Luxus for Carrara released! Intro sale price at 30% off.

SphericLabs

tuckersaur said:

Ok - I am running the plug in on the Carrara beta 8.5 on Mac OS 10.8.
When I send the render to luxus and I pause it or end it - it never goes back to Carrara with the finished image. The image in Carrara is just filled it with 1's (even though normally it uses all 8 cores from my i7) Is this the correct behavior or is it just wonky on the Mac? I know I can export the image from the luxus standalone renderer but it seems like the image should open in Carrara when I decide the render is finished. The only way I can get back into Carrara right now is to quit Luxus and then I see the image full of 1's in Carrara.

I love the light groups feature - dynamically changing lights while the render runs is amazing and even though the renders are much slower this interactivity makes up for what would be 10 times as many test renders.

This is an amazing tool for $20.00 - thank you!

ps - I can't run the non beta of Carrara on 10.8 or I would run Luxus from there.

We could allow for the image going back into Carrara, but the much more common process is for the user to render and leave LuxRender running while doing useful stuff in Carrara. In a sense, Luxus launches LuxRender detached. We could make it stay attached and wait for LuxRender, but I really think this would be very rare. I am open to the idea.

EDIT- missed the part about it not going back to Carrara. Sounds like it is staying attached for you. I will see what I can figure out.

The Pencil Neck

Is this thread OK for questions and things or should we be going somewhere else?

What I've learned so far is that I need to go through and turn off the reflections and highlights for most of the surfaces.

One thing I expected that didn't work was when I turned "on" the Area Light of a surface, I didn't get a corresponding light group. In the attached picture, I've got LED lights and some other lights set up as area lights on Lux Surfaces. But I don't seem to have any control over them.

dtamm

thepencilneck said:

Is this thread OK for questions and things or should we be going somewhere else?

What I've learned so far is that I need to go through and turn off the reflections and highlights for most of the surfaces.

One thing I expected that didn't work was when I turned "on" the Area Light of a surface, I didn't get a corresponding light group. In the attached picture, I've got LED lights and some other lights set up as area lights on Lux Surfaces. But I don't seem to have any control over them.

Can you post a screenshot of your area light Shader network?

raypainter_c3ac15a382

"We could allow for the image going back into Carrara, but the much more common process is for the user to render and leave LuxRender running while doing useful stuff in Carrara. In a sense, Luxus launches LuxRender detached. We could make it stay attached and wait for LuxRender, but I really think this would be very rare. I am open to the idea.

EDIT- missed the part about it not going back to Carrara. Sounds like it is staying attached for you. I will see what I can figure out.

-Spheric"

Yes it stays attached and I can't get back into Carrara without first quitting Luxus. Thanks.

The Pencil Neck

dtamm said:

thepencilneck said:

Is this thread OK for questions and things or should we be going somewhere else?

What I've learned so far is that I need to go through and turn off the reflections and highlights for most of the surfaces.

One thing I expected that didn't work was when I turned "on" the Area Light of a surface, I didn't get a corresponding light group. In the attached picture, I've got LED lights and some other lights set up as area lights on Lux Surfaces. But I don't seem to have any control over them.

Can you post a screenshot of your area light Shader network?

I didn't see any documentation on it so I just set it to a percentage. I also tried setting it to a color.

raypainter_c3ac15a382

I am finding a lot of pretty simple Carrara textures that don't auto-convert. Materials with texture maps render as black and white and I have to create Luxus materials for them to render in color.

Any hints on how to make chrome with the Luxus metal or metal2 material? I changed the color of the fresnel chip to a light gray and this seems to work. Is this the correct way to do it? I looked at the recipes on the Luxus wiki for metals but didn't find any on chrome.
Thanks again!

SphericLabs

thepencilneck said:

dtamm said:

thepencilneck said:

Is this thread OK for questions and things or should we be going somewhere else?

What I've learned so far is that I need to go through and turn off the reflections and highlights for most of the surfaces.

One thing I expected that didn't work was when I turned "on" the Area Light of a surface, I didn't get a corresponding light group. In the attached picture, I've got LED lights and some other lights set up as area lights on Lux Surfaces. But I don't seem to have any control over them.

Can you post a screenshot of your area light Shader network?

I didn't see any documentation on it so I just set it to a percentage. I also tried setting it to a color.

Oh, yeah. You will want to put a Lux AreaLight into that slot.

SphericLabs

tuckersaur said:

I am finding a lot of pretty simple Carrara textures that don't auto-convert. Materials with texture maps render as black and white and I have to create Luxus materials for them to render in color.

Any hints on how to make chrome with the Luxus metal or metal2 material? I changed the color of the fresnel chip to a light gray and this seems to work. Is this the correct way to do it? I looked at the recipes on the Luxus wiki for metals but didn't find any on chrome.
Thanks again!

I recommend the color(easier and more control), but you can do Nk files with a Lux_FresnelName,
-> http://www.luxrender.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=9376&start=260#p91891
see the 3 post I think there is a link to the Nk files. You will have to put the path(using forward slashes to the Nk file you want).

The Pencil Neck

SphericLabs said:

thepencilneck said:

dtamm said:

thepencilneck said:

Is this thread OK for questions and things or should we be going somewhere else?

What I've learned so far is that I need to go through and turn off the reflections and highlights for most of the surfaces.

One thing I expected that didn't work was when I turned "on" the Area Light of a surface, I didn't get a corresponding light group. In the attached picture, I've got LED lights and some other lights set up as area lights on Lux Surfaces. But I don't seem to have any control over them.

Can you post a screenshot of your area light Shader network?

I didn't see any documentation on it so I just set it to a percentage. I also tried setting it to a color.

Oh, yeah. You will want to put a Lux AreaLight into that slot.

I didn't see the Arealight type for there but I did put in a Lux Constant Color and it showed up in the light groups.

And then I look and the Area Light is the first type. smh.

stem_athome

Hello,

I have been looking for the Luxrender mesh options (subdivision:- Loop/micro-displacement ). Has that not been added to this release?

SphericLabs

Steve athome said:

Hello,

I have been looking for the Luxrender mesh options (subdivision:- Loop/micro-displacement ). Has that not been added to this release?

micro-displacement, no.
loop displacement, yes.

The Carrara displacement goes across as Loop displacement in LuxRender. It is practically the same.

stem_athome

SphericLabs said:

Steve athome said:

Hello,

I have been looking for the Luxrender mesh options (subdivision:- Loop/micro-displacement ). Has that not been added to this release?

micro-displacement, no.
loop displacement, yes.

The Carrara displacement goes across as Loop displacement in LuxRender. It is practically the same.

It appears it is not using Luxrender loop displacement. Carrara is converting the displacement to mesh and sending the mesh to Lux, that is not the same.

SphericLabs

Steve athome said:

SphericLabs said:

Steve athome said:

Hello,

I have been looking for the Luxrender mesh options (subdivision:- Loop/micro-displacement ). Has that not been added to this release?

micro-displacement, no.
loop displacement, yes.

The Carrara displacement goes across as Loop displacement in LuxRender. It is practically the same.

It appears it is not using Luxrender loop displacement. Carrara is converting the displacement to mesh and sending the mesh to Lux, that is not the same.

There must be a texture map in the displacement input.

The Min Sample Count is applied before Carrara sends the mesh to Luxus. The Extra Adaptive Steps is a hint to the renderer(Luxus) to further subdivide.

You could set Min Sample Count to zero and only LuxRender would do the subdivision.

stem_athome

SphericLabs said:

There must be a texture map in the displacement input.

The Min Sample Count is applied before Carrara sends the mesh to Luxus. The Extra Adaptive Steps is a hint to the renderer(Luxus) to further subdivide.

You could set Min Sample Count to zero and only LuxRender would do the subdivision.

I have not made myself clear, sorry for that (it was very late here when I posted).

When creating displacement in Lux, you send the mesh to LUX with the displacement map and the various settings. Lux then displaces and sub-d the mesh.
What is currently happening with the exporter from Carrara, is that the mesh is being displaced in Carrara, that displaced mesh is being sent to Lux, and Lux is again adding displacement and then adding sub_d. So the result is incorrect.

SphericLabs

Steve athome said:

SphericLabs said:

There must be a texture map in the displacement input.

The Min Sample Count is applied before Carrara sends the mesh to Luxus. The Extra Adaptive Steps is a hint to the renderer(Luxus) to further subdivide.

You could set Min Sample Count to zero and only LuxRender would do the subdivision.

I have not made myself clear, sorry for that (it was very late here when I posted).

When creating displacement in Lux, you send the mesh to LUX with the displacement map and the various settings. Lux then displaces and sub-d the mesh.
What is currently happening with the exporter from Carrara, is that the mesh is being displaced in Carrara, that displaced mesh is being sent to Lux, and Lux is again adding displacement and then adding sub_d. So the result is incorrect.

I will certainly take a closer look.

PhilW

I just did another test render, this time of an interior where Lux should excel. Even running Luxrender to 5,000 samples per pixel, there was still noise apparent in the foreground. As the only light in the scene comes in through the windows (which are down the other end of the room), I think the scene would benefit from Luxrender's Portals, but there doesn't seem to be any support in Luxus for these? Please can you consider inclusion in the next release? Thanks.

SphericLabs

OK, displacement is technically getting double applied. Once in Carrara and again in LuxRender. (visually I can't tell because, the amplitude is coming across as a very small value in LuxRender).

So for now, you have 2 options:
1) "Set Extra Adaptive Steps" to 0, Carrara then handles the subdivide and displacement.
2) Or set the "Min Sample Count" to 0 and turn up the "Extra Adaptive Steps", then only LuxRender will subdivide and displace. You will need to crank the amplitude up quite a bit,

I recommend #1 as it is more predictable.

SphericLabs

PhilW said:

I just did another test render, this time of an interior where Lux should excel. Even running Luxrender to 5,000 samples per pixel, there was still noise apparent in the foreground. As the only light in the scene comes in through the windows (which are down the other end of the room), I think the scene would benefit from Luxrender's Portals, but there doesn't seem to be any support in Luxus for these? Please can you consider inclusion in the next release? Thanks.

First off, awesome image.

I will certainly look more into portals, but I will admit to have tested Portals out before and not being successful.

An area light right outside the windows also works pretty well. You can control the blackbody temperature of the light as it renders to get more of that sunlight color.

PhilW

SphericLabs said:

PhilW said:

I just did another test render, this time of an interior where Lux should excel. Even running Luxrender to 5,000 samples per pixel, there was still noise apparent in the foreground. As the only light in the scene comes in through the windows (which are down the other end of the room), I think the scene would benefit from Luxrender's Portals, but there doesn't seem to be any support in Luxus for these? Please can you consider inclusion in the next release? Thanks.

First off, awesome image.

I will certainly look more into portals, but I will admit to have tested Portals out before and not being successful.

An area light right outside the windows also works pretty well. You can control the blackbody temperature of the light as it renders to get more of that sunlight color.

Just trying the area light outside the window tip and it is rendering far more quickly and more effectively - thank you so much for that! I also deleted the glass in the windows (as you can't see them anyway and it would just add calculations to no real effect) and this may have helped too.

stem_athome

SphericLabs said:

OK, displacement is technically getting double applied. Once in Carrara and again in LuxRender. (visually I can't tell because, the amplitude is coming across as a very small value in LuxRender).

So for now, you have 2 options:
1) "Set Extra Adaptive Steps" to 0, Carrara then handles the subdivide and displacement.Carrara takes an excessive amount of time to convert/export the displaced mesh, and the results, well, I prefer to avoid it.

2) Or set the "Min Sample Count" to 0 and turn up the "Extra Adaptive Steps", then only LuxRender will subdivide and displace. You will need to crank the amplitude up quite a bit,

Displacement is still made on the default mesh in carrara. So that is not workable.

Maybe in a later version of your exporter you will add the mesh options?

:this silly forum is sending me to "My Dashboard" instead of submitting the reply. Try again, and again......

SphericLabs

Steve athome said:

Maybe in a later version of your exporter you will add the mesh options?

The best place for it would be a 5th input on Lux Surface.

stem_athome

SphericLabs said:

Steve athome said:

Maybe in a later version of your exporter you will add the mesh options?

The best place for it would be a 5th input on Lux Surface.

That would be excellent if you could, when you have time. You would also be able to add the option for micro-displacement.

raypainter_c3ac15a382

Can't get a texture map of metal to reflect objects in LuxRender.
I noticed that the carrara texture I have just shows up as black and white when I render it in in Lux, so I decided to try and make a lux material with the map. I don't seem to have an option to load a texture map in the metal2 material and I don't see any other material that would work for loading a texture map, bump map and giving it a mild reflection without reverting to the multi-channel shaders in carrara. Which Lux material can I use to accomplish this?

Thanks.

SphericLabs

tuckersaur said:

Can't get a texture map of metal to reflect objects in LuxRender.
I noticed that the carrara texture I have just shows up as black and white when I render it in in Lux, so I decided to try and make a lux material with the map. I don't seem to have an option to load a texture map in the metal2 material and I don't see any other material that would work for loading a texture map, bump map and giving it a mild reflection without reverting to the multi-channel shaders in carrara. Which Lux material can I use to accomplish this?

Thanks.

How about like this?

stem_athome

May I ask as to why there is no "ShinyMetal" material in the exporter?

http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxRender_Materials_ShinyMetal

SphericLabs

Steve athome said:

May I ask as to why there is no "ShinyMetal" material in the exporter?

http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxRender_Materials_ShinyMetal

Of course, that is easy to answer. From the spec, http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/Scene_file_format_1.0
shinymetal (deprecated, use mirror+glossycoating or metal2 as needed)

SphericLabs

I assume they mean mirror+glossycoating or metal2+glossycoating.

PhilW

I just tried a quick test of a prism to see some dispersion, but even with this checked there was no spectrum showing. I suspect I need a more complex Fresnel definition - any ideas?

SphericLabs

PhilW said:

I just tried a quick test of a prism to see some dispersion, but even with this checked there was no spectrum showing. I suspect I need a more complex Fresnel definition - any ideas?

This is one case where glass seems to be easier than glass2. Look in the Cauchy B section here:
-> http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxRender_Materials_Glass

Also, make sure you set both reflection and transmission color to white. Once of them is incorrectly defaulting to black.

Jay_NOLA

Great render Holly.

holly wetcircuit said:

I like being able to mix the lighting after the render has started... but I'm going to need more time getting use to the new shaders, especially glass since I have all kinds of tricks in Carrara shaders to control edge falloff...

It's nice to have a different "look", even if I don't know what I'm doing. LOL.