Author Topic: NO MATERIAL PREVIEW AVAILABLE  (Read 2139 times)

2023-05-05, 08:55:56

Oxocan London

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I am sure someone already raised this issue in the past, but here it is once small.

When I use a Chaos Material, I sometimes make small adjustments to it and wish to save it for future use so that I do not have to always make the same changes. However, for some reason I cannot see the material preview as it appears black in my browser. I attached an image that shows this.

Is there a fix for this?

Thank you.

Ian
Ian
Oxocan London

2023-05-05, 12:14:15
Reply #1

Beanzvision

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Hi there,

Are you using macOS at all? ;) I tried here on a Windows PC and all was fine. If so, it might be related to the Corona bitmap material. If that's what it is, can you please try replacing it with a C4D bitmap shader to see if it helps?

Bengamin Jerrems l chaos-corona.com
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2023-05-05, 13:20:02
Reply #2

Oxocan London

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H,

Yes, I am on a Mac. Replacing the authentic Corona Bitmap with a C4D bitmap is not the solution. I think that Corona materials should be able to generate its own material previews without having to replace them with other formats.
Ian
Oxocan London

2023-05-05, 13:24:37
Reply #3

Beanzvision

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Of course, but there were some issue with it and previews in the past, hence why I asked. Are you able to share the scene with us? Also, what build of Corona do you have running? Thx!
Bengamin Jerrems l chaos-corona.com
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2023-05-05, 13:29:26
Reply #4

Oxocan London

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Thank you for your prompt reply. I understand regarding issues, hence I thought maybe there is a little quick fix I was not aware of. I do not have a specific scene that I should share as this is a software issue and no matter what chaos material I play with, they all have this preview issue.

As to the version of Corona, I am using the latest daily build released at the start of April, (Daily Build 2023-04-03)
Ian
Oxocan London

2023-05-05, 14:13:05
Reply #5

Beanzvision

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I understand regarding issues, hence I thought maybe there is a little quick fix I was not aware of.

As it's happened before, this was generally the workaround. But if it happens to every version you use it may be something else. ie: macOS related. In any case, we will look into it.
Bengamin Jerrems l chaos-corona.com
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2023-05-05, 14:21:36
Reply #6

Beanzvision

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I also wanted to ask, what happens if you use a smaller preview size such as 1024x1024? Or if you pop out the preview window and manually scale it in size? Is it still black for you? Finally, regardless of the preview, do the material render as expected?

Bengamin Jerrems l chaos-corona.com
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2023-05-05, 15:06:02
Reply #7

Oxocan London

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It's still black as are the material previews....
Ian
Oxocan London

2023-05-05, 16:37:15
Reply #8

Beanzvision

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Are these textures still linked? Can you check it for me?

Bengamin Jerrems l chaos-corona.com
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2023-05-05, 20:38:01
Reply #9

Oxocan London

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For some reason mine are blank!
Ian
Oxocan London

2023-05-08, 13:53:47
Reply #10

Beanzvision

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Can you try to relink the textures at all? If so, are they still black?
Bengamin Jerrems l chaos-corona.com
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2023-05-08, 14:05:51
Reply #11

Oxocan London

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You got it, so when you first upload the texture from the Chaos browser to C4D, the textures are NOT linked. After clicking on re-link textures, you get the green tick. HOWEVER, although the textures seem to be green, the material preview goes back to black!

If you are available tomorrow morning I can log in with you and show you exactly what is happening on my mac.
Ian
Oxocan London

2023-05-08, 14:53:31
Reply #12

Beanzvision

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Hi Ian, thanks for checking. And is this the latest Cosmos you have running?
Bengamin Jerrems l chaos-corona.com
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2023-05-08, 17:03:53
Reply #13

Oxocan London

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yes, absolutely the latest!
Ian
Oxocan London

2023-05-08, 21:34:47
Reply #14

Oxocan London

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Ok, here is a step-by-step process I go through before the issue takes place.

1. The first image shows the material is imported from Chaos browser and the textures have NO GREEN TICK next to them. For the textures to be reloaded I actually have to press RELOAD TEXTURES.

2. The second image shows the green ticks as I hit the reload all textures.

3. The third image shows what the material looks like once I saved it in my personal library/folder and imported out again to my materials list. As you can see they are all blacked out.

4. The fourth image is where I am trying to hit "reload all textures" but nothing happens and the green ticks do not appear.

The issue seems to be that on a mac at least, when you import a material form the chaos library, the assets do not import with it, or at least their previews. There is a loss of data between the Cinema 4d default library and the chaos transfer process.

I hope this clarifies a little better.
Ian
Oxocan London