Anyone using Lumion w/ Sketchup
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We're looking at purchasing Lumion and was looking for some advice and info from people who have used SU and Lumion together.
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I am and I have used it for commercial work.
How can I help?
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What if any caveats are there in lumion. There website is impressive, but how much post processing, if any, went into those vids on there. My goal is to do no post processing as we just don't have the time or means to do that.
We plan on upgrading the graphics card in my machine to whatever lumion recommends but will still be running it on an WinXP machine. How bad is that going to hurt on performance.
Really just want to know how big a machine it takes to run it effectively, and does it live up everything it says it can deliver.
If there is anything else you want to add, I'm listening.
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Lumion is a growing product, it gets better every update, Lumion 2 is about to be launched which will have more content and will also have lighting options for interiors.
I'd say getting used to the navigation was the hardest for me as it's like a first person shooter and I'm not a gamer, my kids wizz through it like it's second nature.
I also do not particularly like the way one places, moves, sizes objects, coming from SU I'm spoilt by navigation and object manipulation.
The thing is Lumion is fun, it's crazy to think that I am getting paid to play sometimes.
Regarding post work, I have a simple compiler to put all the bits together and add a sound track, some folks go crazy using After effects and all, all depends on what you need,
You can even complete a project with no post editing as Lumion saves to MP4.I'm not sure about XP having any limitations with regard to Lumion, however I would be thinking of Windows 7 as it really is great.
Regarding hardware, Lumion is 100% GPU so get a good card, I'd suggest the Geforce 580 as it has gotten the best reviews on Lumion forums and it's not the brand spanking new one so prices are on the down.
The Lumion forums are great, the developers get involved as well as users willing to jump in, similar to this place.
I have used Lumion for Commercial animations as well as static renders.
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For what its worth I have the free version of Lumion which I tried out on my work computer. Like you we are maybe contemplating getting a licence.
I'm running Windows XP 64-bit, 8GB RAM and just a pretty standard Quadro FX2000. This is by no means an optimal card for Lumion (and it shows) however I did not encounter any problems with installing and/or running the program on Windows XP.It was even able to handle a very detailed Revit model that 3D Studio Max count even handle.
As solo suggests, get a Geforce GTX580 and if you can I would try to get an exception to use Windows 7 as its just plain better to use then Windows XP
Hope that helps...
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If you have a good gfx card give the free version a whirl. That's what I've done with a 3gb 580 card.
The renderings are okay, but it looks GPU rendered, sort of game engine-like. Still, not everyone is after photorealism and if your scene is good then it'll no doubt come out as a nice render.
In the free version a nice resolution image comes out in a few seconds which is great, so animations will obviously take a lot longer per-frame than in something like vray! but of course youre sacrificing quality.From what I've seen though, if you put effort into the overall scene it adds a hell of a lot to the overall quality. I've tried it with single buildings and having an infinite plane of grass around it sort of ruins the end result!
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I have Lumion on an XP machine (32 bit with 4Gb ram installed but 32 bit won't use all) and a Geforce 9600 GT with 1Gb ram. I can run Lumion without any issues - the only time I ran out of memory was when I tried to import a 40 Mb file. Then broke it down into two and could import flawlessly.
Not really a gallery stuff but shows the vast amount of vegetation placed in this model:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD1gw6fSWGc
It rendered in HD in a couple of hours.Lumion 2 is around the corner but if you purchase now (more exactly after October 1), you get the upgrade free so no need to wait if you really consider it.
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For Quest3D 2 we try to improve the quality on multiple levels. We have a new algorithm to remove z-fighting and we changed the way we do reflections. These are the two most common reasons for glitches in a movie. We also completely rewritten the entire gfx engine. Models in the library now have normal map and more material properties. It looks great on furniture. There's a completely new lighting system which allows for spot lights and we expanded the materials so all materials can have reflection and glossiness. The ambient occlusion has also been rewritten for better quality and speed.
We want Lumion to be the fastest way to create architectural movies and we'll continue improving quality. The quality of a movie is not only in the shaders and technical stuff. We believe it's a creative process so it should be easy to make a scene 'feel' nice. There are many objects in in the library to add nice details like the birds and fishes for example. They are not essential for architecture but they help making things come alive. At some point we would really love to add things like walking crowds (some people already created movies like this by placing many characters). In regular animation software details like these cost an enormous amount of skill and time. We try solving this by hiring artist to create content and developing new technologies that make life easier. One example is the camera system. We know that many people have a huge trouble creating a decent camera path. The Lumion camera does things automatically and you only have to worry about which key shots you want to show.
Lumion is specialized for architecture in the sense we optimize for pure architecture visualization so we focus on the features architects care about. Examples are solid importing of CAD models and the ability to make cross sections of your model. You can download the free version which has a limited content library and output options and usually that's enough for people to decide to buy Lumion.
You'll need a pretty good gfx card. We created Lumion in this way to to get the best end results. We wouldn't be able to deliver the quality we have right now if we focused on low end 3D cards. Our absolute minimum is a GeForce 8800 but it's definitely worth it to invest in Geforce 480, 480 or one of the lower end models like a 560.
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Also what I like in Lumion is the ease of use and the speed of putting the whole scene together. Unlike Pete, I got used to the navigation controls pretty easily and if you have the model, you can set up the whole environment and render considerably long animations and pretty large stills in a few hours.
Certainly the more care you devote, the better they are going to be...
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One thing I think would help many people would be default scenes to put a house of a certain type in, and you could use depth of field or something to make the surroundings not matter too much... think like a street of detached houses for that house type, etc. You could just put your house in a similar match and use depth of field. Would make still shots quicker to make much better.
Obviously the wrong place to say this but hey ho! -
Thanks everyone. Sounds like Lumion delivers what it promises. I've been playing a little bit with the free version but my graphics card is horribly underrated for it. Almost to the point of not working, had some pretty severe crashes with it. Not blaming Lumion, I know its the card being pushed to do things it's not suited for.
Thanks to everyone who commented. Great community, great people here.
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@gaieus said:
I can run Lumion without any issues - the only time I ran out of memory was when I tried to import a 40 Mb file. Then broke it down into two and could import flawlessly.
I was able to import 5 very large and complex model into the one Lumion file.
They were a mix of SU and Revit models and file sizes of each varied:
1 - 213mb
2 - 202mb
3 - 200mb
4 - 180mb
5 - 61mbMind you I was unable to run at full resolution and was getting on average 7FPS so very challenging to navigate around.
Never crashed though...I am very interested to see if Lumion 2 comes with a free version to try out.
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This looks FANTASTIC!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoLV8QIm02M
Apart from the relatively high cost ($2000 US for Lumion Ultimate, against $99 for Twilight), I'm 80 percent sold, just from this video.I've been using Twilight for a year and a half with Sketchup. Does a lovely job when combined with my Spacenavigator
and Flightpath, but the thing that makes it literally crawl is TREES! That, and the fact that it sadly does not take advantage of your GPU at all.
I've recently inherited a (ex-Avatar) Quadro FX4600 along with a new(ish) work machine.I think just on the saved waiting time alone it might pay for itself quite quickly.
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This one blew me away..
[flash=700,500:g56iuqfp]http://www.youtube.com/v/iHjbRDGsc0o&feature=player_embedded[/flash:g56iuqfp]
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@d_say said:
I was able to import 5 very large and complex model into the one Lumion file.
Yes but you also have 64 bit system(s) which can handle much more ram than my 32 bit xp.
@wozabee said:
I've been using Twilight for a year and a half with Sketchup. Does a lovely job when combined with my Spacenavigator
and Flightpath, but the thing that makes it literally crawl is TREES! That, and the fact that it sadly does not take advantage of your GPU at all.I use (and love) Twilight, too. In fact, I produced my first (and so far, I can say only) bearable quality renderings in Twilight. But Lumion (as you say) is for completely different jobs.
As for GPU based rendering: maybe one day Kerkythea (Twilight's back end rendering engine) will be GPU based, too but currently not even Thea is - and Giannis, developer of both renderers will definitely develop Thea first and Kerkythea will only follow development.
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@d_say said:
@gaieus said:
I can run Lumion without any issues - the only time I ran out of memory was when I tried to import a 40 Mb file. Then broke it down
I am very interested to see if Lumion 2 comes with a free version to try out.Lumion 2 Free Edition is scheduled for January 2012, so stay tuned!
Best regards,
Arthur RoodenburgAct-3D B.V. / Lumion
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Thank you very much ArthuR I cant wait for it to be released!
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Hi Arthur,
Just sent off pretty much this same message to Lumion.
...but I'm just too excited about it to wait.
I'm keenly interested in using Lumion for some upcoming projects my work may have in the works soon.I'm currently producing various previsual environment fly-throughs and scene block-outs exclusively using Google Sketchup in combination with Twilight Render (which uses the Kerkythea rendering engine).
Unfortunately, Kerkythea (and therefore Twilight) does NOTcurrently use my GPU - a Quadro FX 4600 - and literally takes forever to render my final runs - especially involving any large quantity of foliage - so, I imagin just the initial savings in waiting time would be worth the initial investment.
Over the last 3 years I have grown VERY adept to navigating environments fluidly with 3Dconnexion's SpaceNavigator in Sketchup. It gives my left hand something to do while adjusting models with the right hand, and Mostly, I forget it's there. Mostly.Does Lumion currently interface with the SpaceNavigator, or have any future plans to?
Will it support stereoscopic output (with the right hardware) at full HD?
Also, having noticed on your promo videos that such things as shore/wave interaction have still quite some way to go, what are your present next goals to see to? (though, I have to say most of the water stuff so far is beautiful).Cheers,
Woz
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@solo said:
This one blew me away..
Very nearly a British understatement
What an incredible tour de force. -
@gaieus said:
I have Lumion on an XP machine (32 bit with 4Gb ram installed but 32 bit won't use all) and a Geforce 9600 GT with 1Gb ram. I can run Lumion without any issues - the only time I ran out of memory was when I tried to import a 40 Mb file. Then broke it down into two and could import flawlessly.
Not really a gallery stuff but shows the vast amount of vegetation placed in this model:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD1gw6fSWGc
It rendered in HD in a couple of hours.Lumion 2 is around the corner but if you purchase now (more exactly after October 1), you get the upgrade free so no need to wait if you really consider it.
Whose music was used?
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