URGENT Radiosity Lighting HELP Needed!!!

[JamesTaylor]

hi all!

 

i'm after some advice on lighting an architectural scene using radiosity.

 

The building has been modelled accurately and textures have been applied to the walls and floors. I then added the lighting and rendered a few images to get a feel off how it was going. Generally all looked fine but there did seem to be an awful lot of light in the spaces, something i could cope with for my first attempt and lack of experience. However, when i have added furniture to the rooms the renders have produced very odd results on the textures applied to the furniture. It doesn't seem to matter what type of texture i use or wether i build the models from scratch or use ones from a dosch furniture cd.

 

Having spent days just playing with the problem i believe that there is simply too much light in the scenes which is causing an effect similar to over exposure even though i'm using the logarithmic control, but am not sure what i should be aiming for in terms of light quantity.

 

At present the scene uses a daylight system which is set up with time and location and there are 19 internal photometric lights replicating halogen light fittings.

 

There is a sample render attached which illustrates the problem i'm having on all seating furniture.

 

Thanks in anticipation, James

[Fran]

Hi James,

 

What are your radiosity settings? It looks like you need to up the quality of all your settings. Decrease the radiosity meshing size of your objects and increase the number of refine iterations (especially on the furniture). Also, reduce the brightness in exposure control.

[JamesTaylor]

At present i'm rendering with a radiosity quality set at 40% and the meshing size is set to 1000mm in the global rendering settings and the refine itterations are at 0 for all objects and selected objects.

 

I'll have a go with your suggestions but if you could give me a suggestion as to a suitable values it would be much appreciated as i'm not 100% sure what either the refine iterations or meshing size setting does!

 

Thanks - i'll post again shortly with an updated render using your suggestions.

[Fran]

Hi James,

 

If you are using VIZ 4, look at the section "Radiosity Control Panel" in the Rendering chapter of the User's Guide. If you are using Max 6, consult the Help Index and look at the topics under radiosity. There are better explanations there than what I can give.

 

You may want to post your topic under either the 3DS Max forum or Autodesk VIZ. You will get more input that way and we won't have to ask what program you're using.

[JamesTaylor]

This is a new render with refine iterations set at 75, mesh size set at 100mm and the quality at 80%. It has definately helped and will allow me to move on from the frustrating last few days!!

 

I'm using studio max6 and have read the relevant sections in the help pages to gain a better understanding but may yet post in your suggested areas as i'm unsure why i don't seem to be getting any shadows under furniture and the cushioned in my new render. All the lights have shadows turned on but the lack of them in the image reduces the interest of the image.

 

If you have any suggestions again they'd be very welcome

 

Thanks again! James

 

PS. the images on your site are very good / lots of detail - hopefully i'll get there with practice!!