> Quote - > Quote - I'm all right with lights. Its using displacement maps that takes a long time to clear up and take a lot of resources. I had a simple scene with 1 Vicky wearing alfaseed clothes and it actually paralized my computer. Couldn't even open taskmanager to kill Lux. Had to buy more RAM. > > I used to have the same problem with my computer when I was using displacement maps. I upgraded my computer and use only normal maps. A lot easier to set up the normal maps and get the textures I want but still takes a long time when you have dozen of textures to do. Now I can render 2 pictures at the same time as long I don't have a have ton of stuff in the scenes. On a norm, what used to take me 4 days to render takes half the time now with my upgrades

Hi. I'm unlucky with normal maps. While displacement is a resource hog at least I can control it. Not the normals. And for some reason it doesn't seem to work either :/

The top is with displacement, bottom is normal map. It should look somewhat bumpier.

Quote - Hi. I'm unlucky with normal maps. While displacement is a resource hog at least I can control it. Not the normals.

And for some reason it doesn't seem to work either :/

The top is with displacement, bottom is normal map. It should look somewhat bumpier.

I didn't catch where the top part was posted, but normal maps can get fantastic results with the Reality/Lux combo, stand alone or used with displacement maps. 

If you already have them, they show up in the Modifier tab in reality. If the box is checked for normal maps and grayed out, you can uncheck it and adjust the value as needed, then recheck it.

Within this thread, normal maps have been explored at some length. In fact, I put a tut on their creation using your general texture map and converting to both a bump and normal map using GIMP, on page 21 towards the bottom. A few members posted some alternative software on the next page for normal map creation as well, if memory serves. Should get you started at least! 

superboomturbo

Thanks for the tip, I will look into it :)

I love using normal maps.  There are times when I'll slap a normal map onto my background images.  Most of the time the 3d effect is rather slight; but, there are times when it is very pronounced.  I use PixPlant which is a PS filter for making normal, dsp and spec maps.  It works pretty good but is kind of pricey.

awwww man.. my extreme lack of patience is not helping matters... mobo yesterday, case today... according to ups tracking the rest of my parts were still in pennsylvania as of 6am this morning.  looks like tomorrow is going to be the build day.  oh well.. at least i can get the mobo mounted in the case and my chassis fans installed.

This one I just let run over night.  I'm restarting it since I accidently picked the wrong normal map for the boots.  It does, however, demonstrate the power of normal maps.

What I do to create a normal map is, I take either the diffuse texture or the bump map into GIMP.  If it is the diffuse, I then run the Normal Map plugin (not included, but available online from here).  I usually choose Prewitt 3x3, as it doesn't make it over powering.  Prewitt 5x5 makes it pop more, but it can look pretty fugly, too.  The normal map tutorials I've seen also mention using the green channel when using the original texture.

If it's the bump map, I first invert the colors (colors->invert), then I run the normal map plugin with the same settings as before.

@Solnoid  yes, I see the texture on the boots. Very good!

@Sharkbytes

What are you building? I mean, what are the specs?

Quote - This one I just let run over night.  I'm restarting it since I accidently picked the wrong normal map for the boots.  It does, however, demonstrate the power of normal maps.

What I do to create a normal map is, I take either the diffuse texture or the bump map into GIMP.  If it is the diffuse, I then run the Normal Map plugin (not included, but available online from here).  I usually choose Prewitt 3x3, as it doesn't make it over powering.  Prewitt 5x5 makes it pop more, but it can look pretty fugly, too.  The normal map tutorials I've seen also mention using the green channel when using the original texture.

If it's the bump map, I first invert the colors (colors->invert), then I run the normal map plugin with the same settings as before.

I usually use crazybump and work with the diffuse map. The bump map doesn't work as good and I can't sharp texture with it.  I learned after a lot of trial and error how to adjust the settings to get the type of texture I want .

Crazybump is a great program to use and it easy too.

There is a video tutorial on ytube on crazybump. It shows how to use the settings for normal maps

Quote - So, this is only at 35 samples right now (single sun, ran it for 3+ hours at 2880x1680.  Smaller would have been much further along).  The glass on the car isn't showing up like I want it to, the glass in her glasses on her face isn't showing up well (yes, there are a pair of glasses a car, Doc/Bob).  They are set to architectural, with a reflection color of a gold-ish color, and white transmission.  I'm trying to get a good semi-mirrored (i.e., mirrored, but transparent, so that there is a fair bit of reflection) look on both.

Any comments/suggestions?

 

BTW, the Porshe model is availble from here in the freebies:Porsche

I have run across the same thing lots of time when working with glass.

Also check your alpha channel in Reality. If you go into Reality and the surface is read from Daz as Matte when you convert it to glass it leaves the Strength of Opacity setting down around .40 instead of .99 or 1.00

I got this in the oven.

> Quote - > Quote - > Quote - I'm all right with lights. Its using displacement maps that takes a long time to clear up and take a lot of resources. I had a simple scene with 1 Vicky wearing alfaseed clothes and it actually paralized my computer. Couldn't even open taskmanager to kill Lux. Had to buy more RAM. > > > > I used to have the same problem with my computer when I was using displacement maps. I upgraded my computer and use only normal maps. A lot easier to set up the normal maps and get the textures I want but still takes a long time when you have dozen of textures to do. Now I can render 2 pictures at the same time as long I don't have a have ton of stuff in the scenes. On a norm, what used to take me 4 days to render takes half the time now with my upgrades > > Hi. I'm unlucky with normal maps. While displacement is a resource hog at least I can control it. Not the normals. And for some reason it doesn't seem to work either :/ > > The top is with displacement, bottom is normal map. It should look somewhat bumpier.

I did this picture with normal maps on her outfit.

I always use the diffuse jpg. so I can get a clean, sharp texture.

I went into crazybump and adjusted the intensity 99. Got rid of the Shape recognition and the very large detail. Then I set the very fine detail to about 15. The fine detail to 50 and the medium to 50.

Quote - I got this in the oven.

Amazing work. It is a great picture

Quote - I got this in the oven.

This render is just nuts already.

Thanks guys :)  The hair is almost matte and still I get the white spots. I used sunlight and 1 mesh in front for eyelight.

@mustang2011

Thats a super cool render. Love it!

Attached Link: Peter & Olivia

I have had to set the glamour hair to matte to avoid red blotches it still looks ok

Beautiful render, Mousso! Keep 'em comin'!

Nice one, Mustang2011! That suit really pops! Thanks for sharing it!

Quote - I got this in the oven.

Looking good so far, but here's my quick critique:

Is the armor running any sort of maps? It looks like it needs more definition, as the textures are fairly flat. Not sure if anyone else caught it, but is the shadow falling across the foot the result of something off screen? The rest of that leg has a nicely definied shadow, then ends with the jaggy. 

And for my next question, how the crap does everyone keep getting those sun flares in-render??   I've tried several settings in the lens effects and haven't gotten one that crisp to date. 

Quote - > Quote - I got this in the oven.

Looking good so far, but here's my quick critique:

Is the armor running any sort of maps? It looks like it needs more definition, as the textures are fairly flat. Not sure if anyone else caught it, but is the shadow falling across the foot the result of something off screen? The rest of that leg has a nicely definied shadow, then ends with the jaggy. 

And for my next question, how the crap does everyone keep getting those sun flares in-render??   I've tried several settings in the lens effects and haven't gotten one that crisp to date. 

Good eye....I hadn't caught the jagged edges on the boot. I had the same problem and with the help of mbinz I was able to figure out it was caused by the intensity of the sunlight or light hitting the surface. I make adjustments to fix that problem but sometimes if its not too bad I just use Photoshop to blur the edge of the shadow.

Now that you mention it I see it too.  I'll try an other angle for the sun or use the diffuser.

But if I use the diffuser I lose the sharp shadows :/

Thank you superboom for letting me know :)

Quote - Now that you mention it I see it too.  I'll try an other angle for the sun or use the diffuser.

But if I use the diffuser I lose the sharp shadows :/

Thank you superboom for letting me know :)

That's what I'm here for ;-p 

On the jaggy issue, are you running Lux RC3 or 4 by chance? I had a lot of anti-alias issues with RC3 with certain shots like yours. Framed nicely, good focus, but the legs (the outer edge on a thigh in particular) always looked like a bitmap image in zoom. Haven't encountered it anymore since the newer 1.0 was released. 

hehe I wanted to press Post reply and ended up shutting the PC. I dont know how I got into the Startmenu.

I'm not crazy, I just quit smoking 2 days ago and going nuts. Just a few weeks to go...

Anyway...I use Luxrender 1.0.

Here is something I cant figure out and it shows in the render too. Thats why I tried to push more hair on the ears. Checkerboard ears. The weird thing is that it looks fine in poser.

It is the sun.

Three point lighting, pin isn't working with 'Limits off' so the pose is a bit wooden.

Quote - It is the sun.

Even with the change in lighting, I like this image, although it might benefit from a mesh light on the face. Great scene!

Quote - Three point lighting, pin isn't working with 'Limits off' so the pose is a bit wooden.

I really like the lighting in this one. I think the pose looks fine.  Good job.

Thanks, I was tring to capture some surface detail of the skin.

Attached Link: Cockpit

Nothe sci fi see im playing nice LOL

Attached Link: Crash scene

Nother

Quote - hehe I wanted to press Post reply and ended up shutting the PC. I dont know how I got into the Startmenu.

I'm not crazy, I just quit smoking 2 days ago and going nuts. Just a few weeks to go...

Anyway...I use Luxrender 1.0.

Here is something I cant figure out and it shows in the render too. Thats why I tried to push more hair on the ears. Checkerboard ears. The weird thing is that it looks fine in poser.

That would be the lovely effect of a UV map poking through. You can see it on the left shoulder also. I sure hope that's not on the texture itself. Check to make sure the diffuse and opacity channel is at 100% for all the skin textures. If it was made for Poser, the MAT files sometimes go wonky. In the very rare chance it's a trans map issue (can't imagine why someone would do one on skin, but strange things do happen!) check the opacity on all the surface maps by sliding it back and forth for the effected areas and see what happens. It's a pain, but easy troubleshooting. 

Best of luck! Interested to see the final reason for the faux pas 

The longest, slowest render ever! And I have no idea why, can't find any reason for it among all the usual suspects. So I give up and here it is.

I realized we were 6 days into October (when I started this render we were) and I hadn't done any horror themed stuff.  So nothing but horror from here until Halloween. 

Quote - > Quote - It is the sun.

Even with the change in lighting, I like this image, although it might benefit from a mesh light on the face. Great scene!

I just turned off the sky to see if the sun was the culprit. I will turn it back as soon as I figure out whats the problem with the shoe.

Looks like I found a workaround. I subdivided the shoe in Studio and so far no jagged shadows.

@superboomturbo

Under all that armour my whole Vicky looks like a checkerboard but only the ears stay like that after rendering.
Maps look fine, opacity is 100%.

Solved the shadow issue. Subdivided the shoe :D

bobvan

**
**I like the sci fi one. You must have lots of converted lights in there.

**
**

Mousso,

I suppose the one obvious idea that escaped me earlier would be to try another character skin and see if the issue is limited to the one character. 

If so, texture problem. If not, settings problem :-)

Beyond this, I would suggest to see if you have a random shader set on the skin that isn't present on your other textures. Awhile back, I had a test character look like it's head exploded in Lux but rendered fine in Studio. It took me a few dozen renders and material checks to finally figure out that I was a complete clot and missed a displacement map. 

On the other hand, if you're running Studio 4.5, well, good luck to 'ya!   (By my own admission, I haven't upgraded beyond 4.0.3.47 for various reasons. I may, eventually!)

Good deal on the shoe fix though. I use SubD and mesh smoothing a lot more than I used to, which may have subsequently fixed my jaggy issue by random coincidence. Whoops! 

Quote - Three point lighting, pin isn't working with 'Limits off' so the pose is a bit wooden.

I think one of the main fails here was the focal length/ distance from the suject.

Depth of feild should have been deeper and camera should have been closer.

But that would make anything closer to the camera appear too large.

nah, I didn't upgrade to 4.5 yet.  What for? I just assemble my scenes in DS and for that 4.0.3 is perfect. I loaded Vicky and deleted all textures, bumps etc. Got a white mesh. Then I manually added the head map. No bump, just diffuse. The result....hehe Oh well, not even you noticed so I dont mind.

Quote - Mousso,

I suppose the one obvious idea that escaped me earlier would be to try another character skin and see if the issue is limited to the one character. 

If so, texture problem. If not, settings problem :-)

Beyond this, I would suggest to see if you have a random shader set on the skin that isn't present on your other textures. Awhile back, I had a test character look like it's head exploded in Lux but rendered fine in Studio. It took me a few dozen renders and material checks to finally figure out that I was a complete clot and missed a displacement map. 

On the other hand, if you're running Studio 4.5, well, good luck to 'ya!   (By my own admission, I haven't upgraded beyond 4.0.3.47 for various reasons. I may, eventually!)

Good deal on the shoe fix though. I use SubD and mesh smoothing a lot more than I used to, which may have subsequently fixed my jaggy issue by random coincidence. Whoops! 

 

Also I had very low level sun/sky.  In this instance, not good.  

Too much ambiet light in areas of shadow.

Attached Link: Crash scene 2

> Quote - **bobvan** > > ** > **I like the sci fi one. You must have lots of converted lights in there. > > ** > **

 

Thanks only the cockpit panel lights are converted the outside city is actually a high res pic off the net the rendred part is the cockpit & characters. All blended in PS

 

Here's close up in the crash scene

Attached Link: Goin down

Nother sci fi with blended pic

Question am having problems with LIE wounded pack I get tff errors and the 'wounds" fade out as the render progresses. I think Paolo mentioned something of converting the tff's to jgpg or was it PNG's in ps. Do I just need to swap out the tff files in the textures?

Windows version of Lux 1.1 has been updated and now supports a new more realistic model for Sky.

To use this just open your lxm file and where you see

LightSource "sky"

change to

LightSource "sky2"

Do we need to redownload 1.1, and is the material preview working again?

Quote - Do we need to redownload 1.1, and is the material preview working again?

 

I did just in case can someplease answer my question above many thanks in advance

Quote - Do we need to redownload 1.1, and is the material preview working again?

Only change is sky2. Nothing else.

Bob, some LIE Wounded Pack presets have hi-res texture versions, use that. I would recommend that when applying a LIE preset, you select the affected material on the surface pane, e.g. SkinTorso, put the cursor on the Diffuse section so that a popup appears giving you the filename. Then click the button and select Browse. It should open where the tiff is saved. Right-click that file, select Copy, browse to a different folder and select Paste in that folder. Reality should pick the new location up. The reason for that is the tiff files are saved in the temp folder, and they get recreated each time you load the scene. Most of the times the filename stays the same, but it is possible that a new name will be generated. That will then give an unable to open file error in Lux when rendering. Using tiffs are fine.

Quote - I just assemble my scenes in DS and for that 4.0.3 is perfect. 

Ah, an optimist! 

In the sarcastic words of Jamie from Mythbusters, "Well! There's your problem!"(normally said while holding a piece of shrapnel from whatever that had just blown up)

OT completed. 

Quote - Bob, some LIE Wounded Pack presets have hi-res texture versions, use that. I would recommend that when applying a LIE preset, you select the affected material on the surface pane, e.g. SkinTorso, put the cursor on the Diffuse section so that a popup appears giving you the filename. Then click the button and select Browse. It should open where the tiff is saved. Right-click that file, select Copy, browse to a different folder and select Paste in that folder. Reality should pick the new location up. The reason for that is the tiff files are saved in the temp folder, and they get recreated each time you load the scene. Most of the times the filename stays the same, but it is possible that a new name will be generated. That will then give an unable to open file error in Lux when rendering. Using tiffs are fine.

 

I know how to select and find surfaces just just copy the texture file to a new folder ? Sounds easy enough many thanks! If diffuse does not take you there there is always the good ol file list

Reg quick question where do you find the xlm file? All I see are these

2.. and ply files inside