'round corner" funcion?

Raylectron (https://Raylectron.com) is a 3D rendering engine for Trimble Sketchup (https://sketchup.com)
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stevo1
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'round corner" funcion?

Post by stevo1 »

Does raylectron have a 'round corner" funcion? It is very handy to get rid of perfectly sharp corners in renderings, as not much in the real world is rarely 90deg sharp.
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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by Support »

No it does not as it would require modifying the geometry. However, if you make your models in Sketchup, there is a free plugin that do just that and more, plus, you can set how round you want the corners to be.
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stevo1
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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by stevo1 »

from what I undertsand it does not modify the geomertry, "Many have this render bevel effect. C4D, Arnold, Vray, Octane, Corner, Cycles etc...It blends the face normal directions at the corner edges but you need to take the silhouette into account because if you get too close the illusion breaks" (from rich O'Brian)... I do not fully understand how it works I just got this information through others.
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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by Support »

Sure, it can be accomplished using this method, but it does have its own drawbacks, including issues with speed and accuracy. Additionally, Raylectron is not designed to fix or patch imperfections in the render. That's why we strongly recommend focusing on creating a realistic design for the model rather than relying on the render to compensate with illusions. Although you have the option to smooth the normals in Sketchup, I would caution against it. It is best to ensure that your box, for instance, is modeled as realistically as possible.
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Alienizer
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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by Alienizer »

I personally don't like this rounded corner thing the other render use. It's fake and ugly. It's like making a cube in Sketchup and smoothing the normals to make it look like a sphere because the modeler is too lazy to make an actual sphere. I learn the hard way on that one. I round the corners in my model where it needs to be, ensuring the rest of the model is not affected. I was making metal parts and most od them are accurately 90 degrees and some are smooth. So I did use another render app to make it rounded, it works, but not as expected. After investigating, the way that works is the normal vector of all faces are bending to the average normal vector, completely changing the illumination. That didn't work for me. So after contacting Raylectron support, it was suggested that I draw my models as they should appear in real life, and surprisingly enough, Raylectron can render that realistically and it doesn't look cheap or fake. Laziness or lack of understanding? both. When I make a glass object and sit it on a table for example, it normally site on the face of the table of course. But that's wrong, the bottom of my glass occupy the exact same space as the top of the table and the bottom of the glass isn't rendered properly. Investigating that again, Raylectron said that in real life, there is a gap between the glass and the table, very small gap, but there is a gap. So all I had to do is move my glass off the table by 1/256" and bingo, the glass looks perfect in the render. No need for illusion manipulation to try to fix my ignorance. The same with a book on the table, by moving it a bit off the table, it looks real now, not merged with the table.

In short, I like my render app to render exactly what I draw and it's up to me on how realistic my model will look like by how I design it. I don't like any of these so call fixes, I want to draw properly not like a kid and expect miracles from the render app. That's why all renders look so artificial even if they look good, you can tell right away it's fake, and one very noticeable one is the shadows in corner walls. They are sooooo fake (smoothed normals!), only Raylectron does it right.

That's my 2 cents on using smoothed corners.
stevo1
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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by stevo1 »

I have had issues with corner smoothing. I and most others, I think use it for interiors and exteriors not for close up shots. It is mainly used for brick corners, wood etc. The "arris" or bevel I use are only about 3 or 4 mm. I have attached an image of a render where the blicks corner closest to the camera. it gets away from that overly sharp corners which are rare in the real world. I find it usefull and time saving. I would never use it for close up stuff like the small cubes I posted I would use geoetry for sure

I just use it for areas with the arrows in the render image. (Edited) The arrows are a bit small and red in the top right quadrant.


And Alienizer, your response was both arrogant and presumptuous
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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by Support »

I understand your point, but wouldn't it be easier if you incorporated rounded edges directly into the model? My concern is that I do not want Raylectron to automatically round off things or require a setup to manually select which edge(s) to round and by what amount. In my opinion, it would be more convenient to handle this within the model itself, without relying on Raylectron settings. However, I'd like to ask you, how do you envision this working for the end user?
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stevo1
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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by stevo1 »

Hi Micheal, this video will tell all, I think you may find it very interesting. I am hoping you find my post constructive as I have a great fondness of raylectron :salute



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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by Support »

If Raylectron was a game engine, it would be easy to do in a shader, but it isn't so it will be harder to make. However, I see no problem to include a new simple setting "Round Corners" with a slider for the strength and maybe a threshold, so it doesn't affect corners that are not 90 deg. So I'll be working on that and I will keep you posted. Thanks Steve for still using Raylectron, I'm glad you didn't give up on it. :salute
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stevo1
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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by stevo1 »

Understood Micheal, all good
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GateGirl86
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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by GateGirl86 »

@stevo1 I just use Frodo's round corner. You can actually do your entire model with say a 0.05rad. It's quiet easy to do. :mrgreen:
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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by Support »

GateGirl86 wrote: Thu Jun 15, 2023 5:08 pm @stevo1 I just use Frodo's round corner. You can actually do your entire model with say a 0.05rad. It's quiet easy to do. :mrgreen:
That's what I use too but for many edges, it's simpler to have the render do it I suppose. I've been working on that, but it creates problems because for ither objects not requiring it, like trees, rocks etc. So it's not good to turn it on for the whole model so that means, I need a dedicated section where you can select the object or face etc. Taking this much time. might as well use the Fredo Corner tool at design time! But I'm still thinking of an alterative, and easy way to do this.
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GateGirl86
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Re: 'round corner" funcion?

Post by GateGirl86 »

It isn't perfect and I will be the first to admit, it does have limitations.

There is always a better way, god I wish sometimes I could write programmes :lol: :ugeek:
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