Why is the white ceiling always gray?

[Anonymous]

I know this is basic, but I could use a little help with this rendering. No matter how I tinker with the lighting, the ceiling, which I 've tried with several different white material settings, always seems to look gray. Also, the cabinets are too bright and washed out. What could I be doing wrong? I have the lamps on, but set to about 40%.

Archicad 11 on Mac OSX 10.6.8

[Karl Ottenstein]

Searching for Dwight's catch-phrase "There's no such thing as white" leads to many articles; these may be of interest for how to adjust the material to get what you want. It is important to realize that materials and lights interact - cannot achieve good results without working on both.

Here are a couple of those threads:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=16906

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=13633

Cheers,
Karl

[Dwight]

The shortcut answer is that you need fantastic uplighting - called "under sun" in English and "Hellezon" by the Nether-regionals:

Place a general light source way underground and have it NOT cast shadows. The energy passes through the model, lighting ceilings.

Also, you need to roughen any surface to look less like plastic.

[David Maudlin]

Dwight wrote:
Place a general light source way underground and have it NOT cast shadows.

Another option for lighting the ceiling is to place a WindowLight on the floor, set the Rotation Angle to -90˚ (so it points up) and size it to the room.

David

[Dwight]

Window Lights are a bad option.

1: They are processor-intensive if you want quality light. The general light takes almost no processing power.

2: They must be applied in each room rather than just one for an entire project.

3: They can cast light against the wall.

[David Maudlin]

1: They are processor-intensive if you want quality light. The general light takes almost no processing power.

With Cast Shadows off, there is no perceptible difference.

2: They must be applied in each room rather than just one for an entire project.

The placement in each room allows for individual adjustments for each room. A single General Light can be difficult to adjust for all rooms.

3: They can cast light against the wall.

As can the General Light. The WindowLight can give more predictable and natural results.

David

[Dwight]

I have made a terrible error in my recommendation.
The under sun is NOT a general light source. It should be a sunobject at -90 casting no shadows. This also looks after a host of other problem issues allatonce.

Sorry.