I think I may have found what may cause the black books and aerials, etc... I went back to the original site that the files came from http://www.3drender.com/challenges/index.htm and imported the obj file. The tube rack comes in undistorted, and the liquid surfaces are also correct. I started adding some of my textures, and the book cover works. I then loaded glass, which again was ok. I selected then Hyper-real glass, and some of the books went black. Changing back to normal glass everything ok again. Selecting water as the liquid, also made black books. Changing the water to standard glass and all is ok again. Even the aerials are still correct at the moment. Also, no black papers either... I will try later on the latest scene file to see if the same thing holds true for at least the black book covers and aeriels. The only issue so far on the original obj is that the book cover against the brain jar still has its map reversed when compared to the one on the top of the pile... Got to dash now, so will check the present scene later...

Anyway, it may be useful info to anyone else if having 'black material' issues to try not setting liquids to water or using hyperreal glass... not sure how much this will affect the apearance of a final render tho?

heres the latest overnight run to 2ks/p... tried adding an image to the room, but was totally stretched and the back wall was upside down again... so cheated by adding a plane with image behind the camera and a plane set to mirror behind the table. I tried setting the room to mirror, but the mirror surface ended up on the outside of the room... suspect this issue is the same with some of the other textures, particularly as one book on close inspection has the text the right way round, and the on another from the same group it is reversed... Hopefully using particular camera angles will minimise this being noticeable... will need to adjust the image for the book pages as the text is getting stretched around the page edges, and will need some other covers to break up the sameness, as all the books are now set the same... not sure I will get much time on this today tho;-

Quote - > Quote - > Quote - Latest submission to my rendo gallery.  This one cleared up so fast I thought the ttl number of passes was a typo.

Very nice, I like the lighting a lot.

Paolo.. i did something with the lighting that i rarely do.. i put a single mesh at her feet shooting up at about 85 degrees.. i like how it turned out too.... i don't normally post a lot of fully clothed renders to my gallery here but that one was irresistable

Using a single light source will generally run faster... I did some test some time ago with a scene with different numbers of lights. I ended up with one light and added several planes to bounce the light to where it was needed. A shaped light (curved) also works well. `¬) ...nice image by the way!

...well only if you eat it four days early... `¬) Mind you I'll be happy to entertain 2013 with Penny! ...you always make me smile!

Here's how far the challange has gone, http://fav.me/d5h3csz How is anyone else getting on? ... is it as dificult as I am finding??? Will post a render in the morning of the scene, would be good to see some others too...? I'm sure this isn't as staright forward as it should be... or is that just me? `¬)

...I've also just noticed that some of the sheets of paper that belong to 'LoosePaper' are also coming out black... If there is some issue here that is causing this that I have no control over, then it may not be worth carrying on with this... Is anyone else having issues with the items in a group not all taking the same texture information when it is set? I know the aerial issue has been seen... This isn't the latest download of yours Paolo, but I think the only change to the previous one was the renaming issue? ...perhaps I will download the latest just in case... `¬)

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how the UV maps work, I was under the impresion that the uv map showed the geometry of the object overlayed on the image loaded... it does seem to matter that the image needs to above a certain size, as if it is small, not all the uv map is shown... so not sure how you tell what size the texture needs to be? - I expect there is come easy menu item in daz that displays the size or something that I don't know about! It would be easier than the trial and error method I am using of loading a blank image into the texture in Reality and then checking to see if the uv map shows up, and then changing the size to see if there is any difference?!?

I looked at the book one, and the book geometry does not seem to be clear from a blank image, so I added the colours and charcters to see. It would seem the majority of the cover is the centre section, but not sure about the uv lines with gaps and so on, it is not clear from the blank image at the bottom as to the area. Is it really this hit and miss, or am I missing something obvious and simply making it hard for myself??? (it also seems to be reversed... so will have to remember that for the book writing!) I have also highlighted the issue with one of the black books... it seems the texture is almost visible, and shows up in the reflection. Not sure why that book from theat group is so dark? Any ideas? (there seems to be one book from each group that does this...) I wonder if this is a similar issue to the fact that one of the radio areals also does this???

Thats a very nice lamp John!

Haven't been able to look at the challange thing for a couple of days. But last night spent a few minutes on it. I did realise why it seemed as though the plasma emiter only gave out light around its base; It actually does give light evenly, it looked that way because the glass is actually a solid ball of glass - not hollow. So the slight tint to the glass meant the light could hardly get through the thickness... setting the glass to 250 solved that. Also made a new texture for the paper, at least that one seems quite straight forward... just a pity they are not individual sheets. I tried a textur into the book cover 05, but did not know how to view the uv map unless there was an image already associated, so did a quick scan of a cover and its edges and simply plonked it in the texture... of course, its then possible to see the uv map, (but only if the image in the texture channel is big enough... anyway, its stil not really obvious as to how the texture is mapped.... (I have also noticed that three of the book covers seem to render black, regardless of the colour that is set?) this was the result of those minor tweaks...

Quote - Here is a render I made with Reality/Lux. It baked for 2 days :)

That is an exceptional render! Very beautiful indeed! :)

Quote - > Quote - If you have any issues with the Reality fog, let me know... I've spent a bit of time with that one! `¬) (certainly with the image above, it may not give the results you expect!)

Have always admired your renders mbin, and your The Secret Place render is spectacular! Actually have a scene set up on stand by, which I was hoping to get a similar fog effect as you have in The Secret Place, but inside of a large hall. The hall has stained glass windows, which are actually just planes with textures of a stained glass window on them. One question I have off the top of my head, would the windows work as light if I set them to light with textures in Reality? That alone, I realize is not enough light, but if I left one wall open behind the camera and added a sun, would that reflect enough light for the fog prop to give the desired affect? Any advise you give would be much appreciated!

Thank you for the complement! That was the result of my first attempts to understand the fog prop and took several weeks before I 'got' it! http://fav.me/d3i4weh

I wouldn't leave a wall open and use a sun, the fog is a very 'excitable' prop, and you will almost certainly get a 'white out'. With using the fog prop you need to consider that it will 'fog' were ever a beam of light is, if your light source produces multi directional light, then the fog will just appear as a big white cube. Also not sure about setting the planes to be the light source, as you will need to create the tight beams.

A simple test would be to load your fog prop and then insert a spotlight. narrow the beam of the spotlight to be 5-10degrees and point it into the fog. Render to see the result. If you then widen the angle of the spot, you can parent a plane to be in front and apply an alpha map. this is much better than having multiple spots, as the light will be broken up into beams. I have a complete series of tutorials in my scrapbook at Deviant art, (as well as in the tuts section of the Reality plug in group) The above is illustrated here http://fav.me/d4jvkiw (if you have not seen this before, following the links will give you the alpha map used and further ways of using the fog prop)

In relation to your question on stained glass, I have wanted to do a 'final render' in the manner that you indicate, but several other people have mentioned wanting to do the same and I have not had the chance to do a proper scene. However I did demonstrate how this could be done, and it also refers to Paolo's original tut on using the fog prop. It will give you the effect that you arre looking for I think? The problem that you may have is getting enough illumination if you do not want to have only the rays visible, as the more the light bounces around, the more the scene will have a tendancy to white out again. I had considered doing a two layer render, with one layer without the fog prop, and the other layer with the fog prop, leaving all other lighting the same. This should allow the two layers to be blended to get the effect you want. The only issue may be that as the light scource needs to be quite small for using with the fog prop, it may lead to harsh shadows. It would be worth trying it though.

To get the result you want with your stained glass, then here is the link to the post, which contains the description as well as a link in the comments to Paolo's fog tutorial. http://fav.me/d4xnsra

I have included the image below... and I look forward to seeing your results! `¬)

If you have any issues with the Reality fog, let me know... I've spent a bit of time with that one! `¬) (certainly with the image above, it may not give the results you expect!)

Quote - This is basically a test to see if Namib Extreme Quality Landscaper for Poser, (found here), would work in Reality/Lux, since they claim to contain over a million polygons in their builds....I femoved the skydome, (too dark),added Reality sun and an IBL, and replaced their water plane with Reality's....after 5 1/2 hours, it rendered 937 s/p, and did not crash Lux, so, suffice it to say, it works in Daz and Reality/Lux!

Likeing this, and some great lens flare...

Quote - Backlight. Wide softbox with snoot to appoximate light from a window.   35mm lens.

looking very nice Rayman, love the window lighting! `¬)

hope I'm not giving too much away then, but to get someone started... ??? I'm about to remove the image, so that doesn't give too much away...???!! `¬)

hopefully its gone now, did you get a glimpse?

set the flask to glass, hyperrealistic with the transmision about mid way, and the reflection a little lighter... no need to put a texture file in there for that one `¬)

Here are my settings for that flask glass and the liquid inside, which should give a good start. I have not added any texture files, just set the material values to this. Not sure how this would translate into the newer reality, but hopefully this will start you off. Seems only fair if its your first time... But I'm now late, so I will check back in the morning! `¬)

P.P.S. I will give the Dformer data for the rack if anyone wants them, but it will have to be later, as I've got to dash off... The data will only work though if the obj was originally imported at 125% though, as anything else will mean the parameters will be different...

Happy rendering!