Lumion - Test drive

tfdesign · 30 Mar 2011, 20:42

Or put the kettle on? But that's not good, unless you have a dedicated PC for the soft.

I think I'll stick with Unity3D.

Ecuadorian · 30 Mar 2011, 20:49

Octane also works with the GPU and has a similar problem... You can still use other windows and it will keep rendering, but the system will feel really sluggish, even when browsing the web. They recommend getting a second GPU just for display.

LightUp, on the other hand, is also a GPU-heavy renderer, but you can still do other stuff and have a responsive system, at least for web browsing.

marvins_dad · 30 Mar 2011, 20:52

Thanks for the verification. I guess that is something that is inherent with GPU renderers?

Gaieus · 31 Mar 2011, 06:58

Yes, there is even a topic on the Lumion forums about this where they explain (please, allow me not to perfectly understand the technical details). It seems that splitting GPU tasks is not as straightforward as splitting CPU tasks (especially with multicore processors) but gain, please, do not argue with me as it is beyond me...

Anyway, I finally finished this model (sort of - it needs some work from inside but that cannot be seen from here). I am probably too "enthusiastic" about all this fog and such and it seems to be a bit too much from some views but this is the course of learning now for me (thus the topic title "Lumion Test Drive").

Tweaking materials: here I could finally get the hang. You need normal maps to create your own with proper (or maybe exaggerated as in the video below) bumps and all. I used a Gimp plugin to create my normal maps but of course, there are a bunch of applications out there.

YouTube - Lumion Test Drive - Cella Trichora, Sopianae
[flash=600,360:339k2zzb]http://www.youtube.com/v/2-QS_V1jFJ4?fs=1&hl=en_US[/flash:339k2zzb]

The model is an actual archaeological find (of last year), an Early Christian cemetery chapel from the 4th century (we have about two dozen of them - ranging from 3-4 metres to the largest known at 22.5 metres - in our World Heritage site.

Rich O Brien · 31 Mar 2011, 08:25

That's excellent

tfdesign · 31 Mar 2011, 09:05

That was good

Maybe I will have another look at it.

Gaieus · 31 Mar 2011, 10:10

I think the contrast (between dark/ shaded and sunlight) was a bit too strong above however. Besides some presets, you can always adjust the shadow colour, exposure, brightnes and all. Obviously some kind of bloom effect comes from fog (be careful - it may be a common mistake to overdo it - like the ploy count of a nipple compared to a whole head of those poser figures) and of course, it slows rendering time down (as far as I can tell).

Fog is great however to indicate "depth" (as we know since Leonardo). Here is a 3D output with less dramatical difference between dark and light areas (again, 3D glasses are needed and the old embed code that we can use on the forums cannot get the 3D view in - only the new, iFrame code which does not work on the forums so visit YT instead via the link above the video)

YouTube - Cella Trichora Secunda 3D - Sopianae
[flash=600,360:2sy5ji56]http://www.youtube.com/v/9wwgLWx2qa4?fs=1&hl=en_US[/flash:2sy5ji56]

numbthumb · 31 Mar 2011, 15:06

I would like to know which file format do you prefer for import into Lumion? I am using SU 7.1 Free, so I guess .dae is the only choice I have ( that is, without plugins like TIG´s OBJexporter )

solo · 31 Mar 2011, 15:08

Collada works great actually, I've had no problems yet.

numbthumb · 31 Mar 2011, 15:13

OK, thanks for the info. No need for tweaking default export settings?

solo · 31 Mar 2011, 15:16

nope.

marvins_dad · 31 Mar 2011, 21:56

This was my second attempt. The thought is to animate a few existing projects and maybe the powers that be might loosen the purse strings so we can get a license.

This one is a little longer and a little more complete.

[flash=640,390:30mneckg]http://www.youtube.com/v/TcPW-hIaE6w[/flash:30mneckg]

marvins_dad · 31 Mar 2011, 22:12

Here is my first simply fly around after playing with it for about 30 minutes. I haven't modeled the parking lot yet and added a lake out front just to play with the terrain tools. I have much to learn, but it is really easy and I can see that some of the questions I have had you guys have already asked.

I did notice that the if you had the opposite side of the default material exposed to the camera, it reads it as clear...which creates holes in your model if you are looking through the model at a wall that hasn't had a texture applied. Easy to fix, but something to point out for those that haven't played with it yet.

[flash=640,390:8nypclw8]http://www.youtube.com/v/F6ulj_CDALU[/flash:8nypclw8]

marvins_dad · 31 Mar 2011, 22:13

I think I finally got it to embed...but if not...
Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6ulj_CDALU

marvins_dad · 31 Mar 2011, 22:16

I definitely see the need for a way to Animate/Move doors for those occasions where you want to maintain a path where you encounter a door or an object that needs to be moved out of the way.

Gaieus · 1 Apr 2011, 02:59

I have seen some mention of fbx but I have also (only) tried dae (collad) so far.
Next couple of posts I'd like to show how to import and deal with SU terrains.

Rico91 · 2 Apr 2011, 15:10

Wow! amazing..
just a test:

ps: how can i post a youtube little screen at here?
i only get a link of it..

Gaieus · 2 Apr 2011, 15:25

See how the code is below. You can use the [flas] bbcode tag to embed a video here:

[flash=600,360]http://www.youtube.com/v/Yd-wAWSCGwo[/flash]

[flash=600,360:oq47yb73]http://www.youtube.com/v/Yd-wAWSCGwo[/flash:oq47yb73]

numbthumb · 2 Apr 2011, 15:30

This one may come in handy: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=179&t=28717&p=249419&hilit=embed+YouTube+video#p249419

Gaieus · 2 Apr 2011, 15:47

Yes, thanks NTh, I was desperately looking for this topic the other day but apparently used wrong search terms (and the forum search engine definitely sucks)