IRender NXT questions

museummaker

I am really liking this software. I have been able to do things I never thought I could.

I am getting a "SketchUP Not responding" message and white screen of scariness when I engage the render-- it hasn't crashed, just hangs for awhile and recovers smoothly. It's a 17 meg file, that may have something to do with it.

Anyone else see this? Otherwise I am pleased with performance and interface.

solo

Patrick, I believe that is normal, I get that too and I get the same message with Indigo and Vray if the model is too big or has too many poly's or very large texture footprint.
I guess the period of non response is while the render engine is gathering the model info in order to render.

museummaker

Still rendering...

Warehouse stuff + CGTextures+ IRender no PS

solo

Thanks for the help Richcat, I was able to get the animation right, here is a scaled down, and .gif converted example (so quality is degraded) of an animation that is 1200 x(something) which took 11 minutes to render.

richcat

When extracting from sketchup and creating the batch file on large models I get the white screen. The biggest size I have been able to do so far is Paul Russams Church (28meg) and that was with reducing the max texture size down to 50.
The main hurdle is running out of ram with sketchup when extracting, Al is working on /3GB for XP or 64-bit windows. Batch rendering after getting over this has never been a problem.
Extract from render of Paul Church, with some PS filters applied.

Al Hart

@solo said:

Al

Every now and again when I open an old model to render with NXT my floor/ground renders as a mirror, even though I have not edited any materials, is this a issue on my side, is there a default button I need to find, or is this a bug?

If you get another one of these (especially if it is a small one, or you you can delete a bunch of the model and it still fails, send it to me.

For a floor, there are two possibilities:

Sometimes people use a material which is slightly transparent, or which has a texture which has an alpha channel. In IRender nXt, transparent things, even if just slightly transparent, have reflections.
But we also used to have problems with ground planes reflecting. In SketchUp the default ground plane is transparent, and therefore could have reflection. But I think we added a special setting for this.

We would be glad to look at a model if you can send one.

Al Hart

Solo,

We just made some improvement which let us render much larger models, (in response to a model from Richcat.), which will be released next week. Do you want to send me your large model so I can see if we can render it as well?

Al

solo

Al

I was just reading about the new update coming next week on your forum, that's great news.
Will downloading the new update lenghten the trial

My model is 106 mb , may be a little over the top for any render engine which is SU integrated.

I have another that I will clean up and upload to rapidshare and mail you the link (I have a few of my commercial components in it)

I am really enjoying the animation render capabilities by the way, probably the easiest and fastest available IMO.

Al Hart

@solo said:

Al

I was just reading about the new update coming next week on your forum, that's great news.
Will downloading the new update lengthen the trial

My model is 106 mb , may be a little over the top for any render engine which is SU integrated.

I have another that I will clean up and upload to rapidshare and mail you the link (I have a few of my commercial components in it)

I am really enjoying the animation render capabilities by the way, probably the easiest and fastest available IMO.

I think the model will be too big. But it will help us figure out how to improve things. How are you able to load it into SketchUp?

The new version will not increase the free trial, but clever users will figure out that each time they enter the contest trial code they get another 30 days. Hopefully some people will decide that the software is so good that they should buy a copy, or try to win one in the rendering contest.

Regarding Animation, Rich works hard to try to make our interface a lot like SketchUp's. So an animation set up for SketchUp is pretty much ready to go. Similarly, we try to fix things so the just render without your having to explode groups, turn images into faces, add shadow masks, define things outside of SketchUp, or redefine things if you change your model. We spend a lot of time trying to make things work, rather than explaining to users what they have to do to make them work.

kwistenbiebel

So Irender NXT supports animation in SU? That is good to know.
Does it support RPC with animated textures? (like moving people etc..?)
That would be great. There is no render engine for SU that supports this currently.

Gaieus

@al hart said:

...The new version will not increase the free trial, but clever users will figure out that each time they enter the contest trial code they get another 30 days.

If it weren't you, Al, writing the above here, I'd have to give you an official warning for spreading and encouraging piracy on the board!

@unknownuser said:

...Hopefully some people will decide that the software is so good that they should buy a copy, or try to win one in the rendering contest...

So let's hope this!

Al Hart

@kwistenbiebel said:

So Irender NXT supports animation in SU? That is good to know.
Does it support RPC with animated textures? (like moving people etc..?)
That would be great. There is no render engine for SU that supports this currently.

We don't support RPC's animation (yet).

We have found almost no one who uses RPC. We do support RPC in general, but we haven't looked at their animation stuff. If some SketchUp users are using RPC for other things and/or are willing to purchase RPC objects for use with SketchUp/IRender, then they need to mention it sometime. It is hard to take the time to work on things, like RPC, if you don't think anyone wants or uses it.

If you use RPC for other things - Revit, Photoshop, etc., then try it out with IRender nXt and let us know what you think.

Al Hart

@gaieus said:

If it weren't you, Al, writing the above here, I'd have to give you an official warning for spreading and encouraging piracy on the board!

Of course, that will only work until the end of the contest. But if triggering an extra 30-days will give someone a chance to use it more, perhaps they will like it and actually purchase a copy someday.

In general we give people a second 30-day trial if they request it. But, eventually they have to purchase the software or stop using it.

If someone is never going to buy your software, (Lets face it, some SketchUp users simply don't have the ability to purchase things), then you haven't really lost anything it they find a way to use it. We just wish we could find a business model which let us give things away free, but still let us pay ourselves.

Al Hart

@unknownuser said:

have started this thread as I cannot seem to register on the Renderplus forums for some reason.

I sent you an invitation to join the IRender nXt forum (this is different from the Render Plus forums - because it is for all flavors of the nXt engine - AutoCAD, Revit and Rhino - in addition to SketchUp)

Gaieus

@al hart said:

...Of course, that will only work until the end of the contest. But if triggering an extra 30-days will give someone a chance to use it more, perhaps they will like it and actually purchase a copy someday. ...

Well, that's a good and smart policy indeed. I've also tried software before and though gave only one shot, by the time I could eventually make some use of it and try it really, my trial had expired.
Such a "flexible" licensing policy may encourage users - and ultimately purchases - more.

kwistenbiebel

@al hart said:

If you use RPC for other things - Revit, Photoshop, etc., then try it out with IRender nXt and let us know what you think.

I am not using RPC and I don't know if other forum members do.
The reason why I asked is because I would love to be able to include animated textures in my animations.
Things like a moving sky with clouds, people walking, animated water etc....
I just said RPC as I don't know how it is done otherwise. (Marlin Studios moving people etc...)