Gloom and doom with Iray

MJW

I expect it has been dealt with somewhere, but I can't trace it using the search option, so here goes.
I have been trying to render a simple iage using the Abandoned Factory Floor (33597) which I bought in a fit of madness. I simply cannot get any image to show no matter how much light I put on the characters in the foreground (although there may be highlights 'built in' which are lit at the back). I have used four spotlights, headlamp on the camera and pointlight all at the same time, with the spots set as high as 50000000 (yes 50 million) lumens each, and see no aprecianble difference from 1500 lumens. If I remove the factory the figures render fine. I even opened the aperture on the camera. Given the time it takes to establish if the render will work, let alone actually do it, I have now wasted two days on this one and am approaching abandoning the AFF altogether.

I never find indoor scenes easy to get sufficiently-well-lit, but usually get somewhere. Any suggestions how to overcome this?

Oso3D

Make sure you aren't on Render settings: sun/sky; that ignores any light other than, well, sun and sky.

MJW

Interesting, Timmins.william. I haven't come across this. Where do I check, please?

Oso3D

In the lower right (probably) is a series of tabs, including Parameters, Surfaces, and Render Settings.

If you click on that and then Environment, you see a bunch of environment-related stuff. Environment Mode is what can be set to Dome and Scene, Sun/Sky, Scene only, etc.

You will almost certainly want 'Dome and Scene' for most purposes.

If you want an HDRI, you can put it in Environment map. If you want some natural-like sunlight, erase the environment map and you end up with a generated (but simple) sky and sun... but your lights will also work.

 

MJW

Thanks timmins.william. I haven't a clue what they mean, but I have found them so I can experiment. What if it is already set to Dome and Scene?

barbult

Make sure you are using the Iray material presets on the Abandoned Factory Floor. The product comes with Iray, 3Delight, and Poser material presets, according to the product page. If you don't have Iray materials on the glass windows, it might be that no light is coming in through the windows from your environment dome. Are your spotlights and pointlights inside the building or outside the building? What Tone Mapping settings are you using?

MJW

@ barbult, Thanks.I'm pretty sure I chose the Iray version,and the lights are inside, but I will check it all again next time I am on that machine.

MJW

@timmins.william, YAY! That solved it! I haven't a clue how it had been changed, but it seems to work now, so thanks.