Question on slope grass

Raylectron (https://Raylectron.com) is a 3D rendering engine for Trimble Sketchup (https://sketchup.com)
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Support »

No problem Nick, I'm glade I can help.

For your model, I setup the shadow in Sketchup until I had the sun shining that way, then I simply rendered it.
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Hi Michael,
Uninstalled the 2.66 version with all its sub folders on other hard disks. Installed the new version v3 that you posted for me, did a render for few minutes , tried to save the image and still get the same message. Here is the error message again. I'll go ahead and see how the grass-fur tool would work. It would be nice though if you could come up with a small tutorial video for the new grass-fur tool so one can see how you actually do it and how you make the shadows in the grass and so forth as opposed to do a trial end error bunch of times and still don't know if one is doing it the right way. A friend of mine is a Microsoft Engineer and he keeps telling his clients that : "there is a right way, there is a wrong way, and lastly there is a Microsoft way, now the right way might give you an answer, but it might not be the Microsoft way which is the sure way of doing things". Now I am pretty sure that I can do the grass-fur render the right way, but I like to do it the Raylectron way. here is the image and thank you so much for trying to get rid of this annoyance for me.
Thanks Michael,
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Re: Question on slope grass

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ok, I PM you the 32bit version see if that one got that same message. I'll make you a video about the grass now, be right back...
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Here's a video of how I do the grass...
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Oh yes. That was a great video and now I know a bit more. Thanks so much. I'll try it on a non-flat area see how it works. I'll also try the 32 bit version and let you know soon.

I AM FREE AT LAST. Great news. The 32bit version didn't give an error message and it could save the image right away. So shall I keep going with the 32bit version? Wouldn't the rendering quality be different since my machine is a 64bit machine?
Thanks again Michael,
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Great! If the 32bit works, than use that. The quality will be identical, it may run just a little bit slower, and perhaps can't use more than 2GB of RAM? I never tried!, that's all. Now we know for sure that one of your installed program has replaced a system DLL for an older one, that's why it works in 32bit and not in 64bit.

Were you able to make some grass? Can't wait to see what you're going to come up with :D
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Now we know for sure that one of your installed program has replaced a system DLL for an older one, that's why it works in 32bit and not in 64bit.
Michael, I don't know anything about programming or DLLs, however if that is the case how is it that I don't have any problem with my other programs whether they are 32bit or 64bit? If as you indicated, one of my installed programs actually replaced a system DLL for an older one, why is it then, that it doesn't affect any other installed program except Raylectron? If the 32bit version takes a bit more time or can't go over 2 GB of memory, then I might as well go back to the 64bit and I'll learn to live with the annoying message somehow. My computer is already slow since its an old one and I don't want to have my rendering times any slower than they are right now.

I'll be testing the grass tool tomorrow.

Meanwhile do you know of a texture site that has free high-end hardwood flooring textures? I searched online and found lots but they are all ugly. Something like the one in this picture. It says it was rendered in 3D Studio Max and Vray.

Thanks again,
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Nick1 wrote:Meanwhile do you know of a texture site that has free high-end hardwood flooring textures? I searched online and found lots but they are all ugly. Something like the one in this picture. It says it was rendered in 3D Studio Max and Vray.
In 3DSM the floor is not a single texture like you think. Each planks have been drafted, and so are the grooves.

If you want some really nice hi-res wood textures, see here http://www.defcon-x.de/c4d/textures

To get that same look as in 3DSM, you need to design the planks. For example, 3'x6" with the broders, and then stack them to create your floor, then paint the either foor with the texture. So explode the whole floor so it's a single mesh, then paint that mesh, not each individual planks.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Nick, here is your kitchen with a wood floor I've made. What I did was simple...

1. Draw a rectangle 3' x 5" and push/pull it up 1/4" and delete the bottom as this will never be seen and takes up two triangles.

2. move inward by 1/8" the 4 edges of the top.

3. Apply a wood finish to he top, and a darker wood finish to the sides.

4. Group it, then using the move tool and the ctrl key to duplicate it, make a duplicate and move it 5" so it's next to the first one, then move it along the side by 12", so that it's staggered. Do a 3rd one the same way but use the 2nd one, so all 3 looks like a staircase, all the joints as 12" apart.

5. Now group all those 3 and fill in the floor (copy/move).

6. Apply a shininess of 0.5 and a bump depth of 1 to 3 (I use 3 in the screen shot, perhaps too much).

That's it.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Hi Michael,
Thank you so much for explaining the whole thing. I knew that one way to achieve that look would be to model the whole thing and apply the textures and so on, but I was thinking of creating the same look using the hardwood floor texture with its bump map and its normal map. Of course it might not be as clean as actually modeling the whole thing and rendering it. Here is an image of testing a hardwood floor texture that I applied to a floor in a simple room with the new v3 64bit, wanting to see if I can do what you mentioned once "...it you want the wood to be shiny, you just select the material in the dialog box and click that this material is shiny or reflective...". Even though there is nothing on the floor but the reflection of the window openings should be seen in the rendering and it didn't. I had the reflectivity at 705 on the new version material editor dialog box and once I had the shininess to 5 and nothing happened. I'll have to model the kitchen floor myself and see what I can come up with. Also thanks for the wood texture site. It looks pretty nice.
Best,
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Re: Question on slope grass

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To get a really good effect, you need a good normal map which act mostly on the grooves and not the grain too much. The shine part will nto be that noticable if you have the sun to over power. Turn off the sun and you should see the windows reflection on the floor. Do not use reflection, only shine. What's that reflectivity of 705??? it can only be set from 0% to 100%
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Thanks Michael. I meant 70% not 705. I think I did a type-o. Alright I'll try and yes I do need a nice normal map for each texture, but usually most textures online don't come with their normal maps and one has to create it with Photoshop for instance and it might not come out to be an accurate one. I can be wrong but I think I heard you saying that in v3 version you don't need to give any numbers between 0-1 for reflectivity and such. All you need to select is that the object is shiny or reflective and the Raylectron uses its preset numbers automatically. As I said I might have misunderstood.
I'll try again and let you how it is, and maybe that texture site you posted has all the normal maps included. I'll have to check.
Thanks again,
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Re: Question on slope grass

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If you want tons of free textures with normal maps, got to http://www.filterforge.com/filters/ and click on "All filters by category". FilterForge is a great software to make your own normal maps.

We are working on a list of presets, which may or may not be included yet in v3. You see, a shine value of 1 for example, in a dark room with only one window, where the camera is on the opposite side, will be very, very shinny. If the camera is on the same side as the window, then it won't be shiny, because there is nothing bright to shine from. Remember, "shine" is like reflection, works different, but that's what it is.

Do the test yourself on a shiny floor, on a sunny day, with lots of lights, it's not all that shiny, but it depend on where you are and the direction you look. At night, sitting down in the living room with the TV on, you'll see the TV reflecting of the floor very well, that's shininess. It act different, it depend on how much light over power the shiny area, where the camera is, the angle at which the shine reflect etc etc. So basically, those settings can not be made miracles, it depend on how you want it to look like, and the same setting will look so different when you move the camera or change lights.
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Thanks Michael. I downloaded a seamless wood texture and created its normal map using the Nvidia Normal map creator and assigned the material and its normal map to the floor with shininess of 5(in the new material editor dialog box and I guess 5 would mean 0.5 in the previous dialog box or am i wrong about this) and the bumpiness to 2.
Oops, I just wanted to stop the little render sample I wanted to post and as soon as i clicked the save image button, it gave me the control-c error which would be ok if the second time works, but it kicked me out of the rendering dialog box all together. Now i am trying to render again. This is too frustrating. I was more stable with your 2.3x versions. I have no idea why it does this. I'll have to uninstall Raylectron and reinstall it again. Believe me if I were rich enough, I would have flown all senior developers here to figure out what is going on with this 64 bit version. I'll let you know again. But at any rate your advice worked and thank you again.
_______

Well, the reinstallation didn't help and it still kicks me out of the rendering dialog box and doesn't save the image. I'll have to completely remove all Raylectron and re-install the 64 bit again and if it doesn't work , either install the 32 bit version of v3 or go back to 2.66 64bit.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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I know what you mean, it drives me nuts because it's not really Raylectron the problem, but whatever system file got replaced by whatever software, and we just don't know which or what!

I just PM you a new version that's suppose to trap that error and ignore it. I hope this time it works!
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Hi Michael,
Thanks for the PM attachment. I unzipped it and placed it in the Raylectron folder and it asked me if I want to replace the existing one and I confirmed it. I hope I did it right. After all that was done, I double clicked on an rof file on my desktop and I got an "Access violation" dialog. Attached is the image of that dialog. Though I don't know any programming, but the logic tells me it might not be my computer's fault either. As I mentioned in my previous posts, none of my other programs give me any trouble regardless of being 64 bit or 32 bit. What is it that makes Raylectron the exception? If the missing or incompatible or replaced system DLL has got anything to do with Raylectron, logic tells me that once I uninstall and reinstall Raylectron, the right system DLL should be there. If it has nothing to do with Raylectron, then how is it that I don't have any problems with any other program and ONLY with Raylectron?
Back to uninstalling the program.
Cheers,
_____

Alright. I reinstalled the v3 64bit again and not only I still have the same problem of not being able to save the image and it kicks me out of the program, now a blank/white Sketchup window opens when I click on Raylectron Render, so I get the material editor dialog box plus another empty Sketchup window with nothing inside, just a blank white color. I guess I am going back to 32 bit since none of us can figure out what causes this problem.
_______
Michael,
I installed the new full exe file that you sent for me. This time I went to View> Raylectron Render and the render dialog box opened. But with it came the same material editor (which is normal) plus an additional blank Sketchup window that I mentioned earlier and it won't go away even if I click the "x" button. It only goes away if I click the "x" button of the material editor dialog box which won't be of any help. Do you guys work with 64 bit in your office or all your computers are 32bit? I really don't want to give up on this, but I don't have the time to fight with the program. I really like this program and that is why I am still hanging here. Here is another image of the odd behavior.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Hi Nick,

I sent you a full install in a PM

The problem only exist for the 64bit, and both, the 64 and 32 version are identical, they both use the same system DLL of the same, for example, the 32bit version will use Windows.dll in the system32 folder and the 64bit version will use Windows.dll in the SysWow64 folder. Now, if the one in the SysWow64 folder got replaced by an older version, it may or may not create problems with your software. It depend on what kind of calls they make to the dll. And most of your software installed are 32bit so you won't get that problem. I bet you anything that if you install Windows64 on a HD and then install Sketchup, then Raylectron, you won't have that problem. Then, if you install all your other software, one by one, but run Raylectron after each one, you'll find which software is the problem. I know, it's a big job, but when I looked at the software you had installed, some of them I'm not so comfortable with, such as bittorent and this other hardware lock you use to have and uninstalled but the driver remained.

I know it's not Raylectron because there are a few other software like Commander and stuff that have the same problem, and it was some database software that had replaced a 64bit system file. You are the only one reporting this problem with Raylectron, that's another thing, if many other users would have this problem, then perhaps it is Raylectron, but you are the only one Nick! Maybe that hardware lock driver, you may be the only one who have it, and the reason why you are the only one with the problem?

Do you have an extra HD that you can simply disconnect the one you use and connect that other one and install Windows, Sketchup, Raylecton etc. and see which software is to blame? If you can, then you can reconnect your good HD and uninstall that software see if it'll fix the problem?
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Michael,
Practically all my major softwares installed are 64bit. I can only think of Sketchup being my 32bit software. Again, none of those other apps like bittorrent and other thing have any effect on the other softwares. The full install in my PM gave me more trouble as I mentioned in the previous post. I'll try the 32bit again and see if the software behaves itself, otherwise I'll have to wait for your next 64bit version or just forget about it.
Thanks so much Michael,
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Support »

Can I call you?
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Re: Question on slope grass

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I was just going to ask you to do that. I installed the 32 bit and it asks me for the registration number. When inserted the dialog box doesn't go away. SO Please Call. If you can do it as soon as possible it would be even better.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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I sent you a PM with the new 64bit build along with another utility that may help us find that DLL we're talking about on the phone.
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Re: Question on slope grass

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Just got my PM and the utility file. I'll have to check it on Monday since I'll be out of town for the weekend. I remember that Microsoft utilityn but I don't know where it can be now.I'll look for it on Monday and see what happens. Thanks Michael for all your efforts.
Have a great weekend,
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Re: Question on slope grass

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ok Nick, if you need to re-download that MS utilities, let me know.

Have a great weekend...
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Nick1 »

Thanks Michael,
Yes, I would appreciate it again if you remind me of what needs to be done with that utility and where to get it. I seem to remember that you posted it for me at one time. Also do I run it after installing the latest version you sent to my PM?
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Re: Question on slope grass

Post by Support »

ok Nick, I'll send you another PM shortly...
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