model dark - need sun help

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am having trouble viewing my AC18 model in 3d as it is so dark. When I increase the sun levels, it gets bright spots but still not easy to see. How do I get an even light distribution? I am not looking for any special effects or anything crazy, just want to see the model. My white trim shows up as dark grey. The attached image is with Sunlight 60%, Contribution to ambient 80%, and ambient at 20%. I have the date set to june 21, at noon, city - atlanta. The ambient is really weird - when I change it there seems to be no correlation to brightness 10% is dark, 20% bright, 30% dark, 40% lighter...? (doesn't make any sense). I can't even see some of the siding on the left side of the image. The siding should be a very light grey color - it showing up yellowish, where showing up. I have tried every setting I could find and getting no good results. When I save as a bim-x model, things show up much better. I did the same view with 90% / 80% / 100% and the model looks virtually the same. Any thoughts?

(I tried to attach a .jpg image - won't seem to let me - it is only 219mb)

[Barry Kelly]

I agree the settings seem to be a bit all over the place.
It depends on whether you are viewing with the internal Engine or OpenGL and then also on the material (surface) settings as well (reflection, emission, glowing, etc.).
Also on you rotation and the location of the sun.

I use Sunlight 50%, Contribution to ambient 30%, and ambient at 40% - maybe it is just a touch on the bright side but seems pretty good for most of my materials.

You could also turn the sun off and turn the ambient up and you will find you don't get the light and dark sides.

The stronger you sun is the more effect it will have.
Think of it as a bright spotlight that will over expose a surface if it is shining on it.

The ambient light is more like the light in a well lit office - comes from all directions with no one particular source.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply Barry,

I have 3d engine set for the 'openGL' engine. (If I select internal - the light is good, but all surfaces are just simple colors, no materials) I tried your settings 50/30/40 and it is still very dark. There is virtually no change in the light on the model. I feel like I am missing something very basic here and not sure what it is? How do you turn the sun off?

Update - I just played with the 'surface' settings for the siding and changed that to the 'openGL' - this made a huge difference as it was set to 'internal'. I think this is the missing item I was looking for. Things are now visible and the trim color is even displaying properly even though I didn't change it's settings (interesting).