Found this one: cubicVR. A free plugin by Sketchup Podium. Description and download here: https://www.suplugins.com/podium/help/cubicVR.php It generates the equirectangular output in one clic. The drawing lines are pretty sketchy, but it's sufficient for my current needs of fast prototyping. Though, I would be glad if someone knows of a cleaner alternative. [image: AEPI_su1.jpg] [image: hlwz_zPanoramaOutput1.jpg] [image: taNd_zPanoramaOutput2.jpg]

@ledisnomad said: I don't render pool water very often, but every time I do, it takes me forever to figure out how to get the caustics to work. I go through all the settings, search for all the tutorials. I just started another project with a pool and I'm going to want a rendering with awesome pool water caustics. Here's what I'm doing: Creating a plane that is the surface of the water and making it a component. Applying a water material to the component and to both faces of the plane. Adding a displacement geometry modifier to the component - I use the same noise map from the water Bump channel for the displacement. In the water material Refraction Advanced Settings, uncheck "Affect Shadows". In the render settings Global Illumination Advanced Settings, turn on "Photon Mapped Caustics". What am I missing? You'll see in the image that the displacement is working at least. [attachment=0:2gykd0yy]<!-- ia0 -->pool.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:2gykd0yy] I think you also need to be in CPU mode for the caustics to work.

@ikehegwus23 said: Hello Fredo, I'm using Vray Next 4.20 on Sketchup 2019 with Animator with Animator v3.6a on a LibFredo6 v12.5a. I have an issue rendering an animation with your animator plugins (which I believe are the latest versions at the moment) the rendering always stops at 20-30%...ALWAYS. Its been really confusing because it renders a normal box well with Vray but when I want to render my project which is like 6mb in size or less it freezes at that 20% range. Please what could be the issue? PS I had the same problem on Vray 4.1 also. Looking forward to your reply. Cheers Rendering of long animation has always been a problem with VRay, because it requires a lot of resources. What is average time to generate a frame when rendered by VRay?

It looks like it is not rendered fully, or with low settings, can you post render settings ? Result is like it is saved at the beginning of progressive rendering or something like that. Try turning off interactive and progressive rendering, and set irradiance map + light cache under global illumination, CPU rendering.

I realize this is an old post, but thought I'd chime in in case someone else finds this thread. It looks to me like you are rendering the alpha channel. That would explain the sky going away too.

Sounds like a query for Vray Support. License holders get free support... https://forums.chaos.com/forum/v-ray-for-sketchup-forums

Hello !! I have been trying to figure this out too. Any chance you have come to a solution? Thanks in advance ! A

Mainly for CPU or GPU rendering? What i can say at first sight... a Xeon is not needed, normally overpriced and outdated. And 16GB RAM is definitively not enough. Without knowing the components, it's impossible to say much about this config. But i suppose that at this price everything besides the GPU is more on the cheaper side and the GPU is the most expensive part here. Video cards are still very rare and absurdly expensive atm.. So if you're planning more for CPU rendering, a smaller card than a 3080 TI could be a better choice. There has been announced a 3070 TI with supposedly 16GB for the next months. ( https://www.tomsguide.com/news/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-ti-16gb ) On the other hand it's still possible that the offer isn't that bad, if this is a PC from a bigger manufacturer like Dell or HP and they are still getting GPUs at a lower price. But to say anything about it, we need to know the parts. Here is a config that i would choose at the moment in this price range (for CPU rendering): Ryzen 9 5950x - 64GB - 500GB+2TB SSD - RTX 3060 12GB https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=WL-2345494 and the same with 3080 TI Ryzen 9 5950x - 64GB - 500GB+2TB SSD - RTX 3080 TI 12GB https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=WL-2345529 Both configurations with 16 cores, 64GB RAM, only SSDs (no mechanical drive), decent board and good CPU cooler, PSU and case. The only difference is the GPU. (Not totally sure regarding the board, i would have to look deeper into it. But at least this one comes with 2x PCIe 4.0 16x (for potential GPU rendering upgrades in the future) and 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 4x for a second fast M.2 SSD.) For more CPU cores you would need to switch to Ryzen Threadripper, where everything is much more expensive.

For a mirror, it's what material is applied to the surface that matters, not whether an object is a solid or a face. As far as the reflection/refraction scene settings, this was done many, many versions ago, and I don't know where the settings are currently found.

Nice! I'd just say the camera location looks static and a little odd. It could be you have a specific view in mind. I'd look at professional interior photographs (or renders) that are designed to show-off or describe the space (realty and interior design pictures). This picture seems to be attempting a frontal view of the TV cabinet, as you might want for the cabinet maker, but not a picture of the room. I get an uneasy sense that there's no telling how high the ceiling is, because the picture goes up about to where I would expect the ceiling, but one can't see it. You might try views off-center, from the corners of the room to encompass the space differently (which also makes it feel more dynamic as a consequence of converging lines created in perspective). Though it is a day scene you might try some low interior lighting to add interest, making the lighting less homogeneous. Good work. Hope to see more!

I'd contact Vray Support and submit the log. Your paying to use the product so they'll happily help.

What rendering engine are you using? I use Thearender and it allows for the lines from Sketchup to merge with the rendering. There are times I only want the lines for certain elements, so I composite different renderings in a photo editor to get the results I'm looking for.

No one has this issue except of me? Thanks for reply. Best regards Andreas

@rv1974 said: I see. Then put multiple skp files as groups (also, there are some plugins to organize layers properly) in one file, set up scenes properly and that's it. PS Also see tig xref manager- those skp groups could be xrefs Exactly what I'm doing, but each model has 8 different scenes, its taking a long time. I know it's possible to make a .bat file, I just don't know how

Maybe you should talk to the Chaos Group folks.

Yes it does that and it is annoying, I keep V-ray disabled because of it. Which naturally means I use it less and tend to use one that doesn't do this.

@dave r said: Have you tried contacting customer support for Vray? Vray doesn't offer support for 3rd party plugins like Animator.

Mates, Thanks in advance for all your kind supports. Due to the fact that my book is dedicated to V. 2x, I decided to reduce the proposed price to $6 and think for those who may find it handy, it is the right time to buy it. The basics concepts on material and lighting in the most recent version are the same as previous( I mean the main concepts such as Reflection, refraction, bump, displacement, light values, light types, etc) and even in some realms, the changes are very subtle. But the interface has drastically changed so if one is going to use the recent versions, my book is outdated and obsolete. I hope to have some spare time to update it to the most recent version if my computer bears it (while seems due to rapid updates, it is not so wise). Just saw that a most recent and comprehensive book for more advanced users is announced on the sub-forum by another user.

Have you tried to save a new template after a successful component update? Additionally, the current version is 5.00.03... [image: vMY1_vray_version.JPG]

@rspierenburg said: One thing to check would be if the Pebble face is grouped or not. I believe VRray Displacement in Sketchup only works on grouped faces. Thanks! That worked. I applied material to a group and displacement showed up!