SGI: Computer Graphics

Hiya,

So, I'm getting ever closer to the perfect setup, but not quite there yet....

After a rebuild, I re-installed Maya 6.5. The problem is with the display in the viewport window (5 - shaded). It seems that there is some kind of front face transparency in there. I've seen this before when I used to have SI graphics in my Octane and thought that it was a graphics memory problem (pushing it the screen res. too hard so there was no z-buffer memory left). This is with a V12 DCD running at 3840x1200. I've had the same problem with 1920x1080 via the 13w3 connector. The frame buffer is reporting 35.156Mb used, accumulation buffer is at 17.578Mb & system buffer is 8.938Mb, so there should be plenty of headroom there.

Turning x-ray, transparency sorting, backface culling, interactive shading etc on or off doesn't make any difference.

I've tried both 16 and 24-bit accumulation buffers, and no joy there either. It won't allow me to change the frame buffer depth.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm frustratingly close to actually being able to use it for what I bought it for!

Cheers,
Ian

Looks like your z-buffer is backwards, do you have any settings in ~/maya/<version>/Maya.env? Do other GL programs behave like this as well? I have a vague memory of seeing something like this, but I can't for the life of me remember it.

Hi,

Reversed z-depth just about describes it, although I'm struggling to see how it could happen. I only installed Maya 6.5 as I was rebuilding the machine over the weekend, so the Maya.env will be the default out of the box. There's no plug-ins or anything installed (the problem's been there from the first time I started Maya up)

I've also got makehuman (nekoware) installed. I guess that this must be using OpenGL. I only briefly tried it to check that the install was working and all seemed to be fine. No problems seen with Blender 2.49a (although again, I haven't really used it in anger).

Thanks for your reply,
Ian

Hi,

So, I've tried out MakeHuman and Blender and they are both fine. However, I installed Maya 4.0 and that has exactly the same problem.

So I grabbed another drive and did a clean install with 6.5.14 (the full set of install CDs and overlays that I've got), then updated to 6.5.22m. Exactly the same problem with Maya.

Can any of the other Maya users on here give me some info about the IRIX version / Maya version and hardware config that they have (assuming that they don't have a similar problem, or even if they do). I'm sure that there's got to be something simple that's wrong, (probably caused by a large dose of my own stupid:-) but I can't for the life of me work out what.

Cheers,
Ian

I'm have Maya 6.5 Unlimited loaded on a Tezro (V12) running IRIX 6.5.30. I don't seem to have the same issue (but I'm not much beyond the Maya-neophyte stage). If you'd like to post a copy of the a file that has those issues I'd be glad to open it to see if the issue is reproducible here..

Hi Recondas,

Thanks for getting back to me. The problem's on every file. If I just start Maya and put in a polygon cube, hit 5 for 'smooth shade' and it's bad. This is in the persp view. Interestingly, the orhographic views don't seem to have the same problem.

The file that I've attached has the problem (Maya 6.5 .mb). It's just a poly sphere with a cube inside. In orthographic smooth shade it looks fine. In perspective, I can see the back faces of the sphere, but not the cube inside. This would point to it not just being a problem with perspective z-depth sorting - if it was, then I would expect to see the cube inside as well (as you can if you turn on x-ray).

Let me know what it looks like for you.

I just put in another V12 (no DCD) that I've got 'lying around' (long story)... Exactly the same problem.

Thanks for your help. This is driving me mad!

Cheers,
Ian

When I get home this afternoon I'll take a look and post a reply.

I have been using Maya on IRIX for years and have never seen the effect you are describing. However it is possible mess up maya preferences, camera or operating system settings enough to get an effect like that.

R.

No problems loading and displaying your mb file here, Octane with V12 (no DCD)... I don't think I've changed anything other than that my root window is 24bit truecolor. Maya appears to select a 30-bit RGBA mode (10/10/10/2) (id 0x45, but this number might be relative). My Maya.env is empty as well.

Perhaps you could try to use the MAYA_ODYSSEY_8888=no setting, to see if it changes anything.

Ditto - via the DVI interface on the Tezro, and for the record Maya is still in the as-installed configuration.

Right, got it!

The MAYA_ODYSSEY_8888 value fixed the display, but as it's a workaround, it enabled me to find the actual problem (Google's always your mate when you've got a pretty unique search term)!

http://download.novedge.com/Brands/Alias/Helps/Maya6.5/en_US/ReleaseNotes/generalmayalimitationsampworkarounds.html

Which pointed me back to Xsetmon and the Frame Buffer Depth, which was at 8-bits. Set it to 16 and it works without changing MAYA_ODYSSEY...

I've changed the Accumulation Buffer Type to 24-bit for good measure. Can I check if these are the 'right' settings for Maya?

Thanks for everyone that helped.
Ian

If it works, it's 'right'... xwininfo will tell you about the visual used for any given window and glxinfo will show you the modes available.