ArchiCAD 12 - Sneak Preview

[Anonymous]

I saw a movie about ArchiCAD 12 on YouTube. The comments say there is a hidden message. I think I know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_6Dxkkjr80

[Rakela Raul]

thanku !!

[Dwight]

Superior lighting method shows immediately.

Would you call these quick to render? Faster or slower than LiteJob?

[Bricklyne Clarence]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there's just no comparison between Mentalray(of any flavour) and Lightworks (minus radiosity) as it's implemented in ArchiCAD. Even if GS were to implement radiosity in the next version, the mere lack of comparable material/texture/lighting control offered in Mentalray, would still not even make it close. They just are not in the same league; not even close.

That being said, Mentalray's biggest drawback, from my brief experience with it is the overwrought and unwieldy interface and controls as well as the commensurately ludicrous learning curve that that entails. Which is not surprising given the fact that it's original marketbase was actually Hollywood movie Studios and animators (who require far more customizable options and control) and not Architectural visualization. I'm not entirely certain how they would circumvent that in implementing it into Revit, but I imagine lots of template render settings from professional users as well as pre-set and pre-configured material library sets that require minimal set up time, an simplified control interface and limited tweaking on the part of users.

The images in the AECbytes article were doubtless done primarily for the review and I doubt they put any great degree of refinement in the set-up and lighting system. Let's just say that Mental ray would be on par with Vray or Maxwell, and NOT Lightworks (which, as previously mentioned, is not even in the conversation to begin with) when it comes to quality and rendertimes comparison. Where it loses out to the aforementioned 2 is in the interface issues and learning complexity I highlighted.

At this point in time, let's just say that even Artlantis' latest version produces higher quality images with less effort in set-up and in less time than the GS-implemented Lightworks does.

[Anonymous]

nice log walls
is difficult to model them? (i mean the unequal lenght of the logs)

[Chadwick]

These images did not take long at all. Well, I suppose that's a relative statement. They took around 20 min to actually render. Very little setup time. I heard the horror stories about MR and the learning curve too prior to using it in Revit. Let me tell you getting these images was a walk in the park.

The log wall ends were pretty easy. They are a wall hosted family (like a window) made of two different extrusion lengths and arrayed up the wall face. Took about 5 min or less to create.

In fairness, you can get good images out of Lightworks, I just found it to be a bear. See an attached link to a post I made on these forums when I was using ArchiCAD. Good quality (I think) but really took a lot to get there.

Lightworks Render

[Anonymous]

You cannot compare a any G.I. capable rendering engine with AC's Lightworks. There are even realtime solutions like RTRE that are better than Lightworks in archicad

[stefan]

In all fairness, there is a difference between what the LightWorks engine is capable of and the access to this inside ArchiCAD.

E.g. from the LightWorks website:
http://www.lightwork.com/lw_image.php?img=tadao_ando_chapel_hyogo_b_600

http://www.lightwork.com/lw_image.php?img=livingroom_640

http://www.lightwork.com/lw_image.php?img=portal_light_final_640

I think that many people would stop complaining if they could equal this quality inside ArchiCAD. The shaders are pretty powerful, but this is way beyond the core interest of ArchiCAD, which might explain why they are hidden inside so many dialog boxes. There is simply not a decent workflow to tweak a setting from a material, make a (draft) rendering and go back to the setting: you have to click through several dialog boxes.

[Anonymous]

stefan wrote:
I think that many people would stop complaining if they could equal this quality inside ArchiCAD. The shaders are pretty powerful, but this is way beyond the core interest of ArchiCAD, which might explain why they are hidden inside so many dialog boxes. There is simply not a decent workflow to tweak a setting from a material, make a (draft) rendering and go back to the setting: you have to click through several dialog boxes.

clicking in all the dialog boxes i think you still can't produce those images in archicad.
And i think archicad users ARE interested in producing high quality renderigs. Some say "we don't need that" just because they consider that it's to difficult from the user's point of view.

[Eduardo Rolon]

zucoc wrote:
…And i think archicad users ARE interested in producing high quality renderings. Some say "we don't need that" just because they consider that it's to difficult from the user's point of view.

Nope, I'm not interested in that, because depending on the project I use AC's Sketch Render or Lightwork, Artlantis, C4D's Sketch and Toon, Advanced Renderer or Vray. Archicad main purpose is not Rendering, there are specialized applications for that.

If you consider switching to Revit because it uses Mental Ray and Archicad uses Lightworks then you Might be missing the point, and we start again the debate of the "swiss army apps" vs "one tool for one action" apps.

[Rakela Raul]

They took around 20 min to actually render.

doesnt cut it for me