Bodypaint Low Quality

[Dtox]

So the 3rd image above is the 3d preview that's unusable?

It doesn't look that bad to me.
Previews are low quality approximations, not final render quality.
What is it that you're doing that requires the preview quality to be so high in order to be usable?
The preview you have above seems good enough for you to work with.
My texture previews look just about the same.


Have you had higher quality in the past, and it kicked down for some reason?
Because you don't need render quality in the editor in order to work efficiently.
Sounds like you might just have unrealistic expectations on the quality of the editor view.
Because I can't imagine what it is you're doing that requires such a significant jump in quality from what you have.

With that preview quality, you should be able to continue texturing with no problems.
Let me ask you this:
What is it that you expect to see in the editor that isn't there?
And where did you get the idea that the preview quality should be equal to what you see in the final render or texture view?
The texture view shows only the images you're using as textures, it doesn't calculate any 3D data like the render view does.
The viewport itself has to calculate 3D display data such as all the verts, edges, polys, backfaces, and also surface detail and illumination in addition to the textures.
So naturally it's gonna be lower quality than the render and texture view because it has more data to display, and it displays it in realtime.
So if it was to display it in full render quality or even close to it, the editor view would slow to a crawl and really be unusable.
Editor view trades off quality for speed.

If you think it should really be higher quality, make sure you have enhanced opengl activated by configuring your viewport settings.
Raise the texture preview size and see if that makes a difference.

Other than that I don't know what to tell you.

[kyuketsuki]

Well, for some reason it works now, the preview looks just as good as the render, which is as it should be for something with only three maps.
I finally went into 3d paint mode with the brush tool and it went to a quality equal to the rendered version.
I suppose it just averages it until you are actually working on it.

DTox - if the preview in my example is the best you can see there is something very wrong with your settings or your system.
How could you possibly paint something like laces if you can only see a black smear where they should be?
My expectations come from working in Maya.
Even without turning on High Quality Preview I can see almost every pixel in my texture maps.
Transparency, bump, and normal maps come through as well (I don't know if you can do normals in BP yet).
The quality is essential if you want to hide seams in next-gen assets, you need to be able to see your surface, what I had before was unusable.
Also, it far from slows my system, this preview works with no lag or sticking with Maya 2008 and ZBrush 3.1 running in the background.
I am impressed that you were able to get usable textures working at that quality, I checked your CGTalk Portfolio but there was nothing there, nor is there a website listed??
Examples would be fantastic.

Thanks for the quick reply, the last two suggestions didn't apply as I had already found the features you mentioned, but it is appreciated.
Also.... be careful giving elementary concept lessons when a quick answer will work much better.

Here is what it looks like in real-time painting mode now, and this is what I was expecting.
(Sorry the image is so large, but I wanted to show it in actual quality)
BTW I know the textures are crap, while I'm teaching myself BP I pulled out an old model and texture for kicks n' shiggles.

http://davidaclifton.com/Posted/BPreview.jpg

[leigh]

It's because your texture wasn't loaded, so it was only showing a proxy. Look in your material list - you see that red cross next to the material preview sphere? You need to click that to load the texture properly into memory, or else it just displays a proxy in order to save memory.

[kyuketsuki]

Leigh, you always know.......
Thank you for the information.

[kyuketsuki]

Leigh, I know from what you normally post that you know what you are doing, but when I click on the X and change it to the little black bar with the white dot on it, it didn't change anything except turn it white whenever I try and rotate. I still have to go into paint mode in order to see it at full quality?

In fact, now that I have clicked on the X I can't rotate or zoom or pan anymore, it just turns white then back to it's original proxy low quality mode. I can still work this way, but it's strange.

Also, is it normal that when I rotate it, it snaps to its original position then snaps to where I moved it? It works, it's just odd.

BTW, Leigh, since I might have your attention, your article on textures and shading (pdf) that you made is one of the most popular items with my students, they love it because it's so easy to understand. I have them read your article before the lecture and it helps them have somewhere to start before I get into details, since I started using it, they are much more likely to understand the lecture.

[leigh]

Leigh, I know from what you normally post that you know what you are doing, but when I click on the X and change it to the little black bar with the white dot on it, it didn't change anything except turn it white whenever I try and rotate. I still have to go into paint mode in order to see it at full quality?

In fact, now that I have clicked on the X I can't rotate or zoom or pan anymore, it just turns white then back to it's original proxy low quality mode. I can still work this way, but it's strange.

Also, is it normal that when I rotate it, it snaps to its original position then snaps to where I moved it? It works, it's just odd.

I'm not sure what's causing your rotation problems, and the white texture when rotating, as that doesn't happen to me. If you try reloading the scene, does it still do this? Sometimes Bodypaint can be a bit glitchy, and a reload can help (especially shutting down the actual application, and restarting it).
Indeed you do have to be in 3D Paint Mode to see the texture in the viewport - hitting the spacebar to go into 3D edit mode (or whatever it's called) switches to a proxy texture to save on memory again. The only way to see the full texture in the viewport is to load it (by clicking the red X) and be in 3D Paint mode. Incidentally, when you click the red X, the icon should change to a pencil-like one; this indicates that the texture is loaded, and active for painting.

BTW, Leigh, since I might have your attention, your article on textures and shading (pdf) that you made is one of the most popular items with my students, they love it because it's so easy to understand. I have them read your article before the lecture and it helps them have somewhere to start before I get into details, since I started using it, they are much more likely to understand the lecture.

That's really cool to hear :)

[urban-rebellion]

Hey there kyuketsuki, I think youll find the reason the third pic has a low quality texture is because the window is in editor mode (3d modelling, lighting etc) which doesnt usually require hi res textures to work in (unlike of course painting textures). So by default cinema 4d will downsample the texture when in editor mode and when painting textures (as you seem to have discovered) it will go back to whats called "raybrush" mode which is like a half rendered interactive view.

Heres a screen shot of where to change the default (its hard to find - took me over a year to find that one :blush: )

http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/5729/texturepreviewis2.jpg

Hope that helps. Otherwise im going to sound like a know it all ass.

John

[kyuketsuki]

Thanks for the information urban-rebellion, I don't think I would have found that menu set any quicker than you did and it did make everything all pretty like I need.

Urban-Rebellion and Leigh, you are both very helpful and polite, thank you.

[urban-rebellion]

:D always a pleasure!

[Cameo]

Hey thanks a lot for that tip urban, helped with an issue I was having too. An additional q for you bodypaint pro's, is there a way to set the clipping planes for the camera views? I'd like to get a real closeup of an object I'm painting but its currently being clipped when I get too close. Any suggestions?

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