I need help overcoming my inferiority complex after seeing these renders.
One thing: the water in the night/evening scenes looks 100 % transparent.
I can't see the surface, that's right below the spotlights.
But I suppose it's because the water is completelly still...

The renders I know are versatile, and should work fine with both product and interior design rendering (as well as outdoor scenes). Always try before you buy.
V-Ray offers full featured 30 day demo.
Maxwell has a free version with image size restricted to 800 x 800 pixels.
Kertkythea is a free alternative.
I've also tried Twilight, LightUp and SUPodium, and didn't like them, but that's just a personal preference.

Tell us what you've tried and we can guide you.

Looks great. All the white areas are very grainy though. I'm sure turning quality to max would create an excellent result.

Those bed sheets are immaculate. Perfect texture. Can't tell it from the real deal.

Well good luck on that huge project. Sounds exciting, and an interesting period in British history.

Very impressive. You seem to combine interior decor with stilleben compositions.
I recognise that sink

I also don't like it. The model is really good though
Have you tried the different styles already in SketchUp?

There are many different 'sketchy edges' resembling pencil drawing.
Personally I like 'scribble on masonite' and the 'Chipboard with fine marker' (under assorted styles). Export as 2D.

Whoah, I had no idea. It is indeed the letter Ø causing the problem.
Thank you very much.

Trying the demo of Maxwell, but the image can't be saved.
No filetype can be chosen:

And trying to save anyway, it says "specified directory does not exist" (tried many different ones):

Anyone had this problem? Did a search and nothing came up; and the Maxwell forum is not very active.
Sorry if this is not the place to ask.

Windows 7, 64 bit.
Maxwell v. 2.7.22
SketchUp 8

The sketchy style looks good, and the gate is well done.
Would be nice to see the models in a 'standard' style, or even rendered.

Notice V-Ray for SketchUp is only available in North America, Central America and the Caribbean Islands. Or you'll have to find a reseller within your region. It's also quite expensive.
But most renders I've seen offer demos, incl. Maxwell, V-ray, LightUp, Twilight and Shaderlight.
So try before you buy

I'm also interested in Puteoli at the time of the Roman Empire - especially in its hayday 1.-2. century before Ostia took over. Both archaeologically but also geologically (with the Bradyseism )
Anyway, I've been working on the marketplace - Macellum (Temple of Serapide) since the ruins still stand and models have been made of it.

(Notice 1st. floor doesn't have a railing yet )

I would be very pleased if you Crislink would share your resources.
I see you've made the Temple of Augustus. How do you know it looked like that?
I can't find any archaeology describing it. Only that it was "brought to light after the burning of the cathedral in 1964". It had Corinthian columnns, but that's all I know.

I also plan to make the Flavian Amphitheatre (if my skills suffice), and the grand quay (commissioned by Nero).
Also the Forum on the upper terrace, but don't now what it looked like.

The watermark disappears when rendering an image (v-ray), obviously.

Looking forward to that plugin

I expectet SU to have a skybox feature similar to open world 3D video games.

Here I just made a ground texture, added a sky image within the frame, and rendered:



(I make models for PC game; so no scenes, and low poly)

I'm not impressed by those sky-domes. Seems like a half solution.
Looking forward to a sky-dome plugin

Might end up just putting the pictures in the scene like this:



(I know the sun is behind and the light is in front. It's just a test )

Thank you.

@unknownuser said:

easy "renderer" for Kids is Lumion !

The recommended system requirements fo Lumion are very high though:

OS: Windows 7 64-bit
System memory: At least 6GB
Graphics card: NVidia 460GTX / ATI 5850 or faster, with at least 1GB memory

Thanks. That rain looks pretty good.

I'm surprised SU doesn't have a simple feature for skyboxes,
seeing as it's popular for architectural purposes - presenting models.

I must assume a sky like this:

... is not made within SU, but an external program then.

Stupid question here:

I want to present models as in a scene;
so can you insert an image of a sky and ground?
Like in this example, I want clouds and soil instead of blue in blue:

Tutorials mostly cover 'match photo' and 'photo textures'...

I'm sure there's some simple way of doing it, I just don't see it.

SketchUp 8 Free version.