@unknownuser said:

Yes, the stupid software lock-in! The same with AutoCAD! Yesterday I installed 3ds Max 2015 just to test it - what a bloated and slow program! It takes ages to load, occupies about 600 MB of ram at the start and above all You can't resize the UI font - it is so small and practically unusable!

Try change the Max console from dark grey to light grey. Makes a big difference on readability. I really like the dark grey, its like Photoshop, but it's more difficult to read text and see the buttons.

Yes, start up is painfully slow, but software companies are assuming we have Flash memory (or SSD) or working towards it...cos to be honest, HD's are so yesterday. I have a hard-drive but hope to get Flash memory with next computer...then start-up will be fast.

@andybot said:

Take it easy Barry, courtesy is a two-way street... Don't expect something for nothing.

Looks like you've made plenty of progress in your mastery of vray. Congrats!

Thanks, Andybot. I should also like to give you the thumbs up
Cos you have helped me alot... not just directly, but indirectly reading other peoples threads who were in need and following your advice. Thanks

@jonfar said:

very nice render

have you worked with VRay for Sketchup before that?

i ask because i am learning VRay4Skup, and before that i tried VRay in Cinema 4D and also in 3DS Max (demos), and it seemed waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy harder (to learn AND to work with), so i chose VRay4Skup

do you have the same opinion?

I have spent the last three months learning Vray for SU. Like you I have experiemented with lots of software. Vray for SU is easily the most intuitive

It's easy to be comfortable with Sketchup. I love it. I only discovered it a few years ago and I have not looked back. But, the whole professional system demands 3Ds Max and since I want to work mainstream in CG I have to go down that road. Talking to architecture students online they say they are force fed 3Ds Max and have to learn it, but they all do their projects in SU and Vray cos it's faster and less hassle.

My advice to you is: HDRi. If you want good renders you have to get good HDRi's and very good materials. I don't like the SU Sun and Sky shadows. It makes the renders look artificial. Also, all my models in the scene are 3Ds Models which tend to be much better detailed and render really nicely. But, they are much more high maintenance and require more patience to manipulate and place.

This is my first render with Vray for Sketchup. I will probably change my workflow now knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the software out there. Sketchup...3ds Max...Vray...Photoshop seems the best solution. But, coming from Sketchup into 3Ds is intimadating. I feel I will have to start again and re-learn everything

It took me several months to get to this point though. I feel I have just scratched the surface of what's possible and it was a real up hill struggle trying to get information from people. In the end it was Vray Chaosgroup who were the most helpful.

I want to say a big thankyou to all the Blogs out there that gave me "zero" help. I won't mention names but they are apparently too busy selling their own products or working hard advertising other peoples. You live and learn but Blogs for me are about self promotion and creating revenue. Honest communication seems to be low on their agenda.

Come on guys... courtesy costs nothing!!

@jiminy-billy-bob said:

I'm pretty sure I saw someone from Chaos Group posting that it is a limitation from the demo. Though I can't find this post anymore.

What you're refering to in the release notes is that before this release, there were numerous channels that were not yet supported by VfS. A lot of people were confused because these channels rendered black. So they don't display them anymore, until they're supported.

Yes, your right. The fully licensed Vray has the ability to individually render channels in the VFS. But, the demo version hides this feature and you can only render Diffuse & alpha channels.

@massimo said:

Buy some of these (check the "wood floors" and the "wood boards") and you'll be a happy man. You will receive as a gift some nice scratches&dents bump maps.

Okay, thanks, I will check them out...

@stefanq said:

Check this old post:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=322%26amp;t=41046

Thanks... I already read this thread. In fact, I wrote you a private message because of what you wrote in the thread.... to clarify your advice.

While Arroway textures are very good, I am not impressed by the floors. Being an interior designer I don't use Arroway type floors in the real world... I use broad plank, where the width of the boards are 15-20cm wide and 2m long. The Arroway floors are too choppy and busy and lack the simplicity I desire. Re-claimed floors that are distressed and aged look alot better than new floors... but how do I achieve this with Arroway... don't think I can without NORMAL MAPS that would show the imperfections.

Apart from Arroway, are there any other floor packs with maps out there?

@andybot said:

yes, specular goes in the perpendicular slot of Fresnel. Don't know about invert, it depends on the map. White is more reflective, black is less. Yes, you should reduce the glossy reflection value to get a more realistic reflection.
I only typically use bump, haven't tried the others.

Thanks Andy, reliable as ever...
I am after this type of effect (see image) when it comes to reflections.

I don't no why Arroway don't do NORMAL MAPS because they contain all the little dents, scratches and imperfections that really make wood come to life. Arroway woods are too clean and perfect for my liking. I want to create floors with 'wear and tear' .... slightly aged.

Other than Arroway and Rendertextures, do you know where I can get floors with maps?

Where to place 'Specular' BITMAPS. Big question....
Because everyone has a different answer! Hopefully I can finally nail this issue.

Please look at Page1, page2, page3 enclosed.
This is where I (assume) you put ARROWAY Maps.
It's the SPECULAR map that I find conflicting info on.

Page 1
I create a reflection layer and put SPEC MAP into the perpendicular FRESNAL.
I also put SPEC MAP into HLIGHT LAYER & REFLECT LAYER.

Page 2
I invert the texture and alpha channel in the fresnal???
Don't know if I should do this but I read it somewhere.

Page 3
Using other (non-arroway) materials that have NORMAL MAPS.
Where do I place the Normal Bump Map in the (pull-down menu)
It reads the foll0wing catagories:

Bump
Tangent Space
Camera space
World Space
Local Space
Explicit Normals

Any help would be appreciated

@dkendig said:

There are new tutorials for our public beta that started today!
http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/vrayforsketchup_beta.html

Lynda.com have a tutorial course: "Vray for Sketchup" which is the best video I have seen explaining how to go about things. It is simple and clear... unlike some of the videos from ChaosGroup, where it's hard to understand the accents of the teachers.

@dkendig said:

you can save out vismats, or you can save skm files via SketchUp, which will have V-Ray information embedded in them. If you save out the skm files, you can build a native SketchUp material library which will have all of the V-Ray info set and ready to go. Not sure I entirely understand your question though.

Thanks Devin... this could be good news.... I don't understand what you mean about building a native Sketchup material library. How is this done? If you are short on time to explain...please can you point me in the right direction so I can research it more. Thanks.

Is it possible to save your material selection through Vray... so you can come back to it again later.... choosing materials and bump maps etc... can take hours... it would be good to be able to save my choices. If Sketchup crashes then at least I have not lost anything.

@dkendig said:

only RBG and Alpha channels are unlocked in the demo version, just confirmed this. Sorry for confusing the 2.0 and sr1 versions. I haven't used 2.0 since September, I'm always on a development build, and can't keep versions straight in my head.

Thankyou Devin. I have spent a week trying to get to the bottom of this question... at least I now know that it's the Demo and not me that's at fault. Great

THE VSB CHANNELS DO NOT EXPORT IN VRAY 2.0 (SP1) DEMO... accept RGB & alpha.
Chaosgroup has a 3 day waiting time to respond to problems via email.
I have to send messages to 3rd party forums and hope for a response....

@andybot said:

@maeglin1 said:

The inability to import of Vismats in 2.0 Beta is well documented on the net. People seem to have the same problem... and people advise to load them first... but this is way too round about for me.

Generally, the issues I've seen with vismats is that people are trying to import ones that are from many versions ago, and thus are written differently

People on the net say this too... but all my vismats load in 1.6 regardless of where they are from....and I have hundreds of them from Chaosgroup and other sites. None of my Vismats were able to be imported into 2.0 Beta, in fact, it sometimes crashed Sketchup.
But, like I said... this problem is not the case in 2.0 (SP1). So it does'nt matter. What concerns me is exporting channels from the VSB tab in the new 2.0 (SP1)Demo
Does it work for you?
If so, then 'case closed' and it's the demo that's at fault.
Is the demo the same as the full licensed copy?

@dkendig said:

as far as the bundled tools go, those should work fine with the 2.0 version, if you want to just copy the 1.6 tools to a folder prior to uninstalling, and installing 2.0. I don't believe we bundle the tools with the demo, because with a resolution cap, you probably won't need to render out to a vrimg. It also keeps the installer size down a bit.

[edit] Looks like we include the tools with the demos for our other products, so we will update the demo installer in the future to correct this.

Wow... I would never of guessed it was the font that was to blame. Your right I use 'Century Gothic' with and increased size of 10 on Win7 system because I am 46 now and by the end of the day I am squinting at the screen.

The inability to import of Vismats in 2.0 Beta is well documented on the net. People seem to have the same problem... and people advise to load them first... but this is way too round about for me. Exporting directly onto Sketchup materials is the only way I want. The problem does not occur with the 2.0 (SP1)... you seem to have ironed out the bug.
BUT... I cannot export channels from my VSB Tab in 2.0(SP1). I get RGB and alpha... that's it. I spent days trying this and that.... but it works great in 1.6.... which has been a reliable friend in all the experimenting. Don't know why people beat it up so much. Beta or not... it's a great little performer.

The Tools are not important now since I use ProEXR. But, again, it took days of trawling the net looking for ways to convert Vrimg to EXR... and all along it was in the Start Menu.... I really handy little tool.... you should make people aware of this with flashing lights cos it's very useful. I noticed there are other tools there too... don't know what they do yet.

Thanks

@dkendig said:

understood, we also have a demo version of 2.0 available on our website http://www.chaosgroup.com that gives you watermarks the same as 1.6, except less bugs, more stability, and more features, and better performance. There's really no reason to use an old expired beta version. You're just giving yourself extra headaches by using 1.6

Well, actually, my headaches have been with the Vray 2.0 Demo.... it does not allow you to export channels in the VSB tab and the custom channels are all messed up and jumbled. I noticed this is not the case in the licience version from looking at other peoples VSB tabs. There Custom channels have nice neat boxes to press. Vray 1.6 lets me export channels easily. My main reason for using Vray will be for compositing to Nuke.

Also, there is no Vrimg Conversion Tool in the demo.... yet there is in the 1.6
And I tried the Beta 2.0 and that does not allow me to import vismat materials... I have to load them first. So I went back to 1.6 because it felt more stable.

Thanks.

@dkendig said:

1.6 is an old beta version, which was never released for commercial use, and is not recommended at all. 1.49.01 did not have the option in question, nor does the 1.6 beta. I seriously recommend upgrading to 2.0, especially since this service release has come out, it's a huge improvement over even the 1.6 beta.

Yes, everybody keeps telling me this fact. At present I use a Mac but all my software is win7 on Bootcamp. When they bring out Retina display iMacs (which should be soon) then I am going to buy a new Mac and convert all my software to Mac. Until that time I am going to soldier on with what I have. I understand Vray 2.0 is better but 1.6 is a means to learn and get familiar with the software, NOT for commercial use. Normally, I use Lumion 3D and put all my efforts on flythroughs and not still images.
It has took me several months of experimenting with other software just to get to this point and realize that Vray is my best way forward. So in this regard Beta releases are great for helping you make the best choices.

@valerostudio said:

Actually DR is 64 bit, and this if how it works locally. You start the 64 DR spawner on your local machine, when you render, use DR and turn off Dont Use Local, but make sure you local IP is checked in the DR spawners list. What this does is send your render to the 64 bit spawner and render out of the confines of 32 bit SU. You wont see your LC pass though.

Thanks for getting back.

Still abit confused though. Don't use Local machine is not on the SYSTEM TAB for Vray 1.6
In the Vray Manual it says: " Enable DR by making sure "On" is enabled from the system rollout". But you say I should turn this button to "Off"? I know there is a button for this in Vray 2.0 but, I don't know where it is on 1.6

I have enclosed a pic of what I get.

What are the advantages of using this method over the normal way of rendering?
Please speak in really simple terms because I am a beginner. Thanks

In Vray it allows you to do 64Bit Rendering (Local computer only).
But, it does not explain things in detail in the Vray Manual what this means...

Does this mean that Vray will render my model in the full 12Mb RAM on my 64bit Windows.