SU upgrade to 8.0.4811 (Maintenance 1)

Bob James · 20 Jan 2011, 07:10

Thanks, Spence: I'll give it a try

honoluludesktop · 20 Jan 2011, 09:59

Doesn't DivX require a DivX player? Will it work with the WinMedia Player?

Pixero · 20 Jan 2011, 10:41

List of default codecs in Windows media player: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899113

Everything else will need a special codec download.
As of DivX there is also the free Xvid. Still a codec is needed to play.

Gaieus · 20 Jan 2011, 11:45

@spence said:

I don't believe I'm able to change what codec because I'm not using the Pro version.

There's absolutely no difference between the free and pro versions in this case (since version 6, they can export animation exactly the same way).

If it does not work, there must be something else. To check if it does work, set the codec to something else than Cinepack. Export something (just a couple of frames) and open the export options again. If it did not change back to Cinepack, it works.

(I still like to export as image sequence better. I generally export at a double size then I batch resize them with some better antialiasing than what SU has and make the movie of the images - more control, more options, nicer output - but double/triple as much time to accomplish)

Pixero · 20 Jan 2011, 11:59

@gaieus said:

I still like to export as image sequence better. I generally export at a double size then I batch resize them with some better antialiasing than what SU has and make the movie of the images - more control, more options, nicer output - but double/triple as much time to accomplish

Plus, if anything goes wrong, like a crash, with images you can just continue where you left of while for a movie export you'd have to start from the beginning.

Gaieus · 20 Jan 2011, 12:06

Yes, exactly. And although not an excellent movie, this technique also allows me to use some special effects between the different parts like below.

Phases of an excavation
[flash=450,380:4adfvfw1]http://www.youtube.com/v/bKsEpF1Neh0?fs=1&hl=en_US[/flash:4adfvfw1]

Khai · 20 Jan 2011, 12:57

@honoluludesktop said:

Doesn't DivX require a DivX player? Will it work with the WinMedia Player?

for all your video playback needs - http://www.videolan.org/ small, powerful, free, plays just about anything.

Pixero · 20 Jan 2011, 13:39

Yes VLC Player is great, but what if you want to send a movie to a client?
Then you must use something that can be viewed on any computer.

Khai · 20 Jan 2011, 13:51

@pixero said:

Yes VLC Player is great, but what if you want to send a movie to a client?
Then you must use something that can be viewed on any computer.

then all bets are out the window. you can't even guarentee they have the same codec's you do anyway.

at that point, your better off boiling your work down to DVD format. that can be played on more than just a computer then...

Bryan K · 26 Jan 2011, 07:16

I'm still using 7 (free). Is there any compelling reason to go to 8 (free)?

I'm seem to vaguely recall that someone mentioned some features had been removed from 8?

Can anyone fill me in?

Gaieus · 26 Jan 2011, 10:45

DWG/DXF import was removed from 7.0 and substituted with a plugin in the free version. AFAIK it does not work in SU 8 (free) but I am not sure.

However you can always keep your old version 7 (I have 6, and and can even run them together at the same time. If nothing else, the shadow bug fix is worth upgrading to v.8 M1.

Bryan K · 26 Jan 2011, 19:33

Thanks Gaieus.

I didn't know about the shadow bug. What is that all about?

Gaieus · 26 Jan 2011, 19:53

When during an animation where shadows are on, the camera is travelling into/out of the shadow, it used to flicker. Just try it out.

Now it's fixed.

RHPLUS · 30 Jan 2011, 12:08

I checked out V-ray for SU8. There is possibility to use HDRI 360 panoramas as a background and source of natural light in scene, but this is very difficult to positionning this panoramas in accordance to real sun position.My proposition is to enlarge options in styles settings and let set 360 HDRI or raster panorama as a background instead of color sky and ground.

Al Hart · 30 Jan 2011, 15:52

[This is probably getting off-topic]

When 360 HDRIs were "invented" the idea was to stitch together actual photographs to create Panoramic images. But no provision was made in the HDRi format to specify where the sun happened to be when the image was taken, (and what time, date, and location was used for the image). It it were, then we could attempt to rotate the image (automatically) to have the sun direction match the SketchUp sun direction. But, of course, we could not change the date, time or location of the original HDRi image to match the SketchUp sun time. (Since the HDRi image has already been taken)

These backgrounds provide great illumination and reflections. But I, (after admitting to by prejudice in this matter), think that SketchUp should leave the interface and rendering of HDRi backgrounds to the add-on renderers.

HDRI rendering

Original SketchUp Model

@rhplus said:

I checked out V-ray for SU8. There is possibility to use HDRI 360 panoramas as a background and source of natural light in scene, but this is very difficult to positionning this panoramas in accordance to real sun position.My proposition is to enlarge options in styles settings and let set 360 HDRI or raster panorama as a background instead of color sky and ground.

Gaieus · 30 Jan 2011, 17:04

@al hart said:

...I [...] think that SketchUp should leave the interface and rendering of HDRi backgrounds to the add-on renderers.

SU has nothing to do with 3rd party renderers and even if it had - which one then? (Why V-ray for instance?)

thomthom · 30 Jan 2011, 17:10

@gaieus said:

@al hart said:

...I [...] think that SketchUp should leave the interface and rendering of HDRi backgrounds to the add-on renderers.

SU has nothing to do with 3rd party renderers and even if it had - which one then? (Why V-ray for instance?)

But it would be cool to use environment maps in SketchUp...

jason_maranto · 30 Jan 2011, 18:56

I'd like this too -- and not just for rendering engine use but also I think it could be very powerful as part of styles... I'm thinking of starry skies or city backdrops as being very nice touches that could be put to great use in both Sketchup and Layout.

Best,
Jason.

Al Hart · 30 Jan 2011, 19:19

You can use watermarks to add foreground and background images to your model.

Won't this do what you are looking for?

We have a lot of trouble with users first starting with 360 degrees HDRI backgrounds. One problem is that the part of the background you see in the image above is about 30 degrees or 1/12 or the whole 360 degrees - so to get good resolution - say 1280 pixels for the background - you need 12 * 1280, or 15,000 pixels in your HDRI image. And a 15,360 x 15,360 pixel image (remember that the HDRI goes 360 degrees in both directions), you need a very large image, just to grab a little of it for the background.

This is necessary if you are using the image for reflections and illumination. But a lot of extra work if you are just using it for a background.

thomthom · 30 Jan 2011, 19:23

@al hart said:

Won't this do what you are looking for?

It would be good to have background that rotate with the model when you orbit the camera, instead of just the static background.