Strange warnings with some xfrog plants since TG 3.4

[DocCharly65]

Some xfrog plants show weird warnings but render fine. In TG3.3 it was all ok now in 3.4 I get this with many plants:

[attach=1]

But all renders work fine - I also tried older tgd stuff - same error but only with same plants.

I always put my needed files (obj, tgo, tgc, tgd, pop-cache and others) into one local project folder. The files for one object like obj/mtl/textures are always in seperate subfolders to keep the overview - especially when I pause a project for longer time.
At the moment I think it happens only with obj files of the xfrog oceanic collection (you can se because of the "...OC..." in the file names. But all textures are there and are rendering fine. In the older TG3 versions the same plants never caused this kind of warning.

For the moment I found a workaround:

If I open an example of an obj file I get all the texture warnings and this:

[attach=2]

Then I "repair" the plant (adjusting translucncy / adding opacity image in the parts shaders)

then I get this:

[attach=3]

If I save this as tgo and reopen that new plant I don't get any more warnings...


Of course this is much more work than the ususal usage, so finding the mistake would be helpful.
Anyone an idea?

[Kadri]

Have a look at the mtl files. They are texts.
You can see the structure,files the object should have.
You might see the problem that causes in this way probably.

[DocCharly65]

Thanks for the tipp, Kadri. Unfortunately I didn't see anything in the mtl file - but anyway the "new" tgo file uses the same mtl als the obj file does and the tgo doesn't make any problem.

Another test:
I opened one of these objects with PovRay and saved it as new obj.
Seems that I couldn't save the opacity information so I had to repair the new obj file manually in TG again but I didn't get the warnings.
Looking in the new mtl I saw many lines missing. Too much work to repair in the script.

I think doing an "obj to tgo conversion" as I described is the easiest and fastest way at the moment. Anyway it makes sense to do for always one complete plant family... mostly it is 3-6 versions of one xfrog plant.

[Kadri]

The Xfrog files should have TGO versions too? They might work maybe without any problem?

[DocCharly65]

 

It had a simple reason:
I remember I bought volume bundles when xfrog had price specials.
Somehow the downloads were sorted by file extension and I started with Obj
Very slow internet at that time and it were several GB
After downloads with obj files were finished I paused downloading and when trying next time all download-links were expired... and there was no reason to ask for the tgo because there was no warning in TG at that time.

[Kadri]

I am old and still do stupid things  So that's no problem at all.
But you might just ask maybe you can download them anyway.
If they are quite a lot (the problematic files) it would be easier to ask then to change them.

[DocCharly65]

oh - sorry -- I remembered the reason and changed my last post while you wrote 

Yeah -- I am much older and slower 

[Kadri]

Anyway. Maybe you will get help regarding the OBJ files

[masonspappy]

I think the issue is that .OBJ/MTL  files created by exporting from the .xfr file assume the image files will be in the same directory as the .OBJ/MTL.
Like seen in this snippet from an MTL file:

newmtl bark_col
Ka 0.392157 0.392157 0.392157
Kd 1 1 1
Ks 0 0 0
Ni 1
map_Kd AL01brk.tif

newmtl leaf_col
Ka 0.564706 0.294118 0.266667
Kd 1 1 1
Ks 0 0 0
Ni 1
map_Kd AL01aut2.tif

newmtl bark_col_roots1
Ka 0.392157 0.392157 0.392157
Kd 1 1 1
Ks 0 0 0
Ni 1
map_Kd AL01brk.tif

Moving image files to seperate directory will create error messages like you show in initial post.   After 'fixing' and saving as TGO, the TGO 'remembers'  where you were pointing to the image files.   Fixing can be tedious. 

[Dune]

I occasionally have such error message, but as I tend to change any obj anyway, it's not a big deal. It's a little extra work, but when adding things (like merged textures or additional color variance), the TGO will remember and even be more compact as a file. The latest obj reader does add the opacity, but not the displacement yet (when taken through Poseray, e.g.).

[DocCharly65]

Thanks to all suggestions. I could "repair" my canyon-tgd completely with the method checking all object-parts and their settings and saving it as a tgo-file.

I am still (and also in the coming weeks) fiddeling with my new home but I'll try to find time to reoair more and more of the xfrog plants. I hope it's not too much of them.