I recently purchased Vue-4 (now 4.12). I'm also a LightWave-7.5c user. Vue Pro (VP) looks interesting. Are there any examples of VP scenes loaded and rendered in LightWave (LW). The reason that I'm asking, is that many of the new features in VP, I can already do in LW. About the only really unique thing that Vue does is terrain generation and terrain texturing. Assuming that exported VP terrains and textures import into LW, are VP's procedural textures retained as procedurals or are they converted to image maps ? If the textures are converted to maps, how close are they to the original Vue renders, when rendered in LW ?. I've exported terrains and textures out of Bryce-4 and they load fine into LW. The problem is in the texturing. When rendered in LW, the Bryce exported image maps don't look much like the Bryce-rendered images, no matter what resolution that I export the maps. I guess that's my concern. If VP can't do any better than Bryce (for exported terrains and textures), then it's not much use to me. Any feedback is appreciated Knuck

I, too, am a LightWaver. I have just ordered VP and will certainly conduct a lot of experiments, especially in the areas you highlight, since they are of critical importance to me. I'll post my findings. There is, of course, also the option of using RLA/RPF compositing, but I'd rather avoid that. The process usually takes longer and the cost of a good compositing program is rather hefty..for my wallet, anyway :( Unless LightWave can act as compositor? Hmmm... Btw, in the product description it says: "Complex geometries [trees] are automatically unwrapped with minimum distortion and exported complete with all UV mapping and texturing information in a format that can be read by other 3D applications. You can adjust the level of detail in the exported geometries and texture maps." (Note to self - buy a BIG harddrive) Brgds

so as a lightwaver too, my question would be "how does lightwave handle the infinite planes generated by vue"? and the trees also generate questions. how realistic do they look when transported to lightwave? if anyone with v4p can give examples, that would rock!!

I agree that sample LW scenes would be very useful.

I don't expect to receive the package anytime soon, but I will make these issues my top priority. I promise to post my findings - and upload some trees or scenes for you to mess with.

Brgds

Maybe we could convince gebe/Guitta to make an exported tree or scene available on her website? Or maybe upload one for us? Please? Someone else?

OK, will do so a little later, in 3 or 4 hours. Sorry, but right now I'm too busy. Guitta

OK I could do it faster. You will get this scene (for Lightwave only). Please download the following files and follow what's in the readme file.

1
2
3
4

I had to cut the files in several zips, sorry.

These files will only stay on my site until September 24, because I have not anough space to keep it longer.

Guitta

Number 1 is the readme file. It doesn't want to load. here is what it contains: After you have unzipped 2, 3 and 4, put all the files from the 3 folders in one UNIC folder before you start to import into LW.

BTW, this export is in a very low resolution!!!

Thanks ever so much Guitta! Looking into it right now..!

grrr... poser seems to have jacked up my sys yet again... if any lightwavers here can post the results, that would rule!!!

Hi gebe, Thanks a lot for the LW files. However, seems like several of the included bmp files are blank and/or just messed up. For the same reason my first render is not really worth showing... Enjoy Sunshine in Life Ole

Like this? :)

The water transparency is at 100% - set the layer opacity lower, if you want to see the water.

The sphere has variable reflection, maybe this has to be set by hand in LW? And as the export was in very low resolution, you cannot get a nice image:-). But as I need my computer for my work and high resolution exports takes some time, I cannot give you a better one. Guitta

Yep, that's about what I got. LOL I just deleted the water Trans map, which is just a blank image. Then it renders. The final image looks pretty mediocre. Also, the tree renders REEEAAALLL SSLLOOWW. All of that transparency I guess.

The final image looks pretty mediocre. The quality of the export Knuck. Just a low one. You can get it better.

The tree's texture map is 54 by 12573 pixels(!), and it's a BMP, meaning 256 colors. No wonder, then.. :)

You can get the sphere looking proper by loading the bump map as a reflection map and inverting it. Yeah, it's a workaround.

With these renderspeeds it looks like I'll have to composite the shots, rather than rendering them all-in-one. I hope LightWave is up to it..

Vue renders those trees in a flash, compositing is the way to go. Plus, we don't know whether the tree blowing in the wind effect translates into the LW scene anyway. The real news as far as I'm concerned with VP is the camera/light sync.

vue pro looks cool, but it seems that with some practice, it's nothing that can't be done in lightwave. good luck to all users though!!

DMM, you are so right - I just hope LightWave can key/composite the images together for me, AfterEffects is too much on top of VP, moneywise.. :(

I agree with DMM...the camera/light sync is the primary feature I am looking for too...shouldn't the DFX program coming out with Lightwave 8.0 handle the compositing easily?

After tweaking some settings in Lightwave this is the image that I obtained. Somethings I did: 1. I used MixedNuts idea for the sphere about using the Bump UV map in the Reflection channel and inverting it. 2. For the water surface I used a diffuse of 40%, a Specularity of 20%, Glossiness of 10%, a Reflection of 30% and a Transparency of 2%. 3. I used SkyTracer for the sky. I noted that the Light position imported apparently is for that of the default of Lightwave. So my shadows are different than what Gebe got in Vue above since I used SkyTracer Second thing I noted is that UV map for the Land Object appears to be rotated by 180 degrees so the brown shading, that is just below the tree in Gebe's image from Vue above, is on the wrong side of the island and not seen in my Lightwave render. Third, it took 9 minutes to render this scene in Lightwave ... I really think it is that this is pretty good of a render time considering that there is so much transparency in it. Finally I just finished purchasing Vue Professional! Fillingim 4.

One suggestion. If you have Lightwave 7 (I forget if this works in 6). Go to the transparency layer of the tree and copy that texture. Go to object properties/render for the tree and click on clip map. Paste the texture you copied, making sure anti-aliasing is off. Use that texture and delete the transparency texture that you originally copied from. Why Vue uses uses transparency for the leaves of the tree as opposed to a clipping map is beyond me. It might have something to do with exporting to a pre 7.0 format (Xfrog does the same thing). But doing it this way created renders that take a LONG time. Try it as a clipping map and see how fast it now renders. Also in those exported objects that Guitta posted there are a few maps that are NOT used, They seem be used in the transparency layer of the objects though they don't do a thing. Remove them. I mean what kind of transparency would the land have..or the ground.