corona bitmap v. bitmap shader in content browser

[fabrica]

R21, Corona V6.0

When using a (corona bitmap) node for a material it will save as black in content browser , if I just drag the diffuse image into node space (bitmap shader) and connect to diffuse it works fine.

images of both options below. When I drag the bitmap version into a new file, it stays black.

thanks

[mmarcotic]

Hello fabrica,

I do not seem to encounter this issue, do you mind sending your scene over?
Please, try the following:
1. Locate your material in node material editor
2. Click on the material
3. Double click on the material preview picture (above "Basic Properties")
Please, let me know if this fixed your issue with a black preview.

Thanks,
Jan

[jojorender]

This happens to me too, and seems to be related to the inability to handle absolute paths.
If you drag content to the content browser, it adds the absolute path for the texture in the lib4d file, eg “preset://setups.lib4d/tex/filename.jpg"
Is there a good reason why corona bitmap can’t handle a absolute file path? Or is this a bug???

I was about to purchase a asset library from maxtree, and tried their corona/c4d files first.
All channels use the corona bitmap, for no reason, but this makes it unusable for the content browser.
Is there a fast way to get rid of all bitmap shaders without re-linking each texture by hand?

I never use the bitmap shader, and try to avoid corona shaders as much as possible out of fear that they don’t work as expected.

[mmarcotic]

Hi,

it is a bug and we're working on it, I'll try to bump up the priority a little bit as I can see this being frustrating.
Regarding changing the bitmaps, there is no easy way to change all of them at the same time, they'll have to be manually replaced (as far as I know).

By the way, when importing materials, make sure that you have a tex folder in which the textures are stored, placed next to your .c4d file. When I tried importing from Maxtree, it was just enough to move _Maps folder next to the .c4d file and change the folder name to tex. After that, all materials worked as expected.

Thanks,
Jan

[NOOKTA]

Hello, could be that I understood something wrong, but we do the following when integrating maxtree assets to our server and have had no issues whatsoever:


1. open .c4d provided by maxtree
2. navigate to project info and then textures in attribute manager (see attachment)
3. select a texture and point to absolute texture path on server (folder is enough, no need for specific file-name)
4. say "yes" when asked to replace textures in the whole project
repeat step 3 and 4 for all textures
5. after all textures are relinked, open c4d search with shift + c
6. search for "project asset inspector" (I think it is called differently in versions before R21)
7. select all textures and right-click "globalize filenames"
8. enjoy!


Hope this helps!

Oh and one more tip, that could come in handy at some point. When dragging materials into the content browser holding alt, Cinema 4d will not create a tex folder but point to the original path.

best,
Ararat

[jojorender]

Hi NOOKTA,
the combination of globalizing file path and option/alt dragging to content browser does the trick. Thanks for letting me know.
What is strange is that “globalizing file path’ creates a absolute path to the textures on your server, but the absolute path to your content browser “tex” folder does not work in the c-bitmap shader. … oh well.

For other users looking for help:
Make sure the “tex” folder is moved to it’s “final resting place” before linking and globalizing.
Moving that folder later, of course breaks the link.