Posts made by pixelcruncher

@ntxdave

That’s a good point. I should add something to signal users that a new version is available. I don’t know how many people actually check the forums regularly, scanning for new updates.

Hey, Rayscaper users!

It's almost the weekend; hang in there!

Rayscaper 0.9.31 Beta is available in the SketchUcation store. More fixes and improvements. As always, I recommend upgrading to the latest version.

What Changed?

Improvements

Texture Slot Context Menu

Right-mouse button click on the settings icon of a texture input to show a context menu. This context menu has two items:

• Edit: Opens the texture details editor.
• Reset: Nukes the texture settings and restores the default.

O

Bug Fixes

• Fix freezing of the file browser when opening an image.

Help me build the community

I'm on Twitter (X) now: https://twitter.com/Rayscaper3d/ - Please follow the @Rayscaper3d that will help me grow the community and spread the word about Rayscaper!

If you like Rayscaper, please share your renders! This will help me showcase its capabilities to other potential users.

Happy Rendering!

That's quite the pimped-out car I love car renders. Great progress!

A couple of quick remarks:

• I think the back tires are not resting on the ground but floating up in the air.
• The shot isn't framed correctly. The back of the car is cut off.
• What material are you using for the red metal? It's a bit too mirror-like.

Keep it up!

Cheers,
Thomas

@Mike-Amos

Do you mind trying a direct install? You can download the RBZ file from here: link. This should download the RBZ file directly from my Google drive.

And then install it in SketchUp directly via the extension manager: Menu > Extensions > Extension Manager:

Restart SketchUp after a successful installation.

That should exclude SketchUcation.

Thanks,
Thomas

@Mike-Amos I think that's what the world needs. More harpoon guns on cars Would love to see that.

@Mike-Amos Sorry to hear that you are running into this.

Which version did you try to reinstall? Can you provide me with the filename of the *.rbz file? Could it be that you tried to install one of the older versions that is not SU2024 compatible? Nevermind this, I think the ones downloaded from SketchUcation are all named Rayscaper.rbz.

Can you try to reinstall Rayscaper using this guide: https://rayscaper.com/getting-started/installation-guide/#download-and-install-via-the-sketchup-extension-manager?

It's not a licensing issue like you mentioned in your email; I think the installation is broken.

Cheers,
Thomas

@jo-ke

There have been improvements compared to when it was still alpha nine months ago. I can confidently say that it's a solid beta now, and I am working hard to get the first rock-solid 1.0 release out, which is not that far away anymore.

There's still a free version available, so you only have to lose a bit of time. I'm here on the forums to assist and happy to provide support via e-mail. Glad to learn from your feedback about the product, even if you think it sucks And it would be great marketing for Rayscaper if I could showcase Rayscaper's capabilities by visualizing your fantastic designs.

Cheers,
Thomas

Hey Mike,

I hope you are doing alright!

I believe this older pc is just outclassed by Rayscaper so while I try to lay out this flat, post window replacement I will be limiting myself to Twilight and Maxwell for rendering.

Your specs should be good for rendering with Rayscaper. CPU rendering, in particular, should require nothing beefier than what's needed for Twilight Render.

I apologise for asking questions which probably should be simple to 'know', I'm going to do what I can. This place remains important to me for the joy we share on building and rendering whatever the hell it is we make.

Echoing Rich's statement, there is no need to apologize! It's indeed a complex matter, and you have already produced great results. Having you as a user definitely makes Rayscaper better. You have the patience to tolerate beta software and have helped me squash a lot of bugs so far.

Cheers,
Thomas

@Rich-O-Brien said in Hidden Temple:

Rayscaper actually did really well with the scene. Rendered fast and was fun to play around with. Looking forward to v1

It's great to hear that! And v1 is coming soon(ish).

@Rich-O-Brien

Great render! Also nailed that DOF effect. Reminds me of Tomb Raider for some reason.

What is kitbashing?

Hey, Rayscaper users!

Rayscaper 0.9.30 Beta is available in the SketchUcation store. More fixes and improvements. As always, I recommend upgrading to the latest version.

Thirty-nine more bugs and items are on my TODO list before I remove the beta tag. Initially, I started with 100+ items

What Changed?

Improvements

Camera overlay in the SketchUp viewport

This new feature will help you frame your Rayscaper shots. It overlays the SketchUp viewport with what is visible in your final render:

You can also display visual guides to help you composition your shot:

To disable the overlay, uncheck it in the overlays tray:

The overlay uses a new SketchUp API introduced in SketchUp version 2023, so the overlay is not enabled when using Rayscaper with SketchUp version 2022.

Bug Fixes

• Move the render resolution configuration to the camera tab. I think that's where it belongs logically.
• Fix thumbnail display for images. Some images would not show correctly as thumbnails.
• Add the missing normal map color space control.
• Fix the overexposed material preview when saving materials.
• Fix a performance regression in the UI.
• Fix render settings loss between Rayscaper rendering sessions. (cc: @Mike-Amos ).
• Fix a crash when loading Rayscaper data from some *.skp files.
• Fix a rendering difference between CPU & GPU rendering.

Help me build the community

I'm on Twitter (X) now: https://twitter.com/Rayscaper3d/ - Please follow the @Rayscaper3d that will help me grow the community and spread the word about Rayscaper!

If you like Rayscaper, please share your renders! This will help me showcase its capabilities to other potential users.

Happy Rendering!

@Mike-Amos Thanks for sharing that screenshot.

That is indeed ridiculously slow...

What kind of GPU do you have?

Rayscaper Menu > File > Settings:

• Is CPU rendering faster for this case?
• What happens if you disable the denoiser?

Hey @Mike-Amos

Thanks for sharing the scene! The crash was caused by a bug in Rayscaper, which will be fixed in the next release.

I tried to render one of your camera viewpoints, but I don't see those high render times. Granted, I might have different hardware, and I didn't exactly replicate your original shot, but the render time for me was only 3m18s.

Could you accidentally use CPU rendering because of the settings lost between sessions bug? It would help if you provide a screenshot of the whole Rayscpaer application (including your render tab) when it's taking so long.

The scene you shared is heavy on the geometry, but that shouldn't have a massive impact on render times. It will impact the responsiveness of the SketchUp viewport and how quickly you can load the scene in Rayscaper.

I found this nifty extension called SB_Statistics_Probe that can help you find high-poly geometry:

@Gus-R stunning! Love the vintage feel of these renders.

I’m watching the show Mad men right now, these pictures are straight from that era.

When I used VRay when opening Vray Asset Editor tool you have buttons to start/stop rendering with the ability to run real-time or non-real-time rendering (push and wait to see result).
And since I have used it for a long time I am accustomed to that UI, your is quite good, and like I said it is just a matter of spending some time with UI to get accustomed to it.

The start/stop buttons are a must, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I will make sure that happens soon.

It's not as feature-rich as Vray, but I hope the UI makes sense for users new to rendering and users with prior rendering experience like yourself.

For me, it doesn't save scene settings when I am done with the rendering and after reopening skp it goes to CPU rendering and pic size of my Sketchup window.

Another user (@Mike-Amos) reported the same bug. I can reproduce it and plan to have a fix for the next release.

Please, use my picture to promote Rayscaper, this, and any I post later.

Thanks!

Regards,
Thomas

Very cool, well done!

Very cool sci-fi render!

Hey @Mike-Amos ,

Nice Renders!

Settings are lost betwwen sessions with Rayscaper which is a nuisance

Do you mean between opening and closing the Rayscaper window, or between opening and closing SketchUp? If it's the first, I can reproduce it and will provide a fix for the next release (which I plan to land this week).

Sometimes 20 minutes and others, like here, over two hours for the same settings and GPU render.

Those render times are too high, even for CPU rendering. From your images, I gather that for an 1891 x 1091 resolution, you are seeing:

• Picture 1: 2h10m10s
• Picture 2: 1h41m37s

Can you provide a screenshot of your render settings?

Hey @nlipovac

Rayscaper developer here. Thanks for trying out Rayscaper. Your post just made my day! I'm happy to hear you are enjoying it.

It does take some time to get going, especially if you used VRay, but it has a great web page with enough information to make it a painless tryout.

If you don't mind, can you elaborate on the biggest hurdles in getting you started? I want to make Rayscaper as painless as possible for new users.

What I miss is the stop/start button for rendering, and I did not like that the rendering settings are not saved, so every time I start Rayscaper it needs to be repeated.

Yes, I had a couple of requests for the start/stop button. I guess I should prioritize that as soon as possible.

I'm misunderstanding the part about saving settings. Everything you configure for your scene is saved when you save the SketchUp file. Are those settings not loaded again?

it will only get better with time.

It is still early days, so I'm working hard on improving it
.
That's a beautiful render. Please keep them coming! Do you mind if I use this one to showcase Rayscaper on social media? Marketing is not my strong point, so I take everything I can get

Cheers,
Thomas

@KathrynG

Thanks for trying Rayscaper! Unfortunately, Rayscaper doesn’t work yet on Mac, only on Windows.

But seems like I should get going on that Mac version because there are a bunch of users interested in rendering on Mac.

Regards,
Thomas