13.1 FYI!

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Sometimes painting becomes slow. How to avoid it?

Painting over fewer big faces will be much slower than over divided faces. Try to avoid too big faces in uv-space. Divide faces that are too big whenever possible.

I am getting error message "The application failed to start because d3dx9_38.dll was not found". What should I do?

Go to Download page , download and install DirectX 9c. Even if you have DirectX 10 you need to update DirectX 9. DirectX 9 and 10 are independent, so this procedure is fully safe.

I want to upgrade my video card to speed up 3D-Coat. What should I choose?

nVidia cards are better. Independent of price you can choose from NV 8800GT (lowest price) to GTX 285. There is no reason to use multiple GPU cards at least for 3D-Coat. The most important factor for CUDA performance is cores count - it should be 120 or more. Video RAM is important too because it determines maximum texture size that can be edited in 3D-Coat. Every pixel requires 8 bytes, so you can easily calculate the max size of texture that can fit in memory. We recommend you buy cards with 1 GB of RAM or more.

Do I need to uninstall 3D-Coat every time when I am installing new upgrade?

No, you can install updates, and overwrite the installation, until the major version number changes.

I am unable to register - every time I enter the serial number and press Register, 3D-Coat restarts and asks for the serial number again. How do I exit the loop?

Try following steps:
- check if you copied the serial number correctly, perhaps you selected extra characters or missed some.
- check that the serial number corresponds to 3D-Coat V3. Often users try to enter a serial number from V2 when installing V3. The V3 serial number begins with 3DC3SN-
- if you are on Vista 64 ensure that you are running 3D-Coat as administrator.
- if the problem persists after trying these tips try manually deleting the file License.dat from the 3D-Coat installation folder.

There are too many "hints" that get in my way. Is there a way to hide them?

If you are new to 3D-Coat, it is recommended that you leave the hints enabled. The “hint” system is very helpful in learning how features work. Once you are familiar with the program,you can hide the "hints" anytime you want - just go to the menu Edit->Preferences->Show hints and uncheck the checkbox. You can turn on or off the big bottom hints separately using the "Show big hints on the bottom panel".

I am using Vista/XP 64 bit and 3D-Coat does not respect my Wacom pen pressure. What should I do?

3D-coat works well with 64-bit drivers 6.08-4 from this page: http://www.wacom.com/downloads/drivers.php

I am using Vista/XP 64 bit and 3D-Coat does not respect my Wacom pen pressure. What should I do?

3D-coat works well with 64-bit drivers 6.08-4 from this page: http://www.wacom.com/downloads/drivers.php

Can I move/rotate/scale the objects but not the camera?

Yes, you can. In “Sculpt mode” of tools panel, select “Select/Move” command, here you can select the object you want to move/rotate/scale.

How to adjust pivot point?

In 3D-Coat, the pivot center is dynamic, current pick point (where you cursor pointed on the model) is the pivot by default. You can set pivot manually using F key. Also look at Camera menu to pick best pivot mode.

What’s the normal maps standards difference between 3ds Max and Maya?

The green channel is reversed. You can select normal maps standards in menu View->Options.

When DX and When GL?

It depends on your hardware. 3D-Coat has two Graphics Modes: DX (DirectX) and GL (OpenGL), usually GL mode runs much faster than DX mode on professional Quadro graphics card, while DX mode will run faster on game graphics card.

What’s the difference between “Depth” and “Sculpt mode”?

In 3D-Coat there are two types of sculpting. One is image-based sculpting and another is mesh-based sculpting. “Depth” is image-based sculpting, in this mode you drawing the depth, you’re actually creating vector displacement, the normal map and displacement is generating “on the fly”, if you want to get the normal map, just save it, no need to wait long time for baking, because the normal map is generated in realtime. When you enter “Sculpt mode”, you enter mesh-based sculpting. In this mode you sculpting, you’re really changing the vertex positions of the mesh. In this mode if you want to get correct normal map, you may use Textures->Texture Baking Tool.

What’s the usage of Cavity painting?

Cavity painting (dependent on Cavity) allows you to paint in the crevices of the surface without affecting the rest of the area, and vice versa.

I selected the command “View” – “Environment Shade”, but there seems no change, why?

13.1.1.jpg
“Environment Shade” is only affected with the area with “specular” of the model. That means if you haven’t paint specular on the model, you will not see any change. This example we create a new layer and fill this layer only with “specular”, then use “Environment Shade”.

Drawing with shift key.

Different orders of SHIFT key and LMB (left mouse button) will result in different effects. If you first press (and hold) SHIFT then draw with LMB, you will get the surface smoothed. But if you first press (and hold) LMB then press SHIFT and draw, you will get very straight line just like the way in Photoshop.

Create seamless textures using 3D-Coat.

It is easy now to use 3D-Coat to create seamless textures and paint bump. Just go to menu File->Import->Image Plane, you may want to use Textures->Offset tool as well. You can read more about it on page.

Memory management tuning and increasing stability.

13.1.2.jpg
When 3DC is run you can see the amount of free memory at left bottom corner. If this value becomes too low (200-300M) the program can work unstably. This tutorial will help you to increase stability in easy way. 3D-Coat consumes much memory for high detailed objects, so it is important to allow 3D-Coat to use as much virtual memory as possible. So, please adjust virtual memory settings as it shown on the picture (it is valid for 32-bit Windows XP). MyComputer->Properties->Advanced->Performance->Advanced->Virtual Memory->Change
Please set this to 4096K.

3D-Coat supports larger virtual memory range support. If you are using 64-bit Windows you will be able to use up to 4GB of virtual memory. So, using 64-bit windows with 3DC is a best choice. If you are using 32-bit windows, you can usually use 2 GB of virtual memory, but you can increase that size using special option /3GB in the file boot.ini. Using the option you will be able to use 3GB of memory with 3DC. Of cause you should be careful with that file.

How to find the file “boot.ini”?

  • Right-click My Computer->Properties. The System Properties dialog box will appear.
  • Click the Advanced tab.
  • In the Startup and Recovery area, click Settings. The Startup and Recovery dialog box will appear.
  • In the System startup area, click Edit. This will open the Windows “boot.ini” file in Notepad.
  • In the [Operating Systems] section, add the following switches to the end of the startup line that includes the /fastdetect switch:/3GB
  • Save the changes and close Notepad.
  • Click “OK” two times to close the open dialog boxes, and then restart the computer for the change to take effect.

You can read more about the /3GB option here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124810.aspx

http://www.vfxpedia.com/index.php?title=FAQ/3GB_Switch