Doubts about vray lighting.

john2

I’m going thourhg vray for sketchup manual [ the one with 97 pages]. I’m on page 31 and reading about different types of light units that have different parameters.

• Scalar
• Lumens ,m/m/sr
• Watts
• w/m/m/sr
for interiors and exteriors [night views] which light is suitable for ease and efficiency in render settings? Are IES lights one stop solution i.e. no fiddling with the light settings. ?

Also regarding IES lights I googled a lot but could only find zip files containing a big bunch of IES files. Is there any catalogue [just like arroway stone materials] that has a model of light [photograph] and the IES file to use. I’m aware of software called IES viewer but its cumbersome to check IES files one by one. I’m an architect [spending a lot of time in designing and constructions tuff], so I’m not really deep into each and every detail of a light ray. I’m mostly concerned by the overall look of the render. Of course the materials play a big role, but can someone give good advice on lights?

valerostudio

There is no one stop solution when it comes to interior lighting. You should setup your scene much light a photographer would with a key light and accent lighting to achieve realism. IES are not a quick fix. All that an IES file has over other lights is how it projects the cone of light on to a surface. Most rendering artists would not use an IES to light a scene but to add detail to a wall washing light.

Here is a popular set that a lot of folks use.
http://mayazest.blogspot.com/2012/02/free-light-ies-files.html

Also, in regards to setting up lighting, I would recommend these tutorials
http://www.cg-blog.com/index.php/2012/04/24/delicate-room-light-balance.htm
It's for MAX but the principles apply to VR4SU also.

Good Luck.

john2

@valerostudio said:

There is no one stop solution when it comes to interior lighting. You should setup your scene much light a photographer would with a key light and accent lighting to achieve realism. IES are not a quick fix. All that an IES file has over other lights is how it projects the cone of light on to a surface. Most rendering artists would not use an IES to light a scene but to add detail to a wall washing light.

Here is a popular set that a lot of folks use.
http://mayazest.blogspot.com/2012/02/free-light-ies-files.html

Also, in regards to setting up lighting, I would recommend these tutorials
http://www.cg-blog.com/index.php/2012/04/24/delicate-room-light-balance.htm
It's for MAX but the principles apply to VR4SU also.

Good Luck.

thanks valerostudio! nice catalogue thing! btw how do you set up lights when you are deciding upon what light model to choose for say an Optical showroom for e.g. between philips 3E41, havells 3422f21, or ligman 231D2 ? you download the ies file separately one by one for them?

valerostudio

The type of work I do is not that specific. I would think that you would build your own catalog to suit your needs.

andybot

you can also use an ies file viewer such as this one

john2

@andybot said:

you can also use an ies file viewer such as this one

well i posted about that cumbersome thing in my topic already

andybot

Oh, right. I see your mentioning it. Well, if you are getting a file of all the ies lighting from a manufacturer, then you should also be able to download the companion lighting cutsheets. They typically have a graphic of the light distribution for each fixture. Would that help you?

stefanq

John, follow this link http://www.lithonia.com/photometrics.aspx and download all photometric data files.
As you can see, there are some categories for different type of applications, indoor, outdoor,commercial,
etc. Use that free viewer and browse only the category of ies files that you need. The viewer is quite fast, it renders the cone of light in a sec.
Cheers,
Stefan

john2

@stefanq said:

John, follow this link http://www.lithonia.com/photometrics.aspx and download all photometric data files.
As you can see, there are some categories for different type of applications, indoor, outdoor,commercial,
etc. Use that free viewer and browse only the category of ies files that you need. The viewer is quite fast, it renders the cone of light in a sec.
Cheers,
Stefan

thanks

and about ies lights , do you ever change the power or the size of IES lights? i'm trying to adjust lights in one scene of a showroom, and they are giving a burnout kind of look. [i'll post a view of it soon]. if i lower the intensity to 100,000, the scene becomes dark, if i increase the intensity to 300,000, the scene looks like lighting of fireballs in the dark. i'm not able to get the lighting as seen in various photos like this apart from IES should a rectangular be also used? a rectangular light interferes with my abstract ceiling pattern .