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| FAQ |
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| Q: Surpasses is compositing tool,
right? |
A: Not only. Surpasses is layers system for
easy and fast scene organisation with complete multipass rendering
toolset on top of that. Creating passes for composition is
one of many tasks Surpasses can handle. |
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| Q: Can I isolate lights or objects
from other elements in scene with Surpasses? |
A: Of course You can. These are pretty easy
tasks for Surpasses. |
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| Q: If I have 3 passes, one for
each light, and I want several channels to be rendered for each
pass, like Specular, Diffuse, etc. Can I set it up with Surpasses? |
A: Yes. Any pass can save any number of channels.
Setting things up is just a few clicks under Channels Tab
of Surpasses Panel. Channel settings will be applied when
You export pass as separate scene which also is very simple
operation. |
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| Q: Is there any batch renderer
included that will automatically render all passes one by one
through F10? |
A: Not currently. Surpasses can export each
pass as separate scene file. Then, You need to use screamernet
or any network render controller to batch render all pass
scenes. |
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| Q: I noticed some null objects
appeared in my scene after applying Surpasses. I cannot select
them in any way, what's up with that? |
A: Surpasses keeps all their data inside
null objects created specifically for that purpose. They are
hardlocked so You can't modify or remove them by accident.
All Surpasses data nulls are parented to the _SURPASSES_
null and You should simply ignore them. It's all ok, nulls
disappear as soon as You remove Surpasses from scene. |
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| Q: I would like to use Surpasses
but I'm afraid they will slow down my scene. |
A: No, they won't. Surpasses take time only
when You switch a pass. Apart from that they are transparent
and just sit in background. Only selecting large amount of
objects at once may be slowed down a bit. |
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| Q: My scene
goes wild when I delete a pass. What should I do? |
A: Removing a pass deletes data nulls from
scene, therefore it may confuse item id sensitive plugins
(like curve constraint for example). The fix is simple - save
and reload the scene. |
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| Q: Can
I open scene with Surpasses on machine that doesn't have the
plugin installed? |
A: Yes. You can open the scene directly but
it's more elegant to export the scene with Split command.
Furthermore, because Surpasses saves their data using null
objects if You do not change the order of items (by clearing
clearing of them for example) You can reapply Surpasses to
that scene later and it will grab all the setup back! In short,
opening Surpasses scene on machine without the plugin installed
will not delete passes setup until You modify numer/order
of items in scene. |
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| Q: Will
I see interactive pass switching effects immediately in FPrime
preview window? |
A:
Yes. And it's very cool :) |
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| Q: Can
I change FPrime settings in Pass - radiosity settings for example? |
A: Not yet. |
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| Q: When
switching passes I constantly see red error messages popping
up at the bottom of Lightwave's UI. Surpasses seems to work
correctly though. What's up with that? |
A: This is normal. Surpasses needs to do
a few tricks to get all info it needs from Lightwave. These
are "controlled" error messages and You can ignore
them. |
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| Q: Sometimes
shortcuts in Surpasses panel stop working. When I hit Enter
of Escape things get back to normal. Why is that? |
A: Your cursor is inside one of text edit
fields inside Surpasses panel. For example in "Prefix"
field under Split Tab. In this situation Lightwave doesn't
react to any shortcuts. The workaround is what You mentioned,
press Enter or Escape to leave the edit field. |
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| Q: After
adding a few groups of scene properties to pass I can't view
them all in Scene Tab, the panel is too small. How can I scroll
it down? |
A: You can't. But You can fold/unfold property
groups by clicking on their headers. An "arrow"
icon on the header will indicate whether group is folded or
unfolded. |
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| Q: I added
plugin to Image Pixel Filters but I can't see it on the Plugins
Tab of Surpasses Panel. What should I do? |
A: Unfortunately, Surpasses can't detect
that You added or removed plugins automatically. To refresh
Plugins list simply click Pass again to reload it or hit the
Refresh Button under Plugins List. |
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| Q: I see
my plugins on list in Plugins Tab but the list doesn't display
whether plugin is active or not active. |
A: True. Because it can't. This is Lightwave
limitation. On the Plugins list You can only set if You want
to plugin to be enabled/disabled during Splitting but You
cannot see its current state. |
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