Hi,

I've got this weird problem with Poser 6. I've imported an object from Lightwave and saved it as a prop.

When I import the prop into an empty scene and try to render it, it renders black. If I import any other object into the scene, the object renders normally. If I set the object not to cast shadows it also renders normally but I'd rather not do that.

It seems like there are invisible shadow-casting quad-faces around the object that cast their shadows only when object is alone.

The problem is quite easily fixed afterwards but if some one knows how to avoid it from the start I'd be glad to hear it.

Thank you,
-Animoottori

Props need to have a FIGURE in the scene to render normaly..
Just try to put a Shoe or any figure in the scene and re render...

EDIT with small props that is ... big props usualy render normaly..

Chris

Ok. The props I've created are actually quite small. Now I can be at ease because I know why it is happening.

Thank you Chris.
-Animoottori

Your Welcome :-}

Quote - Props need to have a FIGURE in the scene to render normaly..
Just try to put a Shoe or any figure in the scene and re render...

EDIT with small props that is ... big props usualy render normaly..

Chris

Uhm that's new to me. And I've made, and rendered, lots and lots of small props. We're talking stuff like a single thumb tack ect. And it has never rendered black or in other ways odd.

I'd guess that you've either got souble sided polygons in your mesh, in which case it may render black, or perhaps inverted normals (but in that case the preview should look odd, too)

So my guess is double sided polygons self-shadowing.

It is someting you've modeled yourself? if yes, then In which program and how? :)

I think they fixed the "single small prop renders black" problem with P7 (or it may have been one of the later P6 SRs).

A workaround for older versions was to scale up the prop significantly (I forget what factor was sufficient x10, x100, or x1000).

TG - To see the problem you have to meet a a couple criteria. Change anything and it goes
away.

1) Depth -mapped shadows. Doesn't happen with RT shadows.
2) Only one tiny object casting shadows. If there is another tiny object some distance away, or anything not tiny, it doesn't happen.
3) Must be one of the newer versions of Poser that has the bug. I think P6 doesn't have it.

Contrary to what bar-code said, it has nothing to do with figures.

RT shadows are superior to DM shadows in practically every way. More realism. More control. More accuracy.

I never use DM shadows anymore. Not even for hair. It just looks fake, so forget it.

Aha! When Poser 5 came out with raytraced shadows, I pretty much switched to those and never looked back L That'll explain why I haven't seen this problem in the wild.

Or at least sorta... but I guess it wasn't present in Poser 4? Because I really can't recall seeing it and some of my old props are still pretty small.

Also I won't call what you showed here "rendering black" at all. I'd call it "being oddly shadowed" or something but it isn't black. I've seen degenerate facets (at least that's what UVMapper calls them) render completely black and I'm suspecting it's something like this the OP is seeing.

I may of course very well be wrong :)

Ah, but I render with GC. My "dark" is another man's "black".

This is rendered with GC. The most distant (100 feet away) prop is dark, but clearly not black.

Having a figure in the scene fixes the bug by having another large object in the scene.  I used to get this when testing earrings and piercing studs.

I created the object with Lightwave and I'm using Poser 6. Both on Mac OS X.

Thank you all for the information.

Kind regards
  -Animoottori

 BB I'd say your distant prop on the non-GC'ed image was ... gone L

But it's an interesting bug, this. One I've never met in the wild myself so I'm intrigued! And now I know how to avoid it, should I ever encounter it!