@thomthom said:

Sharper? Not sure sure what you mean here. ❓

It may be hard to tell from the posted pictures what I mean. It's ok. I think my main problem was the lack of light in the scene. I've added some more light and it's brightened that backwall up.

Thanks

Matt, There is no "best inside SU renderer under $200". IMO, aside from "features", most rendering applications use the same math, and primarily differentiate themselves by their interface. Each of us are vested in a application by some form of ownership. After you have spent some time with a particular application, it is unlikely that you will attempt to learn something new unless the return is justified.

Is quite nice using old SU files that were never rendered to
try out this great rendering engine

Quick render on old file

You have issue with emitter material? It uses surface normal for the direction, so make sure you have no back faces (or you can enable emitter to cast light to back side too (KT Material Editor>Self Luminance). Need a example scene for further analysis.
btw It maybe slower in KT forum, but I never seen such quality in render like now. There many active users and I dare to say, you will get help faster there. Only need to define you problem accurately and perhaps provide a example scene. Please, continue this at KT forums, if it's still a issue.

thanks for your help, my other question is when I initially set up a drawing what is the correct procedure for setting up drawing units. I typically work in feet and inches, not meters.

Michael Fellman

Great tool for LightUp and very clear tutorial. 👍

Thanks!

Hi!
I have s FF (v 1.x) standard license: the program is well done and powerful, the best thing is the huge user filter library (something like 7000+ filters).
I thought I would have used it more often than what I'm actually doing, but I can say it was worth the (discounted) price I paid. I'd suggest you to deeply test the demo before buying (as usual...), keep in mind that for most users the standard license is enough (you can upgrade to pro later) and that they use to have some huge (40/50% off) discount sales in a year... if you're not in a hurry it's worth to wait for the next one 😉

if you're looking to FF as a procedural texture maker only (FF has many brilliant image-editor filters too and can be used from within PS or standalone) and you're a Win-only-guy, you may want to try the free MapZone from Allegorithmic: http://www.mapzoneeditor.com/index.php?PAGE=HOME
it's not in development anymore but still a great tool for free...

finally, if you need to create normal/bump/refl/etc. maps from your textures take a look at ShaderMap: http://shadermap.com/ - it's not free but very cheap (20$ for the "pro" GUI version). also win-only but works fine in OSX under VirtualBox

cheers,
Alessandro

About those challenging materials, fortunately there are several renderers that can handle complex materials and light in physically accurate way, where materials rough or no. 😄 http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=6614442

Thanks Guys, i'll look at the sites.

EDIT: Thanks for all your help i have started the ball rolling on the bundle for 3D render. Thanks Rich

That's a very nice 3D print. Much greater quality than the printer we had at my university a few years ago.

hm... I'm guessing your got two surfaces right on top of each other - creating z-fighting.

hello there,

this forum has a lot of information on this topic... I think the most recent thread was this one:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=27476

my recommendation would be Twilight render. It is implemented into SU, has a lot of features that the "big" renderers have, yet easy to use and VERY affordable.

Good luck! (would be nice to see your decision posted here)

alex

Cheers guys

Thanks so much

Cheers

I'll look into that