've tried all ways I can think of including: scaling the material in the Object Properties Panel, reducing the size of the alpha plane in Edit Object and reducing/tiling the image in the Material Editor but I always get the same result.

I've even tried setting up an ordinary plane with the image/transpareny info on and it won't show within an image at all!

Have I missed something or is this a bug?

Any suggestions gratefully received as this is driving me crazy!

Hello!

I just downloaded your image 2 and plopped it onto an alpha plane in a new scene (choose "add alpha plane" and then add the image as color and the inverted image as alpha in the following dialog window). Seems to work as you intended with the default settings. I can see many small drops. Mapping is set to "Automatic". No adjustments to scale or any other parameter were necessary. Can you show a screen shot of your set up and the material tabs for the alpha plane.

Make sure that the alpha plane is far enough away from the camera to show more than a small section.

Ciao
TD

There's an easier way to create rain in Vue with a cylinder in front of the camera, there's already a pre made cylinder in your library for this, adding more and overlapping them gives a really good effect.

TD, I decided to start over with a new alpha plane exactly as per your suggestions and, after setting it up, I let the scene render overnight (I stopped it this morning before it completed). The result is as per the image.

A few comments:

1. As you can see, the rain drops are still much too large and extend beyond the apparent alpha plane (Actually they are identical in size and location as the third image in my original postings so I've replicated exactly what I did before!).

2. The edge of the alpha plane (apparently a cube - see below) can be seen by the artefacts across the sidewalk and road (the corner of the cube is seen clearest at the left hand steps).

3. Obviously, from this, the alpha material setup bears no relation to the alpha plane.
   Why is this? (I tried both automatic and flat vertical on the material as well as linking the plane to the camera with no difference)

Incidentally, I'm having difficulty in seeing the alpha plane in the orthoganal views - the only way it can be seen is by switching to wireframe box view which, bizarrely then shows the plane as a very large cube!

Fixer, I've searched through the object collections and can't find the cylinder anywhere. I tried what you're suggesting as per the Simulating Rain tutorial in the manual and got thoroughly confused as the manual wording is rather imprecise. Also, the tutorial makes reference to a Rain scene containing the cylinder but I can't find that either!

I've got the download version of Vue8 Esprit with latest updates.

I'm obviously missing something so any help will be much appreciated!

Load your cylinder, put it central round your camera so that your camera is in the middle, go to load material and you should find "rain" under objects/special effects. You can add more cylinders and orient them differently to increase the effect.

The scene file doesn't seem to be in Vue 8....

Quote: *"....you should find "rain" under objects/special effects. You can add more cylinders and orient them differently to increase the effect.

The scene file doesn't seem to be in Vue 8...."

And there seems to be no Objects/Special Effects folder either!

Hmm, did you download your extras CD?? or did you buy a physical copy?

Quote: *"Hmm, did you download your extras CD?? or did you buy a physical copy?"

• No, mine's a download.  didn't know anything about an 'Extras CD'  How do I get it?

Should be in your account profile at e-on..

Thanks Fixer

Found it and I'm trying it out now

Still haven't had any solution to my original question though about the incorrect material placement on an alpha plane.  Any thoughts or is this likely to be a bug?

Don't know, I've taken it if you don't mind and I'll see what results I get with it.....

Please do!  I'd be interested to see what you find with it

LOL, I took it on the off chance you'd say yes....
Anyways, it works the same way as THD777 said, looks nothing like what you have in your image 3 above.
I don't know what to suggest, nice raindrops though!

Not sure sure what is going on either. You ARE using the actual "Alpha plane" object and not a simple plane, right? Did you make any changes to your units in Vue?

Wish I could help, but for some reason it works over here.

Ciao
TD

Quote - *"You ARE using the actual "Alpha plane" object and not a simple plane, right? Did you make any changes to your units in Vue?"

*No,TD - it is an alpha plane (with image inverted in alpha) and I've made no changes from the default.

I'd be interested to see what results you got from using my rain image.

Way to go....Looks mighty impressive there, a nice pic forming. Will you be posting it here, make sure you let us know so we can comment.

Your image using the rain cylinder looks nice!

Here is what I got with your rain image. I just plopped the image on an alpha plane in from of one of the Vue default scenes and moved the plane into place. Certainly can be improved, but looks OK to me for a 30 seconds effort. You are not seeing the comple plane, so it could be moved further back for smaller drops.

Ciao
TD

Thanks guys,

TD, you've obviously not had the problem I had - that's exactly what I was trying to achieve!

I actually prepared this scene for my wife who's the Poser fanatic.  I'd just got Vue and she asked whether I could do a rainy night scene based on one of her Poser files. She's now going to do some other scenes based on this which I hope to post when she's done them.

The results have come out far better than we expected and I'm very impressed with Vue8's rendering capabilities - much more realistic than P8's - albeit rather slow.

Yep I was an ardent poser fan for years, then tried Vue and was sold, been using it for a few years now, it's lighting , water etc. are much more realistic than you can get with Poser anyday.
I only use Poser now for scene set up, nver for rendering.