Rayscaper New Releases
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@pixelcruncher
With all due respect, Mr. Thomas, I appreciate your valuable efforts. I will keep you updated on any insights or feedback I come across as they arise. My only suggestion is to establish a set schedule for releasing new versions; this would allow us to thoroughly explore previous versions and, in turn, provide more comprehensive feedback. -
@Alattab, thanks for the feedback, but for now I'm not going on a fixed release cadence.
Rayscaper isn't my day job, so I have to make time to work on it. Last month was very productive because I could spend most days (and nights) developing, but that's not always a given. So I try to release as early as I can to get that valuable user feedback. I'm on a fast release cadence right now, but that's not always a given. I will always try to support customers as fast as I can, but regular development might take a backseat sometimes.
I'm also almost at the 1.0 stopping point. After that, I will take some time to develop the 2.0 features and build a solid beta set for the 2.0 release. Also, I've been working towards a 1.0 release for 3 years now (!!!), @rich-o-brien has been testing this monster since August 2023. I need to get something out.
Cheers,
Thomas -
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It is a good idea to find settings that prevent elements from casting or receiving shadows.
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@pixelcruncher This is what I mean: set a specific day for us to receive a new release, and leave us the rest of the week—or month—to gather feedback.
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@krass jus a little teaser
Turns out you can do a lot of cool stuff by modifying grass.
Of course we had to make one for the SketchUcation crowd
And yes, it works on dogs too.
Fur will be in the next release.
Cheers,
Thomas -
Sorry, I found several materials that have the same texture but go by different names.
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The problem persists, as the palm trees cast their shadow onto the surface representing the fountain's water.
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It is a good idea to find settings that prevent elements from casting or receiving shadow
Thanks for the suggestion! Fine-grained shadow settings come up occasionally. For now, I'm keeping Rayscaper's settings simple, but I've noted it.
What would you use this for? If there's a common case behind it, there might be a simpler way to solve that.
Cheers,
Thomas -
It’s fantastic and makes my mouth water.
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Hey, Rayscaper users!
Rayscaper 1.0.0 is available. You can get it via:
- The SketchUcation store.
- Direct download: Rayscaper_Win_1.0.0.rbz.
I recommend upgrading to the latest version.
Rayscaper 1.0: Out of Beta
After many releases of Beta, Rayscaper is now 1.0. A big thank you to everyone who tried the betas, reported bugs and shared renders here: it shaped Rayscaper more than you think.
Fur Material
Paint a face with the new Fur material and Rayscaper grows real strands on it in the render: shag and short pile rugs, sheepskin, faux fur throws, plush cushions, even the coat of an animal. Start from a preset and tune the length, density and curl. An image texture colors every strand where it grows, so a patterned rug keeps its pattern. See Fur Material.
Wind for Grass
The Grass material gets Wind and Wind Direction, which lay the grass over one way, and stronger mowing stripes. The online material library now has thirty Grass materials: lawns, sports turf, meadows, wild grass and artificial turf. See Grass Material.
A New Look
The render window has a calmer, darker look with clearer selections.
What Changed?
- Add the Fur material: paint a face with it and Rayscaper grows real strands on it in the render, for shag and short pile rugs, sheepskin, faux fur throws, plush cushions, long hair and the coat of an animal. Fur hangs down under gravity on walls and over rounded shapes, and an image texture colors every strand where it grows.
- Add Wind and Wind Direction to the Grass material, and lean whole clumps for stronger mowing stripes.
- Add thirty Grass materials to the online material library.
- Give the render window a new look: calm dark surfaces, clearer selections and a new UI font.
- Take Rayscaper out of Beta.
- Fix dark soft edges and fades in PNG and TGA textures with transparency, and transparent images that were saved too bright.
- Fix a crash of CPU renders when the model changed while the render ran.
- Wrap buttons that ran past the edge of a narrow scene editor panel, and translate the Browse button.
Full release notes: rayscaper.com/manual/release-notes
Help Me Build the Community
If you like Rayscaper, please share your renders (final or work-in-progress, it doesn't matter)! This is motivating and helps me showcase its capabilities to new users.
Follow me on X.
Happy Rendering!
Thomas -
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@Alattab Okay, thanks for the image. That makes it very clear
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that's why I think this type of effect should be done in post production.
Did you use 3D fontain water? There are several on the 3d warehouse
Krass
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I believe it is essential to include a material type or tab that mimics "billboard" elements—specifically for materials that the user does not wish to fully render, but rather wants to configure for properties like alpha, masking, casting shadows, and receiving shadows. Adding this would significantly enhance the value of RayScaper. Currently, the absence of this feature—which is available in software like SketchUp—sometimes forces me to use other applications instead. I strongly recommend this addition; you can see similar implementations in programs such as Thea Render, SimLab Composer, and others.
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@Krass Suppose you have dozens of nozzles; imagine how many water droplets will have their light-related properties manipulated.
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@pixelcruncher I believe it's essential to include a material or tab that simulates billboard elements and materials for which the user doesn't want to render; they only want to define alpha, mask, cast shadow, and receive shadow. This would enhance the value of Rayscaper. Sometimes, this feature is unavailable here, even though it's available in SketchUp, so I recommend it. You can see this in several programs like TheaRender, SimLab Composer, etc.
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@Krass here's the fur example scene to try out: https://scenes.rayscaper.com/rayscaper-fur-example.skp
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Thanks a lot!!!! Tonight I missed your post about the V1.0...
So exited to test the fur, tomorrow morning! Champagne!
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