Somewhat newb beginning questions
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Hi, My name is Jonah and I've been modeling professionally for about 12 years, mostly in Microstation, and FormZ. I've been working with a client who has asked me to do much of their work in SketchUp, and so I have kind of learned as much as I can in the time it takes to get their projects done, but not much more than that.
I've been impressed enough to consider selling this programs' results to my other clients, save for a few nagging issues I'd like to get answered, which I can't seem to suss out on my own. I've scoured the forums looking for some answers to these questions lately, but I'm sure I could have missed a post or two that could have answered my questions. ANy help anyone can give on these questions would be most appreciated.Here's my wish list:
- I wish I knew why some (but not all) surfaces and imported images flicker to white when I animate walk-throughs. The discussions on shadow flickering don't seem to address the issue, and the recommendations for fixing that problem haven't fixed the issue.
- I wish I knew why any drawing I try to export to AutoCAD comes out as a blank file.
- I'd like to get a 3rd party renderer, and am looking for a recommendation. The forums seem to like Indigo, but I see others referenced. What's your recommendations?
That's it. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
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- if it isnt shadows it might be z-fighting. Its basically where you have 2 faces that are taking up the same virtual space, so they 'fight' to be displayed. You can solve it by just deleting one of the faces.
2)Cant really help with that one, although posting the model your having problems with might help us work out whats going on.
3)It depends what sort of thing you want to do really. If your after product shots then indigo, maxwell and kerkythea are all worth a look (kerkythea is free, as is indigo.) You might have a bit of trouble finding a copy of indigo/skindigo (the indigo exporter for sketchp) as the indigo site has been down lately.
If your after architecture type stuff id recommend checking out Vray, podium and kerkythea. podium is a very basic app, which is great in some respects (speed, ease of use) and not so good in others (limited material options.) Vray is pretty powerful, although i hear the interface is a bit of a beast to start with.
There are plenty of others (vue, IDX...) but the above mentioned are the ones that spring too mind.
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Awesome, thanks for the answers.
My problem with linking the models I'm working with is that they're proprietary, covered by a DNI and probably pretty recognizable to States-side folks. I'll work with my client to figure out a way to get something posted.
The z-fighting, if that's what it is, is particularly frustrating. I spent hours picking the structures apart trying to find the surfaces behind the flickering images but found nothing, and then went ahead and deleted stuff and redrew it and still had the issue. Could there be a known issue with a type or size of image file causing this when applied as a surface? I was using RGB TIFFs, all about 500kb to 1m, saved with the layers box unchecked. The flickering was basically angled triangles or what typically shooting down from the tops of the structures the surfaces had been applied to and then fading out as the camera moved, though the white triangles were sometimes visible when the camera stopped.
I'll start looking at Podium, as it may be the sort of fast and simple rendering option we're looking for. The majority of what I do is display and retail fixture design, so a lot of interior retail shots of structures with product on them. The drawings get crazily complex and I've struggled for a while with PD programs (FormZ) with too much detail and architecture programs (Microstation) with not enough. SU feels like its got the right mix of both, if I can get FormZ-quality renderings out of it.
Thanks again for your help and any other help anyone can give.
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Have you been able to reproduce the export issue in a fresh model? if so you could jsut do a quick mockup that shows the problem, rather than have to waste time negotiating with clients.
With the z fighting thing (or whatever it turns out to be, sounds a bit more complicated than simple z fighting) it would again help if you could post an example.
A final note on rendering, it is an art form so dont expect too much too soon, you'll need a while to develop your own style and techniques.
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Thanks again. I'll get something up soon.
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Hi Hakken,
I do still believe that it is Z fighting somehow. Do you just place those images on surfaces as images or as textures? (When importing them, there is an option in the bottom right of the Open window).
If they are images, not textures, try this: right click on them and "explode" to see if the flickering is still there
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"Flickering" can also be caused by a clipping effect that usually is a symptom of the SU model being too large for the OpenGL display system to handle reliably. It starts to happen with models bigger than something like a mile across, or if a smaller model is situated far from the SU origin point.
Still another display glitches-causing thing is the infamous Shadow Bug: When the SU camera is inside a shadow, the shadows start acting weird.
Anssi
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@gaieus said:
Hi Hakken,
I do still believe that it is Z fighting somehow. Do you just place those images on surfaces as images or as textures? (When importing them, there is an option in the bottom right of the Open window).
If they are images, not textures, try this: right click on them and "explode" to see if the flickering is still there
It feels like Z-fighting to me too, has from the start, though I could never find or do anything about that other texture it feels like I'm seeing. What I usually do, and this is just me figuring it out on my own, so I'm sure its not the best way, is create a new texture in the 'Colors in Model' file of the 'Colors' pallette and then Load the image I want in as the texture. Would that create a double texture? or leave the original white one there to fight with my new texture?
And in response to Anssi's suggestions, I don't have shadows on, and I have the file near the Z point, though the size of the file is pretty large, 85M. I have LOTS of images in there.
Thanks again for weighing in on this Remus, Gaius and Anssi, it's nice to be able to discuss this with someone instead of trying to figure out on my own.
I'll try to re-do the image tonight with non-sensitive images and structures and post it.
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@hakken said:
And in response to Anssi's suggestions, I don't have shadows on, and I have the file near the Z point, though the size of the file is pretty large, 85M. I have LOTS of images in there.
Is that 85 metres or 85 miles? If its miles you will have problems, if its meters everything should be fine in terms of clipping.
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85 megabyte file. The file store interior is about 30' X 45'.
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ok, i see. Thats probably just because of the pics. Nothing to worry about really.
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