Al just tried out latest IE19 version and soft shadows appears not to be working.
Reverted back to IE3 which produced first image below then next one is this original image with some PS filters applied.

The average shadow image produced in temp file looks interesting as gives better shadows in my opinion, so I tried blending in PS with base image,and then adjusting in PS - which gave me that third image below (edges are wrong but look at the shadows on the wall - luv it)

Fourth one is just for fun

Al
I re installed IE19.
Basically I could not get any soft shadows as images above, only as image below, also see setup image. Do I need to change anything as this is what gave me original soft images, tried various settings but no soft shadows appeared - may be I'm missing something simple.

Also imagine produced still does not open by itself.

Thanks Al that did the trick with the trial period.

Al I'm on XP Pro
Tried the ruby code above and it opened with both versions followed by UI.openURL(s1)and $nprtools.launch_file(s1)also worked.

If I double left click image it opens in image viewer, If I right click I get the menu as below.

AL
On the machine I'm testing this on it has an a copy of RpTools but the trial has expired, which basically leaves me with the tools in RpEdits.

My laptop has the fully functional copy of RpTools, but I have not tried Nrptools on this yet.

Just luv these soft shadows (10 iterations & time increment set 1)

I was able to quickly try out soft shadows but even though I selected launch when complete, had to go searching for the image produced in "My Documents\NprTools\SoftShadows"

Tried both codes and says it reset days to 0, each time I restart sketchup it says it end of trial period and I have to insert codes again.

Al
I've just download and installed OK but when attempting to use it says my trial period has expired.

(EDIT) It seems to be conflicting with Rptools, I'll try and see if it makes any difference by removing Rptools.

Big Thankyou

Tiny Theatre, go past it most weeks

IRendernXt - model from 3DWH - By Eric

Link to original image size.

EDIT- New lighter rendered image

My wife swears by Pro Motion, she started with Amiga's years ago designing carpets, using Deluxe Paint, and when she went freelance we came across this for her pc. Can't find on website if is works with Mac.-shame

Price $78

NB. Just recently she has just shown me how it pick up images as brushes and bend the texture.

Another link to 3dm3.com site with lots of links to free hdris I haven't had time to really investigate but looks interesting at first glance particularly for interiors.

There a few more here when you scroll down - the kitchen is used a lot by the accurender nxt autocad guys to get better whites.

Pete accustudio has some

I might be wrong but is this what you are referring to - reported in bugs section?
http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=14485 (but no replies)

or perhaps

http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=14668

I found another link here on additional info on bumps in IrendernXt

I see the scene is progressing very nicely
The image to use as bump map ie a gray scale image can be imported in the second texture position in the advanced material editor,(via advanced button) but make sure the base colour is off for the bump texture, adjust bump to suite. Here is link to accustudio with tut for auotcad version which is very similar to sketchup version.

Basically you would start at the third image down the page, ie Material editor which in IRendernXt, you can get to via the advanced button on the material editor.

The image below was created by using standard stone pavers walk from sketchup, and creating gray scale jpg images to use as sue doe bumps in PS for each.

The one on left bump of +2 the on on right -2.

Worked in IRendernXt, just had to explode png textures, but did not have to turn off shadows.

When extracting from sketchup and creating the batch file on large models I get the white screen. The biggest size I have been able to do so far is Paul Russams Church (28meg) and that was with reducing the max texture size down to 50.
The main hurdle is running out of ram with sketchup when extracting, Al is working on /3GB for XP or 64-bit windows. Batch rendering after getting over this has never been a problem.
Extract from render of Paul Church, with some PS filters applied.