Thea Render v1.3 Technology Preview (Teaser Trailer)

notareal

Some more news from Thea Technology Preview; Micro Roughness.
http://www.thearender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=13379&p=92671

@unknownuser said:

Dear friends,

we start from the very last thing shown in our technology preview trailer. Micro Roughness!

Let's start with a photo to see the phenomenon in real life:

What we perceive with the above image is that the reflections change with the viewing angle. While looking in front of the monitor, we see blurry reflections, looking from a shallow angle, the reflections are getting very sharp.

The phenomenon seen above is actually not having two expressions, one for normal viewing angle and one for shallow viewing angle. But instead, the reflections vary from blurred to sharp gradually as the viewing angle goes from normal to shallow. Here is a gif animated image, where the reflections gradually blur as the viewer moves further away (note the gif quality is not very good due to the compression of the format).

An explanation of the phenomenon is related to the decrease of the apparent roughness as the viewer goes from normal to shallow viewing angle along with the presence of a very sharp reflection that becomes very strong at shallow angles.

Please, study further about this novel solution in Thea Render, with rendered example images at the related post http://www.thearender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=13379

notareal

More news from Thea Render 1.3 technology previews; Presto GPU SSS/Volumetrics Support

@unknownuser said:

Dear friends,

one of the things most requested after publishing Presto v1.2 was sub-surface scattering (SSS) and volumetrics support.

To be honest, I had this as a relatively low priority for the things to be added in Presto. But I was persuaded at the end, that this is a first class feature that we should not be missing.

As you know, Thea unbiased core (TR1/TR2) gives volumetrics and SSS of highest accuracy. Initially, we thought of making use some approximation models for SSS for Presto, so that to deliver highest efficiency. But at the end, due to Presto being a progressive engine, and having already the experience to deliver the real SSS, we decided that realism is all that matters. And we were happy to find out that Presto delivers this realism very very fast.

Below, you can see some samples of scenery with one or more SSS materials. And we are talking about renders converged quickly, with the real thing, real SSS without approximations. The results should speak for themselves.

Best wishes

...

You can find GPU SSS/Volumetrics examples at related topic at Thea Render forum http://www.thearender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=13419

solo

This one blows my mind still.

marked001

Any recommendations on a mid-range Nvidia GPU?? $150ish maybe?

Currently, I've got an AMD Radeon HD 7570.

solo

@marked001 said:

Any recommendations on a mid-range Nvidia GPU?? $150ish maybe?

Currently, I've got an AMD Radeon HD 7570.

I'd suggest something like this, a little above your price but 3gb ram is good (more the better)

Amazon.com: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED 3072MB GDDR5 DVI mHDMI Graphics Card 03G-P4-2666-KR : Electronics

(www.amazon.com)

Carloh

ummmmph....it get's harder and harder to choose. i don't know if i should make the maxwell upgrade to V3, or get thea 1.3

marked001

@solo said:

@marked001 said:

Any recommendations on a mid-range Nvidia GPU?? $150ish maybe?

Currently, I've got an AMD Radeon HD 7570.

I'd suggest something like this, a little above your price but 3gb ram is good (more the better)

Amazon.com: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED 3072MB GDDR5 DVI mHDMI Graphics Card 03G-P4-2666-KR : Electronics

Amazon.com: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED 3072MB GDDR5 DVI mHDMI Graphics Card 03G-P4-2666-KR : Electronics

(www.amazon.com)

How'd I know it was going to be more expensive thanks Pete...more ram the better, got it.

Stinkie

@carloh said:

ummmmph....it get's harder and harder to choose. i don't know if i should make the maxwell upgrade to V3, or get thea 1.3

Simply wait until the Maxwell V3 demo is out. Then test both apps extensively.

Carloh

yes i guess that's the way to go...but i don't think that maxwell will improve its speed this much to compete against thea, and speed is a thing that always have been bothering me when working with maxwell.

Carloh

I see that there was a nice discount at the release of version 1.2...will there be such a discount at the 1.3 release?

notareal

@carloh said:

I see that there was a nice discount at the release of version 1.2...will there be such a discount at the 1.3 release?

At the moment, there is a Thea for SU bundle available. But for future discounts, I unfortunatelly have no information to share. Keep in mind that 1.2 was a milestone release and updates are free up to 2.0 (that is still far away).

Carloh

that is really good news that updates are free up to 2.0 ...considering what jumps you guys make from 1.2 to 1.3!

i'm totally convinced by Thea...you'll have me on board in a couple days

notareal

Just to make sure if I did not phrase it correctly... all 1.x updates are free Naturally 2.0 will have some upgrade fee, but like said, it's still far away.

Carloh

oh...yes, i did mean the up to 1.9 of course....the curse of my low english skills

notareal

Sampling Improvements for Presto v1.3, read more at the related Thea Render Technology Preview forum topic.

@unknownuser said:

Dear friends,

many of you have already experienced the raw power of Presto. It was and is our intention to deliver an engine that its raw performance is simply beyond comparison. For next edition v1.3, we are going one step further by making the engine also quite more sophisticated in terms of algorithmic design. These changes are mostly related to improving the sampling part of Presto leading to even faster convergence to a great number of scenes, while adding small to negligible computational overhead. This means that Presto maintains its fast interactivity but also delivers final renders sooner, at least in many scene types.
...

Top Presto 1.2, below Presto 1.3.

notareal

Improved Physical Sky Model with Thea Presto 1.3

@unknownuser said:

Dear friends,

we have made an improvement for all render engines, related to the physical sky. Thea's sky in v1.3 is much more accurate for spectral rendering and yields much better results in higher values of turbidity (which are usually wanted to give special mood to a render). The parameters for the new physical sky model are basically the same with similar influence on the image but more accurate response.

...

More examples at the related topic http://www.thearender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=13622

notareal

Full instancing support for Presto 1.3

@unknownuser said:

Dear friends,

we are happy to say here that we have now full instancing support for Presto. In fact, we are very proud of all the small and big memory improvements that opened the way to instancing support on the GPU side! I admit that this was one of the most asked features once Presto v1.2 was out and even a feature that some could not live without.

It is time that you get some beautiful renders made with Presto, with all the geometric complexity you want!
And we have already prepared some nice renders to showcase this new feature.

...

Find out more at the related topic at Thea Render Technology Preview forum.

imabzeous

@solo said:

10 minutes gpu cpu, used radial blur 15% to get hazy look. BSD 25 tracing depth.
No post processing.

Thea 1.3 is amazingly fast, this is an interior, and they are normally slow to render, exteriors render in seconds to a couple of minutes.

[attachment=0:1i75y28o]Presto gpu cpu 10 mins.jpg[/attachment:1i75y28o]

This is very great Pete... my problem is that i just dont know how to use thea.. i have downloaded the trial version but its like alien thing for me.. am using vray for sketchup.. but really wanted to try thea.. and tutorials/pdf mini tutorials are missing.. i wish they make a good tutorial for noobs like me that dont understand ABC of rendering

Pixero

Here's a link to some tutorials to get you started:
http://www.thearender.com/cms/index.php/resources/tutorials/overview-tutorials.html

imabzeous

@pixero said:

Here's a link to some tutorials to get you started:
http://www.thearender.com/cms/index.php/resources/tutorials/overview-tutorials.html

thank you.. but the thing i dont understand is all the rendering setttings tr1 2 and options.. its very different from vray the approach and all.. i understand its material system but the rendering options/camera etc etc