BTW, I love to see the comments in the FB section but you any of you feel like placing a review in the review tab of the product that would be great too:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/reality-2-for-daz-studio/92598

Cheers.

Those are really great John. BTW, you can assign light group names automatically. Just save them in the Studio scene that contains the light, together with all the other settings. Reality supports merging of properties so you can create props with all the configuration settings.

Cheers.

The only issue I am having with merging scenes seem to be when I merge saved characters. Even though I have saved them with Reality settings with all cornea maps removed thickness zeroed ect, when I merge them with a scene I get whacky results like the cornea maps being back in the eyes or film thickness and other setting turned up. Its easy enough to adjust just dont know why its doing that..

Ugh.. my creative flow has been hammered to a stop today.. first I go off downloading a buttload of car freebies that end up giving me hours of issues just trying to get them into studio.. then i find a bunch of characters i misplaced and am taking hours reorganizing them and in hte process finding a bunch i want to have in my runtime.. then noticing that my unassigned directory looks like my ferret ingested a bunch of meth and was let loose inside it.. then my 2yr old decides he wants to go from independant explorer to the most high maintenance child ever(wife's out of town with our youngest).... now I'm so frazzled I don't know WHAT to do and I'm not the least bit tired so pulling the plug on the whole day is out of the question.  then i go and look through callad's gallery.. which when compared to my stuff is like putting a hand-drawn sketch by stephen hawkings next to a picasso(get it?  wheelchair? quadriplegic?).. then i've got some open-source meshes i'd like to edit but every tool i have will take me weeks of tutorial reading to figure out how to do it.... i'm rambling and need something to settle my brain to the point i can be creative again

Quote - arumbus.. that's a seriously easy fix(at least for a network guy).  what luxrender does for a network render is for the master computer(the one that you start the render on) to be able to send all the texture files to the slave computers; and for those slave computers to be able to render your scene and then send a temp file of those compiled samples back to the master in order to be added to your scene.  In order to do that; the master computer has to have read/write permissions for the luxrender directory on each of the slave computers; and, for the slaves to have read/write permission to wherever it is that your scene is being rendered(the place where lux is writing all the files for the render.

it sounds more complicated that it really is.  are you using windows7?  if so, are you using the homegroup option for your home network or are you using an oldschool workgroup like i do?

Close but wrong. The luxrender slave process does all the disk access, so whatever user it is running under needs write access.

I run my luxrender slave process on startup under a lux user with it's own home directory. That home directory is not shared in any way with the master computer.

Quote - Back to the freebie lights, I may do some more floor lamps but here is what I've done so far. Hope you like them :)

john, these lamps look staggeringly good!  Where can I find them?  I'm looking at your freebies page and don't see them.  TIA.

Quote - > Quote - Back to the freebie lights, I may do some more floor lamps but here is what I've done so far. Hope you like them :)

john, these lamps look staggeringly good!  Where can I find them?  I'm looking at your freebies page and don't see them.  TIA.

I talked to him on D/A they are not out yet but will be...

Thank you 59Burst, I'm glad to hear you like them. So far this set comprises of 18 lights, they are being tested at the moment. When I get the go ahead I'll post a link here.

Doc has very kindly offered to host them on his Webpage for us.

john3d, that's good news, thanks.

bob, thanks also to you for the input.

doc, thanks in advance for hosting.

Ooo wee not only am I not having any issues with RC3 but there is some seriously improved render times! Look forward to the official release!

I went to post a review in the review tab, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.   It's probably something staring me in the face but could someone tell me how to do it?

One can only post a review if it is was puchased here at Rendo.

Working on a fun prop: a REAL steampunk gun!

Manufactured around 1890 by Minn.Firearms Co.  it was named 'The Protector'.

I'm using Autodesk Inventor for creating this one (I'm a mechanical engineer by profession).

When finished it will have all internal parts, so I can show how this very odd thing (a revolver with a flat cilinder) works.

It really is great fun to be able to make complicated props like this for DAZ Studio : )

Cheers!

Quote -
Close but wrong. The luxrender slave process does all the disk access, so whatever user it is running under needs write access.

I run my luxrender slave process on startup under a lux user with it's own home directory. That home directory is not shared in any way with the master computer.

Well.. fwiw.. network rendering worked not at all for me until I did exactly as I had outlined.  I set up permissions for my slaves and still got nothing.  Then I set up permissions for my master computer and it was off and running

Quote - Working on a fun prop: a REAL steampunk gun!

Manufactured around 1890 by Minn.Firearms Co.  it was named 'The Protector'.

 

 

I'm using Autodesk Inventor for creating this one (I'm a mechanical engineer by profession).

When finished it will have all internal parts, so I can show how this very odd thing (a revolver with a flat cilinder) works.

It really is great fun to be able to make complicated props like this for DAZ Studio : )

Cheers!

Very interesting Erik! I've seen one of those before, but not from the inside :-) The original pocket pal, if you will.  I'll be looking closely at this one!

Hey Superboom, if you really want to satisfy your curiosity, here's the inside:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erik-nl/54144093/in/set-1150347

I've got 14 close-up shots of this thing in my Flickr stream, enough to keep you occupied while I'm working on the 3D version ; )

Cheers!

Quote - Hey Superboom, if you really want to satisfy your curiosity, here's the inside:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erik-nl/54144093/in/set-1150347

I've got 14 close-up shots of this thing in my Flickr stream, enough to keep you occupied while I'm working on the 3D version ; )

Cheers!

Some interresting pics, very simple ratchet mechanism for the drum rotation and firing pin cam, simple design with very little to go wrong.

Abi.

Quick render of the parts as they are now, lots of tiny levers and springs yet to be done.

Cheers!

Quote - Quick render of the parts as they are now, lots of tiny levers and springs yet to be done.

This is really fantastic Erik.

Thanks for the info about a review.  I purchased it from Paolo's site, so that's what it was.

Erik, that's a beautiful....protector.  Looks like something I'd probably shoot myself with. 

John, your lights are fantastic!  Love them all. 

I was wondering how to go about posting something either in the forums or the gallery and then do the clicky thing and have the large image show up?  I can post an image, I just don't know how to do the  big image option too.

First 2.2 render.  Tried to do something different with the background.  Went into photosohp and created a normal and a displacement map for the background picture then put the pic onto the Backgrounds Made Easy backdrop.  Before post; there was a ton of reallly odd texture to the pic which I expected; although the normal and displace maps worked wonders on the boardwalk.  Then I went and cranked up a diffuse filter to give kind of a fuzzy matte quality to the shot and it smoothed out all the textured funkiness.  One thing for Paolo.  I was going to add some depth of field to the render; but, on the camera tab of reality, I had no viewport where it usually shows what's in your viewport.  Do I have to set up DoF in studio now and let reality read the settings?

Oh.. and just got a new graphics tablet to assist in texture creation... now I just have to find something in all the crap I have on my hdd to make textures for.  Now, I have to just find something that's easier and more accurate than photoshop to do 3d texture customization

Quote - I was wondering how to go about posting something either in the forums or the gallery and then do the clicky thing and have the large image show up?  I can post an image, I just don't know how to do the  big image option too.

Xandi.. so.. in order to post your shots here in the forum.. you have already copied the link to the large version of your gallery shot.  Once the pic is in your post.. click on it(while you're still writing your forum post).  It should turn blue to let you know it's highlighted.  Go and click the 7th button from the left on the top of your forum post box. That's the hyperlink button.  In the "link url" box; paste that link to your large image in there and then in the dropdown right below that; I usually select the "open in new window" option.

You can set the DOF in two ways:

• Use the Studio DOF camera controls and Reality will pick up the values

• Set a Null in the scene where you want the have the focus, select the Null and then call Reality. In the camera tab enable DOF and click on the button to set focus. Then select an fstop that you want and you're done.

Hope this helps.

Quote - Quick render of the parts as they are now, lots of tiny levers and springs yet to be done.

 

Cheers!

My curiosities were indeed satisfied. Slightly off topic, but it reminds me of two early 20th century devices of intricately precise designs; of course, I've forgotten each inventors' names, but I remember the devices themselves. The first was a car builder who found a way to bore out his engine blocks so precisely that his pistons didn't need rings. The other was a pocket watch with 119 complications, which back then was apparently a fancy way of saying functions. The more complications, the more intricate the inner workings. I need to do some searching to find the names, but point being, all this precision occured 80+ years before the first CAD program or CNC machine fascinated me as a boy. Pure human ingenuity and truly hand made.

My latest Genesis scene hangs when I click render frame. it is just Genesis, hair, and a few pieces of clothing.

It brings up the exporting materials, lights and geometry message but never goes any further.  Lux never launches.

I need another set of eyes to look and see if I have something in the .lxs that is screwy

LuxRender scene generated by the Reality Engine by Pret-A-3D.

Camera Data

LookAt 0.081878 -2.995504 1.086962 0.081398 -2.985523 1.086582 -0.000018 0.000379 0.009993
Camera "perspective" "float fov" [30.137]  "float screenwindow" [-0.664000 0.664000 -1 1]

Lux Film Parameters

Film "fleximage"
  "integer outlierrejection_k" [5]
  "integer xresolution" [332]
  "integer yresolution" [500]
  "integer haltspp" [0]
  "bool premultiplyalpha" ["true"]
  "string filename" ["C:/Users/Rick/Pictures/Renders/Reality-Renders/Gem/Gem3"]
  "float gamma" [2.2]
  "integer displayinterval" [12]
  "integer writeinterval" [120]
  "string tonemapkernel" ["linear"] "float linear_sensitivity" [200] "float linear_exposure" [0.016] "float linear_fstop" [5.6]  "float linear_gamma" [1.0]
  "bool write_png" ["true"]
  "string write_png_channels" ["RGBA"]
  "bool write_png_16bit" ["false"]
  "bool write_png_gamutclamp" ["true"]
  "integer reject_warmup" [128]
  "bool debug" ["false"]
  "bool write_resume_flm" ["true"]
  "bool restart_resume_flm" ["false"]
  "float colorspace_white" [0.314275 0.329411]
  "float colorspace_red" [0.630 0.340]
  "float colorspace_green" [0.310 0.5950]
  "float colorspace_blue" [0.1550 0.0700]
  "string ldr_clamp_method" ["lum"]

PixelFilter "mitchell" "float xwidth" [1.5] "float ywidth" [1.5] "float B" [0.3333] "float C" [0.3333] "bool supersample" ["true"]

Accelerator "tabreckdtree" "integer intersectcost" [80] "integer traversalcost" [1]   "float emptybonus" [0.200000] "integer maxprims" [1] "integer maxdepth" [-1]

Sampler "metropolis" "float largemutationprob" [0.40]

SurfaceIntegrator "bidirectional" "integer eyedepth" [16]  "integer lightdepth" [16] "string strategy" ["auto"]

WorldBegin
  Include "Gem3.lxm"
  Include "Gem3.lxo"
WorldEnd

Sharkey, thank you for the image explaination.  I'll have to experiment.  By the way..... on that new picture you posted... is that a bandaid she's wearing as the bottom of her bikini? 

Hi

How do I go about installing the 1.0 RC3 version of Lux. I've extracted the files but there's no installer and I don't want to fudge up my present Lux installation by doing something wrong.

Also, just out of curiosity, has anyone one here using the 1.0 RC3 version noticed any increase in samples per pixel?

Cheers

Helen :)

Helen, if you are on Windows you can simply create a C:Program FilesLuxRender1RC3 directory and copy all the files to that dir.

Then run Reality and set the path to Lux in the Output tab.

Hope this helps 

Nice and simple, just the way I like it :)

Cheers Paolo

Attached Link: appt

Quote - Sharkey, thank you for the image explaination.  I'll have to experiment.  By the way..... on that new picture you posted... is that a bandaid she's wearing as the bottom of her bikini? 

yes.. held together by a generous strand of dental floss

Quote - I noticed a significant increase in speed. This room used to take me 5 to 6 hours now takes 2 to 3. Overall it still takes me longer to produce LUX renders but with the availability of queue rendering I dont mond so much.

That's odd, because I seem to be getting a decrease in performance. The scene I finished rendering earlier tonight was getting 3 samples per pixel every second with version 0.9, but with the RC3 version it gets 2 samples every second, which would massively increase the final render time when rendering to 2500.

Quote - That's odd, because I seem to be getting a decrease in performance. The scene I finished rendering earlier tonight was getting 3 samples per pixel every second with version 0.9, but with the RC3 version it gets 2 samples every second, which would massively increase the final render time when rendering to 2500.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, could you get a screenie of your data line?

I'm assuming this is the data line

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7672/luxrender.jpg

Quote - I'm assuming this is the data line

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7672/luxrender.jpg

Yep, that's it. In there, you see that your samples per pixel (s/p) is at .52, which tells me it's barely started. Your actual render speedis 101.75ks/s, which is pretty good for a loaded scene. Your light efficency is 183%, which is also very good.

The second one from RC3 reads that your efficency went up but the speed dropped by half. I'm not sure why this happens, but I've found the best speed at around 110%, where Lux will crank around 380 ks/s, =/- 40.

I'm guessing you're on Mac as it looks way niced than the Windows version.

Lol, no I'm not on a Mac. I use a program called Windowblinds that changes the UI in Windows.

Yeah, I didn't let it render for too long, but I've never noticed things get better the further on in a render I get, so I figured letting it get to the same s/p with each version of Lux would illustrate the problem.

Is there any way to increase the s/p, beyond lowering the image size? I've already changed the display interval to 300 from 20 and that doesn't make any difference, nor does changing the write interval.

Quote - My latest Genesis scene hangs when I click render frame. it is just Genesis, hair, and a few pieces of clothing.  It brings up the exporting materials, lights and geometry message but never goes any further.  Lux never launches.

 I need another set of eyes to look and see if I have something in the .lxs that is screwy

There is nothing wrong in the .lxs. The most likely problem is a material in your scene. A simple test: load the lxs in LuxRender and start the render. Click the Log tab and watch the messages. You should see one (maybe more) in red. They might give you an idea which material zone is orreneous. If it doesn't, then the only way to find out is by removing an item from the scene, and send it to Lux via Reality. If it doesn't work, then Edit - Undo Delete in DS, delete something else and send to Lux. Repeat until you find the item which causes the problem.

Quote - Is there any way to increase the s/p, beyond lowering the image size? I've already changed the display interval to 300 from 20 and that doesn't make any difference, nor does changing the write interval.

It is affected by a multitude of things: number of items in scene, how many glossy material zones and their settings), number of lights, textures, your system specs, and it goes on.

Some effective tips: hide what you don't see. If you can't see a material zone in the vieport, then set it to Null in Reality. There is no point in rendering the invisible engine of a car in the scene if it is not visible. Keep lights to a minimum. Glossiness is prob one of the biggest culprits; try not to use max values. The higher the gloss value, the longer the render takes.

The Borrower(s)

My latest, I'm still installing/organising my content so I'm currently limited to what scenes I can create (that and I've been distracted by the fifty shades trilogy) but I had the itch to render and this came from whats avaliable...

Enjoy,

Abi.

Quote - The Borrower(s)

Doc,

That is fantastic, although the face set of prints above the bed kinda freaks me out for some reason.

Abi.

Quote - Lol, no I'm not on a Mac. I use a program called Windowblinds that changes the UI in Windows.

Yeah, I didn't let it render for too long, but I've never noticed things get better the further on in a render I get, so I figured letting it get to the same s/p with each version of Lux would illustrate the problem.

Is there any way to increase the s/p, beyond lowering the image size? I've already changed the display interval to 300 from 20 and that doesn't make any difference, nor does changing the write interval.

Well, adding more CPU's will definitely help.

Other than that, its rigorous attention to your material settings. Making sure the specular is just right (84 or lower as advised by the lux folks if you can swing it), distant items can be set to matte or low glossy, and using enough light to get the job done but not going overboard. More lights=longer render time, but not enough is worse. It's a fine balance to get both quality and speed.

Lately, I've been using an IBL and a single mesh light for good speed and excellent quality. Even with a massive scene (my favorite!) it can get to 1K in less than six hours, normally 4hr 30min is my average.

Quote - > Quote - The Borrower(s)

Doc,

That is fantastic, although the face set of prints above the bed kinda freaks me out for some reason.

Abi.

Lol. I had to do a double take as I thought it was a Bobvan scene.

Yeah, you can take me off the Christmas card list Doc.

Quote - Some effective tips: hide what you don't see. If you can't see a material zone in the vieport, then set it to Null in Reality. There is no point in rendering the invisible engine of a car in the scene if it is not visible. Keep lights to a minimum. Glossiness is prob one of the biggest culprits; try not to use max values. The higher the gloss value, the longer the render takes.

Thanks for the tips, Doc! It would be nice to know why I got a decrease in s/p instead of an increase with the RC3, but I'll just chalk it up to my luck and move on :)

Nice render, btw.

@superboomturbo - No chance of adding more cpu's, the best I can hope for in that area is to overclock my AMD 1090T to 4.0 Ghz when I get it in my new rig, whenever I finally get that built. Thanks for the additional tips though.

@Abi - I thought the set of prints are someone staring through the window.

Okay... I don't know if this is correct or not; but, on the issue of the efficiency stat; according to Lux's website, the higher your efficiency is the easier it is for Lux to find and process your lights.  Since finding those lights seems to be about 90% of the game with Lux this translates to your render looking like a render with fewer passes.  I did some testing last night and made an excel spreadsheet with the details.  I was rendering the daz3d '61 vette and made 5 minute test renders after making a string of changes to the materials on the car itself.  Then rendered with and w/o gpu accelleration and with and w/o rendering in a cube.  You can see the massive increase in efficiency when rendering in a cube.   Sadly all the renders were done with the same file name so no screenies to show the results.  BUT, without the cube and with low efficience; I was getting more samples/sec and more passes; but after 5 minutes my car was still very amorphous.  With the cube and with massive efficiency, my car was looking like a car after just a couple passes.

Here a LINK to the spreadsheet on my google docs for those who may be curious enough to check it out.

As far as I can tell.. the last 2 renders I've posted in my gallery are about the same image quality.  The scenes weren't very big either.. just model, clothes, hair, backdrop.  First was rendered w/o the cube and 2nd was.  I let them bake overnight while I'm sleeping and I can just about set my clock to my length of sleep(solid 6 hours).  The one w/o the cube took nearly 1k passes to gain the quality it did; whereas the 2nd one took barely 400.  I'll check again with my next 2 renders to see if it wasn't a fluke.

And I've noticed with RC3 that my samples/sec is staying about the same; but, I'm getting a massive increase in efficiency.

Aaaaargh, charts! My head hurts! :P