dogged by bad luck

[Jonnee]

Hiho, my friends!

Two days ago my computer became a victim of a heavy virus attack. So I had to delete all of my harddrives and had to install everything new. Now Blender is added new and all plugins too for sure.

After exporting my recovered age some things have changed:
Some alpha blended textures aren't drawn correct now. The crossover between two textures doesn't look transparent mostly. (have a look to the added picture). It doesn't happen everywhere, but there are only some few that become drawn correct. It looks like a usual Zoffs error, but I don't know why it happens now, because there haven't been done any changes in blender.
Secondly my waveset doesn't look as I have created it in the past. Now it's kind of silver and very reflective. Formerly it was dark blue.

Have there been any changes in the gow plugin wihin the last four weeks that could cause these errors? Because I don't know what could cause it. I have installed the same drivers and software to my computer as before.

I'm a bit at a loss.

[D'Lanor]

Have there been any changes in the gow plugin wihin the last four weeks that could cause these errors?

Not if you were already using the released 1.5.0 version. If on the other hand you grabbed the unstable nightly build then there have been changes for sure although I cannot imagine any change in PyPRP which would smear the alpha blending like that.

Maybe some of your alpha textures were damaged?

[Jonnee]

I've used 1.5.0 before.

Maybe some of your alpha textures were damaged?

There is only one alpha texture damaged. It's crossover between the transparent and nontransparent part is drawn as a bright stripe.

[D'Lanor]

I mean the source file itself. Or the one in the texture cache. Although it is unlikely the virus could have damaged it.

[Jonnee]

I checked it: The texture files and the cache are not damaged.

[boblishman]

Well ... there may be several things going on here ... especially as you deleted all the files on your hard drive.

1) .sav file
2) Texture cache

The .sav file saves all kinds of things ... including some things that you might not think about.
It could be that even though you made changes in Blender, and re-exported (before the crash) they did not change in Uru (because of the save file). The texture cache also "remembers" texture settings (like alpha, filter etc) and again, if you have done a "fresh" export (because you lost your "original texture_cache files) what you are seeing now is a result of the 1.5.0 plugin (whereas BEFORE your crash, even though you were using the 1.5.0. plugin, it may have been using the files generated by the 1.4.0 version which still looked OK).

Basically, when you install a new version of the plugin it is "best practice" to delete (or better still BACKUP & delete) both your .sav file and your texture_cache files... Then you know that the output from the new plugin is producing GENUINE, new files from the NEW plugin ... and that any changes you see ARE a result of the new plugin... and you can then "repair" them as necessary ...

I suggest that you delete (and/or backup) both your .sav file for your age AND the texture_cache and re-export the age.
What you will have then will be exactly what the new plugin "creates" ... and you can then start "repairing" anything that is "broken" by the new plugin ...

[Jonnee]

Sounds logic. But remember: I have used 1.5.0 before and I do it now too. I think the .sav file does not cause the changes, because I have deleted it sometimes in the past when I was changing the background sounds of the age. Nothing happend to the age in this case.

It doesn't explain why two things have changed dramatically:
The waveset looks complete different now. The water surface is not transparent. It looks like a very reflective mirror and the dark blue colour from the material settings is not displayed after exporting the age. I have not done any changes to the material settings and to the Alcscript. According to this the waveset should get displayed as before - but it doesn't.
Secondary the transparent part of the alley's texture looks smeared. I don't know what causes this. It is not a usual Zoffs error. That would look different (and I know how a Zoffs error looks like).
I tried to create the alley new, but the error happens again and again. So I decided to update the driver of my graphic card - no changes. I have deleted DirectX too and reinstalled it. No changes. I have deleted blender, python and the gow plugin too with now success...

I feel myself a bit unhappy. One month of very intensive work was spend to the age till now... I hope we can find the error.

[Jonnee]

Slowly but surely I' getting the answer to my problem:
I could avoid the smearing of the alley's texture by setting a passindex value to the alley. Now it's alpha blended borders are drawn correct. Unfortunately I have to set that passindex values to other different objects of the age too, because some borders are complete transparent, so that I can have a look through them to the bottom of the age.
Till now I could not find the perfect combination of different passindex values. I was testing different values, but they cause a heavy flickering of the age's textures now. It's not easy to find the perfect combination, because there are so many objects in different distances to the avatar and in different highs. Sounds like Kierra's problem too...

Still secondary someone may explain me, why my waveset got that quicksilver look? It's just a bit transparent now, but very reflective. Before the re-installation of my harddrive it was perfect.
I tried two different Alcscripts - but it always looks the same.

script #1:

Code: Select all

waveset:
    logic:
        actions:
          - type: ripplevsmgr
            ripplevsmgr:
                matpreshade: splashrings
                matrtshade: splashrings
                targets:
                  - waveset
                waveset: waveset
                initu: 4
                initv: 4
                finalu: 1.0
                finalv: 1.0
    type: waveset
    dynenv:
        hither: 0.3
        yon: 10000
        inccharacters: 0
        refreshrate: 300
        width: 256
        height: 256
    visual:
        waveset:
            shores:
                - shoreline
            envradius: 100
            specnoise: 0.9
            specstart: 600
            specend: 700
            edgeopac: 0.5
            edgeradius: 0.5
            depthrange:
                opac:
                    start: 0
                    end: 2
                refl:
                    start: 0.9
                    end: 0.99
        period: 10

script #2:

Code: Select all

waveset:
       type: waveset
       waveset:
          shores:
             - shore
          texstate:
             maxlen: 6.25
             minlen: 0.78
             ampoverlen: 0.01
             chop: 0.75
             angldev: 1
          ripplescale: 100
          specnoise: 0.5
          specstart: 250
          specend: 1000
          depthrange:
             opac:
                start: 0
                end: 4
             wave:
                start: 0
                end: 1
          whispiness: 0.5
          edgeopac: 1
          edgeradius: 1
          period: 1
          fingerlength: 1
          envrefresh: 0
          envradius: 2000


Is there a value to set how reflective and how transparent the waveset gets displayed?
Or does the quicksilver look caused by the reflection of the ages fog? Can I turn it of somehow? (not the fog, just the reflection)

[Lontahv]

Ok, first of all are you modeling the puddle to the pool-bed or are you just doing it the D'Lanor way (which doesn't work well BTW)?

I don't know what would've changed. :\ I'm not sure if wavesets are tested with thick fog. If you do have fog try turning it off. That's all I can think of right now.

[D'Lanor]

The second script is missing "visual:" so it won't do anything in PyPRP 1.5. Or was that a copy/paste error?

And btw, I seem to remember that the lower you set the end value of "refl:" the more it reflects.