Here are some screenshots that I have made with free version of Unity3D for landscape modeling (golf course). Basically I have created the terrain model and splatmaps for texturing terrain in Sketchup. The rest is pretty much created in Unity. The next phase would be to bring some of the buildings that I have modeled with Sketchup into the model. I think that Unity has improved quite a lot recently. In Unity 4.0 the free version also includes real time shadows for one light source (sun). [image: Z7KK1Y3.jpg] [image: Cg9yV62.jpg] [image: mmlrxj0.jpg]

You should have a look at theese too: Shape bender Components onto faces Fredoscale (Radial bending) Throw to

With upcoming release v.1.3 Presto engine will use both GPU and CPU... @unknownuser said: Dear friends, a lot of you have already guessed what our next tech announcement will be and indeed it is about Presto running on both GPU and CPU. This announcement is probably among the most important ones in Thea Render tech achievements. Unifying GPU and CPU under the same (render) framework is not an easy job. With Thea Presto being written from scratch, we had the ambition, right from the beginning, to harvest all the computer power that is available. For coding Presto on the CPU, we didn't want just a "port" of the code from Nvidia CUDA architecture to x86/CPU architecture. We wanted to squeeze the CPUs to the max and see a real performance comparison between GPUs and CPUs. For this, we decided to adapt Intel's Embree library. What does this mean? with every GPU and CPU core running Presto, it means fast, very fast, rendering. And this fast rendering is coupled with Thea's material/light system. All in all, pure quality in the shortest render times! What is also quite interesting is the performance comparison between GPUs and CPUs. We have modeled four scenes specifically for this purpose and ran the benchmarks on various machines (our own plus beta tester machines). It is very nice to see that CPUs stay up to their task and bring a significant speed boost. The actual relative performance between GPUs and CPUs depends heavily on the system and scene type. [image: IBJr_CausticsBenchmarkLiveScreenshot.jpg] Actually, to our knowledge, Thea Presto is a unique engine that makes it possible to compare GPUs and CPUs under the same render framework with performance maxed out for both architectures, in a systematic way*. You are welcome to download the detailed benchmark pdf document attached with this post. Best wishes Disclaimer: the comparison between the GPUs and CPUs is only made within Thea Presto framework and does not imply any kind of general performance superiority of a specific processor/architecture. More benchmarks and discussion at related topic http://www.thearender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17%26amp;t=13779

Hey there PB and Carloh! I've attached an initial render. The ceiling is still ever so slightly noisy but I'm really happy with it. I used the Focal Distance tool to make the main body of the chandelier in focus and everything in the background slightly blurred (actually the nearest 'candle' holder is slightly blurred too). I did do a little post processing in Photoshop to bring out the highlights of the crystals and distressed gold of the chandelier a little more. Although, I should point out that I didn't model this chandelier!! I downloaded it from the 3D Warehouse! I've kinda worked out that natural light (and plenty of it) is pivotal to getting the desired effect in addition to fiddling with the settings in the material editor!! Jason, if you're reading this, thank you so much for creating the distressed gold MXM material!! You're a star Neets [image: IcAU_GeorgianSpaceChandelier.jpg]

@elibjr said: the grass doesn't even work anymore. ?!? Why?

ok, then... NO

@las2vc said: No, I haven't, but that looks like a good potential resource. Thank you! It's the best forum for Podium lol! I learnt sooooo much from the Podium forum. Everyone is very helpful and critical which is great if you want to improve your work. I guarantee you'll have it figured out quickly. May be a good idea to start off your post with what preset you are using and we can go from there. Do you have a problem just rendering an omni within a box? Could just be you haven't created the omnis properly because it looks like they aren't turned on.

That's great

Try to export to Blender (A, A, Remove Double see this anthology post) or Wings3D all free for easily cleaning your OBJ polygon mesh before exporting in OBJ format for Rhino! And also try for the fun Moment of Inspiration who is some ergonomic than Rhino you can make Copy Past : ctrl + c, Ctrl + v between the 2 applications (Moi Rhino, Rhino Moi) And Moi has an export SKP ! And the best export Nurbs to Polygons if wanted! And an new exceptional export PDF! By Grendel Jellybean model from CreatureBox Moi Export PDF [image: get_attachment.php?webtag=MOI&hash=0f52a9af01f8da8bbb2b107ea85f67a2&filename=JellyBean-MOI.jpg]

Thanks wind-borne, I'll check in to the cost for Pro.

Regrouping and reducing nested Groups did the trick.

please check the roof 2.1 plugin because can not use in sketch up 2013 64 bit there an error message thank you

Hi Dave, I'm new to the forum as well, but have been lurking for a while now. I use SU for the exhibit industry and have become very fond of the Maxwell plugin. It is really easy to use, but isn't the fastest renderer out there (the results are worth the time in my opinion though). I was using the free version for a couple of years and finally decided to buy a license for the plugin which really is not that much money compared to other options out there. Maxwell is a nice all around rendering plugin, but for exhibits I am constantly on the look out for better ones. As an exhibit designer you might find issue with the lack of lighting options. Lights must be built in to the model by assigning emitter materials on to faces of actual objects (geometry). This produces very realistic renderings, but sometimes in the exhibit design world you need to just throw some lights in there with beams coming off of it to show clients that their exhibit will be well-lit. So I use Photoshop a lot to fake my lights. Hopefully this helps. Kyle

Sepo, Thanks, yes I did the same before I saw your post and that did the trick. Thanks again. Now I'm finding however that SU Podium will continue to render one scene over and over. If I want to render another scene, it won't do so unless I close and re-open SU. Ben

Maxwell Render v3 feature anouncement has been started... http://www.maxwellrender.com/V3/feature/ upgrade pricing: 345€ from v1 or v2 (node-locked) and 425€ as floating license incl. 10 render nodes!

Ah, gotcha. I just did a test with a model that only had 3 GE images imported and it worked great. Thank you. However with 35 separate images in the model I am working on that would take much longer than exporting it to obj for import into Max unless I am mistaken.

No idea. I don't understand that either. Maybe the code simply doesn't allow for the sort of changes we'd like to see? I'm sure there's more at play than plain stubborness.

Later today. You'll be emailed , there'll be a news post and forum announcement.

For me, it's a little tough to see if faces are rendering with the wrong color/material, or whether said face is missing entirely. If it's the latter (a problem that I had), you can go to the settings in Maxwell for SketchUp and disable instances. That should fix issues of missing faces when you use cutting components in SketchUp. Hope that helps!

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