Hi guys another problem with rpcs i cant seem to get them to cast shadows????
Im using a daylight system and rendering through mental ray

any ideas????

thanks in advance

Nigel

Windows Professional 64bit
single quad core i7 2.8ghz
6 gb ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 480
Driver Version 270.61

By default, RPC objects are excluded from lights because they don’t properly cast shadows.  I’ve heard that Archvision has made new ones that are supposed to case shadows using some special light or something, but I’ve never tried it out.  We usually render RPCs separately, fake the shadows, and composite them in.

Are you using the RPC Shadow light?

3DS Max Design 2011 64-bit - Advantage Pack
Dell Precision T5500, Dual Six Core Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz, nVidia Quadro 5000, 24 GB RAM, Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit
Minneapolis, MN, USA

they should cast shadows - make sure the option is selected through the mass edit utility.  Also, since you’re using mental ray, archvision has some plug-in that has an option for including RPC objects in lights upon placement - only problem is, you’ll have to re-place them if you’ve already done so.  Get ahold of archvision for that plug-in.

Thanks for replys i found out the RPC shadow light plugin only supports scanline renderer, which is not much good to me, i really dont know why i bother with RPCs they are a constant problem, if i try and render them using DBR to other machines i get red boxes on them even though i have lowered the firewall settings which according to Archvision said that was the problem!!!!!, i apologise for moaning but when you have a deadline to meet the last thing you want to do is fiddle around with RPCs, im sure you know what its like.

cheers

Ive posted anoher question regarding the disaperance of my “Exit Isolation” dialog box if you know where that might have gone to that would be a great help.

Windows Professional 64bit
single quad core i7 2.8ghz
6 gb ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 480
Driver Version 270.61

don’t know anything about exit isolation.  But yeah, we haven’t figured out the RPC DBR problem yet either.  Let me know if you do!

the one area you need to start looking is at the firewall, bring up the windows firewall settings and open the Exceptions tab and look in there first make sure the raysats for max are in there and the archvision content manager, but also its well worth opening the port 14931 which is the port that the rpcs use, but dont ask me how to do it, adding a port always seems to be geyed out on the exceptions tab.

I hope this may help you a little, if you find out any more please let me know

regards

Nigel

Windows Professional 64bit
single quad core i7 2.8ghz
6 gb ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 480
Driver Version 270.61