Posts made by TedVitale_CG

Ha, good point. I missed the date on the thread. I thought Thom knew about it, but now it makes complete sense why he said that, it didn't exist at the time!

Technically you can do renders over the internet. I could potentially have a render farm at work that I'm connected to via my home computer and I can render anywhere. The catch is Asset Transfer. We cant guarantee fast enough asset transfer via an internet connection, so we don't currently support it.

@thomthom said:

Each motherboard will also need a small HD and some RAM. (Since V-Ray runs inside SU, no need with more than 4GB.)

In regards to a small render farm, Ill have to disagree with you about the 4GB Thom. While Sketchup may only be able to access up to 4GB, V-Ray can access as much as necessary via the 64bit workflow (see attached). It bypasses the limitations Sketchup has when it renders, and is ideal for network rendering.

I've been looking into doing something similar to the Helmer-Air render farm: http://www.helmer-air.com/ but much cheaper. If you go with something like Micro ATX Motherboard with on board graphics, a minimum of 8GB of ram, and an AMD FX-8350, you can put together a 40-48 core render farm for under $4,000 (not including cost for an Win7/8). Weve been using the AMD 8 Processors in a few of our machines now and they seem to be very reliable and only a hair slower than the Intel Core i7's. But what you lack in speed on your farm you make up in render buckets!

Now I've never tested this configuration, but its an experiment I'm looking to try. If anybody figures it out before me let me know!

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64-BitWorkflow.pdf

Try using the attached tutorial to render via the 64bit workflow.

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64-BitWorkflow.pdf

In the displacement Texture slot there is an invert function. Try inverting the displacement map (see attached). Otherwise, go into the Texture with Photoshop or gimp and invert it there.

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V-Ray for SketchUp Demo Limitations

• Distributed Rendering limited to 2 render nodes
• produces watermarked images
• resolution up to 600x400
• rendered results limited to 4 lights

Layer visibility during batch rendering is supported, so if you set up a key frame animation using a third party plugin, you then have the ability to animate moving components. Batch rendering was not set up with this in mind, but if you can get the work flow figured out, I'm sure its possible.

Recognizing layer visibility in animation is on the list, and may be a possibility in the future, but that means re-parcing a scene for ever frame. That adds a lot of time with larger animated models.

If you have displacement on to large a piece of geometry or a surface with very little segmentation Sketchup can run out of memory very quickly. You should try working with the 64bit workflow. This will help alleviate some of the problem you are running into. With out the scene to check however I cant really tell where the actual problem is. If the issue persists feel free to email support@chaosgroup.com

Try this for just a Sketchup model. In V-Ray you can make a truly realistic version using a Refraction material layer.

Just as a side note, the model I've shared wont render properly in V-Ray. Its only an example of how to illustrate aerogel in Sketchup.

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aerogel cube

We still don't pay attention to layer visibility changes in the current version of V-Ray animation tools. We have however provided the ability to use the Batch render tool which renders each scene in the Scene tab menu and recognizes the changes between each. This is useful if you are doing a frame by frame animation utilizing the scene manager in Sketchup.

This is not currently supported in Sketchup. However, we may be supporting a similar feature in the future.

Sorry, but the V-Ray 2.0 Beta is no longer a valid License of V-Ray. For more help, please upgrade to the full licensed version V-Ray 2.0.

So, after some review I finally found the problem! In your materials diffuse bitmap there is an option to "Enable double-sided mode" by default its enabled because you can apply materials to both sides of a face in Sketchup (I had mine set up like this as well, oops). Go ahead and disable it for all your leaf textures, bump maps, and transparency maps. This should help speed up your renderings as well. Let me know how it goes!

Updated Model:
https://drive.google.com/a/usa.chaosgroup.com/file/d/0B_z-28sFcwxOS1hvNjViSjBxXzA/edit?usp=sharing

Updated Model w/2Sided
https://drive.google.com/a/usa.chaosgroup.com/file/d/0B_z-28sFcwxON0hTV0N1QlgzQzQ/edit?usp=sharing

Ill have them up for a couple weeks and then take them down to save space in my Google drive, so download them as soon as you can.

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@shueda said:

Ted,

I've exported VRMesh from 3DS Max, loaded the VRMessh into SketchUp, and used the Vray material editor to re-map or, as with your Oak leaves, import the materials. In addition, I've erased all of the VRMesh geometry and replaced it with a 2D always-face-camera image of the model. The tree file is apparently too large to attach to this post (15MB). Thanks for your help!!!

See if this link works: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9WMaFDh7ps6Y2hPS2k2YVdHRDg/edit?usp=sharing

As a side note, when ever you share files from Sketchup, save them first and then go to Plugins> V-Ray> Pack Scene. This will allocate all the associated files into one zip folder. As it stands, I cant test the file you sent. I don't have the material information, or the proxy. If you re-upload the file I can take a look at it again though.

How are you applying the materials? Are you painting them with the paint bucket or are you applying the double sided material with V-Ray? It looks like you used the base material not the 2 Sided. Could you possibly share the model? I'd like to take a look and see whats happening. The last thing I can think of is you're not using the cutout of the leaf so you're getting artifacts rendered from the transparency of the .png file.

@jql said:

Architecturally speaking, the buildings should be "proxies" too.

What I mean is that the building shouldn't really be there but, instead, just the building shell.

What I do is:

• Create a component with only outside faces of the building, including windows and doors;
• Rightclick on this "building shell component" and "save as" to a folder in your pc;
• This creates a sketchup file from that component in that folder;
• Open the landscape model and go to menu "file > import";
• Import the file you created in step 2/3;
• Insert it on the right place;
• Check if that model is smoother now...

Materials:

http://sketchucation.com/shop/textures/normal

Excellent advice! That will definitely help. As far as materials are concerned, there is a large collection of materials on the Chaos Group website. Log in to download them here: http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/downloads.html?s=v-ray-materials

For my personal work when creating custom materials I use http://www.cgtextures.com a lot, as well as http://www.sketchuptexture.com/

Hope that's helpful!

I would suggest not using refraction at all but rather a V-Ray two sided material instead. Two sided materials allow for light transmission with out having to use opacity settings or refraction settings.

Take a look at the leaf material I've attached here and test it out in a sample scene. I think using a material like this will give you the desired results.

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A Simple 2-Sided V-Ray Leaf Material

Are you working over a network with DR? Are you running the latest build 2.00.24261(SP1)on all machines? Make sure all machines are running the same version of V-Ray when working over a network. If youre still having trouble you should contact Chaos Group Support at support@chaosgroup.com

When ever you do decide to use Warehouse models always be sure to clean the model first. Purge it of un necessary layers and dump any useless geometry, like car interiors.

For trees, if you are not seeing them up close, use 2D face me trees, saves a lot of time and keeps the geometry light in the model.

Truthfully, to do a model of this scale you need to be using V-Ray 2.0 rather than 1.49. The new version of V-Ray supports the use of Proxies. This way you can have hundreds of 3D trees with out overloading SketchUp.

I'm having the same problem on my end as well.

The next thing that can greatly slow down a renderings LC is the use of transparent diffuse textures. Always turn them into a VRayBRDF glass material and delete your diffuse layer. If they the material is supposed to represent a soft transparent material use a V-Ray two sided material to simulate a soft transparent (cloth, drapes, lamp shades etc..) Your rendering speeds will be greatly increased.