FryRender (New Kid on the Block!)

plot-paris

so the perfect solution for a SU plugin of a render engine (no matter which) would be to:

store the material information externally
automatically import a lo-res image (perhaps even baked) of the material to SketchUp, when loaded
direct control of material attributes within SketchUp - changes affect the externally saved material-file.
[Edit]or information of changes are saved in the SU file (attatched to the SU-material, but can be applied to the external material-file, if needed. thus you can have a library of mats that will never be changed, but you can still do indivitual changes within every model...

I think that is pretty much the positive aspects of the different approaches combined. and it would mean the easiest workflow ever for rendering!

Stinkie

@richard said:

@unknownuser said:

Too bad, really, that neither Fry of Maxwell has SkIndigo's intuitive approach to material editing. That's where both apps, imho, really fall short in accomodating SU users.

Hmmmm? I would strongly suggest the opposite - the blended material setup with Indigo for me follows nothing toward a intuitive approach. When Maxwell was in beta it relied upon all material setup being done directly in SU and the best decision they made IMHO was to introduce a standalone material editor!

I've never used a blended mat. I was referring to -technical term!- "normal mats". Don't get me wrong here, I like Maxwell, but really, when it comes to setting up, say, a nice parquet mat, (Sk)Indigo wins hands down with regards to speed and user-friendliness.

I say all of them software boys start working together.

Whaat

@richard said:

I must say the all maps in scene issue of indigo was what I've found to be my biggest bug bear with it. For most brickworks for example I use 3 diffuse maps and one bump map and for many other materials I use more than one diffuse so my material browser in SU goes WOE!!!!

So...if I were to 'fix' this than I could convert you to Indigo once and for all???

If I understand you correctly, you have to manually create a low-rez version of your texture in order to do the UV mapping in SketchUp. Then, you just 'link' to the MXM material using the plugin, right? Or is there another step?

Richard

@plot-paris said:

so the perfect solution for a SU plugin of a render engine (no matter which) would be to:

store the material information externally

automatically import a lo-res image (perhaps even baked) of the material to SketchUp, when loaded

direct control of material attributes within SketchUp - changes affect the externally saved material-file.
[Edit]or information of changes are saved in the SU file (attatched to the SU-material, but can be applied to the external material-file, if needed. thus you can have a library of mats that will never be changed, but you can still do indivitual changes within every model...

I think that is pretty much the positive aspects of the different approaches combined. and it would mean the easiest workflow ever for rendering!

Mate!!!!!!!

I think you just hit the perfect SU user prefered workflow on the head!!!!

I certainly one who likes the ability to save and access commonly used materials for later use and certainly not use large scale maps in the model. and certainly like the external referencing of materials, I will often have more than one material using the same map in SU - for example I may have a few types of brickwork for which I position the bump map and add colour (say bright green) in SU and link it to the maxwell material of choice - then make another material
with the same map and again colour it (say bright blue) in SU and again liknk this to another maxwell brick material of choice. This allows me to quickly test various material options just by relinking the SU map to another material.

All that said - one of my loves of Indigo is the option to colour edit maps in SU and they are exported to render holding the SU colour editing. I know this sounds like I want the best of both worlds!!!! Yep!!!!

I think that is where both systems break down - options for workflow!!!!!

I think the ideal workflow would be the option to externally link materials and those not linked holding any colour editing from SU. However it would be great if SU did possess better image editing options.

One of the key upgrades recently to the current version of Maxwell's material editor is the ability to adjust the saturation, contrast and brightness of maps. This allows a single map to be better used in the reflection, specularity and bump channels. One map for all and all handled by the editor!

Richard

@whaat said:

@richard said:

I must say the all maps in scene issue of indigo was what I've found to be my biggest bug bear with it. For most brickworks for example I use 3 diffuse maps and one bump map and for many other materials I use more than one diffuse so my material browser in SU goes WOE!!!!

So...if I were to 'fix' this than I could convert you to Indigo once and for all???

If I understand you correctly, you have to manually create a low-rez version of your texture in order to do the UV mapping in SketchUp. Then, you just 'link' to the MXM material using the plugin, right? Or is there another step?

Whaat - yes mate that is the workflow regarding the use of lowres images. I open the large map in PS and using the "save for Web" function save the image out at the same pixel dimension but at lower image quality. This allows the UV's and scale to be set correctly.

In regards to adoption of Indigo to workflow. I must say so many functions of Indigo are second to nothing else out there (HDRI positioning for example)! I think the blended materials for me personally isn't working currently I believe due to this aiming to all be achieved inside SU - I just can't see this will ever work! Some may have a handle on it but it's still a lot of work! Though for examples like your tut with the graffiti wall it has some very destinct advantages! ie where non commonly sized maps can be accurately located!!!!!

Mate I did suggest the multiple maps having to be in model is an issue the other big one for me is Indigo's pace at initial clean up of the rendering - this means although the final render is of great quality one has to wait initially a considerable time for the render to clean sufficiently to confirm materials etc are on target. I would suggest within 5-10minutes maxwell gives enough clean up to assess the materials, Indigo seems for me to be over an hour for the same scene although final clean up times can be similar!!! This can mean unless the material outcome is well understood quick material testing by export is somewhat hindered.

BTW I have very little doubt that Indigo will become the industry leader as time progresses given as Plot suggests your listening and implementing!!!

Cheers mate! Richard

Whaat

@richard said:

Whaat - yes mate that is the workflow regarding the use of lowres images. I open the large map in PS and using the "save for Web" function save the image out at the same pixel dimension but at lower image quality. This allows the UV's and scale to be set correctly.

Well..this feature has already been implemented in the latest SkIndigo beta (1.1.5). All that's missing is a tutorial on how to effectively use it.

@unknownuser said:

Mate I did suggest the multiple maps having to be in model is an issue the other big one for me is Indigo's pace at initial clean up of the rendering - this means although the final render is of great quality one has to wait initially a considerable time for the render to clean sufficiently to confirm materials etc are on target.

It has been requested many times for Onosendai to implement a small 'render preview' window similar to Fryrender and Maxwell. I have little doubt that he will eventually add this. In the meantime, there are many ways to confirm materials that are quite fast. For example:

Use the material preview scenes - the sphere scene is clean in only a few seconds - you can also render multiple previews using different settings at the same time (how's that for efficiency? )
Region rendering (select a small window of the scene and render that portion only)
Selection rendering (render only the objects that you have selected)
Render lower resolution
Try a different render method - For example, outdoor scenes with lots of direct light will be clean VERY fast if you use simple Path Tracing (as opposed to MLT). I have a feeling that Maxwell uses path tracing which might exlain why the image is initially fairly clean but then takes quite long for 'final convergence'.

Thanks for the compliments and the crits, mate!

kwistenbiebel

I must say that Skindigos material setup is the most easy and fastest around.

For more complex materials with multiple uv-sets per map, it is somewhat less intuitive.
For instance, having a pure color as diffuse map and at the same time a positioned bump map in a material asks for some additional steps .

But otherwise, Skindigo rules as it comes to swift material setup.
Most of the time, I see myself clicking a preset and finetuning it just a bit and done.
Setting up a material is really a matter of seconds after a while.

The FryRender material editor is somewhat more elaborated, very functional (you can edit the bitmaps), but on the other hand I really miss more preset materials to start from.
There are some, but when clicking them (e.g a shiny plastic), the preset material overrules the assigned bitmaps. So actually, the presets give you more work as you need to re-assign the native bitmaps.

Richard

@whaat said:

Well..this feature has already been implemented in the latest SkIndigo beta (1.1.5). All that's missing is a tutorial on how to effectively use it.

I should add and not sure this is the full functionality of the new changes in 1.1.5? As you suggested earlier I only use the low res map for placement then link to the Maxwell material with the full res map!!!!!!

@unknownuser said:

It has been requested many times for Onosendai to implement a small 'render preview' window similar to Fryrender and Maxwell. I have little doubt that he will eventually add this. In the meantime, there are many ways to confirm materials that are quite fast. For example:

Use the material preview scenes - the sphere scene is clean in only a few seconds - you can also render multiple previews using different settings at the same time (how's that for efficiency? )

Region rendering (select a small window of the scene and render that portion only)

Selection rendering (render only the objects that you have selected)

Render lower resolution

Try a different render method - For example, outdoor scenes with lots of direct light will be clean VERY fast if you use simple Path Tracing (as opposed to MLT). I have a feeling that Maxwell uses path tracing which might exlain why the image is initially fairly clean but then takes quite long for 'final convergence'.

Mate I'm not so much suggesting the small preview window as used by maxwell - which is really only of use for lighting settings but the full size render! Yes Maxwell could use some magic to clean the render early certainly - can't confirm that at all!

I will try and test some of your other suggestions!!!! I can see value of the low res or path trace methods, I normally export to maxwell one or two test renders from SU so I can see all materials in scene and then make any required adjustments to all materials prior to final export. With lights off for exteriors these clean quickly and cleanly enough early to see what changes are needed. If the path trace method provides this work around that is a great alternative!!!!!

@unknownuser said:

Thanks for the compliments and the crits, mate!

Are any thrown your way capable of covering the work you have done in furthering the application of SU - not nearly!!!!

plot-paris

let me just express how much I value the material preview render of indigo, Whaat. that is such a great tool and helps me a great deal, especially in getting reflections and roughness right.

(I think this thread has been jacked some posts ago, hasn't it? )

Richard

@plot-paris said:

I think this thread has been jacked some posts ago, hasn't it?

Hmmmm? Think your right there! Well at least it's useful discussion!!!

FRYRENDER (new kid)!

Just thought I'd mention it again! Are we back on track?

dsarchs

[rant]

The problem with looking at new rendering engines [and I have to admit, I've been pretty impressed by Fry render, so far] is that the examples are almost always these amazing scenes, full of modeled detail.
Pretty much any rendering engine could produce amazing results based on the models. In these cases its the large amount of detail, and not the rendering quality that's on display.

The best way to judge the merits of various rendering engines is to do a side-by-side comparison of the exact same scene rendered by different engines for a set length of time. This can become complicated somewhat by time differences between biased and un-biased methods [maxwell or vray, for example].

Beyond this, its the features each engine supports [displacement, instancing] and the ease with which that engine can be used and learned.

[/rant]

plot-paris

you are absolutely right, dsarchs.

and to come back to the topic of this thread ( ) INDIGO has a very easy to use interface and in it's next SkIndigo version even the equivalent to maxwell's multi light.

most of the current render engines will produce more ore less the same quality standart. highly important to me is how fast it is to set up a scene, how much work has to be done to make a SketchUp model render properly. and therefore indigo my absolute favourite at the moment with an ideal ballance between control and ease of use

geh4evr

Well I've managed to grab a demo of Fryrender, And I had the best intentions in the world to make some lovely pics, but I can't seem to get the Plugins to install? I've followed the instructions to the letter, but to no avail. Anyone got any ideas?

kwistenbiebel

Chema (Fryrender developer) answered me you can e-mail him when you have questions or issues using the demo.
To my question to create a seperate demo section on their forum, he told it is not planned. (unfortunately ).

So I suggest filling their e-mail box with questions untill they have enough and do make that section after all.