Morning all . . . I was playing around this morning with Vue 4.03, trying to create an alpha plane with an imported .BMP image. In the Material attributes I tried to give it a "glow", but it seems it doesn't want to work as with a standard object. In the image included, I have three objects: the one on the left is a native Vue "Cone" / the one in the middle is an "alpha plane", with an .BMP image applied / the one on the right is also an "alpha plane", with another .BMP image applied to it. Now, all three objects have exactly the same "Glow" attributes, ( set to maximum ), applied to them, plus some additional Ambient & Luminous increases. As you can see, the cone object on the left has more than enough glow in the final render, but I can't seem to get the alpha plane objects to act the same, with the same glow settings. I've tried this several times with different images applied to different alpha planes & always get the same results. Has anyone else experienced this odd behavior, & if so, do you have a solution??? Anyway, thanks for listening to my complaining, not really complaining just curious. Ha ha ha. You all have a good one . . . Mark. 8^)

One more thing, while I'm asking questions: in the image posted you can see that I get multiple copies of an object in the preview window & it happens quite often. It sometimes becomes very difficult to place an object properly, being that I'm getting 9 copies of an object instead of one, in the preview window. I've tried disabling OpenGL, but it doesn't seem to matter whether it's active or not. It's not really a big thing, but I thought I'd ask? Thanks again for your input . . . Mark.

I've seen that multiple effect on soem alpha planes and couldn't understand why either... Eventually, moving the alpha plane got rid fo the effect..

heyas; i havent messed with this, so i am guessing, here. the glow mainly applies around edges of an object, and in your alpha planes, the edges (of the plane) are hidden. maybe if you tried using a bit map material with glow on it, and mix it with a plain air shader, it might work better? hmmmm... dunno. i would guess that the preview is somehow mis-calculating the material size. probably a bug e-on should investigate. meanwhile, you can always do a quick preview render of your scene (or a patch render of the particular area) to see where your stuff really is.

Hi Mark, actually I think you're getting a good glow effect on all three objects. Yes, I see the differences, but like Bloodsong said, the glow mainly relates to the edges of an object, and an alpha plane doesn't really have any edges -- what slight edges there are, are transparent. So what you're getting looks good to me! :) You could always do a little post-work in a paint program to accentuate the effect on the alpha areas. The multiples...bug. I don't know if it's been reported to E-on yet or not.

Thanks guys . . . 8^) I really appreciate the tips & suggestions. Your theory on the glow & alpha plane make a lot of sense, now that I think about it, bloodsong. Yes Varian, your right about post work, I can either take it into PhotoShop or Painter 6, to add more to the glow effects. ;^) Thanks & have a good one . . . Mark.

Concerning the multiple objects :

Actually it's not multiple "objects" but a texture map at the wrong scale (x9).

When you change the size of an alpha plane the color image and the transparency map are scaled as well.
That's the meaning of the "adjust plane proportions" button in the alpha plane options.

What happens is that sometimes, i.e. when you change the size of the alpha plane, VUE must adjust again the scale of the material. If the preview window is refreshing itself during this process you will get this "multiple copy" effect.

to avoid this, disable "adjust plane proportions" and set the scale of the material manually.

Eric

Ah, thanks for clarifying that, Eric! Makes perfect sense since the alpha plane must be set to Object-Standard, yet there's no setting for it on that kind of object. Now I understand the "adjust plane proportions" fills the need for that. :)

'Morning audity . . . I appreciate the "adjust plane proportions" explanation for the alpha plane image. It makes sense now that I think about it. I'm still learning this program. 8^) Thanks & have a good one . . . Mark.

hey, cool. dont think you're getting off so easy kruzr! not til you try the mixed glow materials on your plane thingy and post the results to see if i was right! :)

Oh, and "adjust plane proportions" also sets the dimensions of the alpha plane to match the images being used. If you're using a rectangular image (not a quare), check this and the alpha plane will fit the shape. No more twiddling around to try to get it to match up. :)