(Rant) Artlantis crashing with multiple lights in......

[rm]

Problem #1
I do fair amount of interior renderings with lighting in artlantis ( I should say, I try to anyway). To be clear, I will set 20, 30, 70 lights in a model, some down lights, some general lighting to get as close to "photo realistic" as possible (see attached image) with in the limits of the software. Artlantis allows 128 lights.....how they picked this limit I don't understand, but I am not exceeding the limit, though I could if the program would let me.

It is frustrating to no end, when I have the lighting dialogue box open and try to re-arrange my list of lights, once I have place several lights in the plan in artlantis, the program will eventually CRASH. Usually only after I have been doing two hours of work and have not saved changes.

If I am "tweaking" light settings while switching between individual lights before the preview window completely refreshes, the program will CRASH!!!!!!

It has gotten to the point where I have to save my file virtually every two "tweaks" of lighting or I am in danger of losing data. Problem with this is it takes a long time to save the file if there are alot of lights or polygons.

The program is fine with a couple of lights, but if you try to get into realistic lighting with many lights, the progam just craps out. I have written to Abvent, but they just ignore the problem......big surprise there.

By the way this problem has occured since v3.5 of arlantis.
I use a G4 933 with 1.5 gigs of RAM and a 120 gig hardrive. Its not the machines problem, it IS the software, it is very unstable when it comes to minipulating many light sources.

Problem #2
Light from general lights in artlantis passes through walls and floors.............why?????? This really screws up a rendering and forces me to set up lighting different for different views, this should not be the case. I don't know what walls are made of in France, but I'm guessing light does not pass through them.

I wish those of us on the MAC side of the fence could get our hands on a better rendering programs than artlantis. I know artlantis is relatively fast, and simple to use. But for truly photo quality renderings, in my opinion, it is not up to the task. I may have to look at electric image, learning curve is huge as I understand it. I would like radiosity rendering instead of the limits of "global illumination" (poor mans radiosity) that artlantis has.

Any software advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,

rm

[Anonymous]

Check out Cinema 4D. It is fairly easy to learn, Has both GI and Radiosity, you can use HDRI to light a scene. and has a new sketch rendering engine that puts ArchiCAD's sketch rendering in 8 to shame. There is a demo you can download from Maxon. HTH

[Karl Ottenstein]

MichaelRensing wrote:
Check out Cinema 4D. has a new sketch rendering engine that puts ArchiCAD's sketch rendering in 8 to shame.

Wrong thread, I know. But, thanks for pointing out the new sketch module for C4D, Michael. The few examples on the Maxon site are pretty impressive - tapered strokes in one Japenese-quill style have no computer-rendered look to them at all. But, $350 more for that module as far as I can tell...

I still feel like I've got plenty of learning to do with C4D XL7 yet ... is there anything that special in 8 and 8.5 that should tempt me to buy the $500 upgrade until I'm as savy as you? (Just can't see paying $850 to get the sketch module too, cool as that seems.)

To rm: with a better lighting model, you'll probably need fewer lights and improve the realism of your interiors ... lots of examples at the Maxon site. (Lighting was the main reason I got C4D when it was on a special deal a year or so ago ... but I have been amazed at the power and quality of everything else - search this list and you'll come across some tutorials from Michael and Stefan.)

Thanks,
Karl

[Anonymous]

I am expecting 8.5 and Sketch and Toon tomorrow, so I can give updates about it then. I do alot of modeling in Cinema, mainly soft furniture. (I will have a modeling a simple lighting tutorial avaiable soon... I haven't forgot, it has just been hectic) and the weighting of Hypernurbs is invaluable. Not to mention all the interface inprovemnets such as multiple selections without having to group. edge selections. 8.5 is supposed to have inproved radiosity, better material mixing, sub-surface scattering (think of marble columns, how they "glow" at the edges). But if Cinema is going to be only a rendering package, I think 7 will be all that you need for now. That is until Cinema has the instant photoreal button added.

[Karl Ottenstein]

MichaelRensing wrote:
I am expecting 8.5 and Sketch and Toon tomorrow, so I can give updates about it then. I do alot of modeling in Cinema, mainly soft furniture. (I will have a modeling a simple lighting tutorial avaiable soon... I haven't forgot, it has just been hectic) and the weighting of Hypernurbs is invaluable. Not to mention all the interface inprovemnets such as multiple selections without having to group. edge selections. 8.5 is supposed to have inproved radiosity, better material mixing, sub-surface scattering (think of marble columns, how they "glow" at the edges). But if Cinema is going to be only a rendering package, I think 7 will be all that you need for now. That is until Cinema has the instant photoreal button added.

Thanks, Michael! Look forward to reading your review when you have time ... and of course the tutorial.

Cheers,
Karl

[rm]

Michael,

Thanks for the tip. I down loaded the Cinema 4D demo. Uh, from ArchiCAD what file format do you suggest I save my model to so I can import it into Cinema 4D to test out?

Thank you,
RM

[Anonymous]

I believe that both 3DS and Wavefront will work. I have used 3DS with no problems. In fact it worked so well that I felt no longing for any special translator or AC to C4D add-on. I found that I could replace the ArchiCAD building model in the Cinema 4D setting with a revised version with very little trouble. As I recall, I did have to reset the materials and it was almost as easy as Artlantis.

[Karl Ottenstein]

rm wrote:
from ArchiCAD what file format do you suggest I save my model to so I can import it into Cinema 4D to test out?

Also take a look at:
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=631#631

[Anonymous]

I am sorry for this very late reply, but I have one question and one request :

- Who did you sent your question to at Abvent ?

- Would you please send me a sample file that crashes above a certain number of lamps?

Best regards

[rm]

Jacques wrote:
I am sorry for this very late reply, but I have one question and one request :

- Who did you sent your question to at Abvent ?

- Would you please send me a sample file that crashes above a certain number of lamps?

Best regards

Jacques, I sent two seperate reports and files through the "Incident Report In North America" on your web site. I have no record of it because it is Abvents form.

I will send you a copy if you give me your direct email address.

Trust me, I can crash the program almost at will once I start manipulating lighting for interior scenes. As previously noted, this is not a problem with one or two light sources, or shaders for that matter.

The file that created the rendering I have attached to this thread must have crashed the program 30-40 times. It does have the maximum 128 light sources. However the current project I am working on only has about 30 lights, and it crashes too.

Looking forward to your reply.

Regards,
Architects Design Forum, Ltd.
Robert Mariani