Flamingo nXt 5/5.5 documentation and tutorials

Rendering Flamingo
1

OK, it is time to phase out Rhino v5, as v6 is better and faster in my world of modelling.
I have been very satisfied with the old Flamingo nXt renderer, and have over the years collected a library of more than 200 component blocks complete with material, texture, etc. Several of these blocks are over 100MB - and contain maaaany surfaces with material properties…
To my understanding, it is not possible (nor desirable?) to use old nXt with Rhino v6?
Also, the material definition is completely re-written, so old nXt materals can’t be re-used, so this is what I understand I need to do:

  • Make a new “personal” nXt 5.5 material library (not required, but convenient)
  • Create the materials I need (around 30-40)
  • Make a nXt 5.5 copy of my Block library
  • Open each individual 3dm-file, and assign a nXt 5.5 material to each surface as required
  • Save file
  • Use updated block in my assembly
  • Render, using nXt 5.5

This is of course tediouos work, and I really need to do this as efficient as possible!

The only instruction/tutorial I can find on this, is the “Getting started” video on the Flamingo website, with the fishing rod.

Is anybody aware of other instructions/documentation/tutorials than the above mentioned video, and the Help-file? Preferably video, as these are (or can be) close to hands-on instruction

/Lefty

2

I agree that a new tutorial for NXT 5.5 running in Rhino 6 is a must. I am totally lost with the new interface where some selections must be done in the Rhino rendering panel and others in the Flamingo one.

5

Most of the Flamingo interface is now using the Rhino 6 rendering interface. This is quite different from older Flamingo’s.

Here is where to get the best rendering tutorials on using the new Rhino 6 interface: https://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/6/rendering/realtime

While those videos use the Rhino Render it shows how materials, mapping and environments work now.

1 Like
6

Ok…

And an updated Flamingo nXt 5.5 tutorial will be launched when?

Or should we expect EOL with respect to Flamingo?

I do not want to be negative, I just want to figure out where to put my time & money…

7

Environments does not work for me. When I set Flamingo nxt 5.5 as renderer. I can not set the ground plane to shadows only and I don’t have the reflected environment options that exist in the Rhino renderer. Using the Rhino panel, in the display window set to render, I see the reflected environment on my surfaces but the reflection does not render. Reflected environment must be available somewhere, same for shadows only. I tried to use the Flamingo environment, the display window does not work, I can set a HDR reflected environment but only using the old hdr files. It does not reflect the way it did before and I can’t get rid of the background. I tried all the Rhino tutorials several times but the Flamingo environment and background controls are different.
I am not a rendering champion but I have used Flamingo on more than one hundred project with good success. Right now, with Rhino 6 and the latest NXT update, I can’t get any decent results.