[Silo]Problems with Silo's normals

[jbshorty]

You can send the OBJ to me : bigwurm101(at)hotmail(dot)com

jonah

[Markku]

Off it went...

[Markku]

Incase someone is interested...
It did not work for Jonah, although his own Silo version produces cubes that work nicely in Modo, but not mine so I better ask Nevercenter about this.

[jbshorty]

Hi Markku. Sorry i have not been able to reply to you on this. But i am just very busy the last few days. So when i have a chance i will examine your file again... But i agree you might get the answer you seek from the Silo forum...

jonah

[Markku]

That is ok, Jonah. Thanks for helping.
I think this is problem is interesting in all it's simplicity. Just a cube that one guy is able to get working and the other guy not. Also is interesting that a mid-level app like Carrara has a working solution but there seems to be no solution in a fairly top-level app like Modo.

Here is a seemingly similar case with Silo to Maya:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=253668

I could not make much of that information tho.

[Piem]

I guess that you'll have to target the vertices in Modo then split them in the vertex cmd before to export ?

(same thing for hexagon for mechanicals parts and the "dissociate" command )

[jbshorty]

Originally Posted by Markku

That is ok, Jonah. Thanks for helping.
I think this is problem is interesting in all it's simplicity. Just a cube that one guy is able to get working and the other guy not. Also is interesting that a mid-level app like Carrara has a working solution but there seems to be no solution in a fairly top-level app like Modo.

Here is a seemingly similar case with Silo to Maya:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=253668

I could not make much of that information tho.

Honestly i think this is a Silo issue, not a Modo issue. I use imported meshes all the time in Modo and never have this problem. Modo does have a solution as I'd already outlined. But it's just not working on the mesh cube which you've sent to me. I did notice one funny thing about your mesh cube, though. I opened it in Silo and used the command "Break" on one face. Then i moved the face away from the cube. And strange this happened that only 2 vertices broke away clean from the other parts. the other 2 vertices remained connected. This did not happen when i created a cube in Silo. It only happened on your cube. And i checked my Silo versions. At home I've installed 2.0.0 and in the office I've installed 2.0.2. Your problem was created in 2.0.5 correct? Again i think the problem is Silo. I don't use it anymore, but long time users will admit it has been a problem to remove all the bugs in 2.0 version. Silo 2 and Modo 2 were announced at same time. Modo is almost at 302. Silo still not reached 2.1. Something wrong there in the basic working of the program if these updates are going so slow...

jonah

[Markku]

I agree with you Jonah, the problem stems from Silo. The fact that also in Carrara the cube's faces look weird is enough to prove that Silo's export is buggy.

Yes, my version is 2.0.5 and yours are older so Nevercenter must have changed the code in between these releases, and unfortunately not only for the good. If I import the OBJ back to Silo I can brake any face and move them cleanly without having any vertexes clinging to it. Again another version difference?

It is true also that there is a huge difference in the progress of Silo and Modo. Silo has come awfully slow and their video tutorials have remainded as scarce as they were when they published their new site months ago.
But Nevercenter is supposed to be a two men company whereas Luxology has a "few" more, so that explains a bit.
I was and I still am a Hexagon user with all my heart. I had Silo for quite a long time without doing anything real with it. Now I decided to learn it and I was really surprised how intuitive and quick it is to use, how fast it loads up and how light it is to use. So I highly value the two guys' skill and effort that shows in Silo. They just need to iron out the bugs. Speaking of which - there are plenty of fatal bugs in Modo, but so there are fancy features too. Modo is a vast program that will take me a long time to learn. But it is all great fun!

[Markku]

Piem,
what do you mean by export from Modo? The aim is to get Silo generated OBJ's to Modo for render. Now my Silo is exporting funny stuff that even Jonah can't render decently in Modo.

[jbshorty]

I'm not knocking Silo at all. I think it's a genius concept. But it seems unrealistic to not add additional programmers to keep up with the programming requirements. Have they hit a brick wall and just don't know how to get around it? Too bad really. Silo 2 had so much promise... About Modo, i don't run into any "showstopping bugs". Maybe I'm lucky? I remember i crashed modo a lot when i first started using it. But now it is extremely rare for me to crash. I had lots of "user bugs"...

jonah

[Markku]

For the most crashes I have with Modo I'm sure I am to blame, but there is so many of them per each session that some must account to Modo solely or Modo not liking my Dell laptop.

I've too thought about Nevercenter not hiring more programmers. It is weird - don't they have enough users or have they placed the price of Silo so wrong they can't afford more workers. Somehow I think it is neither of those reasons but they have chosen to work by themselves, and now they seem to be exhausted after the release of ver.2. Anyways, it is a peculiar company.

[Markku]

Ok, I found the solution;
in Vertex Map List one must clear vert_normals under Other Maps.

Funny enough, another Finnish guy had had the same problem and got help at Lux's forums:
http://forums.luxology.com/discussio....aspx?id=24806