jfharper

Thanks, I hadn't seen that, but will give it a try.

OK, I found the problem. In a previous file that did not show the darkening, I had increased the exposure in the VRB, my guess is when I switched from RT to ADV, or CUDA to CPU or something that closed the VFB, the exposure settings and color correction settings went back to default and turned off. I'll have to watch out for that...whatever I did that reset the VRB settings.

Doing more tests to try and reproduce to figure what causes this, I found previous file saves now render the darker image, however I know when I was working with these scenes and saving out, they were lit not dark like the current render. Maybe something is happening when I save, or a corrupt file? Funny thing is it just randomly shows up, and when I go back to previous file saves, it's there too, but it wasn't when I was working with it. I tried searching for this, but didn't find anything. Does any of this ring a bell with anyone regarding a bug in max or vray or something? It's weird and difficult to figure out.

Has anyone experienced this? I'll be working with ActiveShade VRayRT CUDA and switch to Production VRayRT CUDA, or Production VRay Adv, or CUDA to CPU and for some reason the render will start rending darker, like if the exposure or gamma has been changed, but they were not touched. I tried switching things around, closing VFB, opening it back, disabling then enabling gamma, closing max then reopening it and nothing works. Only thing that works is powering down my system, then rebooting. Only thing I found on this was on reddit where someone mentioned it was by design for cracked versions of vray, but I have a legit copy with a license dongle. I'm thinking its a driver issue or something getting swtiched and stuck in memory until I power off the system...I've tried rebooting, but that doesn't help, only a power down and restart works. I'm using max 2016 and vray 3.40.03...any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've heard good things about Redshift and was thinking of trying it, I currently use max 2016 and vrayrt and have been impressed with the speed and quality. I was wondering if Redshift is worth getting now, for the future. I'm mainly looking at animation rendering. What are your opinions on it? Does it suit your needs, or does it not yet stack up quality wise to vrayrt. I've seen some pretty good stuff done with it.

Thank you. I can convert an image into 32 bit only after creating it in either 8 or 16. But I'm not sure if the lighting intensity is created or how it is created using this method. Maybe, I'll have to upgrade.

I'm going through the Grant Warwick tutorials on lighting. I am using 3ds max 2016 and vray 3.4. In his video, he shows how to create a 32 bit image in photoshop, selecting colors with "light" intesity values because he is using a newer version of pshop that allowed him to start with a 32 bit created image layer. I suspect I can do the same with cs2, but my initial layer creation can only be 16 bit, as well as editing. Can someone help me figure how to convert the painted layers I can create to convert to 32 hdr? I think he will be using these as lightboxes, or hdr light textures. It would be very powerful if I can figure how to create my own...thanks.

Thanks

ok, thanks. so any card is ok. I currently have a evga gtx 970, which I really like and works fine for what I do. BTW, do I plug the monitors (2) into the 970, and card #2 when installed will automatically add to the speed to vrayrt eventhough it is not connected to a monitor? So rt will use both cards, eventhough the monitors are only hooked up to one card? Also, can you recommend a second card maybe in the $200-$300 range?

Thanks. Are you saying the display response will slow more than it already is? Because it is not very slow with one card.

Can I drop any second card in for using vray rt to help speed that up, or does it have to match my existing card exactly.

Do you need to run sli with vray rt? If not, I assume dropping a second card in will help with rt, am I correct? I recently upgraded from vray 1.5 and am enjoying rt, but only have one card, gtx 970. If rt doesn't need sli, I can drop any card in, right

Thanks. I wasn't going to ask, but I'm glad I did. Watching those videos from Grant made me realize what little I know and understand. It's definitely what I was after. Thanks again.

ok, i get that, but I cannot figure how to control the falloff correctly around the edges. There should be a way to control falloff around the entire sphere, where the perpendicular angle reflects a lot creating a white-ish look only where there is something to reflect, like the sky and ground, but not reflect where the shadow is on the ground, and the reflection of the sky and ground should be different. In that tut, reflection falloff is linear around the objects edges and doesn't look correct.

At this link: http://www.cgarchitect.com/2013/12/effects-of-hdr-vs-mdr-on-image-based-lighting ...second image down within article, named 4.jpg, he is illustrating proper HDRI lighting. In that image a few of his spheres have a white-ish falloff towards the edges helping to distinguish the sphere's edge from the background. It's especially visible in the front black sphere, but also in the far left sphere and chrome sphere to the far right. When I do a similar scene with a good HDRI, my sphere's edges do not have this falloff and look too sharp or contrasting, or hard edged against the background. I do not like the look of mine, but like his lighting. I was wondering if anyone had an idea on how he did this? I'm using 3ds max 2016 and vray 3.40.02 I'd like to improve the lighting of my scenes, starting with an IBL, then working with the materials and lights to get a good looking scene. Thanks.