realistic lighting?

[Anonymous]

Hi

We're just starting to play with proper rendering in AC10.

The lighting looks terrible. Any tips on getting more realistic lighting? The lights available in the library seem very limited.

TIA

Adri

[TomWaltz]

Buy Dwight's book.

The lighting settings in Archicad CAN do what you want, but it's not an easy process that is briefly described.

[stefan]

You can either:

- use the built-in LightWorks, but (as has been said) order Dwights book

- step up to Artlantis or similar render-only applications (Strata3D, Maxwell Render)

- step really up to expensive and complex, but powerfull 3D animation applications, such as 3ds max/VIZ, Lightwave, Cinema4D, Maya or XSI.

---

A few tips? There are basic hints in the manuals, about specific light objects to improve LightWorks renderings. And in the Render Settings dialog, you can activate the Realistic Sun instead of the Regular Sun, which gives nice results, but takes a long time to render smooth.

[Thomas Holm]

I will shamelessly plug for Dwight's book, even if you want to use an external renderer (like Artlantis, Maxwell etc) instead of Archicad's built-in Lightworks module.

This is because Dwight Atkinson's book Lightworks in Archicad is basically a manual in how to set and use diffferent light sources in creating computer-generated architectural images.

While all examples in the book are using Archicad's build-in Lightworks, most solutions and tips are valuable and useful in any rendering package.
For example, a program like ArtlantisR that enables radiosity (the fact that any surface that isn't black emits light) makes some workarounds for the lack of radiosity in Archicad unnecessary, but the most general light setting tips are just as valid anyway. Recommended!

[Andy Thomson]

Everything I learned from Dwight - but quick and dirty:

• 1. AC Sun, Camera and Ambient Lights turn Off (photorender settings dialogue) - make sure Sun settings cast light on your model as needed.
  2. Plop a LW Sun and Sky object (2 objects) on your workspace - set sun to a single source, colour very slightly yellow off-white, colour sky a happy, very light blue (hue 222?)
  3. Set graduated line BG w. Lightworks BG, again photorender settings, dark blue near horizon, lighter blue up top (higher luminance towards azimuth)
  4. And use the best LW textures you can find, I will post mine soon. See http://www.archicad.ca/?p=14
  5. These settings often give dark undersides to balconies, ceilings, etc. which can be 'lightened' by using special materials (high ambient reflection), pumping up ambient contribution (the light that was turned off), or adding additional lights

[__archiben]

andyro wrote:
1. AC Sun, Camera and Ambient Lights turn Off (photorender settings dialogue) - make sure Sun settings cast light on your model as needed.
2. Plop a LW Sun and Sky object (2 objects) on your workspace - set sun to a single source, colour very slightly yellow off-white, colour sky a happy, very light blue (hue 222?)

no longer. with AC10....

1. AC sun, ambient and lamps ON - values to 100%, camera OFF.
1a. in the 3D projection settings>more sun: adjust the colours and percentage values as andy suggested.
2. lightworks rendering settings dialogue: set the sun to 'realistic' and adjust the sample rate to desired performance/quality setting (higher = better quality but much longer rendering).

and don't forget the dwightatkinsonundersun(TM)

~/archiben

[Andy Thomson]

So they changed the AC Sun to behave like the LW sun? I didn't realize, have been working as with 9, thanks for the update!

Does this make the LW Sun/Sky objects in the LW folder in the newly updated library redundant? (apart from use as undersun or extra lighting?)

[__archiben]

andyro wrote:
Does this make the LW Sun/Sky objects in the LW folder in the newly updated library redundant? (apart from use as undersun or extra lighting?)

pretty much. i use the sun object as a shadowless undersun, but see no reason for the sky object any more. the window lights are still useful for soft shadowed interiors - but the realistic sun does a reasonable job of lighting surfaces through glass now.

give it a shot: set the realistic sun sample rate to about 32 and then re-render with it set to 128 or something higher. note the difference at the edges of the shadows, then use this as a quality/performance guide for future renderings . . .

~/archiben

[Andy Thomson]

Here, I just tried a comparitive test, with settings as you described

Realistic Sun 32 = Picture 1
New LW Sun and Sky Objetcs = Picture 3 (next post)

One thing I noticed was rendering time w. realistic Sun doubled...
The cube/slabs are LW clear glass, the spheres are LW diamond glass, I'll have to mess around some more before I know what I am dealing with...but thanks again for pointing out the change. I had no idea.

[Andy Thomson]

Picture 3 - Sun and Sky objects, rendered in about 10 seconds