ehy no problems with maya8.0. just use the area light instead of the point one.
ciao
francesca
object lights
Visor66
#143
Hey guys,
sorry to disturb you again, but Im propably missing something important as I cant get the objectlight running in Maya 8. I used a dummyobject with the ctrl_objectlights as geometry shader. I put in the transform name of my object and the shape name of the area light. I then hit render and nothing happens, Maya even starts crashing! So, where is the mistake?
Thanks again for your help!
Visor
ftaswin
#145
Yess please…
And does anyone still have the old scene files comes with the zip file? With the spiral thinggy?
I lost it and the new scene file is for CPV. It’s been a long time since I used this shaders and now Im having a brainfart. Im sure I attached a ramp for colored light before but I dunno how to do it now 
Thanks
Ft
o-v
#146
ok, I guess I’ve managed it in maya 7… but theres something freaky… I mean compare the hardware render and the mental ray output…
short description:
i changed the color of the original objLight geometry by painting it…
I duplicated the whole network for the sphere and did the same… (added a second light, a second geodummy, etc…)
and obviously changed the flags to “derived from maya”
well the sphere is a nice glowing light object… but the planes aren’t. they emit light, what is expected, but thay have actually opposite color and not really that intensiv as the sphere… even the “light” intensity (in geocolor shader) for the sphere is around 50 and for the planes 88… it does have no effect if I turn “shadows” and/or the “intensity” in the cpv section off…
can someone pls explain that?
the scene is here
http://www.vrankovina.com/forum/m7_geolight_cpv_ov.rar
its actually the same scene provided by francesca (:applause::applause::applause:) but modified a little…
EDIT: and yes it works with maya 8 useing a pointlight… with an area light u have much better control about the quality of the light (samples…) and its fast!!!
Visor66
#147
hey o.v.
thanks for your help and scene file! But still, I cant get it runnin in Maya8. With Maya7 Im able to set up the objectlights, but it doesnt work in 8! Could you maybe make a quick setup scene for Maya 8? This would be great! 
THX :buttrock:
francescaluce
#148
can someone pls explain that?
CPV are not implemented as visible light.
you have to duplicate the geometry and playing with object flags
to get the efx you are looking for.
ciao
francesca
o-v
#149
well thats what I was surpriced about…
the pinkish ball is a basic lambert and colorized by cpv approach - why the heck has it that color in the rendered pict?
the light color is ok but the geom color is that speaks against your clue…
the opposite color of the planes can be explainded by the “theory” that they are lightning each other and vice versa…
and am I right that if I want to fake glow I have to use a copy of the light geometry and use the special effect of the shader? I know that mental ray does not support light glow…
o-v
#151
cause mental ray 3.5 can handle maya area lights very well… 
but it works with a pointlight too - just u need to render very expensively, because of the quality…
yassein
#152
thank you that is good but
is thare way to conct ctrl_objectlights to erea light
im trying to use conction editor
but i cant 
o-v
#153
hmmm yes look under mental ray tab - light shader… but I’m not at my puter right now so I cant bet… give me 2 hours I should be back home and will post a little roadmap…
EDIT: hold on! thats b…s… sorry… take care of the shader kind…ctrl_objectlights is a geometry shader and has nothing to look for in the light shader slot!
o-v
#155
first of all: I hope francesca, you agree to this share of knowledge and correct any “unsophisticated” statements… if u dont want it, just a word and I remove all the stuff from here. but some guyz (includeing me) asked for, so…
This is a basic setup. just to get the shader running. nothing about “color per vertex - cpv part” or anything else… its all fairly good described by francesca here in this thread.
here we go:
1) a basic scene includes at least
a) a dummy geometry (in my case the red box) - "carrier" for the ctrl_objectlights geometry shader
b) a light - in maya 8 an area light (gives a good result) - in my case a sphere area light. leave it at the origin. if u create more lights for that network - leave them all at the origin.
c) a geometry thats acutally our light source - I used a subD funky thing…
d) a backround geometry or what ever. u should c something that gets affected by the light
GIVE all those parts a proper name! (e.g. in outliner...)
[img]http://www.vrankovina.com/forum/basic.jpg[/img]
- Hypershade
go to the mental ray tab and look for these 2 shaders
a) mental ray lights -> ctrl_geocolor
b) geometry -> ctrl_objectslights
just click them (LMB) and u should find them again under the “Utilities” tab
- Attach the geometry shader to the “carrier” geometry… I called it dummy - as francesca did in the file included in the package
a) choose the dummy and open the attribute editor. go to the first tab, wher u’ll find the transform node name. (attribute editor opens with the “shape” node by default…)
b) go to the mentalray part and open the geometry shader.
c) ctrl_objectlights MMB and drag it from the hypershade over the geometry shader slot (the slot should get dashed frame) - release. u have connected the geometry shader to the dummy.
- Attach the light shader to the area light
a) choose the light and open the attribute editor. go to the second “shape” tab (opens by default)
b) go to the mentalray part, check “light shape” and give it some shape. I used sphere, but I guess it doesn’t really matter which one is chosen. for the samples value I just typed some nuber that gives me enough samples for sure - I’m certain, that can be optimized
c) go to the custom shader part and open it. check “suppress all maya shaders (I guess this isnt a must…)”
d) MMB and drag the ctrl_geocolor shader over the light shader slot… - u have connected the light shader to the light.
- ctrl_objectlight setup
a) click the dummy. in the attribute editor go to the ctrl_objectlight tab. in the transform slot u shoud type the name of the transform node of your “light source” - u already know where u can find it
b) in the light slot u should insert the name of the light SHAPE node (yourlightShape)
- ctrl_geocolor setup
this is the part where your fantasy should get wings… those are the main light controls…
just play with them…
soft light: color - well thats obvious. intensity - this is a co-player with the attenuation part… if u set it to linear or exponential or physical u should set here a fairly high value…
shadows - just check it out.
attenuation - if u know a basic light setup - this is all common
all other stuff is not an issue right now.
- set your render settings to preview and render…
u should get something like this
goooood luck
Giap
#156
Can I use ctrl_objectlights for Maya 8?? If I can use, how can I set up it?? Please help.
Thank you very much ^^
yassein
#157
o.v.
thanck thanck thanvck you :applause: :applause: :applause:
Giap look at o.v. last post that is the anser for you
i~ll try and come back
Visor66
#158
hi o.v.
thanks alot for your small tutorial! It really helped me, because I realized that I didnt made anything wrong! My light setup was all the same as yours, mine just didnt want to render! So I checked my *.mi and *.dll files, replaced them with other ones (I dont know about you, but when I open the *.zip file from the first page, its full of the same files with different sizes!) and BOOM, it works now! I always thought I do something wrong at the setup stage!
So, thanks again! Now it works, and thats gooood!
Greetz
steeheef
#160
please excuse my ignorance;
but how do you create a sphere area light…?
thanx for helping me trying to catch up with you front runners
yours
Steef