X5 Vs Thea...

[Chiefer]

Jintu,

My issue with the lights now are the ceiling, even with lights on, you cant even see the cans and the ceiling is darker. Whats this about?

Nice photon mapping.

In the material Class > General Material make both Specular and Emissive 100%., Also assign a darker color for the can, SS is good too.

As for the ceiling, try to make use of the Ambient Occlusion (AO) with a minimum value of 0.1 and maximum value of about 1 or 2.

[Chad Cardin]

Thanks Jintu, I will try that. Is the lighting set to those standards by default or must you change them? Im not at my chief computer right now so I will have to try your setting next time Im on there.

[Chiefer]

Thanks Jintu, I will try that. Is the lighting set to those standards by default or must you change them? Im not at my chief computer right now so I will have to try your setting next time Im on there.

The seem to be by default, I have to adjust material properties every time too.

[Chad Cardin]

Jintu,

Before making any adjustments to the lights like you listed in the above response, I compared the two I already completed. I have no idea why one clearly shows the can lights on and present in the ceiling, while the other one, is still dark, you cant see the can lights at all? Everything is default, the ceiling color is the same, I have no idea why this is happening.

Also, if we have a third party lighting fixture like the crystal chandelier in the one kitchen, how do we make it illuminate and appear to have working lights???

[amddrafting]

Also, if we have a third party lighting fixture like the crystal chandelier in the one kitchen, how do we make it illuminate and appear to have working lights???

You can add a texture to the bulbs and set it to be emissive. That would make them look lit to a point. Then you could add a point light in the center of the fixture.

[amddrafting]

Jintu,

My issue with the lights now are the ceiling, even with lights on, you cant even see the cans and the ceiling is darker. Whats this about?

It's probably the texture on the can light. You have to make sure the texture has emissivity and the slider is set to 60 - 90%

[Chad Cardin]

Great, thanks Aaron, I will give that a try!

[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!

[Chiefer]

Anytime.

[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]

Try to make sun brightness to zero.

[Chad Cardin]

Ok, that worked. I thought since I didnt check the use environment lights, that it would not turn on the sunlight but I guess moving the sunlight down to zero did the trick. It looks much better.

So do you change any of the settings ever on the advanced tab?

[Chad Cardin]

What would be the recommendations for settings for exterior raytraces? I noticed it appears to be a lot more involved with sunlight etc. Does anyone have any guidelines they recommend to get a really nice exterior raytrace? Ive thoroughly enjoyed the advice on interior raytraces, now I want to attempt an exterior raytrace. Looks a lot more involved so I wanted to ask before I launch into one.