Hi....Today was my first ever try at Vue 11 Esprit and I have problems with my textures since I get the error of incompatible alpha information all the time, on terrains, atmospheres, etc. I also find the end render result abysmal. At this stage I achive better results in Poser. Any thoughts.... 

Incompatible alpha information: means you are using material layers that have incompatible alpha information (like 2 different alpha production functions), and Vue can't create the material. Not a big deal, there should be another question, asking you to load material wihtout alpha function (or something like this).

About render times, what render quality are you using? What's in your scene?

Re Alpha Layer: understood, but it gives me this for every material in the library, as in the ones it shipped with too. If this doesn't interfere with the final result, it's fine by me, although exteremely annyoing :-) but this error only ever appeared after I installed the ecosystem and its painter. I posted this at Eon too...I then asks me whether I wish to use the current information  but it results again in the same message if I change it later as in the current AND the one I try to load, which tells me it is all accross the board and probably a glitch? Basically I always have an exclamation mark in the top right corner of my texture info and this for every single one.

I tried all render settings, from final to ultra and my own as in 300 DPI. The ultra settings smooth everything in such a way that it looses all definition, so I generally go with a lower setting. Here I went for final and it took 1 hour with a rainy day atmosphere....It looked better with the standard one but I thought the shadows were wrong, as in heather wouldn't cast the amount of shadow it did and so I changed the atmosphere and it got worse from there on....

The scene contained 1 procedural terrain, ecopainted heather, some rocks and a tree, as well as DAZ sheep imported from Poser. I have attached it. I used materails it shipped with or left them as they were.  

 

Any layer from the "Layers" or "Ecosystem layers" is bound to give you this message. If you load a layer as a base material, then load another layer, there are 2 alpha informations: the one from base layer, and the one from top layer. Base layer cannot have alpha productrion, it must cover the entire object/terrain.  Vue is lost at this stage and asks you for help. As a rule of thumb, never use a Layer as a base material, or if you do so, reset the alpha production function.

OK, I understand what you are saying. Is this also the reason why the first object I load has this error straight away? In the end, it all seems to work OK, no matter the errors but I need more experimenting. I managed a slightly better image today....Thanks for all your help as it is appreciated! 

Well, just never use a material from the Layers collections, and you should be alright.

I'll keep that in mind! Thanks :-)

I meant never use a Layer material as a base material, you can of course use a Layer material onto a base material.

Quote - At this stage I achive better results in Poser. Any thoughts.... 

Vue does great renders?

That render you posted looks like you negated the lighting information somehow? Do you maybe have the gamma settings cranked up or something? It has no depth? Could be way to much ambient lighting. Or are using the Poser render tree?

I turn the gamma correction off and instead make the corrections on the materials in the lighting I'm going to use. I get far better results that way. I throw a low res object on the ground and settle on the lighting first and then go from there.

Lighting is perhaps the hardest to master, but the most important.

 I am aware it is the lighting, but I used three different atmospheres it shipped with and all three were no good. I used them straight out of the box. I made a better render the day after with a really basic atmosphere. The grainy look came with one called ' a rainy day' and I think it uses AO, but that's just from memory now. 

What do you mean with Poser render tree? if you mean its shadernode info, I did import both sheep with their mats but I don't think it also imports the lights. They weren't as bad with the basic light Vue loads up with. The stuff happened once I changed the atmosphere, but like I said, I used it straight out of the box. 

I am taking note of how you work and will look into how Vue lighting is working as I was aware that this was the issue, but so far didn't know how to fix it. other than changing atmos. I just don't know if Vue Esprit on its own will do the trick. It might need the lighting module....

Thank you :-)