Merging a saved figure wipes out Skydome

vonHobo

I use the Orestes Skydomes a lot because they are so beautiful. There's one for just about any time of day.

So when I'm building a story, I save the custom figures I create (as seperate .duf files) to reuse in different scenes.

But when I merge one of these saved figures into a new scene, it clears out my skydome to a blank background (transparent). 

Why is that?

Is there any way to avoid this?

UHF

I save characters without render settings.

vonHobo

UHF said:

I save characters without render settings.

I managed to figure it out. Thank you! Unchecked render settings.

There is also backdrop image and backdrop color ettings, which I also unchecked. Confusing to me as I have no idea what those do. 

Taoz

von Hobo said:

UHF said:

I save characters without render settings.

I managed to figure it out. Thank you! Unchecked render settings.

There is also backdrop image and backdrop color ettings, which I also unchecked. Confusing to me as I have no idea what those do. 

I'd guess that's for saving the Backdrop settings (image location or color) if you are using the built in Backdrop.

vonHobo

Taoz said:

von Hobo said:

UHF said:

I save characters without render settings.

I managed to figure it out. Thank you! Unchecked render settings.

There is also backdrop image and backdrop color ettings, which I also unchecked. Confusing to me as I have no idea what those do. 

I'd guess that's for saving the Backdrop settings (image location or color) if you are using the built in Backdrop.

Thank you! Didn't even know there was a built-in backdrop. 

Richard Haseltine

Taoz said:

von Hobo said:

UHF said:

I save characters without render settings.

I managed to figure it out. Thank you! Unchecked render settings.

There is also backdrop image and backdrop color ettings, which I also unchecked. Confusing to me as I have no idea what those do. 

I'd guess that's for saving the Backdrop settings (image location or color) if you are using the built in Backdrop.

The backdrop from the Environment pane is not the same as the HDR environment map. It is placed behind the render as a backdrop, but has no impact on the actual rendered areas of the image.

Jason Galterio

To avoid the issue you are having (I do a lot of scene merges), I save the individual assets as "Scene Subsets" instead of just a scene.

I don't have my DS handy at the moment, but the option should be right below the normal Save function. The only difference is that it will ask you what assets in the scene you want to save, using checkboxes to select / deselect the scene assets.

Then when you merge the subset into your main scene, you can rest somewhat assured that the only thing coming in will be the asset you want to add.

Another small tip, make use of incremental saves. This way if something unforeseen happens, you can go back to one of your previous saves from before everything went off the rails.

I do an incremental save (i.e. Save to a new file name) any time I have done some major revisions or just before I am about to do something with significant risk (like a merge).

vonHobo

Jason Galterio said:

To avoid the issue you are having (I do a lot of scene merges), I save the individual assets as "Scene Subsets" instead of just a scene.

I don't have my DS handy at the moment, but the option should be right below the normal Save function. The only difference is that it will ask you what assets in the scene you want to save, using checkboxes to select / deselect the scene assets.

Then when you merge the subset into your main scene, you can rest somewhat assured that the only thing coming in will be the asset you want to add.

Another small tip, make use of incremental saves. This way if something unforeseen happens, you can go back to one of your previous saves from before everything went off the rails.

I do an incremental save (i.e. Save to a new file name) any time I have done some major revisions or just before I am about to do something with significant risk (like a merge).

Thank you! I will do that going forward for sure. 

Taoz

Richard Haseltine said:

The backdrop from the Environment pane is not the same as the HDR environment map. It is placed behind the render as a backdrop, but has no impact on the actual rendered areas of the image.

They did make some changes to the backdrop at some point (4.14/15.x?), but I'm not sure what they are.  In any case, when using a backdrop image it slows down preview render time a lot now (haven't checked if it affects normal render), the more, the bigger the image is (so preferably you should crop or resize it to fit viewport).  Before that change it didn't affect render time at all, no matter the size of the image.  Quite annoying.