X5 Vs Thea...

[Chad Cardin]

Im curious to all the experienced raytracers who use chief, how does X5's raytracing compare to Thea?

I have to admit Ive never even done one raytrace, ever in chief, so this whole process is new. From what Im reading on chieftalk, it seems easier in X5 so I might give it a try. I was just curious to the comparisons between the two.

[Sledge]

Hi Chad,

That's a good question, it would be interesting if the advancements in X5 RT would diminish the need to port to an external program.

[ivancyr]

I'm certainly no expert....I've played with X5 for all but two weeks....but I'll say that I'm fairly impressed with the new rendering engine and its simplicity. As one mentioned on a previous thread somewhere regarding Kerythea; they had 2 PHD's and found that rendering engine beyond scope of understanding without excessive time lost to simple fundamentals.

The attached is 16 passes of the X5 RayTrace with the photon mapping turned off and the rest turned on and left at default settings. I believe it completed in just over 30mins....using a HP dual quad core at 2.3GHz.

Thea provides more options, I'm still working on getting grass to look real using an export out of CA and rendered in another engine so I can make a golf course. So far....I've made "product" that I'd never attach my name to!

Ivan

[dgavin]

Well, with Thea you have to learn a new program. I had played with it some in the past, getting some lessons from Pat. It was a lot better than POV RAY.
At this point though I am pretty happy with X5 ray traces. You still need to learn how to get your materials and lighting straight but at least it is within the same program.
Attached is a ray trace without photons, 10 passes. I think it took about 30 minutes.

[sutcac]

I know the photon mapping takes a lot longer, but is the only way X5 starts to approach the kind of realism you can get in Thea. I have just started poking around in it, but so far I am impressed and will continue to explore with it. I have a restaurant project I intend to do some high quality ray traces of in the coming weeks and will really put it through its paces.

[Chiefer]

Until CA fix the light leaks with Photon mapping I will avoid using it.

[dgavin]

Jintu,

Nice space. I like the furniture and also the floor tile. Is that a custom tile pattern you designed or a texture?

[Chad Cardin]

Until CA fix the light leaks with Photon mapping I will avoid using it.

Jintu,

When your talking about photon mapping and not using photon mapping, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using this method? I can see from your pic, that its lighted in areas it shouldnt, so Im guessing thats what you mean by the lighting leaking.

I guess what Im wondering is, why is there an option for this, if it were leaking the light, why is it beneficial to use the photon mapping in raytracing?

[Chiefer]

Chad,

Photon mapping in Chief has to run longer in order to minimize light leaks (strong bounce lights) when raytracing.

Make the sun less bright or make it zero and not use environment light at all if you want those extra lights disappear, also for faster render time.

Ideal Photon mapping is good in everything. Maybe they can add more parameters to correct the problem just like some other raytracers. No problem with their caustics.

As to the can lights be sure to click the light fixtures and adjust their emissive properties within the dbox, sometimes using the rainbow tool if not used correctly does not bring the desired result. Do the same with the third party lights.

[Chad Cardin]

Great, I will go check all that out and test it to see what results I can get! Thanks Jintu!

[Chad Cardin]

Ok, I went ahead and did the first raytrace with default settings and the second with your recommendations with no environmental light plus added lum 150. I cant really see any major differences and still see the light coming in from the corners of the room. What am I doing incorrectly?

As for the lighting... finally I got it! Yes, it was both the can color and the lighting wasnt ramped up to specular and emissive 100%. Once that was changed it looks great.

As for the chandelier, I changed the light bulb color but unfortunately the person who designed this light bundled together that texture with the light foundation as the same texture so the whole unit glows. I guess it looks better then before.

[Chiefer]

Thanks. The floor tile was custom made by Sam.

[dgavin]

Nice job Sam!

[HumbleChief]

Agreed Very Nice Jintu. And the floor is very very nice. I also see that bugger light leak in the left hand crown molding. I've only tried the photons a couple of time and the light leaks make it unusable.

I wonder if this is a problem they are working on for final release?

[Chiefer]

Agreed Very Nice Jintu. And the floor is very very nice. I also see that bugger light leak in the left hand crown molding. I've only tried the photons a couple of time and the light leaks make it unusable.

I wonder if this is a problem they are working on for final release?

Hope they are getting the hints.

I can settle without photons given the right settings. This is under 8 mins.