I finally got around to watching this tutorial. I'm only a quarter of the way through but so far I think it's an excellent overview. My rendering knowledge is spotty and inconsistent so I expect I'll come away with a much better grounding in V-Ray. I notice also that they've added a Twilight tutorial for those who are interested. Some comments on lynda.com for those who haven't used this service before (I'm not in any way affiliated - just a subscriber): lynda.com is a website that offers a very, very wide range of tutorials for many types of software. Subscription is $25/month and you can watch as many videos on as many subjects as you can cram into the month. They make it easy to unsubscribe. I think they expect you to subscribe and unsubcribe often depending on your needs. So a strong thumbs up for this one. Well worth the $25 and after the V-Ray video I think I'll have time to brush up on some of my modo skills, take a look at the Twilight video and maybe even scan through some of the SketchUp videos to see if there's anything new to me.

This test below is a box 5mx2mx1m (sorry, I'm metric). Base wood texture image set at 1mx1m it looks as though its all dependent on the scale of the base image used in the texgrid fill colour. If the base image is say 1mx1m (as defined in the sketchup material editor)then that is the size of one panel. [image: rmSx_test07.jpg] in this one I have adjusted the TexGrid repeat to 0.5, so each grid is 500mmx500mm [image: uJ2l_test08.jpg] and in this one I set the base image size in the sketchup material editor to 2mx2m (UV repeat back to 1.0) [image: TgBp_test09.jpg]

@stefanq said: That doesn't look to me like a correct mapped hdri image. Doesn't matter if it's big, small, blurred etc. You probably mapped it like "spherical" as type, and it's not a spherical map. Try "angular" instead. Notice that you cannot zoom in the HDRI. It's like you try to make some objects in an image to look closer. When you choose a HDRI, think about your camera position in the scene, how far you are from the object you're rendering, and try to find a HDRI image with similar shooting conditions. Finally, almost 2 weeks... I've a little bit understanding about HDRI. I try to browse some free "spherical HDRI map" and match with my model, then apply it to my environment. I get a better result. But, I just thought HDRI was not one of the best environment setting, there is many ways to do it. Thank you so much guys... Thank you stefanq... Jr

Thanks Oli! Superb!

the idea is that with a model, we can look at your vray settings and see if there's a solution.

could it be that the png is not being saved as interlaced?

Bug is VRay. Rumor is that this has been fixed in the next release already. We just are waiting for it to beta.

thanks for the assistance guys. ive just decided to go with a 2 render method. 1 without a floor plane (for the building) and one with floor plane that i just do a magic wand selection and delete unused area, within photoshop to create the transparent shadow. as for why i would need to do something that is easy....ill show you when ive dont about my 500th model

check the color slot in GI settings, also make sure you're using vray sky, otherwise you won't have sun shadows in your render

skip to 5:00 to see it in Rhino which will be the same as SU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbMykOA04Ac

Thanks for your responses....yes i've changed the angle of my camera and reduced the amount of grass but still quits :S... my dynamic memory limit is 5000 .. it seems ill have to use photoshop instead

This setup seems to be working for me. Make sure to save as an EXR to take full advantage of this workflow. I ran a test with an interior scene lit only by a small 4"x 6" hole in the wall using Skylight. Rendered clearly with minimal tweaking. [image: exeo_LWFSetup.JPG]

@valerostudio said: Andy, are you still happy with the workflow in Blender? I haven't quite made the jump to production work in Blender. I've been trying out some higher-poly models to see how well the import works. The biggest issue with workflow right now is where I have a lot of component instances (like a restaurant with furniture for example) it all comes in as one huge model. You can make instances in Blender, so I could bring in one component of each thing and make duplicates in Blender - but, you know - doesn't seem like the best workflow. There's also proxy, which is sweet, but I've only brushed the surface yet. Otherwise, I'm still just learning the ins and outs of Blender. I really love the program, but it's also very deep. I'm also trying to figure out vray settings (using the standalone.) I've been trying to get my renders to look the same as out of vfsu, but it's surprisingly difficult to find all the right settings to switch. GI is handled very differently (dome light), so there's not just the simple switch that we have in vfsu. Artificially lit spaces are much more easy to replicate. I also just don't have a whole lot of time to devote, as I've been booked pretty solid lately. It's a good thing, but I just don't have as much time to play Andy

Eh, you are right about exploding Andy, i got carried away with one of the previous posts, what i meant is that rendering of displacement goes faster with saved IR and LC maps

@rspierenburg said: I usually just tweak the standard textures to suit my needs. But this site has some really nice free textures: http://luzindirecta.luxisessentia.com/ Nomeradona has some materials on his blog as well: http://www.sketchupvraymaterials.blogspot.ca/ Hope these help Thanks alot, downloading these now.. see how it goes!!

@valmach said: Hi All.. using SK8 Pro.. with VRAY and Indigo.. issue I am having.. when i try to render with Vray.. the SU Animation engages autonomously. I have uninstalled/reinstalled everything.. removed Indigo.. Removed VRAY.. still no joy.. please advise. Running Win7 64.. never had this issue.. Not a big issue,go to best settings of animation in vray,if you have other render engines as plugin in Sketchup,just go to Window > Preferences > Extensions and untick all other render engines accept the one you want to render. And one think, i didn't understand your question 100% but i tried to help you guy,may this will be helpful to you.!!!

Well, if you wait a little while (or a long while, still not entirely sure ) The next version of vray for sketchup is supposed to have proxy support. I am very curious to see what sorts of new goodies will be implemented next. Andy

No crashes on any of the machines on our office - even with render region.

Only way around IMO: Copy - paste Normaly, then on the Materials menu, right click on the materials you need fixed and select Import Material. This will replace the model materials with the ones in your Library. Thanks

@andybot said: Here is some further discussion about using HDRI for interior - and explains my answer above. http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?69182-HDRI-interior (registration required) thank you for this link