Thanks Jon1611 :-)

the resolution used was 2000 X2300 ... 
the print in the mag is really small, so this resolution was probably exceeding the needs but that is what we settled for...

Paul

Fascinating :)
(I still have the 2 original floppies from Vue 1.2 )
The possibility to see the camera FOV  in terrain editor was a neat feature.
Almost makes me want to dig out the old 386/4meg Ram from the cellar :)

You're welcome, glad it worked. :)
And thanks to you for reminding me of CB modeler, there is more than meets the eye in this little app.
cheers

paul

Hi Kevin,

CB Model Pro is a neat little modeler :)
If you painted your model in CB and exported the .obj, you got a
file.obj and a file.mtl
The .mtl contains the UV references linked to the object.
It will tell the renderer where to apply a texture bitmap on the object.
The .mtl is not a material by itself it contains only references.

In Vue, you need to change the 'Coloring mode' to 'Mapped picture' (instead of default procedural)
then load the file.bmp that CB Model Pro created for your object. (you will find it in the same folder as the object itself)
Mapping mode must be 'Standard'
Alas, there is a glitch with Vue4.22 build 268494 (last official build) and the texture map will probably not be applied correctly
(in Vue5 it is OK)
There are several ways to get this right.

one of them is to use MeshLab (open source freeware)
http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/
Load the object in meshlab and save it as .3ds
Now Vue4 should load your object with the texture applied.

Another one would be to load the object in in UVmapperPro and save it under another name.

Yet another way would be to use a conversion software like
Accutrans 3d (free 30 days demo )
http://www.micromouse.ca/
Load the object and save it as .obj

There are probably other conversion apps that could 'repair' the mapping glitch.

hope this could help...

Paul

When the zoom factor (see bottom status bar) is circa 3% or inferior, global resizing using the corner dots of  objects is most of the time impossible.
this is a bug  since Vue4 Pro. (still fighting to get this one fixed..)
With Vue6, openGl, using the gizmo allows such resizing at low zoom factors.

of course in this case, you have to make background color pure white and if this pure white appears elsewhere in the image, it will become transparent too...
You might as well choose another shade as background, depending on the subject (bright values), black could be more convenient.
The idea remains the same: via the filter, eliminate all values BUT the one used by the background.

(hope it makes sense.. :) )

Just received an answer from tech support:

//////////////////////////
Hi Paul,

We have fixed this problem, instant draw will be properly degraded according to quality slider, like before. thank you very much for your report.

Best regards.
John Canver
////////////////////////

sure good news! :)
When they finally adress the Poser specific problem they are working on, we might see a better Vue ;)

Iloco, I never use OpenGL !
I am used to Wireframe...it is an old habit from using really low specs computers :) :)
 and the settings I use are almost the same as yours. Depending on the complexity of the scene, I sometimes reduce the Instant display quality and even disable Background draw.

@ Iloco: Both sliders 'Instant draw' and 'Background draw' in Files /options/display options/ 3d view display quality          are set to the left at minimum position  in both versions.

Certainly it is not the only problem, but I believe it can add significantly to the difficulty of using Poser imports (or vobs made of them)  because the problem apparently only applies to meshes not primitives.
And Poser objects are meshes.
In the experiment suggested, you can replace the baked terrain by a Vicky (or Mike..) figure
On some systems, the resources can be eaten up because of this display thing, depending on the strength of the GPU. With older video boards, the CPU would inherits of the overload, eating resources.

But the ideal, as I said above, would be to find out if  the good prerelease exhibited already this strange behaviour.

Hi Iloco,

I too find Vue6inf more (much more) sluggish than V5inf for the same scenes...
Now, I have observed the BIG difference (on my system) is that the two sliders of the display options do not work in V6 as they did in V5: instant draw and background draw.

In V6 the display of meshes is always to maxi even if both sliders are set to the left on mini.
The primitive meshes are reduced in 3d views but not the imported meshes.

You can make this experiment:
In V5 , set the display options to wireframe, and put both sliders to minimum
create a 512x512 terrain (classic)
and bake it to polygons, pushing the baking slider to maxi.

Save the scene and open it in V6 (wireframe mode too and both drawing quality sliders to minimum)
do you see any difference?
I do... in V5 I can barely distinguish the terrain whereas in V6 the terrain is a big red block.
I signaled a couple of times this behaviour to tech support but in the last update it is still the same.

The thing that would be interesting to know is if it was any different with the "good" prerelease.
Maybe I'm wrong but this could be a lead...

@ jc : unfortunately I have no web space :(
But you're welcome to host a copy of that ...  eventually you could put the exemple .vue scene somewhere too?
if so.. well IM where to send the file :)

(Greg I'll send you the Vue file)

Thanks silverblade33  for completing the info ,
I totally forgot to mention this important point!

(slapping forehead too !) :)

I  used filters to control the width of the stripes but also their profiles
(whether they are square or rounded)

The screenshot is from Vue5 Infinite but the method applies
to Vue6 also. You would have to check 'displacement mapping'
in the bump tab

If you have any difficulty with my condensed explanation
I can explain it better :) 
(I can also send you the file so that you can explore it
juste IM me an e-mail adress)

Paul

You can advantage of the automatic connexion of the alpha output to the grayscale of an image used as a texture to make decals out of images that have no embedded alpha (.jpg, bmp..)

For the shadows, if you need a .png of your shadows on a transparent background, you can use the Shadow mask created in the Multipass and use PS or similar to add it as an alpha channel in the rendered picture.(you'll have to negative it first).
Then, save the new image as a .png.

Paul