Natural Lighting - I need direction

[bully712]

Hi all,

 

It's been a long time since I posted on this website. I need some direction to the following problem:

 

My employer is renovating the office, and they want to see realistic lighting so they can pick fixtures. Having short deadlines, I've always done my renderings with scanline, and faked the realistic part. We do have Maxwell, but honestly I've never learned how to use it. I'm worried that the rendering time would be to much to attempt maxwell (I don't know, haven't read anything on Maxwell in a while). He wants it as accurate as possible, for an example the reflectivity of light bouncing off brick, and light coming in the windows. I've never attempted to do a rendering this realistic. Never had a need for it. I am really lost and I have no Idea where to start.

 

* Should I learn Maxwell?

* Should I get vray?

* Would Vray be quicker to Learn?

* Which one renders faster?

 

Any help will be great! I really don't want to tell my Boss I can't do..

[kippu]

Learning maxwell is easy .... compared to vray but that is offset by longer longer render times

Vray has a little learning curve but there is a lot of tutorials on it due to the big support base... and your last question , as to which renders faster , then its definitely vray

[chuck]

If you don't need a print res I'd go Maxwell. It's much easier to learn than Vray, but it's slow, especially for interiors. In Maxwell you'll pick your location, time of day, and your exterior lighting is done, you just need to add interior sources. You never have to worry about secondary bounces, linear work flow, how intense the vray lights should be etc.

 

Vray can use IES files, but Maxwell comes with some lamp presets. They seem to be more about tempurature and intensity, not so much about the 3D distribution like an IES. Maybe someone can clarify that though. What are your system specs? If you have a decent core2duo you should be okay.

 

I attached the lamp presets for Maxwell...

 

Chuck

[MasterZap]

I attached the lamp presets for Maxwell...

 

Chuck

 

...and this just underlines their uselessness. Who makes a naked bulb?

 

To get the proper distribution of light out of Maxwell, you would have to model exactly every nook and cranny of the luminaire and have the exact geometry of the reflector - which is data that is THE most valuable asset of a lighting manifacturer that they will NEVER release to the outside world (whereas they all gladly release the result of their luminaire - the IES data, for free download online)

 

The IES data is essential if you plan to put in some real world luminaires, and expect the render to be anywhere near accurate. Your best bet is mental ray (or vray, for that matter) and use photometric lights with the correct IES data for the luminairs. Stay far away from maxwell for this particular use.

 

/Z

[bully712]

Thank you all so much for your responses.

 

I do have IES files that they want me to use, so I'm guessing Maxwell is out of the question. I'm glad that I got Maxwell when it was only around $290. Seems like it has been a bust.

 

So will everyone agree that I use the IES files, and Mental Ray as Brian suggested? Will Mental Ray give me the bounce I need from Exterior Lighting? I've never used Mental Ray before. Does anyone have any tip to get started? I'm going to create a hollow box with windows to do a test.

 

One last question:

 

For the future, should I (my Employer) look to invest in Vray, or should I hold off for Fryrender? I've seen some nice images from Fryrender, but I didn't see it compatible with Viz/Max. I'm really thinking Vray since it's been around the longest.

 

Thanks everybody..

[ralopez]

I will agree with Brian, try first MentalRay. You will have all you need to get the images needed for your interior shots. Post on here, and without a doubt you will get some answers back, on how to resolve issue related to rendering. I have been working with Mentalray for the past 3 month. I do have maxwell here, but render times are high. It is not to say Mentalray output less, it will take time to render images, depending on the quality you are looking for. Start developing your scene and add a daylight into it. As soon as you have that adjust the enviroment with logarithmic exposure, and exterior ligthing. From there you can adjust all the parameters. Kind of in a nutshell. But you will get good results.

[chuck]

Maxwell seems like it's been a bust? Have you used it? It can be a very satisfying renderer to use and I find it compliments Vray well. It has pros and cons like all software.

 

MentalRay is good, but I'd rather use Vray. Can't beat free software though, unless you're not paying for it anyway. Vray meshes are really usefull, and the new sky/sun looks promising too. You can make a really nice image in either.

 

I downloaded Fryrender's demo, felt very similar to Maxwell. Hard to believe those two complanies are not related. Long rendertimes but nice results.

 

Just remember that all the time you spend in MentalRay testing your lighting is not required in Maxwell...

 

Chuck

[bully712]

Maxwell seems like it's been a bust? Have you used it?

Chuck

No, but I've heard enough to not use it. Maybe I just don't have the time to wait around for any renderer. I can't wait a couple of days for a rendering when my company wants it now. I've just heard to many bad things about Maxwell, and there are a lot former users out there. I know that all of them are going to take sometime. I'm all new to this realistic lighting thing. You don't hear to many bad things about Vray.