'directional target light'

[kwistenbiebel1]

It is about time Vray for Sketchup gets it.
A lot of people want to use it as a sun....especially to light interior scenes.

A positional sun is way better to control and better to combine with HDR.
The current method of trying to blend Sky and HDR in the environment/background just doesn't cover all the possibilities and results are very unpredictable.


Is there a way we can fake a sun with the current light options we have? (omnilight or parallel light?)

Cheers,
Kwistenbiebel

ps: When is a Vray update version planned that considers the parsing time and the unsmoothed objects bug?

[thomthom]

Re: 'directional target light'

ps: When is a Vray update version planned that considers the parsing bug and the unsmoothed objects bug?

From what I understand, there won't be an update until VfSu2. And then I think the current plan is to add an option to ignore group/components materials which is a major source at the parsing time. And materials applied to groups/components are also the source of the un-smoothed geometry.

[kwistenbiebel1]

Re: 'directional target light'

In my opinion this should/could be fixed sooner. The latest Vray version isn't that feasible for office work because of the parsing bug.
The Rhino version has much faster parsing...so I really don't see any reason why this should be a v 2.0 'option'.
The Sketchup version should be working as fast as the rhino version!

As our office needs to buy extra licenses I want to know when it will be fixed.

[kwistenbiebel1]

Re: 'directional target light'

An experiment.

I used a Skydome with a VrayLightmaterial for the ambient light and an omnilight for direct sun emulation......Not quite there yet.
A 'directional target light' would be much more helpful as it would be easier to setup (click to place and click to target) and more light control (no decay etc...)

This is the omnilight render:

[kwistenbiebel1]

Re: 'directional target light'

Second experiment: Skydome + 'rectangular' light.
Not much control over the shadow radius :-[, exept by maybe changing the size of the rect light. Again, quite tedious to get the expected result.

the image:

[jrharvey]

Re: 'directional target light'

Does sketchup omni lights not have a radius controller? I just use rhino but control over the sun definitely seems like a must here.

[kwistenbiebel1]

Re: 'directional target light'

Yes, an omnilight has radius control...but it lacks some other options like 'no decay' etc.....



Last one of the experiment: Sketchup Sky+Sun (No Skydome as the SU sun can't penetrate it
= another reason to have directional lights which can be placed 'within' the skydome.)


The image (SU sun+sky):

[Jackson_cg]

Re: 'directional target light'

Interesting tests Biebel! More control over the VRay sun and sky (separately please!) would be great.

I'm curious why you use a skydome with emitter material rather than a hdr (or ldr, which I use way more often) spherical image in the environment slot? I take your point that using the blend method of sky/Vray Sun and image based is far from ideal and can be unpredictable (especially when playing with blend ratios combined with VRay sun Intensity multiplier), but using a solid colour ldr in the environment slot should be able to achieve exactly the same result as an emitter skydome, but lets the VRay sun shine "through" and allows for way more control. I typically use a simple 10000 x 5000 px jpg made in photoshop, usually with a black lower half so there's no uplighting, sometimes a solid white upper half, sometimes a gradient if I want more top lighting. It's main roles really are to decrease the amount of lighting coming at the model horizontally (I think the VRay sun/sky setup has got this wrong) and to tone down the effects of turbidity and ozone of the VRay sun/sky setup.

Re: your images- is your LC multiplier set to 1? Reducing it to 0.9 or 0.8 should make the internal corners "pop" a little bit, i.e. simulate a bit of ambient occlusion. I can't wait for AO to be implemented in the next version!

[dalomar_cg]

Re: 'directional target light'

I'm just going to go quick with this one...

Due to the VfSU 4 Mac developement there will be one release of VfSU before the next full version. Although feature wise, there won't be any additions or changes, the whole back end will be working off of the completely rewritten core that was required to get things ported to the Mac. We'll know a few more details as we get into the beta testing process, but there should be a few issues that should be worked out by switching over to that rewritten core.

The omnilight control has all of the features that are available to it. Instead of "No Decay" you want Linear Decay.

Additional light types (directional lights/spot lights) are on the boards for the next full version of VfSU (not this "in between" release). There are a number of important details to work out on that though.

[kwistenbiebel1]

Re: 'directional target light'

The omnilight control has all of the features that are available to it. Instead of "No Decay" you want Linear Decay.

As I am trying to simulate a Sun, the light can't have any decay. The sun shines as bright a kilometer further away, so it makes sense to have the 'no decay' option for 'sphere' lights.....as in Max and C4D. 'Linear' would only help for close-up shots or interiors...

It does sound hopeful that the parsing bug might be solved when that new core comes out.


@Jackson,
I rather use a textured Skydome, as HDR in the environment slot is difficult to position.
A question: You say you put a ldr in the environment slot,while still letting through sun light....That can only be obtained by using a 'blend' right? It seems that is too unpredictable...
Thanks for the tip of lowering the LC multiplier. I'll try that

[dalomar_cg]

Re: 'directional target light'

Linear is no decay.

[kwistenbiebel1]

Re: 'directional target light'

I see. Thanks for explaining.