Help with Shaders

[rcmaniac25]

This is a two part question.

1. I am very intrested in the relief map node because it simulates displacement mapping without useing as much power. The problem is when I create the relief map node in Mental Mill Artist Edition it works fine, but when I create it in the Mental Mill Beta my computer Blue Screen's. I am not using an approved video card (Nvidia 8600GT) but it works in MMAE so why won't it work in the Mental Mill Beta? I would like to export it to mental ray but MMAE does not support that function.

That brings me to another problem:

2. When I export a shader from Mental Mill Beta to Mental Ray it gives me a *.mi file and a *.cpp file. I know I am supposed to compile the *.cpp file into a *.dll but when I look in the include section of the *.cpp it says it includes "metasl.h." Where am I supposed to find that header file? I have Maya 2008 and it does not include that header file in the Mental Ray developer folder.

Please Help Me:confused:

[rcmaniac25]

I fixed one of my problems with trial and error.

I was having problems using the relief map node, my computer would always Blue Screen. It worked in MMAE though so I compared the to programs and noticed MMAE had a file labled "glut32.dll." After copying that file to the bin folder my computer stopped crashing but instead went incredably slow. After doing some reaserch I discoved that "glut32.dll" is the "OpenGL Utility Toolkit" I don't know what that means but I seemed to do something. I went online and downloaded the newest version and the relief map node works now without a problem. Like I said I don't know what it did but it helped.

You can download "glut32.dll" version 3.7.6 Here (http://www.xmission.com/~nate/glut.html).
It is old but it works. All I did was copy the .dll to the menatal mill bin folder.

Rcmaniac25

[David Marks]

Thanks for your message.

Regarding Normal_relief_map, I can do some testing here on similar nVidia hardware. In a quick test, I am seeing very slow performance, but no crash. (On this system, I do have glut32.dll installed.) Your research is excellent, and the problem appears to be a bug. I will need to spend some time testing on a "clean" machine to confirm your results, but we will get this issue logged.

Regarding the missing metasl.h file, we are aware of this issue and are currently pulling together this and other necessary files for posting to the web site. I am not sure when this will be posted, but we'll make an announcement in the forum when it is ready.

David Marks
mental mill QA

[David Marks]

Can you email the contents of the View : System Diagnostics dialog to me?

davidm at mental.com

[popeye9]

Just to add to this I am using a nvidia 8800 GTs 640 mb card and have the problem of crashing with the relief node. I tried installing the glut32.dll in the bin folder but it did not help.

[rcmaniac25]

Can you email the contents of the View : System Diagnostics dialog to me?

davidm at mental.com

Sorry it's been a while.

Which one would you like me to send, with glut32.dll installed or without?

If without I might not be able to get it if my computer crashes again.

[David Marks]

Either way will be fine. The System Diagnostics dialog contains some specific information about the graphics card and drivers that may give the developers additional clues about the bug. (My suspicion is that for some reason the hardware is not rendering that particular shader and is falling back on very slow software rendering.)

[rcmaniac25]

Sorry it's been a while, again.

I just got a new graphics card, Nvidia 8800GT, do you still want me to send the System Diagnostics to you?

[David Marks]

I'm running the GeForce 8800 GTX here and still see the slowdown with the Normal_relief_map shader node as well. (It would be helpful to see your diagnostic info, but it is probably similar to my own. The main piece of information needed at this point would be the driver version, but since we can reproduce problems here, it isn't really necessary.) The bug report is still open, and the problem still has not been fixed in our internal builds, but hopefully the engineers can get to it soon.

[rcmaniac25]

Sent

The System Diagnostics is with Glut32.dll still installed. Like I said before I currently have a 8800GT and I get no slowdown at all. I can edit the file, create multiple Relief Nodes on screen, run background programs and still have no slowdown.

My system specs are:
Pentium 4 3GHz
2GB DDR2 Memory
Geforce 8800GT
SoundBlaster 5.1 Live(Dell OEM)
LG DVD Burner
80GB Hdd x2
450 Watt PSU

I don't know if any of those will makes it run faster.

Rcmaniac25