Raytrace Services


cliffy
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Does anyone here know of a company (Or Individual) That will lend their retrace capabilities if sent a file (for a cost)?    There must be someone that can produce a good retrace in less than 20 hrs....Thought my computer was pretty powerful until i tried raytracing...

 

 

 

 

Using:

 

CAx7

iMac (Retina 5k, 27 inch, Late 2015)

Processor - 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory - 8 GB 

Graphics - AMD Radeon R9 M380 2048 MB

 

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A Google search for Architectural Rendering Services will give you a start. The China, India, etc. companies are usually cheaper. We've used them in the past for big commercial projects - quick turn-around, though the language barrier sometimes interferes.

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Have you looked into Octane Render?

 

Version 3.0 is available now for $399.00.  You will need a good cuda enabled Nvidia video card and the time to learn how to run it, but my typical render times are in the 2 to 3 minute range.  Of course, the more complex the model and lighting the longer it takes, but still fast compared to your current time.

 

Like Graham said, if you post the plan folks can take a look at it for you to see if your time frame can be sped up using Chief.  If I can find the time I will run it though Octane and see how that works out as well.

 

Good luck

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attached is the plan , and an example of a 20 hr. raytrace.  This plan was built for interior purposes only.  pay no attention to the exterior.  Any input would help.  I am a rookie when it comes to retrace. Thx

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I ran your raytrace according to your settings. This is 20 passes in 4 minutes. One thing to note is that there is not really any benefit to runing a raytrace for hours on end. I find that 30 -50 passes is usually more than sufficient and much more than this is likely futile. To get better output you will need to work on the lighting & materials. Will play with it a bit and keep you posted.

 

post-4793-0-79207400-1469132189_thumb.jpg

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point lights next to vertical surfaces can be a real pain.  Even at low settings the effect is too bright.  Try moving the light source

16-20" from base.  It will soften the effect on the wall area.  I also agree that 10-20 passes should be enough with the lighting set correctly.

Don't forget about adjustments to the image properties which can be made/tested during the ray trace.  mostly intensity and contrast.

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Just some fast adjustments.

 

- uncheck use camera view settings

- ambient occlusion min = .3, max = 6

- direct sunlight = 3

 

- increased reflectivity on white wood work and trim.

- reduced candle lights to 20% intensity.

- changed the 3 lights colour to R=255, B=235, G=205 to warm things up a bit.

 

All other settings are as per your original.

 

Notice that the bedroom has now brightened up and the shadowing on the fireplace wood work is gone. Still needs more work but hopefully this is going in the right direction.

 

First pic is your original.

 

Graham

post-4793-0-67292000-1469133636_thumb.jpg

post-4793-0-91585300-1469133636_thumb.jpg

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Well since my friend Yusuf has put the pressure on,

I feel obligated to take a stab at my take on your 20

hour ray trace.

 

This is 20 passes and here is the general approach I used.

Two things stood out immediately, the fireplace, mantel and

raised paneling are the main focus of the shot and there is

a LOT of white in the shot.  

 

With the flanking wall mount lights and nothing on the wall

or mantle it looks like the scene of a recent art theft. ;)

To spruce up the main area of focus I hung a stock Chief

beveled mirror on the wall and put a stock mantle clock on

the mantel. To deal with the issue of the fireplace being a

dark and lifeless hole in the wall I put a flame orange spot

light in the fireplace. I hunted down your Mohawk carpet

because the big brown slab that replaced it was killing the

shot. Oh yeah, also hung a stock Chief matted frame with

the generic world map on the other wall to break things up.

 

As for settings any time there is this much white in a scene

it usually helps to boost the ambient occlusion up pretty

high so in the Lighting section of Ray Trace Options I set

A/O to 7 and set Direct Sunlight Intensity to 5. I left all the

other lighting options off.  I used photon mapping and

compute caustics.

 

One more thing, I'm no interior decorator but whatever Plan

B is for those window treatments... I would go with it. ;)

 

Ray%20Trace-1_zpswh7h9xbw.png

 

 

 

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Nice Rich! - The scene composition is equally as important as the lighting setup. This can be challenging as you sort through the many objects, materials and colors. The other consideration is the amount of time you are willing to dedicate to this as it relates to your workflow and client needs. As you are likely noticing, more time can be spent on getting a good raytrace than what it took to drawup the basic structure.

 

Graham

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Thanks, G-Man. I think we are in general agreement

as to how to go about getting the best results. My 

basic approach is to determine what is the focal point

of the image, i.e.what catches your eye and then use 

all the bells and whistles at my command to model

and display those elements as realistically as possible.

As you get farther away from the focal point you can,

depending on your time and/or inclination, be less

precise in how the elements display. By the time you

are at the edges of the image you can often get away

with just a representation of the feature. Your brain

will fill in the missing details and process the image as

believable. Conversely, if the first thing in the image 

that your eye is drawn to is poorly executed it doesn't

matter how well the rest of the image is rendered your

brain will dismiss the image as phony.  

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<Quote>One more thing, I'm no interior decorator but whatever Plan

B is for those window treatments... I would go with it. ;)</Quote>

 

LOL waking up here in Florida.

Thanks Rich for starting my day with a good laugh.

post-2435-0-43256000-1469280143.gif

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I have made further adjustments to the lighting and existing material properties.

Notice that the elements in the bedroom now have visible details and the blown-out mantel lights appear more realistic. In the tone settings I have adjusted contrast, saturation and intensity to help improve overall colour balance.

For myself, I find getting the desired lighting and primary material properties to be the first thing to focus upon. Once this has been achieved you can then evaluate the scene for opportunities to inject additional elements to improve the perception of being realistic and to focus trhe views eye towards your desired focal points.

Will add a few add items and repost a bit later.

​Graham

 

 

post-4793-0-80529100-1469285200_thumb.jpg

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Looking good Graham. You've got the mantel lights

dialed in quite nicely. As I recall I just backed the

intensity of all the lights back down to the minimum

in the drop down menu. Definitely need to be throttled

back some more but I'm not going to melt down my

CPU pulling endless passes especially when the OP

seems to have abandoned the thread.

 

Speaking of melting down my CPU, might I ask what

is the largest image size (in pixels) that you have

worked with? I have been playing with the idea of

creating a really large image and then cropping a

"close up" section from that image. There seems to

be no limit to the fields for pixel width and height.

Apparently you can keep adding zeros in the entry

fields until the cows come home. Wonder how long

a pass would take for an image a couple of billion

pixels wide? :huh:

 

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Hi Rich - For the last few postings I have been runing these at 1200 x 800. I have played with higher pixel settings, usually do not go above 3960 x 2160 (wide screen format). Problem is every time you double the pixel size the raytrace time quadruples, my patience starts to max out at 2 hours for 50 passes. There is no doubt that with higher pixel counts you can go in and crop, the look can be very nice. Also, with a higher pixel count you have much better control if you wish to play with the pic further over in Photoshop. A billion wide would be interesting but would likely take longer than the creation of the universe :(.

 

Here is my scene with some additional decoration including the original, both at 1200 x 800, 50 passes.

 

Graham

post-4793-0-06135800-1469312172_thumb.jpg

post-4793-0-89932200-1469312206_thumb.jpg

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Sorry guys I just don't get on here that often. This has been extremely helpful and I thank all of you for this information. This is an existing interior and I am not responsible for the choices in decor. I appreciate all the help on this.

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