Lense Effect Problems
 

Hey guys,
For the past few weeks I have been trying to use a lens effect on an omni light in one of my scenes for a nice sun look. I have done this numerous times before with no problem at all, but this year it is not seeming to work. I add the effect to the omni and put the parameters of the effects that I would like and press render, but an error message shows up saying:

Unsupported Render Effect
The following render elements are not compatible with the bitmap format selected for rendering. The selected Bitmap format is:

32 bits per Channel Floating-Point [RGBA]

lens effect.


Now i know i must be doing something wrong, but i just can't figure out what.

Any help would be amazing!

Thanks a ton!
Phil

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

Hi. Next time it would be helpful if you specified the renderer and any other relevant information. I assume you are using the mental ray renderer, which gives you the option of 16-bit integer output or 32-bit floating-point output. In Render Dialog -> Renderer -> Sampling Quality, change Frame Buffer Type to Integer (16 bits per channel).

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

sometimes mental ray does not support some effects. I now that it doesn't support volume light. In that case you can always Layer Render!!

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

Im sorry. I am rendering with mental ray, and i tried the 16 bit channel. It still did not work. I used lens effect with mental ray before but not on MAX 09. just 08. It worked once on 09 but I have no clue what I did to make it do that.

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

The upper left box in the attached screenshot should specify the type (r-click on the render buffer window). Shouldn't changing the bitmap type in the render dialog change that? I'm still on Max 9. Works great lol

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

No, you can not use lens effects with MR. I would suggest making a sunburst in photoshop or the GIMP and making a partical system with a single static "facing" particle. Or... you could use layered rendering or switch to scanline.

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

I have, and I will repeat, I have used lens effect with mental ray before. Actually, our animation last year had a lens effect on it. We used mental ray, and that was done in MAX, not Photoshop, or Gimp. And thanks for the thumbnail. I never knew right clicking the tabs brought up stuff like that.

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

HA!!! I still use Max 8. Still works great!! ha!

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

MAX 9 ALL THE WAY :D
(I lost my copy of 8)

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

Wait, I know for a fact that mental ray does support volume light. I use it every now and then for fog effects.

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

Forgot what I was going to originally post. You could try using video post to do a glow effect that you want, but other than that you are going to want to use particle effects. I tend to stay away from video post because it is a little bit tricky.

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

The problem with a glow effect in 3ds max is that it recalculates the glow every single time. So you end up with a flicker.

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

I did mention that I don't use video post that much right? Anyways, when I come across flickering lights in videos, it is usually because of final gather or global illumination. What happens with those is they calculate how all the lights are going to act in the scene for that frame, finish, dump everything from the last frame, calculate how all the lights in the next scene will act, finish, and have slight variations from the next one. I could go into some more depth on why that happens, but I don't think it is necessary. What I do know is there are quick fixes, and back door methods for thing like that.

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

I'm not talking about lights. I'm talking about glow. The lense effect, it recalculates every frame. Ending up in a flicker. Its better to say glows for layer rendering.

Re: Lense Effect Problems
 

so then do particle effects. You can do all sorts of great things with particle effects, its just a matter of how much work you really want to put into it.