Original User: mariposaducharme
I am using ArcScene to creata a 3D landscape. I have a large tif file* that I am displayed "drapped" over a TIN (the TIN is used as the base height for the tif).
I need to apply a slight transparency to the tiff as I want to display some sub-surface layers. I am running into a problem when I apply the transparencies. I get these artifacts in the shape of squares within the extent of the imagery that do not have the same level of transparency. See the 3 screenshots attached (no transparency, transparency, and a close up of the "bad spots". This only happens when I have the rendering "quality enhancement of raster image" set to anything but the lowest (in the layer properties/rendering tab/optimize section) Basically, when the "quality enhancement of raster image" is set to the lowest, I get no artifacts, but as soon as I increase that, artifacts appear....
For navigation purposes, I generally keep the "Quality enhancement of raster images" set to low and when I am ready to take a screen capture, as soon as I increase this from the lowest, I get the squares. I've tried to set the "minimum transparency threshold" to different levels, which does not help. (I have no idea what this "Minimum transparency threshold" does, actually. If you set it too high, the tiff disappears altogether....
The kicker is that I figured that I would export the scene to 2D (pdf) to see if the square artifacts would still be present....And to my surprise (and great dismay) I found a whitish grid of squares, corresponding to the size of the artifact squares...all over the scene. Yikes. I also tried exporting to jpg, same thing happens. I suspect that this is a (read major) bug.
I am running ArcMap 10, sp4 installed. I have a very recent computer (windows 7 64 bit) with, I am told an good video card. I have allocated 15000 MB to my virtual memory (I have 271 895 MB available). Hum what else cvna I add.... The imagery is 1 meter resolution...like I said, it is a big file 500 000KB.
I am not sure about what to do/try next. I suspect that this is a substantial (read major) bug. It feels like it has someting to do with "caching" but that is a simple gut feeling, with NOTHING to back it up. Of course, I need to get this out by tomorrow. Of course. 'Jokes on me!
If anybody can provide any help I sure would appreciate. I won't be sleeping very soundly tonight.
Marishka
* I would like to use a more compressed format than a tif- I have a .ecw version, but ArcScene does not support that format.
