Scanline-radiosity to Vray

[Sketchrender]

Simple question.

 

I will be inheriing a max model all textured up, with lights, which I have to add to it.

If i wanted to change the rendering engine to vray, which i find faster and better looking to be honest, 9all exterior views) is this a big deal apart form the glass....... will everthing else be ok to use.

 

thanks in advance

phil

[Devin Johnston]

I don't know about Vray but Final Render has problmes with materials that use the Max default ray tracer and those materials must be converted.

[Gabriella_A]

Hello Philip...

 

I'm a huge vray user... and I very often have to "convert" scanline models that came in our office in order to make them work properly with vray

 

First : Lights

 

Use the vray ones, specially the planar and globular area lights, they are faster and with very nice shadows... and they are very important in order to produce the correct amount of GI

Use standard lights only with vray shadows, they are faster and more accurate (I use mostly direct lights)

Now with the last build you can play with lots of "diffuse" light options.. skylight, domelight...

 

second : Materials

 

Don't use raytrace materials.. they will not work properly, and could cause max crashing

Convert all your materials... the vray ones are a lot faster and accurate...

At least convert the materials that you need with reflection/refraction...

Use the material convert that you find with the program.

But.. be careful, sometimes you'll need more adjustmens.. expecially with material with alpha map...

 

After that you can hit "render" and see... but , remember, there a lot of things that you'll probably need to tweak

 

hope that helps,

Gabriella

[Sketchrender]

Gabriella

Thank you very much.

A question.

 

"planar and globular area lights", can you explain this, I generally use one direct light, and use both bounces.

 

What is your general light set up for an external render.

I use the enviromental feature in vray both set to 1 and both on pure white,is this a good idea.

The project I am working on at the moment is a large office and accomodation site about 8 buildings with water ect.

 

 

 

Thanks again.

 

phil

 

ps........ My beautifull wife is from outside milan, Pantigliate to be exact we both work together in dublin ireland for a large arch' company.

[Gabriella_A]

Hi Philip..

 

Usually in external renders I use skylight, which give very nice diffuse ligthing, set to 1 (sometimes less), with a blueish color..

I also use a direct light (to simulate sun) in order to achieve nice vray shadows... I don't use area shadows because sometimes are veery slow..

The multiplier of this light is often set from 0,5 to 2 ... depends on the amount of light that you want to simulate...

The color of this light is a very pale yellow (if I am simulating morning.. more orange if I want to simulate afternoon)

 

Sometimes I need some area light (the planar ones) to achieve some specular effects (exterior windows, swimming pools) or in order to "fill" the rendering with light...

I use the planar lights as inclinated panels (like a photographer) that sparkle in the windows, marbles, ext...

 

Area light in vray are in my opnion one of the best features of this render.. fast, with beautiful shadows, and very flexible.

The globular light is a sphere area light, like an omni... very useful in interiors.

 

Use in the color mapping the linear multiply, that gives bright and more saturated colors in exteriors.

 

Hope that helps...

 

some time ago I download a simple exterior model from the vray forum that had a basic exterior lighting... but was done in 1.09, pretty surpassed now...

 

Cheers, Gabriella

 

P.S.

I also live near Milan... but I don't know the city of Pantigliate.. is far form Milan?

Dublin... never been there.. but I suppose that is colder that Milan.. now we have 35°!!

[Sketchrender]

Gabriella

My appologies for not answering sooner.

I will be getting a model in the next few days from another firm, and if i run into trouble, would you mind if i asked for advise ,if i get to render it in vray, i may have leave it as his setting which is scanline radiosity it will all depend on the time for rendering allowed.

 

If i want good quality images sy for presentation purposes, may be a big as A2 what size should i render them?

 

I will get in touch again when I get them.

 

Another question, when modeling in max how do you continue creating a polygone and scroll up the screen to the next point which is off the screen at the same time.

 

Thanks for the help

 

Phil

 

ps my wife says hello, and is fed up with the fact that we have no seasons over here.

Some day in the future we will move back to italy..........some day.

[Gabriella_A]

Hi Philip!

 

I didn't understand this part of your post... my english is not so good... can you explain better? (It's my fault!! I'm not english mothertongue )

 

>if i get to render it in vray, i may have leave it as his setting which is >scanline radiosity it will all depend on the time for rendering allowed.

 

If I understood correctly (bah...) I have to say that using the same settings of max scanline in vray, is not only a problem of rendering time, but mainly a problem of render quality...

 

In any case, If you have problems, ask ! (also with pm..)

 

A2 is a very big format... I saw lot of treads here on file resolution... and I found that is pretty unuseful render to a very high file size (5000 px or more...) .. you will have huuge rendering times and pretty the same result of using instead a rendering size of 2500 pixel and using a program that creates bigger resolution with interpolation...

Search in the forum and you will find all you need...

 

Finally... if you want to pan while drawing in max, simply press "i" while moving the mouse icon to the desired direction.

 

Cheers,

Gabriella

 

P.S.

Ciao! We have lots of season here... but we always complain that weather is too hot, too cold, too windy... we are italians

Now in Milan is 35° ... with 60% of humidity...