Ok Adam, here is a quick test to show you what I mean (I'm using here the model that won the 'design your dwelling' competition).

In Sketchup: the background is full white, no sky, no ground. The inside spaces are mainly painted in white.

LightUp, 5x precision, ambient occlusion / normal blend

LightUp, 5x precision, direct sources (sun (0,7 /0,1) + AO)

LightUp, 5x precision, direct sources (sun (0,7 /0,1) + AO) --> lighting only

As you can see, the inside of the house remain more or less fully dark, even with a completely white environment (I've also try with a classic sky and ground, and the result is the same...).
Sun intensity does not seems to make much changes to the final result(I've try from 0.1 to 100. and it did not seems to make any big difference), and turbidity just add more yellow to the sun light (but that all we can ask to a turbidity slider...).

So, in that case (or similar ones) how can we end up with a clean lighting solution, both inside and outside within sketchup, whithout additional lamps ?
The point I didn't get about AO is why does the settings only appear in 'AO-only' mode ? It should not disappear when sun is on...

Again, an environment light intensity slider will be really usefull to adjust the overall brightness of the sun.

kwistenbiebel , here are the presets used for this rendering :

I'm using a simple HDR studio for the environment map on the buildings.

By the way, the program is now more efficient and easy to use on small details, such has hiding or showing the environment dynamically, or adjusting colors in realtime (in my original model the blue is orange, but I changed it inside lightUp, and that's a great workflow improvment).

There are still some issue like the fact that inside / close space are always really dark, without lamps... It's logical in a full radiosity program of course, but here with just an ambient occlusion calculation, there should be a way to adjust the shadow darkness / sky light intensity , just has sketchup does basically... I'm sure Adam will came with some explanations !

Hi everyone, I haven't post since some time, because of summer and other climatic things like that...
But in the middle of this warm season, a new release of LightUp pops up, so here are the results of a quick try...

The model contain about 100000 triangles, the calculation of the lightmap with a 10x precision took 2min30sec (on an octocore, x 64, with skp 6). The previous version of lightUp hardly handle the model in less than 4-5 minute, with a 6x resolution, so I guess the improvement in the multicore support have been well done!
The pictures are simple screencaptures of the realtime model.

With a 10X precision, the resulting lightmap is really clean (the pictures are a bit compressed here, the real model looks even better).

Just Perfect on Su 6 now, thanks a lot you two !

Thanks BTM for your quick reply.

First of all I've try the plugin on my (bugging) sketchup 7, and it works just fine.
Then I've try to do the changes you've recommended on each ruby script :
(@model.start_operation "Sculpt Bulge", true) or (@model.start_operation "Sculpt Bulge")
But, I always ended with an error message at the startup, about a syntaxe problem:

@unknownuser said:

C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:4: syntax error
Copyright 2009, btmsketchup@hotmail.com
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:6: syntax error
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:7: syntax error
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:7: syntax error
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:10: Illegal octal digit
Created by •BTM on 23/07/09.
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:12: syntax error
Name: Bulge (sculpt tools)
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:13: syntax error
Version: 1.0
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:14: syntax error
Description: Bulges geometry on a mesh, in a way similar to 'brushing' on the mesh.
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:14: syntax error
Description: Bulges geometry on a mesh, in a way similar to 'brushing' on the mesh.
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:14: syntax error
Description: Bulges geometry on a mesh, in a way similar to 'brushing' on the mesh.
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:15: syntax error
Usage: Set the settings of the tool with the Sculpt Tools Dialog, and use it by 'brushing' on the mesh, with the left mouse button held down.
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:15: syntax error
Usage: Set the settings of the tool with the Sculpt Tools Dialog, and use it by 'brushing' on the mesh, with the left mouse button held down.
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:15: syntax error
Usage: Set the settings of the tool with the Sculpt Tools Dialog, and use it by 'brushing' on the mesh, with the left mouse button held down.
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:15: syntax error
Usage: Set the settings of the tool with the Sculpt Tools Dialog, and use it by 'brushing' on the mesh, with the left mouse button held down.
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:16: syntax error
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:43: syntax error
@entities.each do |e|
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:55: syntax error
@apns.each do |p|
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:56: syntax error
@sculptlocks.each do |l|
^
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:69: syntax error

I've checked the previous version (beta) which was working on skp 6, and there was no 'false, true', just as you said... but sadly the same trick does not seems to work anymore...

...I guess the other users reporting problems have encounter the same bug ...

I really hope there will be a way to solve it, because that's a really great script !

Thanks BTM, that's seems very promissing !

But, I'm a bit sad, because I get the same problem than Kwistenbiebel. The beta version whas working really fine on my sketchup 6.4 Pro, but now, with the latest one, nothing happened.

I can see the icons, adjust the settings, but when it comes to use a tool, I can't see the blue radius, and my clics does not creates any movements on my triangulated shape...

I've check the Ruby console, and It give me this :
C:/Program Files/Google/Google SketchUp 6/Plugins/btm_Sculpt_Tools/btm_Sculpt2_Bulge.rb:86
Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method `pick' for nil:NilClass>

... I guess that the !NilClass! is not something good... do anyone have any idea what's wrong there ?

Silver_shadow... it's really hard to know how to write something that does reflect the true effect of your work on someone passionate by the beauty of modelisation...
....so I guess THANKS will cover the wide range of sensation created by you're wonderful work...

Thanks BTM, really, many many thanks ! That's the tool many people where waiting for, without even the smallest hope to see it coming... so, that's great.

For terrain / site modelling it's a must have. In just a few minutes you can get a nice result from a simple grid, and adapt it sooo quickly :

(the altitude lines have been added after the sculpting operation )

Also it's really cool to use it to 'age' elements , by adding a bit of 'random' distortion to their shape at some point.

I'm just a bit wondering on the purpose of the push tool. In fact, it does a kind of flatten effect, and often creates intersection bugs between triangles... so I'm not sure of the real interest of it, but maybe I'm not using it in the right way.

With some visual control and dynamic adjustment it will be a perfect script ! (and please keep the Mudbox icones, they're really efficient )

Gaieus, Greyscale is a great plugin, but it does not create the clay effect that we're looking for here... all the texture are still visible, and the point is not to see them, as in a real clay model...

@unknownuser said:

If you're using V-Ray you should not apply materials to groups/components as that really really slows down the parsing time.

Well, of course, it's best not to do it, but when you have a complex model, sometimes you're making little mistakes without noticing, and applying texture on a group is one of them...

Besides, many people don't know that it's better to apply texture directly on the geometry itself, so, for them, improving that part could be a good thing.

Pixero, playing a bit around, I've discover some little problems, so I dare point them out...

The plugin does not threat the object if the texture has been paint on the group (and not directly on the face... a classical Sketchup trouble finally), and it does not modify backfaces, as far as I can see...

Also, the translucent material appear originally with a 0 translucency, which is a bit 'violent'... Actually, the best, for a renderer like Vray, will be to make it automatically full black with something like 20 of opacity.

Besides, it's a great tool for architects, really...it just need some little improvement !

Thanks again...

OOooh finally someone decided to create my plugin!!
I was in despear to see these day coming, but thanks Pixero, that's really great !

It works really fine on a small model, but I failed to make it works on a quite complexe one... it does create the two materials, but then, nothing else is changed... can this be linked to a complex nested geometry ?

A really great work Jackson... congratulations ! ...we all have to work harder and harder to keep on being able to show things here without being ashamed !

Just a little remark, the level of detail of the travertine on the ground is maybe a bit weak regarding to the quality of the metal standing next to it... maybe a really soft displacement could bring more realisme to the surface on a close up view.

Richcat, the first image is a bit too burnt for me, but the church is a great peace of work ! (but is it originally a sketchup model... I guess most of the things are just maps, but it looks great )

Solo, the quality of the glass is really good with a nice bump and interreflexion. To me the picture is missing some contrast, and the caustics looks maybe a bit 'watery'

Trillium, all the glass have been redraw by hand, with the freehand tool (about 30 minutes). I've try the good old photoshop technic : selection --> path --> export to Ai --> DWG ... but the shape was too unprecise, and made of too much edges...

Your render is charming d12dozr, IRender give good result on this kind of effect (by the way, maybe you should just add some more segment on the round opening...)

Here is my sketchup files, if people want to give it a try!

Stained_Glass_Challenge.zip

Soo, good to see that this thread meet a positive audience !

... learning Vray without any help could be a pain...when you begin to understand certain notions, you dare trying them sure that you've fully get all the secrets of the apps...

So when you try to have a nice underwater scene with a displaced gravel floor, you end up with a replica of the great canyon and a crazy cloudy sky out of an other dimension...

David, I was sure someone will come with something like that... but I think it's really good to see that people you think of as render masters have just has much trash in the backyard than anyone else (and even more, because they've try harder to get a result...).

Actually Boofredlay, I really like your strange floating chrome sphere...

AAahhhhh prisoners, shame on me, shame on me !
I'm working with Atl since three or four years, and I've never take a single look at this preference panel... ...

So, many thanks for that !

Thanks prisoner, good to see that it's finally helpful for someone !

...By the way I really like you're profile picture, It always make me stupidly happy to see it around a topic... so don't dare trying to change it !

Guys, good idea to share it, I will post it... but I just realize that I forgot the file on my office computer so we have to wait till monday ....

I will prepare it with different layers, presenting different variation (thickness, type of image, etc...), so we can all refer to the related scenes when we post a render and explain a technic.