What SketchUp could/should have been like...

Pixero · 26 Oct 2010, 20:30

Plus in one tutorial video I can clearly see SketchUp as a import option but he chooses fbx.
I read something about problems with SU import so thats not working at the moment.

AdamB · 27 Oct 2010, 08:48

My big problem with this kind of approach is that it cannot support anything but trivial light sources. ie PointLights (omni) and Direction (sun) lights. eg You cannot support Area lights with this tech.

Adam

binouze23 · 27 Oct 2010, 09:12

Hi Sketchucationers,

I test it yesterday on an iMac running Xp with bootcamp (don't have all the specs here)

Exporting from Skp to Fbx > OK (and I didn't explode anything before)
Importing Fbx in Twinmotion > OK
Collapsing the group by material in TwinMotion > OK

BUT I don't get anything in the preview window.
I mean I can see my imported model with all the groups in the file tree on the left but the main window remain all black !!!

I will post this problem on their support forum as soon as they accept my account but I post it here in case someone else here got the same issue.

Nico

PS: the original sketchup file was around 30Mb (just to give you an idea)

MrWip · 27 Oct 2010, 11:36

@adamb said:

My big problem with this kind of approach is that it cannot support anything but trivial light sources. ie Point Lights (omni) and Direction (sun) lights. eg You cannot support Area lights with this tech.

Adam, sorry but your assertion is false, there's area lights in TM2, and it works well (you also have spots and omni). The difference with, for example, light up, which bakes the lighting, is the fact that you cannot set a random surface of your model as an emitter (by applying it to a material)...it reduce a bit the range of possibilities, but still, it's quite efficient.

@solo said:

You have to explode everything in SU before exporting, then triangulate every face... yikes!!!

The importer works by splitting the object by material (just like Su2Thea actually), so you don't have to do anything by hand (exploding everything, and so on). I've beta tested the early versions, and it was rather slow with a full sketchup hierarchy loaded in real time. But, by using this method (which is automatic with the import preset "sketchup"), it's much more efficient.

AdamB · 27 Oct 2010, 15:18

@mrwip said:

Adam, sorry but your assertion is false, there's area lights in TM2, and it works well (you also have spots and omni). The difference with, for example, light up, which bakes the lighting, is the fact that you cannot set a random surface of your model as an emitter (by applying it to a material)...it reduce a bit the range of possibilities, but still, it's quite efficient.

I'll take a look at the App. I think you may be mistaken wrt Area light support because of the way their engine works.

MrWip · 27 Oct 2010, 20:36

Adam, I've been in touch with the developers during the building of the software, and ask them the same question than yours, because usually, deferred rendering engine ( cryengine and such) never include planar lights, and are always limited to point elements. But actually, in twinmotion, they've fine a way to do so. I don't know how technically, or what trick they're using, but in the end, you're able to get a planar ceiling lamp for exemple (that you can't achieve with an omni or a spot).Isn't that what your looking for ?

AdamB · 28 Oct 2010, 18:42

OK, I've had a play with it. Its precisely what I knew it would be - had to be even.

Doesn't do area lights.

The way these engines work is creating a view of the world from the light position to create a "shadowmap" that can then be used in your shader to determine how much direct light falls on a surface.

For a small number of shadow casting lights this works great. For a real area light or hundreds of lights, its a none-starter.

(Mr Wip, the Area light effect is done by tweaking the shadowmap projection transform to create a orthographic projection, but ultimately its still a shadowmap. Its not really an area light the way most people think about the lighting effect of an area light.)

Summing up: Definitely an Interesting Application. The best advice I'd give is for people to try it out on your own models, if what it does is what you need, you've got yourself a winner.

Adam

MrWip · 30 Oct 2010, 12:47

ok, it's clearer now, thanks for the explanation Adam.

jim smith · 1 Nov 2010, 14:36

[quote="Pixero"]Another teaser for "the rendering killer".

I just saw the release announcement in the Daily CatchUp. looks like the rendering killer is also a budget killer at USD$2,990.00

Seems to be great fun, but I think I will stick to Chucks' new plugins for now.

cadmunkey · 5 Nov 2010, 16:48

@unknownuser said:

@pixero said:

Seems to be great fun, but I think I will stick to Chucks' new plugins for now.

Link?

jim smith · 5 Nov 2010, 17:24

@cadmunkey said:

@unknownuser said:

@pixero said:

Seems to be great fun, but I think I will stick to Chucks' new plugins for now.

Link?

cadmunkey - sorry for the mixed metaphor - The "killer" announcement came out about the same time Chuck Vali announced his plugins. http://www.valiarchitects.com/

I intended my comment to make a comparison of my sticker shock for the $2,900 renderer versus the very reasonable ($15 to $39 each for pro, free basic) and usefull Instant roof-road and grader plug-ins.

Since then, there was the announced release of "Luminon" which seems to be a very cool, feature laden and similar rendering program at about 1/3 the cost of the "killer".

Pixero · 6 Nov 2010, 16:13

I tried the demo again and its really too slow to be usable. I might not have the newest top of the line grahipcs card but for an empty scene with a plane and a sphere I think you could ask for better framrate than it gives.
Now lets wait and see what Lumion is like...

cadmunkey · 7 Nov 2010, 10:11

Thanks for the link Jim, the road from faces plugin I will definately get.