Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Raylectron (https://Raylectron.com) is a 3D rendering engine for Trimble Sketchup (https://sketchup.com)
Dknight
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Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Dknight »

Hello there,

I was demoing your rendering software and was attempting to use your tutorial. When i got to the part where i am within Raylectron with the file Love i found the "Model View" of my screen was a green block. Upon switching to Render View and clicking render i was unable to see anything in the viewport.

I am using Windows 7, 64 bit. 16GB memory, I7-2600k

Any idea whats going on?
Screeenshots attached.
Reylectron - White.jpg
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Reylectron - Green.jpg
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

I'm not sure why, but when you click on Render, does it show that it is rendering? Are you using v2.52?

Have you tried the Livingroom model that comes with Raylectron?
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

Better yet, here is v2.53 which I think will work. It's not the installer, so download it to the Raylectron installed folder and when you run it, make sure it say v2.53 in the About box if it doesn't work. Please let me know?
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Dknight »

Yes the new version fixed it!

When i clicked on "Render View" before it did not show anything untill i clicked Render. Then it would slowly "build" in the image.
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

Great, thanks for letting me know.

Yes, clicking the Render works exactly the way you explained. You stop it whenever you like the way it looks, or, if you need to rotate, pan, zoom, edit lights and materials and continue the render.
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Dknight »

So far we like it alot... and it has a great price tag.

Question: Can you adjust the size of the render? Currently it says 80x430 (GL) im sure i can up it. Not sure if that is a trial thing (with the watermarks) or if it's hiding somewhere and I'm missing it.

Also, i'm not sure how long to let it run... It seems like it should have an "I'm done" notification. but when i let it run, it ran for a good 30m before I stopped it.

Still learning all these settings. Never used a rendering program before.

Attachment 1 i let run for 4:17 minutes. It had 111 Samples.
Looks a bit washed out. Need to play with Gama. Left it at what it was... 2.20
Image 01.jpg
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

You can change the size to whatever you like from the View / View Port menu, or, click on the 80x430 (GL) to get the same menu.

Raylectron is an incremental render, so you stop it whenever you think the quality is what you want. For an outdoor scene like you have, I would use Path tracer as the render type (from the Lighting button, 2nd tab) and select Sky as the light source, and perhaps change the sky intensity to 1 or 2 in the Render settings, and even the sky color etc.

For the pool, you could make it Water from the material editor, and even use an image with waves on it and set the bump level to one to make it look like water.

If you need some tutorial on doing things like that, I'll be happy to make you a video and provide you with links to environment maps and bump maps too.

I really like your model BTW, very nice!
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Dknight »

Hey there. Thanks for the input.

I have tried both methods of rendering. I like the harder shadows in the radiocity setting than what i get with the path tracer setting. But they are far too dark for me. I need to figure out how to lighten them up. I ran a new render with path using both sun and skylight as a lighting source. This really appeals to me. I would like to "lighten" the underside of the porch a bit more and increase the darkness of the shadows too. They seem really light now compared.

I had not adjusted the transparency correctly in the material editor on the pool water or glass. i have done it now and it looks pretty sharp. Though i found i needed 2 layers of "water". A single layer was giving me some very strange cast off shadows. I am not sure what was going on there. Even with "1.0" transparency, it still shows the water without any transparency. If i go to a single layer of "water" it seems to work correctly however i get those weird shadow cast off's again.

If you have a video with some example's i would absolutely take you up on it. But if you are busy doing other thing (which i'm sure you are) I'll poke around the web and figure it out.
2.jpg
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and the odd cast off's im seeing.
03.jpg
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

Shadows: The best is to set the sky intensity to 1, same as the sun, see what you get (play with the numbers! I use 1,1 for sky,sun but it depend, there are no trees or anything, so maybe 1,2). If you use Tone Mapping, then the BR setting might do the trick. If you don't then use the Exposure along with the gamma, but all those settings can be used together to create the shades you want.

Water: I think you did not apply the water material to both faces of the plane (no need to use 3 planes). What I do is set front and back faces to default material, group the plane and then set the water material to the group instead, this will do both sides. Also, make sure the front face is facing out to the sky, not into the pool or the refraction/reflection will be wrong, as I suspect the problem be.

So seems to do very well, but if you are stuck on something, I can explain via a video. We are working on video tutorials already.
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

If you have a test model you can share, perhaps it would be easier if we both have the same one, same settings etc.
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Dknight »

I need to look into Tone Mapping.

What is "Br" "Ca" and "La"

You've been most helpful. Thanks!

I checked the faces, they were all oriented correctly with the texture on both sides.
Attached is the sketchup model, and ROF file (with textures).
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

I see what you mean, quite weird! Let me figure this out... thanks for posting the model, that makes it much easier.
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

We found the problem and fixed it. We'll post the new version sometimes tomorrow, but for now, here is a quick render see if you like it?
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Blixt site.png
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Dknight »

Hey that looks really sharp!

We love the pool textures you've used and the color of the concrete cap on the stone wall. if possible would you mind sharing those with me?

Thanks for all your help. We placed an order for the software about 10 minutes ago. We're very satisfied with the product and the support so far!
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

Thanks David, I really appreciate it :D

The pool texture is yours, all I did to it was set it to 100% transparent and set the bump level to 0.3 and it was already set to Water.

The other texture on top of the stone wall is the Sketchup material (Tile_Linoleum_Offwhite) and I've set the width and height to 2'

I've set the sun and sky intensity to 1, path traced with direct illumination, gamma 1.6 and brightness to 0.2

Here is the exe only, I didn't post the full install yet, I want to make sure it works for you. Download it and put it in your Raylectron installed folder. The about box should show v2.55
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Dknight »

I've downloaded it, and will give it a try momentarily.

We also really liked the blue pool tile you used around the pool, and the material you used inside the pool.

What were those textures?

Thanks again!
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Dknight »

The change you made the program worked great!

Here's a copy of what we currently have.
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

The tiles for the pool is also Sketchup (bathtile) I just changed the hue (H) to 202 and the lightness (L) to 76 and set the width/height to 1'

The stones around the pool is fromt the following site, set at 4' for width/height...

http://www.filterforge.com/filters/2124.html

and at the bottom of a texture you like, download the Diffuse Map which is what you use in Sketchup, and the Normal Map which you use in the Raylectron material editor inside Sketchup, along with setting the bump level (1 is standard)

They have the best textures, and, it comes with the Normal map too!
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

Dknight wrote:The change you made the program worked great!

Here's a copy of what we currently have.
It's looking good!

Some of the windows on the house are showing the back face, you can use the (Raylectron) Fix reversed faces tool from the tool menu to reverse them. Press the Space bar when you are done use it. It's faster than doing it one by one!
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Dknight »

Thank you again.

I went ahead and flipped the faces. I'm not entirely sure what that really means though, would you mind explaining that? I normally try to keep all the faces facing the same way (white out blue in) but the windows were from Pella, and they we're a huge mess.

For some reason i don't have the textures you refereed to in sketchup. But that's ok. I found comparable ones using a Google search.

Also my pool water is coming up very differently than yours. I changed it to a bump to "3" instead of ".3" and it looks much more like water now. Going to tone it down. But I'm moving forward!
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

Here are the ones...

The pool water will not look as good from far. It's like on an airplane over the ocean, we can't see the waves! But like you did, setting the bump level to higher number should work.
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bathtile.png
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

Dknight wrote:I went ahead and flipped the faces. I'm not entirely sure what that really means though, would you mind explaining that?
For any transparent materials using a refraction value, the front face is the entry point into the solid object, and the back face is the exit point. So a light ray hit the front of Plane 1, it refract (and perhaps reflect), if refract (enters) then the ray continue until it hits another plane (plane 2) and this time it hits the back face (which is correct) so it either refract (exit) of reflect (bounces inside the medium). So if any of those faces are not oriented properly, the logic of reflection and refraction will be different, and will be visually wrong.

It's a nice model you did, so I had to render it again, showing off the pool.
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

Here is your model back with the glasses fixed in and out. That's what I used for the above render. The only setting is sun.sky to 1, and brightness to 0.3, no tone mapping, path traced, sun/sky, direct illumination. Do you get the same result on the pool water as mine?
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Dknight »

error message: missing 2124-normal.jpg texture.
rendered with out it anyway.

and yes, i definitely got the same pool look. So it's all about the angle.

Here is my most recent render - it's pretty high res..
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Re: Raylectron "Model View" at startup

Post by Support »

wow! this looks really nice! I like the duck too :mrgreen:

The missing normal map is from the link to the textures I posted in one of my replies above. You need to load it in the Raylectrom material editor in Sketchup if you have it. Here are both anyway...
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2124-diffuse.jpg
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