Question

3dsMax Black Background Why ?

Asked by: mrmad1966

Folks..
I'd like to try and solve this.. I think the title says it all, I want to know why this is happening..

I have a scene in 3DS max, it utilises daylight and skylight and in the environment and effects I have the background colour set to white and the global light is still black. When I hit render preview it all renders correctly with the white background that I need..

When I do a full render however it renders black (ie transparent!) how do I turn this off..
I want a white background !
Thanks

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Asked On
2009-07-29 at 05:15:01ID24609161
Tags

3dsMax Black Background

Topics

3D-Studio 3D Graphics Software

,

3D Game Programming

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Answers

 

by: bham3dmanPosted on 2009-07-29 at 23:49:58ID: 24977188

Greetings,

Hard to say without a little more information.  Is it possible that you are seeing the very dark gray ground color of the horizon in your rendering?  A horizon is visible with the mr sky in the Daylight System.  The Render Preview won't display the horizon so you would see the white background color instead.

If you are using Mental Ray for rendering, you might consider switching to Scanline and then back to MR as a reset - I have fixed some really quirky problems this way (including a black background).

If neither of these options fit your situation, please tell me more about your setup:
1. Max version
2. Scanline or Mental Ray for rendering
3. What type of exposure control are you using?
4. Are you using any atmosphere or other effects?
5. What type of advanced lighting are you using?

Hope this helps.

 

by: mrmad1966Posted on 2009-07-30 at 03:55:12ID: 24978359

Hi Thanks for the answer..
Ok I have swapped to the default scanline and the background did render white as it should but the rest of the scene looked like a negative photograph so I really think it is something to do with the lighting or some exposere settiing..
It is definatly NOT the horizon at work here...

Your other answers

If neither of these options fit your situation, please tell me more about your setup:
1. Max version -                                                                  Max 2009 Design
2. Scanline or Mental Ray for rendering:  -                          Mental Ray but did swap to scanline as you suggested (Result of this posted above)
3. What type of exposure control are you using? -               Mr Photographic
4. Are you using any atmosphere or other effects?      -      NONE
5. What type of advanced lighting are you using? -             No advanced lighting just the daylight and sky !

HTH

 

by: bham3dmanPosted on 2009-07-30 at 10:21:24ID: 24982117

Ah.  I think I know the issue you are referring to...

In Max 2009, the Process Background and Environment Maps option in the Exposure Control group does not work correctly with mr Photographic Exposure Control - this has been fixed in Max 2010.

With mr Photographic Exposure Control, the background is processed differently than other exposure controls.  Basically, mr Photographic processes the luminance value of the white background as 1 (0-1) scale.  Since the luminance value of your scene is in the range of thousands, the insignificant luminance value of your background is rendered as black.  

The fix (to make this work with mr Photographic Exposure):

1. In the Physical Scale group of the mr Photographic Exposure Control, choose the Unitless option.

2. Click on the Environment Map map slot and add an Output map.  Drag an instance of this map to the Material Editor.

3. Set the RGB Level of the Output map to 200 or so.  This will bring the environment map into line with the exposure settings.  Any map that you put into the map slot of the Output map should now render correctly.  Since you want color only, we need step 4.

4. Click on the map slot of the Output map and choose an RGB Multiply map.  This map defaults to white so there should be no need for you to adjust it.

5. Your scene should now render correctly with a white background.  You can now adjust the exposure controls to tweak your rendering.


Other fixes:
1. Use a Physical Sky map as recommended when setting up the daylight system.

2. Use Logarithmic Exposure Control.

3. Upgrade to Max 2010.  :)

Good luck!

 

by: mrmad1966Posted on 2009-07-30 at 11:37:04ID: 24983015

Sorted ! Your knowledge is phenomenal !! Thank you
I will be very p^$$"£ off if Autodesk don't sort this issue after the amount I have had to pay for this !!

Thanks Again M8

John

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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