New beta still can't render parallel projection (2d images)

[silverwingsltd]

Hi

By first glance, the new beta (still) can't render in parallel projection (2d mode) in sketchup. This feature, as I remember it, was somehow removed by mistake in the 1.48 version, but it still hasn't found its way back... Is there any reason for this?
I know there are a lot of Architects out there who are eagerly anticipating its return...

[ValeroStudio]

I believe this was one of the first things I looked for when I started the private beta. It's in the beta forum somewhere but I think the reason had to do with the limitations of the physical camera? I too would really like to see this feature. Maybe Devin can shed some light on it.

[dkendig]

Well there is an "ortho" mode in the camera settings now, which should render an orthographic view. It might not work correctly with the physical camera, seeing as our physical camera mimics how cameras work in the real world.

[Jackson_cg]

Parallel views are possible with Physical Camera in VfSU 1.6 (and even 1.5 and 1.49); it just takes some fine tuning of the SU viewport camera and the VfSU Physical Camera. After loads of experimentation I found the key was using VfSU's Override FOV in combination with SU's max focal length 2063mm. Many guides and tips online just say to use SU's max focal length, but it's really not even close to true parallel projection; if the model has any large horizontal surfaces (i.e. the ground!) you can see the converging lines clearly. By using an Override FOV of 0.1 you can get so close to true parallel projection that you won't see any converging lines. However, if the model fills the SU viewport, the VfSU render will just show a tiny part of the view, so you have to zoom waaaaay out in SU to render the whole model, see attached screenshot. The big catch is that backgrounds and reflections look bizarre as a Physical Camera can't calculate a spherical environment when the FOV is almost zero, so you have to add background and reflections in post.

/Jackson

[silverwingsltd]

Hmm, it's a bit of a work around but if the problem is the physical camera, does anybody have a visopt working without the camera on the new vray? I seem to recall back in the day, that there were loads of visopt settings without the camera because it was rendering very slow.
But all the old visopt settings, as i recall, do not work on the newer versions of vray.

Anyway, it would be sooo timesaving to just render a "true" 2D facade instead of doing it in Autocad, Then maybe a little Illustrator and then a ton of work in photoshop...

[ValeroStudio]

Are we talking about a 2-point perspective or elevation renders? You would achieve an elevation render just by setting your FOV to .1 or and it was extremely close to a tru elvation and Vray had no problems with rendering it. The problem I have is with 2 point perspectives and having your verticals straight. VRay for Max does with with no problems at all but it has always been not possible in VR4SU. Well, I take that back, it's possible but the render doesn't match the VRay view which is basically useless to me.

[Jackson_cg]

What's so complicated? Set the V-Ray camera to "Cylindrical (point)", FoV to 0.1, set SU camera focal length to max 2063mm and zoom way out in SU so the model is tiny like the screenshot I posted above. Then render. The only post you need to do is reflections on windows.

There's no advantage to not using the Physical Camera; in fact the opposite: you just have less control over the result.