OK, so I am making headway now(rather like it really)

BUT...

when I use the Iray render.....its BRIGHT.

I have gone to the scene tab but I cant find any lights to remove or alter.

How do I do this?

Do I have to use a building or dome?

also am I able to do say...a portrait spot light? and How?

Or candle light?

I was able to do this in the 3Delight render....but the Iray I cant seem to get it to look right.

Thank you in advance for your patients with my daft questions!

There is a dome built into the renderer..it can be found under the Render Settings tab under Environment. You can get some HDRI at various places around the web for free....start at sIBL Archive and OpenFootage.net - the low res are still free. You'll find a bunch in a Google search.

My settings: Depending on the quality of the HDR image, you can turn the value in Environment Map from 2.00 to 1.00. That will cut down on the brightness right there. If you want to see the HDR image in the background, choose Finite Sphere w/Ground. Use the Dome Scale Multiplier setting to decrease the size of the background until it fits with the rest of your scene. Most of mine are good around 12.00 or 13.00. Also - and this is the big one - make sure the headlight is off on your camera. If you're using the Perspective camera you can't turn it off, so if you have the Perspective where you want it, create a new camera and copy the active view. Then go to the cameras tab, chose Headlamp and in the drop down choose Off rather than Auto.

Laurie

Edit: One more thing - you need to be sure that you change ALL the materials in your scene to Iray compatible ones, either by applying the Iray Uber Shader to existing ones or using the various general shaders included for a replacement such as metals, glass, etc.

And dont forget to turn off the Headlamp in camera parameters.

Candle light should be easy. Just convert the flame or whatever material to uber shader and play around with the emission.

If you use spotlight make sure its in photometric mode, its in the light's parameters. You can turn any primitive to light too in surfaces/emission.

Yea last night I found the headlamp issue. Fixed that.

I will go into the render settings and check out the environment then.

OK I just checked my render settings...there is nothing I can see that has to do with environment.o.0 pixel rates, headlamps, image path...all sort of normal render stuff but I cant find under any tab environment.

I have plenty of HDR maps so that wont be an issue.

"change all materials..."

Eh......does that come with the latest DS release? Or is it something I need to purchase?

ALSO...maybe someone can help me.

I loaded aslan court. Hit the "add lights" which are made for it but they seem to of came in at the floor again(god I hate that)

They do not seem to come in loaded to the ceiling lamps...is this suppose to happen?

Sounds to me that you aren't even in the Iray renderer. You need to specifically chose it. 3Delight is still the default.

Short videos worth watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQuaK-ft0I8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5FZ5gS9v50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa07FN44w7Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlHPadSm8aA

Laurie

Sounds to me that you aren't even in the Iray renderer. You need to specifically chose it. 3Delight is still the default.

Short videos worth watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQuaK-ft0I8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5FZ5gS9v50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa07FN44w7Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlHPadSm8aA

Laurie

Iray is the default. However if you choose 3Delight, it will stay there until you change it to something else. 

Sounds to me that you aren't even in the Iray renderer. You need to specifically chose it. 3Delight is still the default.

Short videos worth watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQuaK-ft0I8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5FZ5gS9v50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa07FN44w7Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlHPadSm8aA

Laurie

Iray is the default. However if you choose 3Delight, it will stay there until you change it to something else. 

Yup when I pop open DS its iRay that is opened. I then have to select 3Delight. But I am still trying to get the lights to look even REMOTELY like the do in the aslan court image.

In the thumb it was for 3dlight. So I selected that, then I loaded the light set FOR aslan court.

BUT it....is no where near what it is suppose to look like.

I set the setting for "high" for render via a script.

So I am at a loss as to what is wrong...I made sure I created a camera, I turned off the headlamp.

Not sure what else to do....

OH gamma is off.Too....

I dont have the set otherwise I would load it and try to help you more. Try turning the windows into light emitters (surface/emission)and replace the DS lights with a primitive sphere and make those emitters too.

Lights and shaders are render engine specific. 

The light set predates Iray and DS 4.8 so probably does not have a photometric option. 

You can make sure the windows are glass and light it form outside. You can build a light set for it. (Note that the photometric section of DS 4.8 lights can have both a size and a shape so you only have to use primatives turned into emitters if you want to. 

Since I don't have it in front of me, I can't check, but if it has modeled lights with material zones for those lights, then you can light those up and use them for a light source.

Don't forget to adjust your tone mapper, since the default is outside on a bright sunny day.

You didn't say which Aslan Court you are using (there are three), but the lighting is similar

The "lights" you see in the "center" are the headlamp blockers. 
The older area lamps required at least one object that would identify itself as a light in the scene to function.
The actual light originates from the location of the AreaLight's geometry.
This scheme will not work with Iray.  You must use an Emission material on these area lights.  You can get rid of the headlamp blockers
if you like. They don't do anything.

You didn't say which Aslan Court you are using (there are three), but the lighting is similar

The "lights" you see in the "center" are the headlamp blockers. 
The older area lamps required at least one object that would identify itself as a light in the scene to function.
The actual light originates from the location of the AreaLight's geometry.
This scheme will not work with Iray.  You must use an Emission material on these area lights.  You can get rid of the headlamp blockers
if you like. They don't do anything.

As I said in my post. I picked "3delight" for rendering, the loaded the lights etc... But it doesnt seem to look anything near what the thumb nail looks like.

And sorry Its the first one. The aslan court 1

BUT...

I did get it to look better...by doing render passes.

So by it being from the geometry its like Ambient lights in Poser? where you set the object to be a light and need IDL to pick it up?

I have given up on iRay for now.

Now I just want to get something successfully out of DS....just once.....I mean it is far quicker than poser.

I love that already.

But trying to get use to a whole new way of getting this done....Is just...UGH.

Lights and shaders are render engine specific. 

The light set predates Iray and DS 4.8 so probably does not have a photometric option. 

You can make sure the windows are glass and light it form outside. You can build a light set for it. (Note that the photometric section of DS 4.8 lights can have both a size and a shape so you only have to use primatives turned into emitters if you want to. 

Since I don't have it in front of me, I can't check, but if it has modeled lights with material zones for those lights, then you can light those up and use them for a light source.

Don't forget to adjust your tone mapper, since the default is outside on a bright sunny day.

Ok as the court is before iRay I am using the 3delight. I have given up on iRay for now
Eh...so making sure the windows are transparent glass then using the light from outside?

This is....I am resisting the urge to just go pop open poser and get this done....

OK, I set my render engine to 3Delight, and click on "!Pre_All" in scene folder and then click on "Lights".
I set camera focal length to 17mm to get decent portion of scene, then render. The area where windows are is transparent.
If you save as tif or png you can add a background layer for whatever you want in post. They show up as off-white in jpg.

I get this as end result after 20 minutes rendering.  Does it look different than you expect?

OK, I set my render engine to 3Delight, and click on "!Pre_All" in scene folder and then click on "Lights".
I set camera focal length to 17mm to get decent portion of scene, then render. The area where windows are is transparent.
If you save as tif or png you can add a background layer for whatever you want in post. They show up as off-white in jpg.

I get this as end result after 20 minutes rendering.  Does it look different than you expect?

Mine comes out no where near that bright. Mine is much darker.

A DS scene (as opposed to a figure or prop) contains render settings, just like a poser file.
The result I obtained were using the vendors settings.  I made no changes to scene except for camera settings.

At your level of expertise, you should not be using render passes.  That is the fastest way to totally screwing up render.
Also avoid using progressive render option.  I don't know if they have fixed the major faults with it yet, but not too long ago
it would cause application and system crashes.  Yes, it sort of gives a quick preview but at a cost.  Also it is not suitable
for final renders.

You can get rid of the headlamp blockers
if you like. They don't do anything.

They also block the headlamp in Iray. 

A DS scene (as opposed to a figure or prop) contains render settings, just like a poser file.
The result I obtained were using the vendors settings.  I made no changes to scene except for camera settings.

At your level of expertise, you should not be using render passes.  That is the fastest way to totally screwing up render.
Also avoid using progressive render option.  I don't know if they have fixed the major faults with it yet, but not too long ago
it would cause application and system crashes.  Yes, it sort of gives a quick preview but at a cost.  Also it is not suitable
for final renders.

I think they may of fixed the bug than as it seems not to cause issues. I am just lost as to why it is not coming out the same brightness.
Then again I had a simiar issue when trying out the "genesis fire" pratice scene..it came out nothing like the picture said it would. No where NEAR as bright now with the "glow".

I am beginning to feel like I am hitting my head on a wall.

I even have checked my monitor settings to see if that was the issue with it not being as bright...

If this was in poser...I would be done by now.
I am just determined to get DS working for me.

An interesting point.  Perhaps you should post a render here so other people can see what it looks like on their monitor.

Also, the poser version of Aslan Court 1 does not come with a premade light set.

It would take a great effort to functionally duplicate the 33 lights that are in the DS set

Progressive rendering should be fine in DS 4.8. In fact one of the speed ups that the newer 3delight that is in 4.8 is specifically directed at Progressive rendering.