Saving radiosity baking to texture

[chuck_starchaser]

No, I closed Blender, reopened the file, went to potato mode, split the screen, changed the right side to UV/Image editor, then I go to the Image menu, New, enter 512, 512, a name, click OK, and nothing happens... And I get the same message when I try to render-bake.

Maybe I need to reinstall Blender? I'm using 2.43, btw...

[M@dcow]

hmm......it should work.

Try reinstalling blender then, if that still doesn't work then try:

Enter face select mode on your mesh, select all the faces. then in the uvwindow, from the uv menu choose scripts >> 'save uv face layout'. choose the size you like then save it.

After that, goto the image menu, choose open, open your file, then bake. This solution also works, but to be honest I can't understand why you can't create a new image.

Yet another way is to just create a 512 x 512 (or another square size) texture in photoshop, then just load it in.

Good luck.

[chuck_starchaser]

I followed your instructions to the letter. I managed to load back the UV layout image. I see it in the UV/Image editor window. But when I go to Render -> Bake Render Meshes -> Ambient Occlusion, I get the same error message --No Images found to bake to.

So, I guess I'd better download Blender again, and reinstall...

[chuck_starchaser]

I just reinstalled, and same thing...
Is there no documentation for this app? I mean, I've spent countless hours following links off blender.org looking for ANY documentation on this render baking, and have come empty handed. Where or how did you people learn this stuff?

[M@dcow]

I doubt any documentation will actually help in this case. There are lots of documents about uvmapping in blender, but none for render baking. It is a brand new feature, so it's hardly surprising really.

Do me a favour, select your mesh again, go into face select mode, select all the faces, then take a screenshot of your uvface layout loaded ontop of the image that you loaded into the uveditor. I just need to make sure that you aren't missing a step.

cheers.

[chuck_starchaser]

Sent you a PM with my email address; I can't upload right now because I have FileZilla in the middle of a huge download; but I can email you the shot.

[M@dcow]

replied. waiting for the pic.

[goosey]

I suggest that you post the blend. Let others try it. Also specify what OS etc you use.

Also, try the same thing with the default cube.

[chuck_starchaser]

Sorry, it was very late last night. Here's the screenshot:

http://deeplayer.com/dan_w/WCUships/...meshaoshot.jpg

[chuck_starchaser]

...and the blend file:
http://deeplayer.com/dan_w/WCUships/...nemeshao.blend

[chuck_starchaser]

Update: I was trying to match every detail to the video, and finally something I wouldn't have thought even possible seems to be it: Noticed that you had layers 1 and 2 visible. I wondered why. So I tried moving my mesh from layer 1 to layer 2, and as soon as I did that the render baking message didn't pop up. I get a totally black screen, when I try to render ambient occlusion; but that would seem to me to be a different kind of problem.

OT:
I wonder what's got into the heads of Blender devs... How can they possibly do something so absurdly unfriendly as require that an object be in a particular layer for some functions of the program to work with it, AND NOT at least put an error message that helps the user understand what's going on? And now I'm finding that whenever I try to render bake and my object is not selected, I still get the unrelated message "No Images to bake to"... This is outrageously intolerable!
/OT

[chuck_starchaser]

SUCCESS !!!



There was just one more thing: In my material definition, Shaders panel, I had Ambient at zero; I moved the slider to 1.0 and voila!

I'm going to write a small tutorial about using Render Baking. I'll post a link here when it's done. Thanks all, and specially MadCow.

Actually, this may not be the end of the story; because one thing I was totally unable to do was to bake a texture from vertex colors. I will need to do that next, because the new vegastrike engine shaders use a Global Illumination algorithm that requires a PRTP and PRTN bakes. PRTP is a radiosity baking that places a red radiant plane along the x axis, a green radiant plane in the y axis and a blue radiant plane in the z axis. PRTN is the same, except that the radiant planes are on the negative sides of the 3 axes.
So I will NEED to be able to bake vertex colors, like I used to be able to.

[Cire]

Originally Posted by chuck_starchaser I wonder what's got into the heads of Blender devs... How can they possibly do something so absurdly unfriendly . . . This is outrageously intolerable!

Slow down there . . . I think you're jumping to conclusions. The problem is unrelated to layers, and this feature is working fine for everybody else whose posted in this thread.

It works great for me . . . until I open your file and try it. I get the same error you do, so there is something wrong with this file. Perhaps a bug in Blender on your system is corrupting the file. What are your computer's specs, btw?

Anyway, I was able to get the radiosity solution to bake . . . once I opened a new file and appended the mesh from yours. If you want, I can upload the result.


EDIT: I'm glad to see you got it to work. But the Ambient setting issue may not be the whole problem . . . I was able to bake the render, even with the setting at zero as you had set it. Strange . . .




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[LetterRip]

chuck,

it is quite likely you are just using something in a way a developer didn't anticipate- same with error messages - an error that wasn't anticipated is probably triggering a message for an error that was anticipated. Best way to get something fixed is to file a bug report.

LetterRip

[chuck_starchaser]

Yes, please forgive my tantrums; I wasted days on this problem and I need some party to blame and rage against
Problem with filing a bug report on something like this is that I never know whether there is a bug because there's no document stating how it is supposed to work, so how do I know I'm not the one doing something wrong? Well, let me just say that for my open source project I will make it a rule that developers must write documentation on any new feature before committing any code for it to svn.
As for what I may have done that was unanticipated, all I can think of is two things:
1) At some point I had visible free edges floating around that none of the python mesh cleanup scripts would get rid of, so I used the ultimate weapon I've discovered since the old days of Blender: export to Wavefront obj, then import obj into a new .blend file.
2) I did a radiosity baking, clicked on Add Meshes, then later deleted the original mesh, and moved the new mesh back to layer 1.

[M@dcow]

this is very odd. Downloaded the file and had a look for myself....there's weirdness going on on multiple fronts. oh -- it's not the ambient slider that's the issue as I deleted the material entirely and it still didn't work.

I then appended it to a new file (as cire did), and while it does bake, it bakes sporadically.....sometimes it'll bake, sometimes it wont. Since I've only just woken up and looked at it, I can't figure out what the issue might be. but then my mind is a little fuzzy right now

I'll take a more in depth look to see if I can spot something, but let me just say as a regular render baker that it really isn't usually like this; in fact this is the first time I've come across any problem at all. Don't get discouraged by this.

[chuck_starchaser]

Alright, here's a better ambient occlusion texture:



And here's it applied as a texture, just for testing:





So, did anybody figure out what's wrong in the file? It's still in my server,
and I was thinking I could file the file itself as a bug report, saying "this
file has problems; it won't bake; yet the program doesn't flag any errors.

[Cire]

Originally Posted by chuck_starchaser Alright, here's a better ambient occlusion texture

Looks good.

What are the AO samples set to? And what's the baked texture's resolution? Increasing either/both would make the map even cleaner.

BTW: That's a really cool ship . . . did you model it yourself?




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[chuck_starchaser]

Originally Posted by Cire Looks good.

Thanks!

What are the AO samples set to?

I'm not sure how you set AO samples; must be at whatever the default is.
I didn't use radiosity baking, if that's your question; I used Render Baking's Render -> Ambient Occlusion.

And what's the baked texture's resolution? Increasing either/both would make the map even cleaner.

My working texture is 2048, but the final texture will be 512, as shown on the pics. I think it will be enough resolution, though. In fact, I was just posting my arguments at the vegastrike forum, here:
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/fo...?p=78010#78010

BTW: That's a really cool ship . . . did you model it yourself?

It's called the Demon, from the DOS days game Privateer, by Origin; part of the Wing Commander series.
I've modelled other WC ships, including the Bengal carrier; but this particular model was contributed to the WCU project by Brad Mick, of WC modelling fame. Not only is he damn good, but he also personally obtained the original models that Origin used for rendering in-game images, so he's bound to get the proportions right-er than I could ever hope for, just from looking at the old game screens. In any case, I did work on the mesh, myself; quite a bit in fact: The original mesh was 3000 or so triangles; whereas my modified mesh is 5822 triangles -heavy. In his original model, the cockpit, engines, and various other ellipsoids were floating, intersecting the body. I painstakingly cut them and welded them together, and made those smooth seams, among other things. Glad you like it.

[Cire]

Thanks for the background info.

And yeah, I figured you switched from Radiosity to Ambient Occlusion (AO).

To set the samples, go to the Shading/World Panel (F8) and then the Amb Occ Tab. Defualt samples is 5, but it goes up to 16 . . . that should give you a smoother texture, even with a resolution of 512. Of course, if you want the gritty (noisy) effect of the current setting, leave it as is (or, even decrease it).

In the same tab, you can fine-tune the AO . . . brighten/darken the level, tint it by the sky color or even use an image for the lighting.

Hope these tips help . . . and please keep us posted as to the progress this project!




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