Render Poll

caddict · 21 Mar 2009, 02:32

Povray shouldn't be overlooked. It's free and there is now SU2POV exporter. Povray has no GUI of it's own, so people shy away from it. Some arch apps I have used include organic links to Povray. With my basic rendering skills, I have found it to be a pretty fine renderer. Haven't tried SU2POV but will soon.

Ecuadorian · 21 Mar 2009, 02:59

I used POV for fun years ago... without a modeler. Loved to see things come to life out of text. It was magic, but time-consuming.

caddict · 21 Mar 2009, 20:35

I guess that way you get to see the nuts and bolts of how the renderer works. I see you are aKT user...have you used recent versions of Povray? How do you like it as a renderer, I mean, assuming it has a pretty front end (like say SU2POV)?

rcossoli · 24 Mar 2009, 04:57

would be good to update the options on the survey as it did long ago, it can be changed without losing the results, some moderator can do?
add Artlantis, vue, povray, do not think that engine should be.
I think a good idea to do

Gaieus · 26 Mar 2009, 13:12

Well, a mod could certainly do it but you, as the poster of the first post with the poll should also be able to do it - however I'm not sure if the current results would be lost but even if not, I doubt you could get a fair result as the current "competitors" already have votes and people who otherwise would have voted for something else now could not change their votes (or if you change that as well, not sure if they come back to change or vote again).

Ecuadorian · 26 Mar 2009, 15:32

If you're going to start a new poll, I'd suggest a more objective question, like "What render application do you use the most with your SketchUp models?"

And don't forget to add POV, Vue and perhaps even LightUp, although it is actually one of a kind.

rcossoli · 26 Mar 2009, 16:55

you're right Gaieus , misses many of the views that are already in the survey.
with respect to make it more objective, the main idea was to know which was the best from the perspective of each, not to evaluate performance quickly or benefits of each.
A future survey could add PovRay, Artlantis Irender also be treading too strong, would be much better.
With regard to Vue that I should not be classified as a rendering engine like anything else, because in reality is a much more comprehensive program that has a very good integration with sketchup because you do not need plugins to open the files.

What we really want to understand that this survey (as I said) is not to create controversy, but only to see what the program most used by the rendering we use sketchup.

Sorry for my English

caddict · 26 Mar 2009, 21:17

This may have been suggested before, but maybe we could run a challenge to produce a render of some chosen model. People could use the renderer of their choice, using their renders to prove their point...better than through verbal discussion. The proof of the pudding...

honoluludesktop · 27 Mar 2009, 09:55

Su2pov3 produced great renders (especially interior renders) with very reasonable set up time for me. The PC plugin interface is easy to use, and provides diffuse, brilliance, specular, reflection, roughness, graininess, and bump sliders. It provides point, and spot lights with controls for spread, power, and other features I do not recall off hand.

My installation had some problems, but I was able to find workarounds for everything (Search this forum for my comments if you need to). One problem I had was with the path names of Cad blocks that were imported via dxf. Blocks become components in SU. Su2Pov3 uses the path name in the identification of components, and pov would hang when it found "" in the name. If you stick to models built in SU, there should be no problem. In addition, pov dosn't work well with textures on a back face.

No software has it all, this is a good one.

caddict · 27 Mar 2009, 19:29

thanks for that hd. Also another good thing about POV is that, being (more or less) open source, it continues to develop and grow in an independent way.

and of course it runs on windows linux and mac

l.frisken · 28 Mar 2009, 03:47

can I adjust the reflectivity for individual materialswith su2pov? I've never seen any sliders before. Please let me in on this!

IdahoJ · 28 Mar 2009, 04:13

I've been using POVray for 10+ years and consider it a very capable renderer.
I'd like to see the developers of the su2pov3 plugin release the source (the current version appears to be compiled). I would like to see if I can add support for the POVray SDL (Scene Description Language) and possibly a texture creation dialog to be called from inside of SU...

honoluludesktop · 28 Mar 2009, 04:17

The ruby is encrypted. Its author is a active, very busy member on this forum. Perhaps you can work with him.

IdahoJ · 28 Mar 2009, 04:26

Thx for the info... I'll see what can be done.

Cheers.

honoluludesktop · 28 Mar 2009, 04:31

Yes you can. Right click a surface and typically all instances of that textures can be affected, but if you make a unique texture, you can affect a single surface. However if you have a Mac, I am not sure if su2pov3 has been ported to it.

l.frisken · 28 Mar 2009, 07:32

i'm still not sure what to do. I right click on a face with a material applied but there is no sign of pov-ray in the context menu. Even with a clean version of sketchup!

honoluludesktop · 28 Mar 2009, 09:13

If you have installed Su2Pov3, and pov-ray properly, then you need to follow this.

l.frisken · 30 Mar 2009, 08:14

I'd be interested in what kind of quality is possible in pov-ray with sketchup. I'm hiving trouble getting good results and am wondering if it is worth continuing. does anyone have any good pov/sketchup renders they want to show off?

caddict · 1 Jun 2009, 23:49

just look at the povray hall of fame to see what can be done

POV-Ray Hall of Fame

(hof.povray.org)

su2pov creates a povray file which can then be easily edited without going back to SU.
for example the material qualities are all declared/described in the file (and can be changed but not usually necessary)

then the matrial quality assigned to each material can also be edited:

so if you wanted your glass to be more reflective, just change the setting from shiny to mirror for example.