I'm not sure what to even use as a search term for this one!

Why is it that back faces render black in some materials even when they have normal light on them? 
Is there a way of avoiding this by doing something specific in the material room?

I think I even saw something about being able to have front of faces different then back faces, but I can't seem to find that thread again. I believe it was by bagginsbill.
Help, pleeez... anything to point me in the right direction would be wonderful.

First things to try are checking the "Normals_Forward" box and / or adjusting the "Shadow Bias" for all lights casting shadows.

Hry nruddock, thanks for that tip :)
I managed to search up something about normals forward, it says there's a checkbox for it somewhere in the material room.
I've been going nutty trying to find it (in the advanced material room, P6) for last 15 nim, and can't find it!  (probably cause of frustration)

Any tips on a good shading rate value? (Sorry guys, I'm not very good at some of those render values in poser)

Hi, Conniekat8,

"Normals Forward" should be the last (bottom) item of the Poser Surface panel (that's the main one, on the left)...

Cheers,
Diolma

That's really weird.  There should be another channel below ToonID, specifically, Normals_Forward.

Ah, cool, now that I know I'm at least looking in the right spot, I wonder it it'll show up if I strip normals info out of the original OBJ file.
If not... eh, I may pull some hair out or go put my head in a pillow and scream! :lol:

sigh
It appears that at my last reinstall I didn't install the service pack.
On my older computer, it's installed, and sure thing, the damn checkbox is there!!!

Phsaw! Grrrr!   snort   I'm not having a good day.   I think I should go and scream anyway... since I'm no longer allowed a big helping of comfort food!

Yup, service pack fixed it!

Checking the Ground material show confirm whether the box is present.
The "Normals_Forward" input was added by P6 SR1, please check the full version number which should be 6.0.3.139 for P6 SR3.

The only other possibility I can think of is that you applied a P5 or pre-SR1 MAT pose that doesn't have the extra input in (which sounds like a bug if this is the case).

I'm on a diet for two weeks now and  I have to go six more weeks, so chocolate is on the no-no list , hope this will help.

regards,

Bopper.

Six weeks, that'll go pretty quick!  I have a looong way to go, about 6 months or more.
I've been a bad kitty last 2-3 years.

Are you doing something specific?  I signed up for Jenny Craig.

nruddock, thanks a bunch for the help. That was it, I forgot to install the service pack afterall.
There is a p5 fix over on Efrontier that has to do with plugging in a simple color node into displacement channel. They say it should work in p6 pre SP version, but it didn't.
Oh well, it's working now :)

Wow, six months that's a long way to go, I'm already having trouble with eight weeks, I did the same diet last year and I lost about 8 kg, but I already gained 10 kg back, so I have to do it all over again, I hope this will last longer, but I'm also very acquainted with "comfortfood" especially chocolate-bars, i think I had too many dips last year.
Lucky I'm not alone, my wife and my daughters are doing it as well, I hope you get support from your family as well, when you do this together it's much easier.
We're following the mehod of a dutch food-guru called "Sonja Bakker", who is very, very popular at the moment here in Holland, it's a kind of a hype.

Well very good luck and hope you don't too many downs.

Bopperthijs

the thing is that normals forward in the material room is kind of a work around.  that is, unless you're rendering the inside of something, black polys mean that your .obj has polys with reversed normals.  i only mention this because it sounds like you're working with your own file?  normals forward will make it render right, but won't solve the basic problem, which is in the mesh.

Lucky I'm not alone, my wife and my daughters are doing it as well, I hope you get support from your family as well, when you do this together it's much easier.

That makes a huge difference. My Honey and I are doing it. We gained it together, now we have to lose it. The kids (his kids, 17 and 19 yrs old) are luckily skinny and very active in sports. But they're being supportive, which is very nice.

Comfort food... hehe, I'm a nut for Nutella!  I grew up over in Europe, eating nutella instead of peanut butter. I was so happy when I noticed that they started importing it here in the US.
Last two years of not watching what I eat really caught up with me! (I think I was on strike after 20 years of watching closely what I eat and keeping my weight normal).

Quote - the thing is that normals forward in the material room is kind of a work around.  that is, unless you're rendering the inside of something, black polys mean that your .obj has polys with reversed normals.  i only mention this because it sounds like you're working with your own file?  normals forward will make it render right, but won't solve the basic problem, which is in the mesh.

I am rendering  my own items, but ones that are meant to have a fair amount of back sides showing. Things like flowing and flaring pieces of clothing. Open sleeves, flowing skirts, insides of a jacket and such.

That's a good point though, if above wasn't the case, then I would have an accidentally reversed polygon or two.

Quote -
I am rendering  my own items, but ones that are meant to have a fair amount of back sides showing. Things like flowing and flaring pieces of clothing. Open sleeves, flowing skirts, insides of a jacket and such.

right, right.  i tend to use normals forward for that and hair.  and sorry if my post pointed out the completely obvious.  though i still could have sworn Normals_Forward was there before i installed the patches.  i have no clue where yours got to.  is it back now?

oh, no problem :)   It always good to point things like that out, IMO, in case someone whom doesn't know about it is reading :)

Yes, the Darn checkbox is showing now, after I installed the service pack.  I would have sworn that I had it installed, but... after ahem checking the obvious, the service pack wasn't installed.

LOL, I forgot to install it, then I forgot that i forgot, and was soo sure I had it in there.
Now if I could only find my car keys... :rolleyes: