Displacement ?

Raylectron (https://Raylectron.com) is a 3D rendering engine for Trimble Sketchup (https://sketchup.com)
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BuildCGI
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Displacement ?

Post by BuildCGI »

Hi,

I should start by saying I dug REALLY deep to find raylectron!

Raylection seems to work great so far, and exactly what I need.

However, on my locomotive train of happiness while using Raylectron I came across this : there is no displacement feature.

For example I need the edge of the wall on the right, in this image to be a bit rougher, as its a brick wall painted white.

Sketchup makes everything look REALLY sharp, except the built environment is never this sharp !! I was wondering if there are plans to develop this or if it already exists.

Any help would be much appreciated.
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Edge of wall on right, needs a rough edge.
Edge of wall on right, needs a rough edge.
update 2.png (708.88 KiB) Viewed 20174 times
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Re: Displacement ?

Post by Support »

Other than the bump map or normal maps, there is no displacement map, yet anyway. We are working on implementing it but I think it will be only in v5. If you have a normal map associated with the brick pattern, it will look much more realistic and bumpy.
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Re: Displacement ?

Post by BuildCGI »

Do you know when v5 would be released or at least the displacement feature?

Imo, displacements are vital part of making images look natural. No matter how photorealistic the lighting and texture is. If the GEOMETRY is not realistic it ruins everything. My attached image looks great but the wall/coping edges are too straight. I shouldnt have to make detailed cracks in the wall for an architectural element like that. Same goes with the soil for the plants.
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update 2 displacement.jpg
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Re: Displacement ?

Post by Support »

I know exactly what you mean. v5 will take several months but I can always let you have the beta first so you can test the displacement map. Did you use Raylectron for the grass?
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Re: Displacement ?

Post by BuildCGI »

Yes I used raylectron for grass. Absolutely loved using it. A few clicks and its done so simply with no x number of plugins to achieve it.

BTW. I will stick with raylectron and will accept the offer of testing the beta.
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Re: Displacement ?

Post by Support »

For the grass, if you can use a texture of grass with patches of dead grass and stuff, you'll get a much more realistic look, not only all green, like this for example...
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Raylectron Render - Real Grass.jpg
Raylectron Render - Real Grass.jpg (1.22 MiB) Viewed 20164 times
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Re: Displacement ?

Post by BuildCGI »

I saw the youtube video for the grass tutorial. (Although it was an older version.)

Do I need to assign a grass texture in sketchup first. Then export it to raylectron ?

As I cannot get the patch effect anywhere on the grass. I fiddled with the random range, taller were darker and taller were lighter settings. But nothing near your video example.

Was there a texture you used to get that patchy effect ? And if so how do I apply it? Do I apply the patchy grass texture as a material in sketchup first?
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Re: Displacement ?

Post by Support »

All you have to do is use any texture (such as this one) in Sketchup, position it, scale it and that's it. In Raylectron, convert it to grass.
6105404783_99f6c9ea29_z.jpg
6105404783_99f6c9ea29_z.jpg (176.96 KiB) Viewed 20160 times
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Re: Displacement ?

Post by BuildCGI »

Thanks will give that a go. It would help if you provide the setting value's to achieve the nice patchy grass. i.e. the settings in the materials tab for grass.

I Will play about with it until i've cracked it. Will try and write a tutorial on my blog on how I achieved this.
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Re: Displacement ?

Post by Support »

The settings will vary depending on how much memory it'll take to make the grass. The bigger the area, the more blades, the more triangles, the more memory, if it's a close up or distant. It's all trial and error. You can use the 2 grass materials from the cloud under vegetation, it already have the texture and settings, one for large area and one for small area. One easy way to see how the settings work is to create a sphere and apply a texture to it, export it and convert it to grass and play with the settings to see the results. You can even accomplish human hair!
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Re: Displacement ?

Post by BuildCGI »

Thanks a lot of the information, I'll give it my best. And do some experimentation as well. Particularly architectural renderings and but most important landscape rendering for garden design.
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Re: Displacement ?

Post by Support »

You are welcome and you can post your renders in our gallery, our facebook and Google+ and advertise yourself and your work.
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