Material is Black in 3D Window

[Anonymous]

I have this one material that I really need to use, but it most always appears as solid black in the 3D window - see attachments. The Material is created using a .jpg texture from Eldorado Stone. I reloaded the image just to make sure it wasn't corrupt. Similar images from the same company all work fine.

When I select the 3D window from the 2D it sometimes paints the material as black, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometime just selecting another object brings it back - or makes it go to black. Rebuilding the 3D page will bring it back, until I turn the image with the Camera Tool, then it's back to black.

Anyone seen this before?

[Anonymous]

I dont know an answer to your problem - but i would test it by mapping a different texture onto the same face and if the same happens you know it is not caused by your original texture. Why dont you then just draw a random wall and map the "black" texture onto that and see how that will render etc. etc.
Then you would know if it is caused by the object you are trying to attach the map to...
(If you post the texture, i might have a similiar one that i could post that you could try)
Troubleshooting it would be the quickest way of finding out what is causing it.
(Could be cause by setting the scale factor too small?)
Also you could start a new drawing and map the same texture, if the same happens again in the new file you know sth in wrong with the texture.
Another option would be to open it in photoshop and check the image properties and try saving it in another format then jpg.
Compare the properties with a texture that works on your model in photoshop. Etc.

[Anonymous]

I suspect there may be something about the texture that OpenGL doesn't like. Does it render properly with the LightWorks or internal engine?

[Link]

How big is this texture, in Kb/Mb? Maybe it's too big for your video card to handle?

Looks like you need to perform a quick SEO between your two roofs too!

Cheers,
Link.

[Dwight]

If you have added the texture only in the lightworks engine, it won't appear in images made with other imagers.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input so far guys. Worked all dang morning on this. Here's some follow-up:
* The image is 660Kb. The Radeon 9500 can handle anything I throw at it...
* The Material renders just fine, it's just the 3D window (OpenGL) - remember this is pre Lightworks 8.1
* a different material on the affected surfaces work just fine. A new wall object with the material in question will black out,
* I tried all the texture suggestions: new material using the texture in question and same material using a different texture - it is the texture image that seems to be the culprit, so
* I opened the .jpg, no alpha channel or anything else odd in there, so I saved it as TIFF and as a new jpg. Then reattached these new texture files to the Material - and both do the same dang blackout thing.

Below is the 3D window not blacked out. I really have to use this Eldorado Stone Shadow Rock material - it is client spec'd.

One off subject question opened by "Link". Is there any T&T's or tutorials out there on using SEO for roofs? I've never been able to get it to work, so still use roof joins and trim to roof for all my roof planes. None of the GS Tutorial or User Guides cover it, and neither did the the great Aussie Virtual Tutor 8.

[Anonymous]

...or even better yet, here is the jpg itself. Anyone want to check it out for me, maybe make a material with it and see what it does?
Thanks,
RJ

http://www.vintageairstream.com/shadow_rock.jpg

[Link]

Works fine in AC9 - I don't currently have 8.1 loaded, but can install and test it, if you have no other replies.

As for your SEO's just select one roof as your target and the other as your operator and execute a subtraction. I would use the upper roof as the target - just be sure to have the element selected before you hit the 'Get Target/Get Operator' buttons.

Cheers,
Link.