turning off texture tags?

[flingster]

yeah this was really bugging me the last night...i'd like to know whether this is possible also.

just subcribing to this thread...will push up order...so ignore..would be useful right click...turn off selection...
:shrug:

[lllab]

oh yes, i would need this also very often!!!

is there a plugin or could maxon implement this in a future upgrade?

cheers

lllab

stefan

[AdamT]

Originally posted by lllab
oh yes, i would need this also very often!!!
is there a plugin or could maxon implement this in a future upgrade?
stefan

It's been suggested to Maxon, and Darf implied on Postforum that this might be a feature of one of his plugins--but his statement was fairly cryptic.

[Srek]

Hi,
you can create a workaround. Please find an example here:
MaterialOff (http://www.bonkers.de/download/xp_materialoff.zip)
On Activation the material of a specified Tag will be replaced by a "Null" material that has all channels switched off.
The main drawback is that you have to create a User Data Field for every Texture Tag that holds the original Material. Also this will not help with animated texture Tags.
The last problem can be overcome by switching the complete Xpresso Tag on/off and increasing it's priority over that of animation.

Hope this helps
Srek

[JoelOtron]

Thanks Srek--I'll check it out.


But...

I thought that turning off all channels in a material makes the material render as black on the object. My goal would be to keep each tag where it is as they are organised in a particular order. otherwise I could just move tags to a null or move them down to the bottom layer in the tag heirarchy.

[Srek]

Hi,
simply activate the transparency channel for the Null material so it gets completely transparent. That should do the trick.
The "All channels off" setting was just an idea from me. You can use any material you like or no material at all.

Regards
Srek

[JoelOtron]

Thanks Srek.

Would making the material transparent increase render time since its still a material to be evaluated and processed--- and a transparent one at that?

Also for my current project I just happen to have the render settings set at 'transparency off". Thats no biggy--I can turn that back on and make sure there's no transparent channels activated in any of the textures used.

Havent had a chance yet o look at your file yet. I'll see how it works for me. This isnt a "crucial" issue--but I was just wondering if there was a quick method i had overlooked, as this issue comes to mind from time to time on a project.

If a simple on/off box were located in the Attributes manager of the texture tag (like the "color" toggle shows up for a selected object in the AM) it would be usefull to all I'm sure. A minor fix but a helpful one. I guess I'll drop an email to Maxon.

[Srek]

Yes, transparency would increase rendertime. Also keep in mind that materials depend on one another so changing one will effect the evaluation of the others, especialy when you change the first one.
You will have to try this out with your scene,
Regards
Srek

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