They no longer support their product. It seems an excellent product, but I am not a computer whiz, and all my renders with it turn out just BLACK, no matter how hard I attempt to follow the directions in their tutorial (which I am still reading).

Anybody, HELP?

I used to use it, but stopped when DS introduced Iray.

During the rendering process there should be a button that auto sets the light levels. Try that to see if anything appears.

If that doesn't work, make sure you have all your emitters turned on in the panel. They could be turned off or not registering as lights.

If both of those don't work, try a very simple scene. One light, a couple of simple props, and see if anything appears then.

JasonGalterio posted at 1:04PM Sat, 27 March 2021 - #4415685

I used to use it, but stopped when DS introduced Iray.

During the rendering process there should be a button that auto sets the light levels. Try that to see if anything appears.

If that doesn't work, make sure you have all your emitters turned on in the panel. They could be turned off or not registering as lights.

If both of those don't work, try a very simple scene. One light, a couple of simple props, and see if anything appears then.

Tried that.

Why did you stop when Iray came out?

Okay, here are the other Reality things you can try...

Check the status progress. Make sure that it is actually engaging the video card. That would should that the hardware and software are compatible. In other words, it is capable of and trying to render something; you're just not able to see it. On that status you should see details about the scene that might help trouble shoot the issue.

So if the status is showing light sources and surfaces, etc. then you know the Reality side (the bridge) of things is working. Also check that you have the right version of Luxrender installed. If I recall, Reality was persnickety about having only certain versions Luxrender.

Another trick I used to do is skipping the automatic swap from DS to Luxrender. Have Reality make the export file and collect your textures and geometries, but don't have it render. Then open Luxrender yourself and have it open the export file. This way you can see exactly what is going on and if there are any files not being found.

Last thing to try, and this might seem obvious... Create a new camera and try rendering from a different location. I've had issues where the camera lens was just a few pixels deep in a surface. The view port is actually a few pixels in front of the camera lens, so everything would seem fine while working. Try to render and it is rendering the inside of a wall.

As for why I stopped using Reality... I was a late adopter to Iray after having invested so much time getting over the learning curve. Once Iray was out a few months then I realized how much easier it was to deal with surfaces and such. Iray render speed at that time was a little slower than Luxrender, but I was saving a lot of time in not having to do all the conversions. The developer's bombastic style was starting to grate on my nerves though, which is unfortunate as his classes are excellent and he's always been very helpful when I had questions.

JasonGalterio posted at 6:28PM Sat, 27 March 2021 - #4415695

Okay, here are the other Reality things you can try...

Check the status progress. Make sure that it is actually engaging the video card. That would should that the hardware and software are compatible. In other words, it is capable of and trying to render something; you're just not able to see it. On that status you should see details about the scene that might help trouble shoot the issue.

So if the status is showing light sources and surfaces, etc. then you know the Reality side (the bridge) of things is working. Also check that you have the right version of Luxrender installed. If I recall, Reality was persnickety about having only certain versions Luxrender.

Another trick I used to do is skipping the automatic swap from DS to Luxrender. Have Reality make the export file and collect your textures and geometries, but don't have it render. Then open Luxrender yourself and have it open the export file. This way you can see exactly what is going on and if there are any files not being found.

Last thing to try, and this might seem obvious... Create a new camera and try rendering from a different location. I've had issues where the camera lens was just a few pixels deep in a surface. The view port is actually a few pixels in front of the camera lens, so everything would seem fine while working. Try to render and it is rendering the inside of a wall.

As for why I stopped using Reality... I was a late adopter to Iray after having invested so much time getting over the learning curve. Once Iray was out a few months then I realized how much easier it was to deal with surfaces and such. Iray render speed at that time was a little slower than Luxrender, but I was saving a lot of time in not having to do all the conversions. The developer's bombastic style was starting to grate on my nerves though, which is unfortunate as his classes are excellent and he's always been very helpful when I had questions.

One of the things which pulled me towards the Reality app was that it said it was able to use either the CPU or GPU, or, if you have a GPU with Open GL (CL?), you could use both (I do; it won't allow them both even though it is supposed too).

I'll check out the things you said - thanks for you time and patience.

No problem. I just wish I could remember the interface better.

I can't remember if Reality had a log / error log. I think Luxrender does.

Long time ago, don't use it anymore.