Cinema4D2 problem

[Boot_WB]

I'm trying to use Cinema4D from the AmigaFormat CD (disc 12), but whenever I try to render anything either raytracing or scanline I get "Screenmode not available" followed by "Out of memory or invalid screenmode".

I'm using a Bvision and have 256mb ram on the PPC, so I don't think I'm out of memory (the example file "stairway" is the one I'm trying to use - seems fairly basic).  Seem to remember having this problem when using Voodoo via mediator too.  I gave up in the end, but am doing a clean installation and thought I'd give it another try.

What am I missing/doing wrong?  I have set the screenmode to use the Bvision 1024x768 16-bit mode, trying to use 24-bit 800x600 makes no difference.

There are a few versions of "cinemaausgabe.library" for EGS, Merlin, Picasso and Retina on the CD, but nothing resembling a bvision version, or anything similar.  Is this required?

Any suggestions?

[Framiga]

IIRC if you chose the rendering engine with the right mouse button, you'll achieve the preference where you can chose the rendered screenmode.

EDIT- just tryed. It is SHIFT-click on the rendering method that showsup the preference rendering window

[Boot_WB]

@Framiga - Thanks, problem solved.

Forgot to RTFM ;-)

Slow though, doing a 1024 x 768 render with 66MHz 060 is going to take at least 6 minutes.  I should do it on an 14MHz EC020 just so I can appreciate the speed difference :lol:.

Just looked at the Maxon website - they only mention Amiga twice - once in 'history', once in 'timeline'.  No downloads of the later amiga versions.

Does anyone know if there is any PPC support for rendering in C4d?

[Framiga]

AFAIK nope. Your best friend still OxiPatcher :-)

[X-ray]

@ Boot_WB

Don't forget that you are not limited by the maximum screen resolution of your GFX card in terms of producing renders of a certain resolution. Back in the day, when I was still using the Amiga for raytracing, I made several renders using Cinema4D at a resolution of 4000 x 3000 pixels. And I didn't even have a GFX card. Just make sure you select no output to screen. I found that with large files like that I had to use Image FX to make minor adjustments to the image or to resize and make previews for viewing on other machines. Funny enough for more complex manipulations I was forced to run Shapeshifter (or Fusion, I can't remember which) and then use Photoshop to make those changes.
Render times even on 060 are quite long and if you have a high polygon count you are going to get through memory very quickly. My machine had 146mb of RAM back then and in some scenes I ate most of that. It is amazing what the Amiga could do. These days I use PC for rendering, it just makes sense if you have one available. My last project was a medical poster starting at 7000 x 11000 pixels with 16 layers and I can't see myself managing to do that on the Amiga even though I now have 272mb of RAM on it. As it stands, even on a dual core PC with more than 3gb of RAM and SATA RAID, loading and manipulating times were long. I could probably handle the final image on the Amiga (it is 7075 x 5020) but it would involve lots of coffees...

[Boot_WB]

 :lol:  :lol:
It took 22 minutes in the end anyway to render the 1024 x 768.  First time I've ever rendered anything (to my knowledge).  

I'm still impressed by the quality of images the miggy produces.  I'm sure I could get the same out of a PC, quicker, and spending less £££s on hardware, but where's the FUN?  I'd just find it frustrating, and get an overwhelming urge to throw the damn thing out of the window whenever anything went wrong.  
Plus - where's the sense of satisfaction in knowing that your producing something on what - 10, 15 year old hardware that will still make people go "OOOOhhh, how did you do THAT?", especially when the answer is "on this obscure ageing computer which you have NO IDEA how to use, and probably never even heard of".

A lecturer at my university said last year that one of the advantages of the windows-based environment was that everything used the same GUI, thus everything was - vaguely - familiar.  Whilst I can see his point, and may partly agree (neglecting the repulsive introduction of 'skins') I think it is a mixed bag, as it also creates a sense of sterility, of homogeneity, and a built up frustration of the whole operating environment.

Slightly OT, but I am glad to have Cinema 4D up and running finally.  Thanks for the tips X-ray - sounds like I'll be using Photogenics 5 for the image manipulation.  Have yet to get a suitable Mac OS to be able to use fusion (I've got Ifusion waiting in the wings, but same story - no OS to put on it :-( )

[X-ray]

You don't need anything special to run Photoshop. If I remember correctly I was using Mac OS 7.5 on a separate external SCSI hard drive. I can't remember what version of Photoshop it was, but it would have been an early version, like version 3 or 4 that still had 040 OS support. I don't know Photogenics, but you'll be doing well if it handles scratch discs and RAM as well as the emulated MAC/Photoshop combination.

[Boot_WB]

X-ray wrote:
You don't need anything special to run Photoshop.

I just don't have any Mac OS at all - never owned a mac.