I seem to have lost the ability to use colour images for hair ,its just rendering black no matter wot image I use ,is this a bug in 15 I or something Iv done,it was ok in 15 g

I'm going to have to guess its something you've done as hair images are working fine here.

Out of curiousity... how much Black does the image have in it?

try setting the surface color of the hair emitter to white, even when using an image. Can't remember if you have to change it in the material emitter properties - or if you can get away with changing it just in the instance of the emitter ...

I thought there was a change to hair in ver 15g ? so that hair didn't work the same as it useta in 15e. But I thought 15i should work the same as 15g?...so...who knows what's going on.

if that doesn't work - post material, sample model

Thank's a lot I will give that a go and get back .Why did theye change it ,it was great
Rodney ,no black in it

The white worked Nancy thank's but I can't get it like it was ,anywhere near .Heres the matt file and this is what it did look like in 15 g
I did notice in another models hair I get a lot more brightness than it was .Allso the waffle dog on the extra cd don't show any decals for some reason.Iv been messing around with dynamic bones and the dogs mouth trying to get a flopy mouth lol

Spleen had trouble with the brightness issue in Moses' beard using hair materal, too.

Can you post a render in 15i - using the same settings as 15 g rendered image - so that we can see the difference. Maybe the difference is with 15e?

If the rendering results are different - then it would be good to file an A:M report - with a simplified model (just patches containing the hair material), the material, and the image that is used for the hair emitter. As well as the rendered images illustrating the difference.

It may be, that you will have to change settings in the material to get it to look the old way, if that's even possible...

(I'll take a look at your material that you posted - I notice there isn't an image included - not sure I will need it)

When using an image for hair, setting the surface color to white (or not set) will give the the true color of the image. Setting the color to something else will blend the color with the image. This is working correctly and is not a bug. Setting the color to something other than white will tint the hair. This was broken and was fixed in 15i, I believe.

Ok - took a look at your material - I suspect the reason your hair (and spleens) looks different in ver15e and 15i (don't know about 15g) is that the specular color seems to always render as white? regardless of what color is specified in the instance of the hair, or the material - when using a hair emitter with or without an image, with the diffuse color set to something.

It's a different problem than just setting the diffuse color of the emitter to white. (we already addressed that)

In this example the spec color is supposed to be the purple as shown in 15e example.

Do not know a workaround at this time...perhaps Mark does.

EDIT: added image to show problem without using image for emitter - spec color should be purple - not white

I just look at A:M reports and the specular issue will be fixed in 15j.

Sorry I didn't get back ,had to get some sleep .I think that is the problem ,the spec being white .On the original I had the dfuse a orange/brown that just blended in but the brightness of the spec is making it look compleately differant .Will post an image of how it is in 15 I
edit
One with defuse at white and the second with the defuse set to dark orange
and heres the image Im using
Thank's a lot for looking into it as I thought I was cracking up