360 Panoramic Ray trace vs. Render

[CADD16]

I have been experimenting with the 360 exports and all the Raytraces ones come out kind of blurry.  I've tried them at higher resolution and dpi but still not as clear as a render view.  Has anyone narrowed down the perfect setting for 360 Raytraces.  I have seen other topics with being discussed but no solid solution.

thanks

 

 

[Michael_Gia]

There's a mountain of discussion on this topic. 

The overall consensus on fuzzy or grainey looking Raytraces is due to light bouncing off of either stainless steel or other shiny surfaces. 

Reduce shiny surfaces and you'll reduce grainy appearance. 

[Dennis_Gavin]

Me thinks CA really needs to do something about this.....IMHO

[TheKitchenAbode]

Polished materials/metals and predefined metals are definitely the most challenging. They rarely render properly when lit by standard point or spot light room fixtures. They seem to be highly sensitive to the angle and intensity of the light striking it's surface. What they seem to prefer is many light rays coming from many different angles, essentially highly scattered light. This type of light is more like ambient light which is different than the light from regular room fixtures. My philosophy is that lighting a scene is a layering process, the first layer being ambient which defines and controls the overall lighting of the scene and the appearance of the materials. On top of this layer you add additional light fixtures such as lamps and recessed lights to provide accent lighting. If the ambient lighting is not right you will likely struggle with the other lights. Unfortunately, the ambient controls do not seem to provide the right kind of ambient light, they seem to be more like a brightness control. Those invisible 3D lights are the ones to use, takes some experimentation to get a handle on them but I think the effort is well worth it.

[DRAWZILLA]

I always turn off all lights and use light sources and use metals from the new metals in the bonus catalog, wonder if that makes any difference? I guess I should try it.

[Electromen]

I use Ray Trace, what do you mean by "Render"

[Michael_Gia]

6 minutes ago, Electromen said:

I use Ray Trace, what do you mean by "Render"

He's using "render" as a verb to describe the process of Raytracing in Chief. 

Most other software use Render for what Chief refers to as "Raytrace". 

I wish Chief would as well. 

 

I might be speaking out of place though. 

[Electromen]

On 5/16/2017 at 11:54 AM, CADD16 said:

I've tried them (Ray Trace) at higher resolution and dpi but still not as clear as a render view.  

 

This confuses me.

 

[TheKitchenAbode]

My understanding of the terminology is that "Render" refers to the view created when you open a 3D camera view. Ray Trace or Ray Tracing is an independent process to generate higher quality images.

[Electromen]

8 hours ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

My understanding of the terminology is that "Render" refers to the view created when you open a 3D camera view. Ray Trace or Ray Tracing is an independent process to generate higher quality images.

 

Ok, thanks, that makes sense.

[CADD16]

Ya by Render I meant Chief's standard rendering views(not raytrace) When exporting a 360 Panoramic view with the standard render view the result is very clear.  When exporting a 360 Panoramic raytrace the result is a slightly blurry picture. The finished raytrace of a 360 before exporting looks fairly clear, but then through Chief's viewer it looks blurry.  My normal raytraces look pretty good but when using the same setting or even a higher resolution for the 360, it still comes out kind of blurry.  How do we get a similar result to the 360's done by Chief on their website?

[DRAWZILLA]

You can set the resolution in the RT DBX try a higher one.

[CADD16]

I've tried increasing the resolution and the size of the image, but still looks kind of blurry.  When I do my normal Raytrace of the same space they turn out good

 

[DRAWZILLA]

Have you tried turning down the ambient occlusion tool, Chief defaults it at 100% , this tool gives some shadows in the corners 

[goldenbreeze]

I think I have a similar issue.  The raytrace looks a whole lot clearer on the screen than the export to JPG, BMP, etc.

I do not know if its going to show the difference with a screen shot but I figure its worth a try.