Emitters+empties+proxys

[voytov]

Hello Andrey,
When I emit empties from two or mode emitters (different empties with different .vrmesh files connected), only the first emitter renders its proxies.
Sometimes during work even this one stops to render them (the only empty rendered is the base one at 0,0,0 which is not emitted by emitter).
When I append all objects into a scratch new file then for some time it again renders properly what was baked...

The workaround is ctrl-shift-a but it fills scene with tens of thousands of separate empties which make it useless..

It's a 2.49.12 issue..
Do you have any idea of any other solution?
Thanks!

[bdancer]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

I'll look into this.

[voytov]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

Excuse me please as it seems to be my fault this time (again).
If I bake each emitter separately before each "export meshes" operation, then everything renders just fine.

So the script is rock-solid when the operator knows how to use it...

[voytov]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

That's really exciting to have proxies in your script - they really break limits...
That's: 9 emitters/5000 proxies each. Each proxy mesh(leaf) has about 12 polys.

export time: less than 5 secs. (custom build)
render: 3,5 mins (core 2 Quad)

Thanks!!

[soulofsound]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

If you find the time, i would appreciate a short walkthrough, because i can't get the particles to do what i want with respect to rotation and stuff. I know i'm a noob to Blender particle system, so if you find the time and could post an image of your particle settings, that would help me a lot.

How did you create the proxy by the way? export to .obj and use vray proxy tool?

[voytov]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

Hi, rotation problems may be caused by bug-like behavior of emitters.
In general I always "pre-rotate" what I want to get emitted. (90 deg over y axis).

But when I export mesh to obj. it is located in natural orientation: Up is up and so on. I also deactivate "rotate 90 deg" option during .obj export.

Then, when I connect .vrmesh to proxy and just copy it keeping in natural orientation, everything renders fine.
When I start to emit such proxies it appears that objects got rotated (bug?). The workaround I mentioned above and on images.

I make initial setup without proxies but adequate mesh objects-then I can better see and controll everything.

One more problem is disappearing of all instances when I start to tweak weight maps for size and density.
The workaround for me, for now is going to frame 1, baking all emitters,exporting/rendering, going back to frame other than 1 and rendering without exporting the desired data.

Good luck,
the effects are really impressive.
Please ask if you need more clarification.

[soulofsound]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

Thanks Voytov. Good to know it's a bug, and not something i did wrong.

I'll try this, and come back. Many thanks also for the clear screenshots. They really help a lot.

[voytov]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

Hi Andrey,
I know the time isn't right to bug you with 2.49 issues, but maybe you would know any workaround...?
Problem is, while I'm setting more complex scenes using emitters for Empty + vrmesh grass. At the beginning everything is really stable. As long as the scene is fresh, I can have let's say 3 emitters with different Empty each and at render time they correctly render data taken from external vrmesh files. But if I do some scene edit or add some scratch new plane, (declare it as fourth emitter), connect proxy to it and bake, I lose all baked data from all or some of the emitters and aren't able to get it rendered correctly anymore. Not able to bake them again (wire preview shows correct baking process but vrmesh data connection doesn't work after it althougt everything seems fine in "Object" config section of exporter while any empty is selected.

Sometimes preparing new emitter/empty set in external file and appending it into scene helps, as the appended emitters are working but the old, once they break, will never "catch the flame" again.

This is generally the same description as at the beginning of the thread, but this time I have it tested more thoroughly.

Thanks for any info if there is any way to "force reset" emitters config in the scene database..

The problem is absolutely non existent if I assign geometry instead of empty in emitters' configurations.

[bdancer]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

Strange thing, but lets concentrate on 2.5 =)

[voytov]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

OK, so I'm waiting for proxy support arrival.
=)
Thanks for your job!

[bdancer]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

voytov, already done in 2.5 but needs testing. (now proxies are applied to objects: try Cube and goto Mesh panel)

[voytov]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

They work fantastic!!
[attachment=0:kreny100]000 copy (657 x 405).jpg[/attachment:kreny100]
What I can't obtain for now is rendering them, when they are emitted by emmiters (in both object and group mode).

[bdancer]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

Tnx =) Yep, particles in vb25 are in progress.

[soulofsound]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

Wow man, great stuff. How did you do the colour gradient?

[voytov]

Re: Emitters+empties+proxys

Proxies inherit material info from geometry "dummies" that they are anchored to. That lets to prepare pseudo gradient with 10 different materials quite quickly..